Trip Report: Day 5

Oh Disney! Just writing these posts every night makes me happy! I hope you can tell by reading about it what an unbelievably fantastic blessing this trip was for us! From our accommodations (still in awe of the Grand Floridian) to all of the great places we saw, we won’t stop smiling about this experience for a long time! We just love love love Disney! And we just can’t thank Make a Wish and Give Kids the World enough!

By Thursday, temperatures were in the 40s when we woke up. So we put on some warmer clothes, jumped on the bus, and headed out to Animal Kingdom. It was a sunny day and the temperatures topped off in the upper 50s (certainly not warm, but much better than western NY!) I don’t think I mentioned before, but at every Disney resort there is at least one bus stop. You can reach all of the parks, and other areas, by taking these buses. We never waited more than 10 minutes for the bus we needed.

Animal Kingdom is the park where you can explore Disney’s wildlife habitats and get up close with some fantastic animals! This is a huge park we just did a few things that day.

On our way in, a Cast member stopped to show the kids an animal skull and tell us about it. There are very knowledgeable Cast Member’s all throughout Animal Kingdom who are doing mini presentations about certain animals.

One of the best attractions at Animal Kingdom is the Kilimanjaro Safari. You ride on safari-type vehicles through man-made, but simply stunning, landscapes of the African savannah. As you ride along, you encounter animals that appear to be roaming freely. Some of the animals actually are wandering freely-like this beautiful giraffe who literally walked right in front of our vehicle! Another giraffe stood so close to us that I could have reached out and touched him. Just gorgeous!

Look how close these rhinos were!

Sweet little Allie wasn’t as impressed as the rest of us!

Here we are exploring a nature trail that simulates the jungle. I thought it was so cool that this black bird flew right in front of the camera as I clicked the picture.

The two amigos loved chatting in their stroller!

Everyone else checked out the Affection Section of Rafiki’s Planet Watch while Allie and I had a photo session! Anyone who knows me well knows that petting animals, especially those who are not in cages, is not my thing. I was happy to spend some time loving this cutie pie!

For lunch we had reservations at Yak and Yeti’s Asian Restaurant. I’ll give this place 3 stars (***). The atmosphere was very good here, but we were disappointed that we had to sit at two separate tables. The food was really good. I had sweet and sour chicken and my mom had lettuce wraps. I just LOVE the variety of food available at Disney. Unlike other places I have gone with my kids, at Disney you aren’t feeding your children chicken fingers and french fries every day. Actually at this place they did eat that! But they also had vegetable lo mein and applesauce.

On our way across the park, we saw a sign that said that Pooh and Friends were doing a meet and greet down one of the paths. There were only a handful of people in line, so we decided to check it out! Brady’s wish for the trip was to meet his favorite Eeyore! Wish granted Brady:)

I just love this next picture! Throughout our time in the parks, Eli and Brady always wanted to have their own maps. They would look at them, point to them, and chatter about them as they rolled along.

We headed back to the resort for naps. Ah---it was delightful to go back to that gorgeous place everyday! Did I tell you that the Grand smells just beautiful. The scent when you walk in the main building is this distinctly lovely, but not overpowering, flowery smell. When we would return to our room each night, our beds would be turned down, towels refreshed, and little chocolates would be on the pillows. What a place…

Thursday night was date night for Matt and I. The grandparents took the kids for a whirlwind walk around EPCOT. I don’t think they actually went on any attractions, but they had fun showing the kids the sights in Future World and the World Showcase.

Matt and I also went to EPCOT and knew that we wanted to go on some of the attractions geared towards adults. We practically ran around Future World and were able to go on Soarin, Test Track, Living with the Land, and Mission Space. We loved all of these attractions and a few of them are new since we last visited in 2003.

We had a great counter-service dinner inside the Land Pavilion at the Sunshine Seasons Foodcourt. We each had absolutely delicious sandwiches (SO GOOD!) and even though it was food-court style atmosphere I’m giving it 4 stars (****). Perhaps my rating is slightly skewed given the fact that we were alone—no bibs, no sippy cups, no cutting food for anyone. Ahhhh…

After Future World we walked around the entire World Showcase. It was quite cold that night—in the 40s—but we made it to all of the countries and did as many of the attractions as we could. If you have never been to EPCOT, it really is a strange, but very cool place. In an a few hours, you can wander around the globe and see some almost-authentic sights and taste great cultural food. We had dessert at “France” which was so yummy even though we ate outside in the cold!

Thursday was a great day! Friday we were returning to the Magic Kingdom for one last day of Disney fun…

P.S. If you haven't already, please scroll down and read my post from earlier today about Brady's doctor's appointment!