Disney's Animal Kingdom 2019

I don't know how it could possibly be almost a month since I went to Disney World, for the second time with Lindsey, Dave and the kids, but it has been.  This year, I went on the day that they were going to Animal Kingdom, since I had never been there before.  I drove up the night before and stayed overnight at their timeshare with them and then stayed over the next night as well.

We were out first thing in the morning before the park even opened and were ready for our day of fun!

Of course, one of the first things you see when you walk into the park, is the Tree of Life.  Pictures do NOT do this tree justice, it is breathtaking.

I took the kids and went to Starbucks and then we checked out Africa.

And the Dinoland.

Our first Fastpass was Finding Nemo the Musical.  It was amazing, and was humans dressed up as all the sea creatures.  I wasn't supposed to take pictures but of course I did, but they really didn't turn out.

The backside of the tree of life.  From this angle you can see a whale, an owl, a crab and a lot more that I can't remember.

An actual Boabab tree (tree of life) growing through a store in Africa.

Dole Whip Floats are one of my favorite things about Disney World but Animal Kingdom has one that you can get with Coconut rum. Score! So good!

Our first meet and greet, with Mickey and Minnie.

Next, we went to see "Up- A Great Bird Adventure Show". We got to see Toucans, Frasier the Crane, a beautiful bald eagle, Gabby the parrot, singing "You Are My Sunshine", and Andean Condor, a Great Horned Owl, Peacocks and chickens, Plus Russell and Dug from Up.  It is a pretty cool show for the bird lovers.

Monkey Island.  You can see a few if you look closely. 

In Asia, with a beautiful view of Everest and Expedition Everest, the ride (Ava told us it was very scary!).

Coco and I on the spinny dinosaur ride in Dinoland. This was the scariest ride I went on.

We ran into Goofy and got a picture.

And then got ice cream  These Mickey Ice Creams are my second favorite disney snack.

We saw quite a few animals throughout the day, I think this is a Yak.

The illusive tiger.

Some antelope.

In the bird sanctuary. 

Monkey Island again, different view.

Another Tree of Life angle.

Our last fast pass was "It's Tough to be a Bug" the Bug's Life show which was definitely a favorite of the day.  Not only was it in a cave and air conditioned in the mid afternoon, it was just really cool.  It's a 3D show, complete with the glasses, and while you are watching, you not only get a 3D show, you get to experience different smells like a stinkbug, wind and water and at the end, a bunch of bugs crawling under your butt.

Baloo was on my list of characters to meet and I was lucky enough to run into him on the street.

We danced with Meeko.

And Kenai.

And Timon (no Pumba sadly).

Rafiki was on my list as well, yay!

Donald!

Chip and Dale dressed as dinosaurs! Love these two.

Pluto!

More animal spotting, an Okapi.

Blue Heron and a Hippo.

Meerkeet.

The Gorilla Encounter. Yes the one gorilla is playing in a bag.

The night was coming to an end and we got reservations at the Yak and Yeti.  Such a delicious restaurant.  We got a few dishes to share, including the best Ahi Tuna Nachos ever and the best Wagyu burger I've ever had.

Our last stop was the safari.  The line for this was about two hours all day, so we waited and went on the very last tour. It is as amazing as I imagined, and in the dark we still saw a lot of animals... Lions on Pride Rocks, Elephants, zebras, crocs etc.  But I would recommend going first thing in the morning! Since it was dark I couldn't get much for pictures but the ones below are some crocs and antelope.

And the finale, as we were leaving, the tree of life show, all lit up.  We didn't stay to watch it but it looked beautiful!  

Thanks again to Dave and Lindsey for the place to stay for two nights, I always have the best time with the kids.