Disney09 - "I Just Can't Wait To Be King"

Day Two - We're off to Disney's Animal Kingdom!

But first, look who we ran into! By coincidence, Nicole's brother had planned their vacation at nearly the same time and at the same resort as us. We knew they would be there, but when we compared schedules, we were not sure how often we would see each other. The first day they were there we ran into them at the bus stop. Haley and Zoe got to spend some time with cousins Tyler and Ryan before we all hopped on different buses.

Out of all of parks that make up Walt Disney World, I think we all enjoyed this one quite a bit. The first thing we did was go to see the Finding Nemo stage show. A musical with amazingly high production values, this was one of the rare attractions where all of us, adults and kids alike, enjoyed the show equally. Then we had lunch at the Tusker House buffet before heading on the main attraction of the park - a simulated African safari where a rhino and a baby giraffe got close enough to the car that Haley could have reached out and touched them.

All of this excitement was followed by a strange anomaly in the world of Disney parks - peace and quiet. I'm still not sure how, but we managed to find a shaded park bench off the beaten path near a stream where very few people walked past us. It was quiet enough that both kids took a long undisturbed nap.

Eventually, we had to wake them up so that we wouldn't miss the Lion King show. For anyone that has seen the Broadway production of The Lion King, the show at the park is a slimmed down version that adds more of the animated characters into it. As with the Nemo show earlier in the day, amazing visuals and music, and enjoyed by the whole family.

We also rode a few other rides including the A Bugs Life 3D show and a river rapids ride where we all got soaked. This was Haley's favorite of the day. What is it about that kid and getting wet!?

Now a short aside... When I was around 7 years old, my folks took me to Universal Studios. This was back when the new big attraction was where the shark from Jaws pops out of the water and tries to eat the tourist tram. I nearly dove out of the tram and ran back to the hotel when this happened. Now I've inadvertently done the same thing to Haley.

The one low point of the day was that I took Haley on a ride I knew nothing about called "Dinosaur!" In it, a T-Rex that has the benefit of 30+ years of technology beyond a rubber shark pops out and tries to eat the tourists. It popped out less than a foot from Haley. She cried for the rest of the ride. She's still braver than I was at this age. I wouldn't have even set foot on this ride back in '78.

Luckily, there was one more surprise before we called it a day.

In the weeks leading up to the trip, we've been showing the kids the other Disney movies that they haven't seen before. (Yes, it may be hard to believe, but Disney makes other movies that don't have princesses in them.) One of the ones that they REALLY enjoyed was "Lilo And Stitch", and as a result we've watched it a number of times, including on the plane ride to Florida. So guess who we ran into on our way out of the park.













End of Day 2.