DiDeDd Part 5

There are those who consider Animal Kingdom a half-day park. In our early planning, I had to convince O’C that he should even go at all. I realize that Disney likes to say that it is not a zoo, but realistically, AK is almost exactly a zoo that’s been disneyfied. This turns out to be a good thing.

There are attractions at the park, and one kicks off the day with Dinosaur (the same ride system as Disneyland’s Indiana Jones attraction), a silly little wild-mouse coaster, and the great Expedition Everest. By this time our little adventurers were ready for any roller coaster we threw at them, and we told them Everest was the best themed of all, and it didn’t go upside down, and it was very smooth and they’d love it. We did neglect to mention that it runs out of track and starts careering backwards, but one hates to give away too many spoilers… This coaster is the most narrative of the bunch, unquestionably, as one is progressively more menaced by the Yeti during the trip. It’s one more pinnacle of Imagineering if you ask me.

After that, it is indeed animals. There’s walk-throughs and ride-throughs and sit-throughs, birds and bats and mammals and reptiles, pachyderms and ungulates, lions and tigers, hidden Mickeys (although, after some discussion, we agreed that the naughty bits on the bat were indeed not a hidden M). This was why I brought along my long lens for the SLR, and I did get a few good pictures. They’ve designed the place so that you can really get up close without bothering the animals. It’s a remarkable accomplishment.

There’s also entertainments, live-action versions of Lion King and Nemo and a 3-D Bug's Life movie. One did sneak in an extra trip or two to Everest in there along the way (gotta love them Fastpasses). That evening there were extra hours, but we were done about park closing, and we headed over to the Animal Kingdom Resort for dinner, for the African buffet at Boma, which was quite the crowd pleaser. Of course, we started with these wonderfully sweet cocktails in the lounge first, so they could have fed us sawdust and gotten away with it, but the food is quite good and unusual. And because it was Liz’s and my anniversary, which I had made known all those months ago when I made the reservation, they gave us a special desert from the other restaurant in the hotel, the fancier one across the way. Keep that in mind. If you have a celebration of some sort, let them know. It will pay off.

And then, back to our hotel, via Downtown Disney, which meant we took a nice little boat ride back. Very nice. This was the day Kaz had gone back home, but she got a good dose of AK first, so she didn’t miss anything except the drinks. Then again, she probably got polluted on the plane (provided she had a credit card), so she was covered. And I’m sure she was glad to get off of her sore feet. She was a great trooper through it all, even though her pedal extremities were not cooperating.

At the end, O'C made the pronouncement about AK that he gave it the O'C Seal of Approval, rescinding his original demurral that the park wasn't up to snuff. Absolutely. It is totally up to and, perhaps, even above snuff. Those who skip it miss out on a lot of snuff.