Lions, Thumper and Baloo, oh my (Day Three)

[We spent four days at Disney World and I figured I’d document the trip as best I can]

Day Three: Animal Kingdom

We were tired, really tired by our third day at Disney World. But we weren’t going to let that stop us! We wanted to get to the Animal Kingdom early enough to really enjoy the park. My parents had to go home that day, but my brother remained in the parks to play with us. But we started the morning on our own. Early in Animal Kingdom is magic. There aren’t many people and we walked right onto the safari ride. Plus, it was feeding time, so we saw almost EVERY possible animal. Even the cheetahs made a brief appearance. Jordan and her brother Cameron had a great time. And it’s a bummer my brother missed out. By the time he got to the park, the lines were out of control and the Fast Passes were used up.
Jordan may have been a whole day into her sixth year of life, but she wasn’t ready to stop celebrating. She kept her birthday sash on from the previous day and continued to enjoy hearing every person wish her a happy birthday. We even bumped into Baloo – who happened to be hanging out with King Louis from The Jungle Book.
Once again, there’s an awesome roller coaster at Animal Kingdom. It’s called Expedition Everest and it’s awesome. But Jordan wasn’t tall enough to ride it and that KILLED her. I had to pull out some paper and some crayons I found in the bottom of my backpack to try and appease her while we waited for the taller family members to get through the ride. My brother also helped her keep the smiles going. They’re funny together.
The day included many adventures including a great lunch that gave us priority seating at the Nemo show. (It’s the Tusker House if you’re curious.) Near the end of our stay in Animal Kingdom, we bumped into Thumper! I was taking pictures of Thumper with the kids when Thumper thumped his foot loud enough that he made me join in on a picture.
I also stumbled onto a cute lucky fin moment. Jordan and I found a Nemo Christmas tree. I thought it was worth a picture.

After we left Animal Kingdom, we hopped a bus and then the monorail to get to the Contemporary Resort. We had dinner planned at Chef Mickey’s. It’s a buffet where you get to see all of the Mickey clan. We’d already had a chance to see them in Epcot, so it was a relaxing chance to hug and take pictures – no need for signatures. Jordan was inspired and had started drawing Mickey non-stop on any piece of paper she could find. So when Mickey came up to say hi to us, we asked him to sign one of her pieces of art.