Disney World, Day 5 (Animal Kingdom)

Well, it's time to bring my memories of our Disney World trip to a close. This probably won't be as detailed but since it's been about six weeks, well....

To finish with the last day at Magic Kingdom, once we got home, Josh wanted to go swimming. I had promised him that all day if we stayed to the end. So at 10 p.m. at night, we were out swimming. I get cold kind of fast, but I was happy to do it. I brought back virgin drinks from the bar for me and Kathryn.

We were all really excited for Animal Kingdom as it was a new park for all of us.

We started by having an 8:10 a.m. reservation for a character breakfast at the Tusker House in Africa. That allowed us to enter the park an hour before it opened, and walking up there with the park closed with kind of fun. It felt a lot like the Bronx Zoo.

The meal was great and definitely felt authentic African in terms of some of the tastes from my mission. Definitely one of my favorite meals of the trip. And the classic Disney characters made it special, too.

The breakfast is situated right next to the Safari ride. When the rope was dropped, we scooted over there. Of course, in typical Mark fashion, I raced to get us a Fastpass before we got on it. Not that we needed it, but just because "we could". I sort of bought into the hype and couldn't stop with Fastpass!

The safari ride is fun, and then walking through the exhibits at the exit were good, too. Then Kathryn headed down to Camp Minnie Mickey while I did a fast tour of the park fetching Fastpasses (three for Everest and 2 for Dinosaur). I met her down there in the Camp and they had just had a great experience catching Chip and Dale (Sam's adopted favorite characters) as they came out for their character greetings. It was a very personal experience and was a highlight for Kathryn. It helped Sammy was carrying their stuffed animal counter parts.

Then we just chilled until the Lion King show started at 11 a.m., which is high energy and I felt fun.

The next big thing we wanted to do was the Nemo show, which wasn't until 1:45 p.m. But the time evaporated fast. I rode Dinosaur first, and was kind of disappointed. From the opening of the park 10 years ago, I've always wanted to go on it, but it didn't pack the punch I hoped it would. Just felt like driving around in a jeep looking at Dinosaurs. Pales big time to Indy ride in Disneyland. Then I did Everest, and the theming and all that is great from a distance, but I thought the roller coaster experience didn't deliver on it feeling like Everest. Maybe my bar is too high.

Kathryn and the kids did some of the dinosaur area rides during this time. Then we did traditional fast food type lunch before rushing to the Nemo show....can't believe it was time already.

The Nemo show is the best show in Disneyworld, and the best thing at Animal Kingdom. Worth the price of admission right there. As good as Lion King on Broadway. The puppets and all are just really really great.

I believe Kathryn did Everest next while I watched the kids. At 3 p.m., they did the bird show, which they all enjoyed. Sammy was asleep so I walked around and shopped and scouted out a place for the parade. That's a really great parade, and we had a good place and I even stole a chair for Kathryn to sit in. We then used our earlier fast pass to hit safari again.

Time was already getting tight as the park closes at 7 p.m. I did the Boneyard with the kids for a while, and Kathryn either did Everest now (instead of what I said a moment ago) or did another ride with Caroline on the "Wild Mouse" type ride.

The day ended anticlimatically with us trying to get our last purchases, missing dinner, and my worrying that we'd miss our flight at 9 p.m. Not one of the best Mark moments of the trip.

But we left, made it to the airport on time, got dinner at McDonalds at the airport, and were the first passengers on a new JetBlue plane. We got home without incident.

Overall, a great, great vacation that we will remember forever! When we return (and we will) we want more time at Epcot and more ability to just explore and be leisurely at Animal Kingdom.

Phew!

Mark