Disney World - Animal Kingdom

In our second day at Disney World last month we went to Animal Kingdom.  Animal Kingdom is not a park my family visited when I was a kid since it didn't exist at that time, so this park was brand new to me.  One of our favorite experiences at Animal Kingdom was the Safari ride.  I recommend a Fast Pass for this ride if you can get one.  For this ride you get on a large truck and are driven through an area in which many of the animals are.  It was very cool how close you got to some of the animals, including giraffes, elephants, alligators, etc.  One of the hippos was out of the water which we were told was rare at that time of the day.  My kids loved the ride!

We did several other rides along with a couple of shows.  We went to the Finding Nemo Show and the Lion King show.  Both were excellent and ones I highly recommend you go to.  Following the Finding Nemo show it was pouring outside so we got our first chance to use our ponchos.  We bought cheap $1 ponchos that ripped right away, so take my advice and buy more expensive ponchos that won't rip!  We were in a tropical storm warning on this day, although I think we must have been on the edge of the storm.  It was windy, but not what I would consider high winds.  It rained longer than normal for this part of Florida, but not always as a hard down pour.

For dinner we had reservations at the Tusker House for a character based table service meal.  The food, a buffet, was excellent!  Donald Duck, Daisy Duck, Goofy, and Minnie Mouse (or was it Mickey?) stopped by our table for pictures and signatures.  After dinner we decided to head home early since it was still raining pretty hard.

Of the four Disney parks, Animal Kingdom was my least favorite.  Don't get me wrong, it was fun and we had a blast, but a lot of the animal related activities are not all that different from a typical zoo.  The shows were great and we had a great experience, but something has to be the least favorite, right?  For us it was Animal Kingdom.