Our day at Disney Animal Kingdom

Before we went on this trip, I had heard of Animal Kingdom but didn't know anything about it. In fact, the first bit of information I saw was a brochure, used for planning our visit on the night before we went to that park. Animal Kingdom closes at 5:00 in the afternoon, which is much earlier than the other parks close and yet it seemed like we did more in that day than the days when we went to the other parks. We went on a safari and saw lots of big African animals--like elephants, giraffes, hippos and rhinos. Also in Africa, we saw an animal show with lots of birds flying around doing tricks. We saw an insect's life show in the tree of life and then got wet in the Kali Rapids river ride. This wetness was just a taste of things to come as right after lunch, we all got drenched in a sudden downpour while waiting in line for the Finding Nemo show. The show was only around 30 minutes long, but when we came out of it, it was a bright sunny day and we finally all got dry. After that we did the Himalaya adventure and then some kind of walk through a park where there were animals, like giant bats, at various places along the trail. dbp

Himalaya Adventure

Disney's Animal Kingdom is divided into sections: The Asia section is dominated by a Himalayan mountain. From far away and from up-close, it looks very real. Of course there is a ride and a back-story. The area approaching the mountain contains a Himalayan village. The plot of the ride is that a railway was made through the mountains so that it would be easy to approach Mt. Everest, but the Yeti doesn't like his territory invaded like that. While on the roller-coaster ride, the monster tears up the tracks, leading to hijinx! If I recall correctly, Surenna didn't want to be in this picture, but was a good girl and did as she was asked. Jemma on the other hand did not want to be in the picture and was not a good girl about it.

The Tree of Life.

The Tree of life is a sort of centerpiece of Disney's Animal Kingdom. Several impressions: It is huge. It is molded so that there are the images of animals embedded in the tree, much like the way fossils are embedded in rock outcroppings. Of course there is an attraction in the tree--a sort of insect based 3-D film (with special effects) The special effects relate to the film. So for example, in the film some insects spray acid toward the crowd and water (not acid) sprays out of the seat in front of you. It is kind of like seeing the Rocky Horror Picture Show, without the kinkyness. dbp

2nd Disney update

Our main PC is old and prone to locking up when I post pictures, so please have patience if you are waiting to see Disney pictures. Oddly, Surenna's Mac Mini which is, unlike this computer, on our wireless network works faster and better. I will try and use our PC though since I wouldn't want to prevent Surenna from importaint stuff like playing games on the Hanna Montana website. Also, if my readers want to see all the Disney postings without all of the non-disney introns, please just use the search function: In the upper left corner of the page you can enter a term (such as Disney) and then click onto 'search this blog' and it will return only those entries which contain the word you choose. dbp

Disney blogging update...

I have gotten so far behind in posting on our Disney trip that I think I will just randomly post pictures which are interesting rather than going through the whole trip in chronological order. Partly, I have lost interest in the project and partly I have just forgotten a lot of the details now that it has been almost two months since we were there. dbp