We woke up early and headed to the main building for some breakfast of eggs, bacon, sausage and a Mickey waffle! Then it was off to the bus stop to head to Animal Kingdom. Neither Dustin nor I had been before, so we were quite excited! Waiting at the bus stop:
The driver said, "Folks we have some newlyweds with us, lets wish them congratulations!" It made us smile. During the drive, they pretend that we are going after animal poachers, so they do a bit of a skit during it where the man comes on the radio and says poachers were seen by the lions, etc, and the jeep speeds you there. Once you spot the animals, they tell you a bit about the species, much like a zoo would. The thing that is so amazing is the way they've designed the cages, no fences are visible. Around the lions for example, it looks like they could just run right over to you, but a deep valley separates you from them, covered by strategic brush, so it creates the allusion that you are closer than you really are. It is really cool! For the tamer herbivores, they make no bones about it, they are free to roam as they please...much like this heard of rhino we happened upon. Luckily Dustin was in charge of the camera on the ride, he got some great shots that I would have goofed up I'm sure!
He barely had to zoom on these, they were maybe 10 feet from our jeep. It was amazing!
After our safari adventure, I suggested that we go to Rafiki's Planet Watch because it is an area that you can only get to by train and it might fill up later in the day. We got to the loading area and found that the next train would arrive in 10 minutes or so. There were plenty of "artifacts" to look at and amuse ourselves. We heard the distant toot of the whistle as the train came into view. We hopped on board and were off. After a 10 minute journey or so we were deposited at the depot. Dustin and I, the type A personalities that we are, passed most of the folks dawdling along the way to look at the various bugs that were being lectured on by cast members. I'm very glad we did! As we wove through the pathways to the main "Conservation Station" I noticed that there was a group of Dream Makers standing by the door!
A bit of back story. Last year and this year, Disney started a promotion called the "Year of a Million Dreams" where they give away prizes that range from hats, to fast passes to a night in Cinderella's castle, etc. The team meets at an undisclosed location, is instructed where to go and who to award a prize to. For example, the person in charge will say, "We're meeting at 10:17 at Expedition Everest, the person sitting in the second to the last car on the right will win a night in Cinderella's castle", etc. So the Dream Team will dispatch and head to that location.
So when I saw them standing in front of us, I had a pretty good feeling we were about to be gifted something, and we were! They were handing out Dream Fast Passes to the first 50 or so people through the doors and Dustin and I each got one! It was a lanyard with little tabs that were labeled with the biggest rides at the park. What you would do is head to the ride of your choice whenever you wanted, snap off the tab for that ride and give it to the person working the line and be immediately moved to the front of the line. So a two hour wait for other people was a 5 minute wait for us on every ride all day!!! I was floored!
I had to explain how cool this was to Dustin and that it was huge that we were in the right place at the right time. He thought they just gave these out to anyone! :) He's adorable. The conservation station is the area where the animals go for medical care and where they sleep at night. There are a few celebrities that show up from time to time...
We even found a fellow Cardinals fan there!
With our new fast passes in hand, we wandered toward Expedition Everest. This rollercoaster was amazing! I can't believe they built something that large, it was very realistic!
I knew that this ride was too much for me. It makes you go forward, backward, through the dark, etc. Dustin was equal to the task, but before he climbed aboard, he said a prayer to the Mountain for safe passage.
Before he goes on his trek, a few supplies are needed.
This is one of my favorite things about Disney, they have thought of every detail. This is the "set" you walk through as you are waiting in line. There is so much to see that it makes the time go by fast for those who have to wait. That doesn't include us of course!
My husband after he climbed the mountain!
The Tree of Life was our next stop. Again, I was amazed and awed by the detail and work that went into creating this park.
The trunk and roots of the tree had all different types of animals carved in it.
We wound through the roots of the tree toward "It's tough to be a bug" which is an interactive show with the characters from the movie. You get to become a bug yourself...
The show was hilarious, they used sight, sound and touch to introduce you to the cartoon bugs, at one point you met a stink bug, I'm sure you can imagine what happened. At the end of the show, there is a message that says, "Please collect all your belongings but stay seated so some of our smaller friends can leave before you" when all of a sudden it felt like a hundred bugs crawling right where you were sitting! It must have been some sort of strip lining the bench that would move one space and then the other, like chasing lights at Christmas time. The entire audience shrieked at once! It was hilarious!
Later in the day, as we were walking through the Oasis area, we found two hyacinth macaws perched on a branch.
They held this pose until Dustin could get a nice picture and then moved apart. It was precious.
This huge sculpture was tucked around to the side of a bridge that everyone was walking across and I'm the only one that saw that it wasn't a jumble of jagged rocks, but that they had been placed in such a manner as to suggest a lizard or dinosaur. So cool!
Here's a picture of me carting all our souvineers home!
After a nice long day at the park, we hopped the bus home to rest a bit and head to the Boardwalk for dinner. We ate at a restaurant called Spoodles. Sadly, I forgot the camera in the room so I have no pictures, but it was a very cute place. After a lovely dinner, we strolled the boardwalk taking in the street performers, a candy shop and other fun things. It was very slow paced and relaxing.
We headed back to a different resort to catch a bus back to our resort. We slipped off our shoes and walked in the springy grass along the water back to the resort. It was the first time our feet had touched grass since the previous summer, it was lovely.
Thus ends Day 2 of our adventure!
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