Tanya & Matt's Big Adventure: Day 8 - Animal Kingdom and a Dinner with a view

Day 8 - Monday

Our first week in the US of A had gone swimmingly, we had seen the sights and lights of Vegas and were now preparing ourselves for the trek of a lifetime - literally a trek, the average visitor walks between 7 and 10 miles in a day at Disney, and we were planning on doing a park a day for the next 7 days.

Today was Animal Kingdom.

If you stay at the Disney resorts you get access to what is called "Extra Magic Hours", this is where the parks are open an hour earlier, or an hour later than the posted time, but it is only available to guests of the hotels. We decided to see the animals nice and early when they would be active in the cool morning sun - also it would be pretty cool to get around the park when there is barely anyone there.

Animal Kingdom opened at 9am, and today was an early Magic Hour so we were allowed entry at 8am. I think we got up at 8.15am, hurriedly got dressed, showered and shaved, caught the bus and were granted access to the park at 8.50am. So ten minutes of Magic Time was all we got - but it was decent not to have to wait with the throngs of screaming kids outside the gates.

We went straight to the Safari ride, a long winding trek through the African savannah. The ride takes you through the various animal enclosures, some like the Alligator, you go around rather than through, however the giraffe, emu, warthogs and elephants you go through the middle and if you are lucky enough, the animals walk right by you. We were lucky enough to almost run over a Giraffe and an Emu!

We then moved on to the other side of the park to FastPass our tickets to "Everest" our first extreme ride! FastPass is where you grab a ticket and you can come back during the allotted hour and jump the queue. It's pretty neat-o. Anyway, our fast pass was only about an hour away so we wondered around some more, took in the Bug Show in 4D, Flik and his circus bugs sparyed us with gunk and stung us in the back - very cool. We made it back to the ride and boarded within 10 minutes - the line to wait in the usual spot was 55 minutes - and experienced the first thrill ride of the season. It was terrific, a mine cart roller coaster with backwards bits, a giant Yeti eating the tracks, spills and thrills and more!

Tanya was not feeling to well after the ride, still on Vegas time, which was partially still on Sydney time, the added pressure of thrill rides had taken it's toll on her little frame, not to mention we walked past the lunch stop and I ordered Onion Rings and Ribs, both of which are not high on Tanya's "Like to eat" list, and the poor thing was feeling queezy. But she pushed on through and we took in the rest of the park.

A Horny Rhino

Doing the Baby Elephant Walk

Jaywalking Emu

Baloo, Tanya, Matt and the Yellow M & M

The first of many squirrels on our journey

This was a small onion ring, the biggest one I wore as a necklace.

The Otters were cute, very playful too

Entering the first of 4 parks - Animal Kingdom

The friendly staff - this one looks like the art teacher at John Therry, Mae Martinez!

In front of the Tree of Life

The highlight was the Lion King Show, a fantastic acrobatic and vocal display, lights and sounds and animatronics galore. I would have done this twice if we weren't pushed for time.

Inside the Lion King Showroom, theatre in the round

Simba commands his audience

The monkeys play on the trapeez whilst we sing about the circle of life and roar like Lions

Colour and Sound - two key ingredients in all Disney attractions - are definitely present here

Simba looks baked, Tanya wasn't ready for the photo either.

Pumba and Tanya

Tanya goes fishing with Mickey and pals

Matt is caught wondering aimlessly through the jungle in his best camouflage

"One singular sensation, every little step she takes!"

The Hover-Chimps were a terrific attraction

The parade was cool too, we got to see plenty of Disney favourites, King Louie, Baloo, Chip n Dale, Rafiki, Mickey and Minnie too, and there were some terrific animal structure-costumes, people walking around in bamboo Giraffe and gecko suits - they were very cool.

Baloo and King Louie dance in the parade

Our first mickey sighting

After we left the park, Tanya made a purchase of her first set of Minnie ears, I say first because I am sure there will be more to come!

Does this hat fit me? Never mind I am going to buy it anyway!

Tanya meets an exquisite topiary of Mary Poppins, this was in the front yard of our hotel

Mary from the rear

We had dinner on the 16th floor of the Contemporary Resort, our booking was for 9.15pm which suited us fine as it meant we would be able to walk out the door to the viewing platform and watch the 10pm Fireworks show at Magic Kingdom. Dinner was terrific, Tanya had the biggest ravioli I had ever seen, whilst I had a piece of Aussie Steak that was cooked to perfection, I also tried my first "wine and steak" dinner and ordered a sweet red German wine that matched my meal perfectly - I never thought I would be a wine drinker, but with a steak Se Magnifique! (don't know why i chose French to describe my Aussie steak and German wine but anyway...)

We stepped outside to watch the fireworks and were surprised to find that the soundtrack and narration were being pumped through the roofs sound system, so everything was in synch with the visuals 1km away!

When Tanya visited Anaheim, Julie Andrews narrated the night time fireworks spectacular. Dame Julie is Tanya's favourite and she cried then due to an overwhelming sense of excitement and pleasure.

At Orlando, Jiminy Cricket narrated the fireworks! Tanya's favourite Disney Character of all time! The tears were flowing at the beginning of the show, and it was a pretty spectacular show indeed. Fireworks are all timed to the soundtrack, the castle is light up in various colours to convey the mood, and "Tinkerbell" fireworks shoot over the top of the Castle every once in a while... all in all it was a terrific show, one that we would see close up when we visited Magic Kingdom in the next couple of days.