[Joy J]

Our day started with an unexpected and yet rather magical twist. After arriving at the Animal Kingdom, we decided to hit the first show of the Festival of the Lion King. There was no line and in no time we were sitting front and center in anticipation of this marvellous show. The spectacle began but we were only about ten minutes into the show (the part where the cast goes out in preparation for the advent of the “villains”) when suddenly the sound system cut out and then we could hear voices from back stage inquiring as to what was happening. Then an official voice came over the P.A. and announced that this performance of the Festival of the Lion King was being cancelled but to make up for that, some characters would be coming out to meet and greet the guests. At first I was disappointed as I’d really been looking forward to seeing this show again and the prospect of visiting with Mickey and the gang instead didn’t appeal to me at all. However, I was in for a big surprise. When the cast member had announced that we would be getting the opportunity to visit with some characters, what he meant was that we were about to have a meet and greet with the cast of the show - the entire cast. I was instantly excited when they all came pouring out. It proved to be so much fun! At long last, I got the chance to tell these talented performers how much I enjoyed this show and their contributions to it. We also got a lot of autographs and posed for some wonderful photographs. This was just one long magical moment that I will never forget.
After this amazing experience I practically floated over to Africa where we grabbed Fastpasses for the Safari ride before making our way over to the Maharajah Jungle Trek and along the way we stopped to spend some quality time with Louie and Baloo and we also came across the always fascinating DeVine. We spent quite a bit of time admiring all the wonderful animals to be found along the Jungle Trek. By this time we’d worked up quite an appetite so we had lunch at the Yak and Yeti counter service restaurant. Kirk had the shrimp while I had the beef and we both thoroughly enjoyed the mango pie as our dessert.
Once lunch was over, it was time for us to embark on our Safari so into our jeep we climbed for what I think is the best ride I ever experienced on this attraction. Our guide was absolutely amazing and we were fortunate enough to encounter a ton of animals right up close to our vehicle. Even the guide commented on how unusual that was. Afterwards we continued our animal adventures by wandering along the Pangani Exploration Trail before heading back to the Boardwalk Villas for our midday break. As we were leaving it began to rain quite heavily and that rain lasted until well into the evening. We were afraid that would put a damper on our plans for the evening as we had wanted to enjoy all the entertainment along the boardwalk. We need not have worried as they simply moved the entertainment inside. We watched a very amusing juggler perform in the lobby before finally tearing ourselves away so that we wouldn’t miss our dinner reservation. We dined at Spoodles where Kirk ordered the Lemon Shrimp Linguini while I had the beef kabobs. We accompanied that with some Sangria and we both had cheesecake for dessert. It was an exquisite meal from beginning to end. While we ate, the various Boardwalk buskers took turns entertaining the restaurant patrons.
Since we were still both full of energy after our meal, we decided to head back to Epcot for the evening extra magic hours. We rode Soarin, Finding Nemo and Spaceship Earth before slowly wandering back to our resort through an almost totally deserted World Showcase. It was a magical way to end a magical day.

Joy