[dmallan]

DAY 5 - Saturday, January 12th
Today is Animal Kingdom day and we head out by 9:00. It doesn’t seem to be as crowded as the past few days. Maybe it’s because we got an earlier start. We are able to get into “It’s tough to be a Bug” with no wait, and then head to Asia to ride Expedition Everest. There is only a 5-minute wait here and before we know it, we are in our car heading up the side of the mountain! It is an awesome ride and we decide as we’re getting off that we’d like to ride it again. And since there is still not much of a wait, we hop back in line and make it twice in a row! Now, we decide to head to Africa. But on the way, we pass the Flights of Wonder and see that the next show is about to start. Today has been a great day for being in the right place at the right time! It’s a great show – the birds are awesome and the trainer and his co-star (tour guide Jane) are hilarious, especially when one of the birds does not want to cooperate! Tom gets to be a part of the act when he volunteers to hold up a dollar bill and one of the birds flies to him and takes it out of his hand. Then the bird flies back, lands on Tom’s palm and gives him back the money!



After the show we head to Kilimanjaro Safari. As we are approaching the entrance, we see the “blue shirts” are just entering as well. Oh, no! We don’t want to be behind them in line again! We decide to get fastpasses. Our return time is only 30 or 40 minutes away, so we hang around Africa, take some pictures, and do some browsing in the shops. When it’s time to ride, we have a bit of a wait but not too bad. The safari is quite a bumpy ride! But we are able to see many animals up close including ostriches, hippos, flamingoes, elephants, alligators and many others. After our safari we take a break for lunch at the Flame Tree BBQ. Jeff and Kate have the pork sandwich, Tom has the Beef sandwich, Liz has the BBQ ribs and I have a chicken salad. With drinks it comes to $56.01. Liz is disappointed with the ribs. They are tasty, but hard to pull apart and not very easy to eat. There are some pesky ducks that are hanging around the eating area and we don’t appreciate them walking around under our table. Some people at a neighboring table started feeding them, so now they’re hanging around looking for more! Liz is eating with her legs up underneath her, Katie is shushing them away whenever they get near, and I’m a little jumpy each time I feel something brush my leg. Well, we get through it, and after lunch we head to Dinoland and ride Dinosaur - another bumpy ride. Good thing I took my Dramamine this morning! Then Liz, Kate and Tom ride Primeval Whirl. Ok, now it’s back to Asia for the Maharajah Jungle Trek. Jeff is fascinated with the elder deer; the room full of bats is a little creepy, but at least they are all asleep! We are able to get some nice pictures of the tigers as well. By now we are pretty tired and decide to ride the Express train out to Rafiki’s Planet Watch.

Unfortunately, once we get there, we realize it’s not really something we want to do, so we take a break on a bench and strategize. We decide to take the train back and make our way around to Dinoland to ride Dinosaur again. Once we get there I admit that I really don’t want to ride again, so Jeff sits it out as well. We find a nice shady spot on a bench along the path, and the kids go on by themselves. Then Tom and Kate ride Primeval Whirl, while we do a bit of browsing in the shops. After they’re done we head toward the exits. Tonight we have ADRs for 5:50 at Boma, so we find the bus for Animal Kingdom Lodge. We arrive with plenty of time to spare, so Tom and I go out to the animal viewing area for a bit, while the others find a spot to rest in the lobby. It’s a great place to hang out and relax after a long day. Before long our buzzer goes off and we head to the restaurant. We have a nice table in an out of the way area, and our waiter, Abdel, takes our drink orders and tells us we can go up to the buffet whenever we are ready. There is so much food! The soups are delicious and the hummus and flatbreads are awesome. Among the items we try are: the salmon, prime rib, and BBQ ribs, the coconut rice, potatoes with Afritude, and fufu. And the desserts are amazing! Wonderful tarts, and cakes, and those zebra domes! We lost count of how many Zebra Domes Tom ate!



We certainly did not leave the place hungry. Our bill came to $145.06, with tip it was $172.30. After dinner we waddle out to the bus stop and wait for a bus to Downtown Disney. While we’re waiting another bus drops off a group of unruly children. There were 5 or 6 kids, the oldest of which was about 12. After he dropped them off the driver got out of the bus and asked them where they were headed and where their parents were. I really didn’t hear their answer, but they walked toward the resort as if they were going inside. Then when the DTD bus comes along they appear again and get on. They were in the back of the bus yelling and making a fuss the whole way there! Well, we just ignore them and their antics, but still we wonder how parents can leave their kids to wander around Walt Disney World by themselves. Anyway, once we get to DTD, we find our way to The World of Disney Store. It is very crowded but we shop around a while and finally choose some souvenir items. Kate and I go to the checkout while Dad, Liz and Tom wait outside. The line is long, so it takes a while before we are even cashed out, then of course we have a few glass items, which she has to wrap, so it was a while before we got out of there. But we are finally on our way. We head back to the bus stop and wait for the next bus to All Star Music. We are tired and the wait is longer than usual, but finally we are on our way back to the resort. Time to look at the pictures from the day and make some decisions about tomorrow. We have decided that for our last day in that parks we’ll go to Hollywood Studios. We’d like to ride Rock n’ Roller Coaster again and there are some other things that we didn’t get a chance to do on Wednesday. We have dinner reservations at Boatwright’s at Port Orleans, but we don't want to do the whole bus transfer thing again to get to POR. We’ve decided to stay in Hollywood Studios and do dinner at a table service restaurant there. I call the reservation line, cancel dinner at Boatwright’s and make them for 5:20 at Hollywood and Vine. We haven’t eaten here before and it sounds great – we are all for the buffets!!

The best thing today was…riding Expedition Everest twice with practically no wait AND dinner at Boma
The worst thing to day was…the ducks at lunch and the annoying kids on the bus to DTD
The funniest thing today was…Flights of Wonder – the bird that would not cooperate and tour guide Jane
Today we tried…Zebra Domes
And the result was…Yum!
The most magical moment today was…when the bird took the dollar bill from Tom’s hand.