Sunday, October 4 - Take off running

Nat and I actually woke just before our 7:00 wake-up call, so I let her answer the phone when Mickey called. "Did you hear him?" I asked. "Yeah but I couldn't understand. He talked too fast."

After express checkout we were running a bit late as we wanted to get to AK as close to the 8:00 opening time as possible. To that end I suggested we stop at McDonald's for breakfast. A lot of folks complain about McDonald's on Disney property, and I can understand why, but the restaurant they built near the All Star Resorts is actually pretty cool, with giant fries and burger. Nat had a muffin and milk while I had an Egg McMuffin, hash browns and orange juice.

We arrived at AK just a bit after opening. I had heard that the Kilimanjaro Safari (KS) was best either first thing in the morning or late in the afternoon, so I figured we could do it this morning. I was a little concerned because I also heard that everyone who goes to AK hits KS first thing and that there can be long waits first thing in the morning. This turned out not to be an issue for us, and we basically walked on. I did overhear a CM at KS mention that a half hour later they would be "swamped".

Kilimanjaro Safari is a drive through a wildlife preserve - Disney style. Since this is Disney there is a story (something about poachers and a baby elephant), but the main attraction is the animals. (In fact, the poacher story thing is pretty lame.) Since you're dealing with real animals, what you will see can vary widely from one ride to another. We were pretty lucky and saw a decent collection of animals. The morning was cooler than it had been (though still quite warm) and foggy, and most of the animals were out and about for this reason. One cool thing was that most animals we saw were walking around rather than just sitting somewhere. Giraffes strolled very close to our vehicle, as did some other hoofed animals I didn't recognize. We saw egrets and storks, rhinos wallowing in the mud, alligators and, best of all, two hippos that were actually out of the water and walking around. I don't recall ever having seen hippos out of the water before.

After KS we went back to Camp Minnie Mickey because we wanted to catch the first show of Festival of the Lion King. The show didn't start until 10:00 so we had plenty of time, but I wanted to scope it out in case there was a long wait. The queue area was empty when we got there but a CM on duty informed me that they would start directing people to the theater in about 15 minutes and it would start to get crowded. He also pointed out the Pocahontas Colors of theWind show had just started, so we went to watch that.

The Pocahontas show used one live singer/dancer/actress (playing Pocahontas), two puppets (Grandmother Willow and a small tree named Twig) and several cute little furry animals (a rabbit, skunk, opossum and others) to tell a story with a preservation theme. If we had seen the show anywhere other than a Disney park I would have thought it fairly well done, but I expect more out of these shows from Disney. The actress playing Pocahontas was trying hard and did a commendable job and the kids in the audience "ooo'd" and "ahhhh'd" appropriately at the furry friends, but the show on a whole was mediocre at best.

After Pocahontas we went to see Festival of the Lion King. While we were waiting in the queue I asked Nat if she wanted to stay at AK all day or if she wanted to go back to MK and do Splash Mountain again. "Let's stay here." OK. I had planned on getting together with folks that correspond via the Internet again - we were planning to meet at the Hub in front of Cinderella's Castle at noon - but we were enjoying AK so much I thought it might be more fun to stay there. I would have been happy either way, which is why I left it up to Nat. AK it would be.

The Festival of the Lion King (FotLK) plays in a large covered "Theater in the Round" style auditorium. The show is not the best I've seen at WDW (I think that honor would have to go to the Hunchback of Notre Dame at Disney MGM, which we saw on our last trip), but it was close. And it certainly is the most spectacular. The show uses floats, large puppets and an amazingly talented troupe of dancers, singers and acrobats. There were even two dancers on stilts. This is a truly spectacular show and one I'd rate "not to be missed". FotLK and KS are the only attractions at AK that I felt really lived up to there potential (in reality, even KS could be improved by getting rid of the lame story line), but as I indicated earlier the real appeal of AK is the park itself.

When we walked out of the theater we saw Chip & Dale taking pictures and giving autographs, so we joined them. Dale took Nat's new cowboy hat off her head and they started playing around with it. When we saw them there were only a few people there, but after we were done there was a long line. We looked at the roster of characters available in the various greeting areas, but Nat wasn't interested.

It seemed like a good time to do some shopping. The shopping in AK is great. Creature Comforts, which specializes in stuffed animals, and Chester & Hester Dinosaur Treasures which is just plain fun, were among our favorites. I wanted to make some "required" purchases so we headed to Disney Outfitters. On the way we saw some incredible street performers: men on stilts with costumes/puppets that looked were made to look like they were riding huge birds. Very cool. I also wanted to pick up something for Andie but her "no character" requirement was hampering my style. I was successful with "required" purchases - A mug (cool AK design with ToL and animals on Savannah), a Christmas Ornament (same design as the mug, but dated of course) and (needless to say to anyone who knows me) a T-shirt (dark blue, "Disney's Animal Kingdom written over the right breast and the AK logo on the back) - but I was not successful finding anything for Andie. I also finally gave in to Nat and picked up that AK Barbie she had been eyeing the whole trip ("There's nothing else here I want, Daddy!").

As we were paying for our purchases Nat said "I changed my mind. I want to go to Splash Mountain." OK. If we're going back to MK may as well try to make the meet of Internet folks. I looked at my watch. 11:20. The meet was scheduled for 12:00 at the Hub. I asked the CM at the counter "Do you think I can get from here to Cinderella's Castle by noon?" "Sure." "Are you sure? I mean even dealing with TTC and all?" "Yeah, I think so. It's only a few minutes’ drive." OK, we're off.