Trip Report for Walt Disney World – Day 2 – Animal Kingdom & Hollywood Studios
Day two of our Disney World trip has come and gone, but Mr. DAPs and I made it a good one! Here’s a little recap what we did today…
We were up and out of the hotel by 8:30am and caught the bus to Animal Kingdom, where we spent most of the day. Much of our day was spent taking pictures of animals and scenery, as the Animal Kingdom is a great park for it. Taking pictures on the way, I first took Expedition Everest and picked up my fastpass for later at the same time. Afterwards, we decided to head towards Kilimanjaro Safaris, as we knew that the animals are often more active in the morning. On the way, we met Baloo the bear and King Louie. They were great fun to interact with, and afterwards we continued on our way to the Kilimanjaro Safaris.
Our Safari through Africa was quite fun, and we had some great close encounters, particularly with the white rhinos. In fact, our driver had to stop our vehicle for a couple of minutes while waiting for three of them to cross the “road” in front of us. When this was complete, we then headed all the way across the park to enjoy Dinosaur. Somehow we survived the late cretaceous period and returned back in time for us to get in line for what is perhaps my favorite attraction, Finding Nemo: The Musical. Nemo definitely did not disappoint, but was just as amazing as the first time I saw it!
After the show, we then headed back to the Kilimanjaro Safaris for a second trip through the wilds of Africa. The animals weren’t quite as active this time, but we still got some good encounters with some of the African wildlife. We continued this when we exited the attraction by walking the Pangani Forest Exploration Trail, which had some pretty active gorillas, among other animals such as birds and hippopotami. One gorilla was quite a bit smaller than the others, which we thought meant it was a baby. Later, right before we exited the park, we learned that the little gorilla was actually over a year old. Normally gorillas are much larger at that age, but this one is a bit of a mystery. In fact, people have studied this particular gorilla to try and figure out why it is such an anomaly regarding its size.
Anyway, after the gorillas and the rest of the trail, we were a little hungry and grabbed a quick snack and ate it while listening to Tam Tam Congo. Then we headed over to Camp Minnie & Mickey for the Festival of the Lion King. Before we actually got in line, we first stopped to take a picture with Thumper and his girl bunny, which was quite fun because I have never met Thumper before. The Lion King Festival with all its energy was enjoyable, as was our next attraction, Mickey’s Jammin’ Jungle Parade. My favorite part of the parade was when Timon started hamming it up in front of our camera.
Later, it was time for another ride on Expedition Everest, which I noticed has a really nice view when you are climbing the hill. At that point, the park was almost closed and so we headed to the exit and after answering a few survey questions, we headed to the bus for Hollywood Studios. When we got on the bus, I noticed that it was playing music from The Chronicles of Narnia, followed by other notable movie themes. John Williams’ score to Hook played when we pulled into Hollywood Studios, where we instantly saw their big Christmas tree already set up out in front of the park.
After entering Hollywood Studios, we took a couple of pictures and then stopped at the Commissary for a little dinner, which for both Mr. DAPs and I consisted of an Angus burger with fried shrimp skewered on top. After dinner, we just relaxed and roamed the park, finding some fun pictures that included the Muppet-themed area in the Streets of America, Lightning McQueen and Mater from Cars, and even the green army men from Toy Story. At the end of our wanderings, we stopped to see One Man’s Dream before heading over to get in line for Fantasmic. Interestingly enough, EPCOT’s IllumiNations show started at the same time as Fantasmic, so we got a few extra fireworks in the background that weren’t normally there. When Fantasmic finished on the high note it always tends to do, we took a couple more pictures and then headed back to our hotel for the night. If tomorrow has anywhere near the level of fun we had today, it should be a great one!
