Disney World 2021- Animal Kingdom

 We left the house at 6:30 again, and got to the park just before they started letting cars in. No ferry or monorail to take this time, so we walked right into the park. Much quicker entrance and all that.

This was our first time at Animal Kingdom, and wow. It was so cool. So... Un Disney feeling. Tons of foliage, so way way more shade. Also significantly smaller than Magic Kingdom, so less walking. My blistered feet shouted hallelujah when I realized that. The main visual attraction was the Tree of Life. Super cool GINORMOUS tree in the center of the park. They have over 200 animals carved into it very intricately. It was so neat.

Our first stop of the day was the African Safari. We were in the first 20 people in line, which was awesome. We wanted to get on before the animals got too hot to be out and about. It didn't disapoint. They have SO many cool animals. I initially thought it was going to be kind of like a ride with a car on a track or something like that. These were real safari trucks, with real guides, and real animals. It was wow. We saw wildabeast, giraffes, crocodiles, lions, tigers, water buffalos, hippos, tons of birds, cheetahs, elephants, and probably more that i'm forgetting about. It was just so neat to see them up close and not behind a cage. I'm glad we started with that one because the line for it got insane later in the day. The "Africa" section of the park was SO well done. Its exactly how I would imagine Africa to look like.

After that we went to the Kali River Rapids. Literally no line for that one that early in the day. I think people were hesitant to getting splashed at 8:30 in the morning, but it was awesome just walking onto it. Chase and Alex had to stuff all kinds of paper and bark into Felicity's shoes to make sure she was tall enough to get on the ride. She's 4, but she's just so teeny tiny there were a lot of rides she wasn't able to ride. After trying 3 times with different attendants, she finally made it onto the ride! She was so excited!

We headed over to the "Asia" section next. The only ride in that area is "Everest" which is this way fun rollercoaster ride. A yeti attacks the tracks, and you ride through Everest. It was so fun. Definitely unpredictable, but so so fun. We rode that one several times. Benson only wanted to ride it once because I think that the Yeti scared him. But he still enjoyed it.

We went to Dino Land next. They had this kidi dino section. Only one ride was running at the time.. basically the Dumbo ride, but with dinosaurs. Then we went to the big Dinosaur ride. It was basically the Indiana Jones ride, but with Dinosaurs. I honestly wasn't a fan. It was all in the dark, and SO jerky. Alex rode it with me, and I felt so jolted around. I was worried about her baby, but she said she was fine. I don't think i'd ride that one pregnant. Nathan fell asleep while we were stroller swapping, which was such a relief because he'd been getting so so cranky. Thank goodness for strollers!

We went to Pandora next. The lines had been consistently an hour for both of their rides. Somehow we lucked out and only had to wait 40 minutes to get to the front. Alex said in normal years the line is like 4 hours long. That is freaking INSANE. It was a fun ride! But not 4 hours in a line fun. We stroller swapped on that one, so when we got to the bottom, that was about when Jasie and Tony made it to the park. It was maybe noon? They were able to use some of the extra cards we'd scanned for the ride, so they just walked onto Flight of Passage with James, Chase, Harrison and Benson. I'm grateful Benson is so tall. We didn't have any trouble with him being tall enough to ride any of the ride. Harrison got checked a couple of times, and Felicity didn't get to ride a ton of rides because she's so little. He really liked this ride. I think it was his favorite at Animal Kingdom. He got to ride it 3 times, It's basically the Soarin ride at Disney Land, but set to Avatar. It was really well done.

I went to the little drink stand at the bottom of the ride and got a Pongu Pongu drink. It was very pretty, purple and green. It was like... an icee? Idk. It was really good though. I was getting it while James and the rest of the crew went and stood in line for the Navi River ride, but they wouldn't let us take any food or drink past a point (even though there was still like 30 mins left in line) so we had to drink them way faster than I think we would have normally. Which was a bummer having to scarf it down so quickly. I think I would have enjoyed it more. Amber said that it was her favorite thing they had in the parks, so she asked for an icee machine for mothers day, and already bought the ingredients to make it at home. haha. I told her I would make the knock off Dole Whip recipe I found, and she could make that and we'd have a party.

My feet were hurting pretty bad most of the day. I got blisters within my blisters from Monday. Glad the park is so much smaller than Magic Kingdom. We were hitting the hangry tired hot grumpy time of day by now. It was probably 2? Chase and Alex got food in Asia, and they ate it next to us at the lake. Most of the group did Everest a few more times. We used the stroller swap like crazy and walked to the front of the line every single time. I think I rode it a total of 4 times? James was along the lines of 5. Jasie had made a reservation for 5 at the Yak and Yeti in Asia. We got the Ahi Tuna Nachos to split. And HOLY CRAP. They were amazing. Like, best nachos of my life. They were basically sushi nachos. So delicious. We only ended up spending like $34 on dinner including the tip. Thats like...a normal meal anywhere. I was very pleasantly surprised. While we were there Benson fell down and scraped his elbow pretty bad during dinner. It was so sad. He was exhausted and tired, and hurt. He just cuddled me for like 5 minutes. He's starting to get so big, i'm so glad he still wants to cuddle me. I won't get to do that for too many more years, and that makes me so sad. It wasn't until after we cuddled that I realized his elbow was bleeding.  I asked for a bandaid, but they told me we'd have to meet with paramedics and file a report and blah blah blah. We didn't end up getting a bandaid. Too much hassle for a little bit of blood.

At this point we'd done every ride in the park at least once, except for the It's a Bugs Life ride. We moseyed down there, and by the time we got to the entrance, Nathan had fallen asleep. James took Benson, and I went for a walk with the stroller since I couldn't take it into the ride. I found the trail to take me to the trunk of the Tree of Life. That was really cool to get up so close and personal so I could look at all the animals carved into it. James and Benson came and met me after it was over. I guess it was one of those VR type of shows where you're sitting. Benson got a little scared by Hopper.

We met back up with Jasie and Tony and did the Safari again. James took Nathan because he was still asleep and he walked through the Gorilla viewing area. I didn't see that part of the park, but it looked really cool! Next time. The safari a second time was really great. Such a neat experience. While we were still on the Safari, James went down to Flight of Passage again and got fast passes loaded onto our cards. Jas and Tony watched Nathan and we took Benson. We literally circumvented the whole 60 minute line and walked right to the front. It was fun to get to ride it a second time. Benson loved it. Jasie and Tony took Nathan and Audrey on the Navi river ride again. 

By the time we finished it was starting to get dark, and it was 8, so all the parks were no longer letting people get into line (if you're in line by closing you're good), so we started to head out. The whole Pandora area has blacklight paint or something on the ground because it all started glowing and looking super cool once it was getting dark. Super neat.

We headed home, and got there almost the same time as Chase and Alex (they'd gone to Epcot for the second half of the afternoon). They'd picked pizza up on the way home, so we just sat down and ate. It all tasted so good. Not sure if thats just because I was so tired from so much walking or what. (Fitbit logged 18,000 steps) But it was great. They got Papa Johns, which i'm not sure if we even have that here in Georgia. All I know is it's been a LONG time. Then we hung out and chatted and ate Bluebell after the kids were asleep. It was a great day.