The Animal Kingdom

I think the Animal Kingdom was our favorite day of the trip. Getting there when it opened was key, and it was the first time we took advantage of the extra magic hours, where only those staying in a Disney resort can go before the park opens to the public. Sam and the little ones headed over to Expedition Everest to get fast passes, while the older boys and I went on Dinosaur.  Then we stayed in dino land, where we got to ride Triceratop Spin twice in a row without getting off the ride.  It's another version of the Dumbo ride, a favorite for all the kids, but especially Olivia.

Noah discovered Primeval Whirl, a "wild-mouse" style ride, and declared it his favorite of the day.  Levi decided to nap in the stroller, which was so nice.  I think one if the reasons I really liked this park is it was quieter than some of the others, which allowed everyone to feel calmer. Here's Levi after a nice nap:

Expedition Everest was a great roller coaster - it stops in the middle, and takes you backwards for a while, which was really fun.  Again, we used fast pass and rider swap to our advantage, Harrison rode it 4 times, and Sam and I each got to ride it twice.

Another highlight of this day was the show, Festival of the Lion King.  Amazing costumes, acrobatics, dancing, singing and a fire dancers.

The Safari ride was also really fun (despite the fact that I think it was our safari drivers first time driving that ride...)  Harrison took control of the camera, and got some great shots of the animals.  I've been to some really good zoos, and the wild animal park in San Diego, and this ride got me better views of lots of animals than I had seen in all those trips put together.  They did a really good job of making it feel like you were on a real safari in the wild.  Here's some of Harrison's pictures:

This was the easiest park to meet up with extended family members too.  We rode the Safari with Dave, Kate and Maizy, and the Andersons, which was fun.

We were also able to go with cousins on Expedition Everest, and Grandma took Olivia on Triceratop Spin. A bunch of the cousins hung out and played in the Boneyard too.

We had to leave the park by about 3, but we really felt like we saw and did almost everything we wanted to.  We did miss out on the live Nemo show, which I had wanted to see, but since it only showed every couple hours, it didn't work out.  We had to rush over to Downtown Disney, and then catch our shuttle to the airport.

We had a really wonderful time at Disney.  If we ever do Disney again, I think we will plan it when we don't have an infant.  And I would really like to check out Disneyland, to see how it compares.  In our research we read that you could go to Disney World every single day for an entire year, and not experience everything there is to experience there.  It really is a wonderful and magical place.