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Day Two, Monday 11/29/04 </font>
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Part 1 - Animal Kingdom </font>
We awoke around 7:00am to get ready for early entry at Animal Kingdom. I had set a wake-up call for 7:23am so Savannah would already be awake and wouldn't miss hearing it. When the phone rang I told her it was for her and she took the phone.
She thought Mickey was really on the phone and started talking to him!
She was saying "Mickey, it's me, can you hear me?"
We stopped at the food court on our way out so we could fill our mugs with coffee and get Savannah some juice. We arrived at Animal Kingdom shortly after the 8am early entry time.
Animal Kingdom Christmas Tree
Decorations at Animal Kingdom
Our first stop was It's Tough To Be A Bug. Savannah still doesn't like this one - the bugs scare her. After that we headed over to Kilimanjaro Safaris where there was no wait - we walked right on. This was the best safari we've done yet. Because it was still early in the day, many of the animals were out and active. The highlight of the safari was rounding a bend and having a white rhino come out of the bushes right next to the vehicle! He was so close we probably could have touched him if we leaned our arms out. Here are some pictures from the safari:
After the safari, we walked back past It's Tough To Be A Bug and found Flik. Savannah had never met Flik before so she was excited to see him. We also stopped and took pictures with Lilo & Stitch.
We then headed over to Camp Minnie/Mickey because Savannah had been begging us for the last two hours to see Mickey. She finally got to see him and was a happy girl
While we were there, Minnie, Goofy, and Donald were also out signing so we went to see them too. Goofy was cute, all decked out in his Santa outfit and Minnie was adorable in her little Christmas skirt and sweater.
Lee gets a kiss from Minnie
Family with Mickey
After Camp MM, we grabbed some lunch at Pizzafari. Lee had an individual pepperoni pizza and I had an individual cheese pizza. Savannah had the kids pb&j meal which also included apple sauce, goldfish cheese crackers, and a drink. After lunch we headed over to Dinoland. Here comes the theme of our trip - Savannah is now 40" tall and she knows it.
Anything that she was big enough to go on, she went on - including Dinosaur!!
I kept telling her it would be loud, dark, and scary because I wanted her to know what to expect but I also wanted to assure her that if she did decide to go on the ride that the dinosaurs were not allowed to touch her so nothing would hurt her. We went on it and of course she was very scared. As soon as the ride ended she said in a trembling voice "That was scary. Can we go again??"
I couldn't believe it! She actually wanted to go again. The second time on the ride she was still scared but I could tell she now knew what to expect and she allowed herself to relax a little bit and scream at the scary parts and even laughed because it scared her. She wanted to go on it a 3rd time but we said no and headed over to Dino-rama.
Savannah getting ready to brave Dinosaur
We survived!
I took Savannah on Triceratop Spin (kind of mild after going on Dinosaur) while Lee went on Primeval Whirl. We somehow managed to get off the rides at the same time and Lee took Savannah to play some of the carnival games while I took a turn on Primeval Whirl. I had never been on this ride before and I must say I really enjoyed it
It was really fun with all the spinning and little hills and corners you whip around. We had started out the day in jeans and by now it was getting really warm out so we went to the restrooms and changed into shorts and headed over to Kali River Rapids. Again, Savannah was tall enough so on the ride we went - again no wait. Up until this point the longest wait we had was 5 minutes for Triceratop Spin. Everything else we walked right on. We went on Kali River Rapids and of course we were the 3 in the raft who ended up getting absolutely soaked!!
By this time it was mid-afternoon and we have the Candlelight Processional tonight at 5:00pm so we headed back to the hotel. On the way out, we stopped to get a look at the construction that is under way for the new Expedition Everest.
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Coming up.....Day Two, Part Two - Candlelight Processional </font>