A Magical Vacation - Day 4

Day 4

Today was the most special day of our vacation...

It was Will's birthday!

We started our day off by giving him a birthday present

It wasn't much, but I think he liked it!

We were to the bus stop before 8am again and didn't have to wait too long for a bus to the Animal Kingdom

So of course we were there way before park opening



But that also meant that we were right at the front of the rope for the little show they did before opening the park 

The kids liked seeing Mickey and Minnie 

Whenever they dropped the rope we were off to Kilamanjaro Safaris. We have heard that it is best to ride this early in the morning when it isn't so hot so that the animals will still be out and not hiding in the shade. It seemed like us and a million other people were all headed to the same place, but we got right on the ride without a wait.

The kids liked seeing the animals up close. It was amazing how close the truck would get to the animals without them so much as turning around to see what was there. The guide said over the last few years they have gotten really used to seeing the trucks and don't care anymore.

When we got off the ride Taylor said that the driver "didn't drive very good." It was a very rough ride!

We didn't plan to, but after the ride we walked through the Pangani Forest Exploration trails. We thought we were going a different way, but ended up on the trail. 

We saw some fish 

And some meerkats on the trails. We also saw some apes, but I must not have gotten any good pictures of them!

Next, we walked over to the train that would take us to the petting zoo (affection section)

The kids liked the train ride. When we got off we went into the conservation station and got to see an ape having an ultrasound. That was pretty neat even though the kids couldn't really tell what was happening. We also got to see some snakes and bugs and see what some of the animals in Animal Kingdom eat everyday.

Taylor liked playing with these cut out animals

Then we went to the petting zoo part.

They liked brushing the animals

And they even petted a sheep!

Very surprising since they are afraid of Tim and Amber's little dogs!

Next we rode the train back to the station and decided it was time to get something to eat.

We had looked at the map and decided to eat at Restaurantosaurus in Dino Land

Will went ahead to get some fast passes for Dinosaur while I took the kids to the potty and we met up at the restaurant for lunch.

We had a great lunch of hamburgers and hot dogs with french fries. Will was excited because they let you put your own toppings on the burgers and mushrooms were one of the toppings! Score! The kids meals came in sand pails with scoops attached to them and they thought that was pretty great. The dessert we all enjoyed was chocolate mousse and it was so so good!

After our lunch it was time to go ride Dinosaur. It was a little scary even for me and I was not the biggest fan of the ride. Needless to say, the kids were terrified of some of the dinosaurs!

If you look close you can see Liam's little face in this picture and the horror that he was experiencing! That t-rex jumped right out on his side of the jeep and it really was pretty scary! I tried to tell him when we got in that he probably needed to sit on the inside, but he was not having it. He wanted to sit in that seat!

After that scary ride we needed something a little less intense, so we rode the TriceriTop Spin (much like Dumbo, only you ride in little triceritops). We got right on the ride and the kids really liked it.

After we got off that ride the kids saw Goofy and Pluto standing over on the side and decided that they wanted to see them. I told them we would stand in the line but they had to talk to them and get their picture made. We probably waited 15 minutes and it was finally our turn.

And this is what happened! Me and Will just looked at each other like, "whose kids are these?"

They just popped right up there and hugged them and stood for a picture. We made a turning point with the characters!

After our encounter with Goofy and Pluto we headed over to the Boneyard. There the kids enjoyed sliding and climbing and digging for bones. At one point, Taylor thought I had left her and went up to one of the people working there and said her momma had left her. What happened is that she was sliding and I needed to go put the backpack up so that I could slide with them so I took Liam right out to the stroller and then was coming straight back. All she saw was me walking out the door with Liam so she assumed I was leaving her. After assuring the worker that I was her mother and I was not going to leave her there, we went back in and played some more. They enjoyed having time to run around and stretch their legs.

After that I decided to go get me and Will fast passes for Expedition Everest while he gathered the kids up. We were going to meet at the Find Nemo show. We had a little miscommunication and when I got to the entrance of the show there were already people in line and I didn't know if Will had went on and got in line or not. So I walked on down and got in line. I kept looking back and looking forward trying to see if I saw him or not. And the worst part, I didn't have my cell phone to call him because it was in the backpack, which Will was wearing. They opened the doors and I went on in and got us some seats up near the front. I kept looking at the doors and looking around and I never saw Will or the kids. Finally, I decided I needed to get up and go look for them. I asked the people behind me to save our seats if they didn't mind, but they must have minded, because they didn't save them! I found Will and the kids back out at the entrance and we came back in and got what ended up being better seats than I had before. We just had to laugh about it because we just didn't understand what the other was doing!

