Day 5 Animal Kingdom
Elephants behind the scenes tour
During the lunch with animal specialists we learned about the Caring for Giants tour. You get to go behind the scenes and spend time just viewing elephants.
Cute name tags are made on elephant poop paper :)
We heard stories about the different elephants-which ones like to hang out together, how the adolescent male is adjusting to growing up.
Really relaxed way to see the animals.
Later we took the Safari ride and saw the elephants again, but it goes by fast. I like the more traditional walking paths where you go at your own pace. Gorillas, fruit bats, tigers!
Took the train to the back half of the park with the petting zoo, interactive exhibits and the veterinarian.
They have quite a large staff and take care of all the animals at WDW. This was the best-every day the vet is doing something different so who knows what animal you might see. We had a goose that was limping-trying to keep it calm during the examination was a challenge!
For fans of Up, this is the place to get your Wilderness Explorers badge.
The book is quite detailed, you could surely build your day around it.
We just happened to be walking by as a show was starting and were able to get great seats! Fun shortened version of the story.
Yak & Yeti lunch
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As a kid I would listen to The Jungle Book record over and over. Ka is a great villain, sneaky and subtle.
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Animal Kingdom has a brand new Pandora world! They must have been working on this forever because that movie was forever ago.
We rode the new Avatar Flight of Passage-nothing else quite like it! Maybe avoid if you get car sick, this is VR immersive.
Ate dinner at the cafe-a fun selection of items you can't get elsewhere. They did a nice job with seating by adding in high back booths that break up the giant room.
Evening show is Rivers of Light - pretty, they have a bit of a story they are trying to tell, but they maybe need a little more.
Day 6 Harry Potter World
Sure, it is Universal Studios, but we only cared about the Harry Potter world. Yes, the atmosphere is amazing. You have walked into a whole other world...except for the crowds.
There are very few rides so we spent much of our time with the wand. They have a clever wand and many spots where you do the right wand motion and the thing inside the window stops or starts whatever it does. It needs to be just a little more clever. If you aren't aimed exactly right it doesn't work and causes frustration. When it works it is like magic!
Eating is also a big part of the atmosphere. There are like 3 versions of butter beer to be tried and the candy shop is not to be missed.
The castle and grounds are a good line experience.
The train is the reason to get the park hopper. It is a ride though, not transportation-the wait time is about an hour. The station is a clean version of real life with magical touches.
Sometimes I know I will never get a good photograph and so I just buy the postcards-lol!
Like the night bus, which always has a crowd of people around it.
Or creepy Diagon Alley where the light is bad, the people are bad and the magic is strong.
Or the Gingots dragon-we were never in the right place to really see his fire breathing, maybe next time :)
