DisneyWorld: Day 3

Wednesday was our 3rd day in Florida. We thought the girls would enjoy the day at Animal Kingdom. Again, we arrived at the park just as it opened so were able to catch the opening show with Mickey Mouse and friends.  For the whole trip, it was hard prioritizing rides, characters, and shows. So we thought we'd try Kilimanjaro Safari first since that ride had an average wait of an hour or more later in the day. Lucky for us, we had to wait like 20 minutes! In this ride, we sat in a open air vehicle and took us out through an African safari. We saw elephants, giraffes, wart hogs, baboons, hippos, lions, zebras, crocodiles, and a few others. It was kind of weird that there really wasn't a fence between us and the animals. Thank goodness we were high up!

The next thing we thought we'd do was meet a few Disney characters. The main ones were at this park- Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy, and Miss Bunny. Leah did a great job meeting most of them. She's usually not a shy girl but didn't have many words when she met characters. Maybe she had to take it all in! Leah was most excited for Pocahontas. It was like a scavenger hunt trying to find her! We hopped on a train which took us to another part of the park then finally found her. Leah was speechless. Pocahontas commented on how she liked Leah's animal print dress. In that same area, she met a couple more characters- Jimney Cricket and Meeko (Pocahontas's friend).

 We took a short break afterwards and went to the petting zoo. Leah has come a long way in being comfortable with various animals. Last year, she was real hesitant on petting farm animals but now doesn't even think about it. She was in there brushing goats, petting sheep, and even hugging them. After the girls got their fill on the farm animals, we were starting to get hungry.  We ate lunch at this little pizza place called Pizzafari. Delicious food! It was so nice having this dining program included on our vacation package. With this we got one quick service (lunch type foods), one table service (sit down restaurants), and 2 snacks each day. Plus it all included desserts! So needless to say, we ate really good!

Next thing on the agenda was to see a show. We heard Lion King was really good. Our wait probably ended up being 40 minutes but was well worth it. It was indoor plus air conditioning, which was nice since it was like 85 degrees that day. Both girls were on the edge of their seats during the entire show- was maybe 25 minutes long. It was fun seeing the girls dance to the music and being so happy.

We took the shuttle bus back to our hotel to take a quick break. We had another show to get to for supper that evening called "Spirit of Aloha Dinner Show". We took the monorail to get to the Polynesian Resort where this show took place. When we got there, we all received lei's to wear. Of course, the girls LOVED this. Leah wanted to wear hers more as a sash. Always has to be different! Our food was great, again! It was family style- oven roasted chicken, barbeque ribs, rice, salad, honey bread, and yummy dessert- chocolate mousse! During the dinner, we watched various types of Hawaiian/Polynesian dances. They even brought all of the kids on stage to do a dance! Ellie (Leah's friend) was on the edge of her seat the entire show but Leah ended up falling asleep the last 20 minutes. She never does this so must have been REALLY tired! Both girls were pretty wiped out the end of the show and on the ride back to the hotel. It was a very memorable day!