Monkeying Around at Disney's Animal Kingdom

Since our Extra Magic Hours for Saturday were for Disney's Animal Kingdom, we woke up extra early and spent the entire day (7am-10pm) at this park. It was all of our favorite out of everything we did in Disney World.

When we arrived, we walked in to see the Tree of Life. The sun was just coming up, and it looked so beautiful.

The Avatar rides are all that anyone was talking about at the other parks, so we booked it to Pandora immediately. We didn't have Fast Passes (because I got way too overwhelmed looking on their website before our trip), and the wait time for Avatar Flight of Passage was 120 minutes the second the park opened. We went over to Na'vi River Journey, and the ride had closed for a quick repair. No one knew when it would reopen, so everyone was moving on. We decided to hang out for a bit and check out the world of Pandora.

It was pretty incredible, and Grace was all about it. All Char could talk about was how she wanted a blue Avatar hoodie so she could wear it to school and trick her friends.

The river ride opened back up, and we were able to jump in line for a five minute wait. That's unheard of in Avatar. We got SO lucky. The ride was awesome and took us on a boat through the underground river where we got to explore the world of the Na'Vi.

Once we had gone through Pandora, we headed back over to see the rest of the park. It had such pretty areas all around, and we loved exploring.

We stopped at the Isle of Java and got an Island Cappuccino (coffee made with white chocolate and Captain Morgan! Yum!) before making our way into DinoLand U.S.A.

We went on the TriceraTop Spin first, because Perry was all about it.

On our way into DinoLand, we passed by a sign that said Pocahontas would be arriving for meet and greets at 9am. We headed back over there in hopes of catching her before the line got crazy. We were just in time, and despite there being a line of at least thirty families behind us, Pocahontas spent so much time with the girls. My favorite part was when Char was telling her all about Easter and the egg hunt. Pocahontas had no idea what that meant and told us that she really wanted to find eggs with prizes inside. Char said they were colorful, and Pocahontas asked her if they were painted with the colors of the wind. Char said, "almost", which had Pocahontas dying of laughter. She was so awesome, and the girls were just enamored of her.

We made our way back to DinoLand, and I took the girls on DINOSAUR. Charley was pretty terrified and asked me if the dinosaur was still following us. Since we got a rider switch pass while Daddy waited with Perry, Grace and Char got to go on it again with him.

Perr Perr and I hung out in front watching all of the big dinosaurs and snacking on a blueberry muffin.

When the girls were done, we went to play the Fossil Fun Games where they won Perry a purple stuffed dinosaur.

We walked past Mount Everest and took a quick picture on our way to Asia.

When we got close, Perry saw some monkeys swinging around in circles, so we had to stop and watch. They reminded us of some monkeys we had seen at the zoo last year, so Isaac started making the same noises, and they started talking back. Perry and I hung out for a bit, while Daddy took the girls on the Kali River Rapids.

Perry and I moved to the bridge, and we saw them pass underneath us before they got soaked.

We had a rider switch pass for this one, but it was supposed to be the hottest day, so I saved it for the afternoon. Instead, we took the Maharajah Jungle Trek and saw all kinds of animals as we walked through. First up were these huge bats hanging upside down in the trees.

Then we got to see some tigers that were napping in the shade.

The girls loved the animals grazing in the grass (especially the water buffalo), and kept yelling at Daddy to "look over there".

We passed by this gorgeous pond and saw Russell from Up just around the corner. He was so fun and made us make silly faces in our picture.

King Louie and Baloo walked by, and Perry admired them while chowing down on some Doritos.

Daddy really wanted to get everyone's faces painted, and the girls were all on board. We had a while before the Lion King show, so we went back to Pandora to get 'er done.

They all looked so cute, and Daddy was a trooper.

We made it back to Africa just in time for the Festival of the Lion King show. It felt so good to be in the a/c, and Perry fell asleep almost immediately. The show was so fun and featured our favorite Lion King songs. Charley kept asking me if the animals were real, and she was hilarious watching them all like a hawk.

After our quick break from the heat, we took the Gorilla Falls Exploration Trail, but there weren't many gorillas around. Instead we watched some lizards and hung out by the hippos watching them swim all over the place.

We stopped for lunch at Yak and Yeti, where Daddy pulled out Char's front tooth, because it was so wiggly, she couldn't eat.

It was finally time for our fast pass on the Kilimanjaro Safari. This is the ride that I was most looking forward to. You get to ride in a big jeep all around the Disney Safari for 15-20 minutes and see all kinds of cool animals. The girls loved every second of this one.

It started out with hippos, lots of gators, and the upside down tree that holds water for animals in a dry climate.

Then we saw longhorns, giraffes, and wildebeests.

We had to stop for a bit, because the giraffes decided to cross the road. Luckily, we got to watch the elephants graze while we waited.

There were flamingos and rhinos, zebras, lions, and warthogs.

It was so much fun and definitely did not disappoint. Right after our safari, we had fast passes to meet Safari Mickey and Minnie. We passed by Balou again, and he waved "hi" to Perry.

Mickey and Minnie were the cutest in their safari gear, and the girls had a blast telling them all about the animals they saw on their safari.

We headed back towards the river to get seats for the Rivers of Light show, but we had to stop and see Goofy and Pluto first.

Daddy decided to take Grace on Expedition Everest, but we didn't know if Charley was tall enough. She went under some ropes to the height bar and was so excited when she saw that she was tall enough, that she clothes lined herself on her way back to us. Poor kid was swept right off her feet and hit her head on the ground. Ain't no stopping her though. A Mickey ice cream sandwich and a few minutes later, she was on the ride with Daddy and Grace.

Since Perry and I had to wait for them, I got her a bubble wand, and we had so much fun playing with bubbles and watching the roller coaster go down the side of Mount Everest over and over again.

It was starting to get dark, so we found our seats for the show.

The colors on the water and the music were so awesome. We all loved it, and it was the best story about how we are all bound together by earth and spirit. It reminded us to take care of our planet and the animals that are in it, because we only have one.