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Ah, Animal Kingdom, how do I love Thee, let me count the ways . . .
- Strange and exotic animals around every corner.
- Brightly colored dinosaur-themed fairway games in the early morning sunshine.
- Really cool drum and dance street troupes.
- African and Asian-inspired scenery and decor--the only thing lacking is the scent of curry spices in the air.
- Mid-afternoon safari and reasearch station exploration.
- An amusing character parade while standing in line to get frozen lemonades.
- Bomo's restaurant!!!!--technically not visited on this day, but it's my favorite dining place at DW. I heart the Potatoes with Afritude!
Okay, so really Animal Kingdom is the last place you want to be if you're at DW for crazy heart-pumping rides. They've got a great dinosaur-themed area in the middle of the park that has a bunch of fairway games and kid-sized coasters/rides, but if you're an adult you're basically limited to two or three rides and then it's all animal stuff from there. Part of its appeal is the slightly diminished crowd because (I think) of the lack of adult coasters--it's mostly young families or just grown-ups, few teens.
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My particular favorite thing at this park (other than eating at Bomo's) is to have a super-huge sweet roll at a little cafe in 'Africa' just about the time an African drum/dance group comes out for the day. My uncle informed me, however, that the cafe isn't there anymore, and DW stopped doing the drum/dance group. WHAT?! Frackers. (Grumbling ensued.)
Anywho, we started out going our separate ways at first: my aunt/uncle headed over to grab fast-passes for a water ride and I took the boys over to the dinosaur area for a kid-coaster ride and fairway gameage. Although we didn't score at whack-a-mole (er, some kind of dinosaur), both of the boys won a water cannon game and took away a prize stuffed frog each. Tommy won first, and was completely stoked with his amphibian winnings until Daniel (his older brother) also won, but D's frog was GREEN (T's fave color) and Tommy was immediately dissatisfied with his YELLOW frog. Begging and trading with the game-runner for a differently colored frog prize ensued and both walked away with something they were happy with. Sheesh! :)
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We all did the water ride (the 'you will get soaked' one themed with the Indian god Kali angry at the rampant destruction and burning of forested lands . . . or something) and then headed over to a 'research station' where Tommy got a chance to pet a real crocodile. This is his favorite animal, but he was surprisingly shy when his chance came. I think had he not been the last one in line before they whisked the little baby away, Tommy may have gotten back in there for a second chance--I think he was just a little nervy about it. The boys had to do some minor home-schooling assignment at the station, but we also cruised around and looked at all the displays and read about some of the animals they kept there and the type of environments they lived in--pretty good selection of stuff and the brief posted information (disguised as "research notes") was entertaining. Learned about tortoises outside in the petting zoo area, and then went on safari! (To be cont'd. . . )
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