Disney Day 2: Animal Kingdom
I’m obsessed with finishing my travel review of our trip to Disney, no matter how long it takes :).
On day 2 (this was Thursday, June 7th) we arrived a bit late after needing some extra rest from the drenching we got at Disney Studios the day before. Our "plan" was still in force, but again we had fewer rides we wanted to take than the plan called for, so we had plenty of time.
We did ride Dinosaur, the new indoor dark thrill ride. It was great, except it kept breaking down. This was OK in one sense, whenever you’re removed from a ride prior to it’s completion, you get a sort of FastPass that lets you come back anytime and ride it again, through the FastPass line. This is nice because there’s no specific time limit, so you can re-ride anytime you want. The downside is, when it breaks down they have you walk through most of the ride with the lights on, exposing all of the "surprises" that you would normally experience in the dark. I guess that’s OK, but I’d rather not have seen the "behind the scenes" before I rode it all the way through. Eh, what are you going to do.
My only regret is that we didn’t ride the Safari ride. We tried, but kept getting sidetracked picking up our Fast Passes, and by the time we finally got there they were out.
Disney is importing more animal characters into the park, and thus we got the chance to take pictures with Winnie the Pooh and Friends.
We were disappointed with the petting zoo. Frankly, the petting zoo at Brookfield Zoo is better.
And of course there’s the big play area (forget what it’s called) themed after an archeological dig. The kids always love this, and it’s a good way to spend a hot afternoon – in the shade, in a place where parents can sit back and watch their kids burn off energy.
That night, we ate dinner at Rainforest Cafe. We’ve eaten at the Downtown Disney Rainforest before, and it was great. This one was so-so, our seating wasn’t great but the ambience was still very nice. The downside of Rainforest is that they don’t take the Disney Dining plan, so you have to plan around that.
Since AK closes early, this was a great day to see some sights, ride a few rides, and then get back to our hotel early and get some rest before our big day (Day 3) at Epcot. I think the next time we go, we might actually skip AK unless they have some new major rides. Dinosaur is great, but they need more here.
Oh yeah, pictures of our visit to Animal Kingdom are HERE.