The show was really good. Once again Disney did not let us down. Liam ended up falling asleep before the show even started and didn't wake up until we were walking out.

After the show it was time for me and Will to use our fast passes for Expedition Everest. Will went first while I took the kids to the potty and then when we got out he was done and I went. It was a pretty good roller coaster. Definitely had some unexpected things!

After riding that we decided to walk around some of the trails. We were sorely disappointed that one of the trails didn't have any actual animals on it, just carvings of animals into the rock. We thought about riding the Kali River Rapids but decided we really didn't want to be wet and walking around the park. After walking around a little bit more it was almost time for the parade.

We decided that we would line up right in front of the entrance to Camp Minnie/Mickey so that when the parade was over we could just turn right around and head back there to see Mickey Mouse since our kids loved characters now!

The parade was really good. We had missed the parade in the Magic Kingdom on Sunday so we were glad to see this parade

The kids enjoyed seeing all these colorful animals

And they liked that some of the characters came up and gave them a high five! We were in a really good spot and they really liked the parade!

After the parade was over we fought the traffic and made our way down to Camp Minnie/Mickey. We got in line to see Mickey Mouse since our kids were now character lovers. I think we waited about 15 minutes and it was finally our turn!

The kids loved seeing Mickey Mouse this time. They hugged him and gave him high fives and everything. Made this Momma happy!

So then we decided we had just enough time left to see Donald too. We waited about 5-10 minutes to see him. They were really excited!

At this point it was about 4:30 and we needed to get to Disney's Beach Club for supper by 5:30. Animal Kingdom closes at 5pm anyways so it wasn't a big deal that we were leaving. We didn't get to do everything that we wanted to do at Animal Kingdom due to time, but there would be some stuff that I would probably skip next time to make time to do the other stuff.

We got on a bus to take us to Disney's Beach Club and got there right around 5:10

It was absolutely beautiful there!

Definitely a lot nicer on the inside than our hotel (but also much more expensive I am sure)!

They had these little seats set up with Disney shows playing. The kids enjoyed that and didn't mind waiting a few minutes for our table to be ready.

We were eating at Cape May Cafe for supper. It is a buffet filled with seafood and prime rib and of course kids stuff too. The food here was good, but nothing to write home about. We decided we would much rather eat at a calabash style seafood place at the beach! The desserts were wonderful though! And they had a tomato bisque soup that was great too!

After supper we were ready to get back to the hotel and let the kids swim a little bit and then get in bed a little earlier than the past few nights because we had an early morning ahead of us.

We knew that we would not be able to take a bus directly from the beach club to our hotel so we were going to have to go to one of the parks and then catch a bus back to our hotel. Our first thought was that we would take a bus to Epcot because it was the closest park to the beach club. We walked out to the bus stop and realized that there wasn't a bus that went to Epcot from there. But it said that you could ride a boat to Epcot. We thought that sounded fun and that the kids would like it so we walked back through the hotel to the back side and found the boat stop. There were boat rides to either Epcot or Hollywood Studios from the beach club. We should have taken a boat to Hollywood Studios. But instead we got on the boat to Epcot. The boat made a stop at Disney's Boardwalk first and then it went on to Epcot. While on the boat we heard the captain make an announcement that said the boat would be docking and letting us out at Epcot between France and the UK. Me and Will just looked at each other. We were not expecting to be let out in the middle of the park!

We thought about just staying on the boat and going back either to Hollywood Studios or Animal Kingdom, but decided just to get out and head through Epcot.

So just in case you ever need to know, there are 2 entrances to Epcot. One at the front of the park, and one that is only accessible by boat. We walked though Epcot and made our way to the front and all the way to the bus stop and finally got on a bus and got back to our hotel. We were hoping to be back to our hotel early that night, but it was already after 8pm by the time we got back. We had already told the kids we would go swimming though, so we let them swim. We went down to another pool at first to try it out, but it didn't seem to be heated and felt way too cold for me. So we went back to the main pool and swam for about 20 minutes or so. Then we went back to our room, took quick showers, and hit the hay. The kids were a little more wound up and had a little bit more trouble going to sleep, but they finally passed out and got to sleep.

I think Will had a great birthday. He started out wearing his birthday button...

But after the 100th stranger had wished him Happy Birthday he decided to take it off! He was not feeling all the birthday love!