Animal Kingdom

Although Ella and Aidan went to bed each night by 6:30 at the latest (they did not nap at all for the entire trip), they were early to rise each morning - which turned out to be a good thing. We made it to the parking lot of each park by 8:30 AM and parked in the front rows, thereby avoiding long walks to the park or "having" to ride the parking lot tram. I say "having" because in all honesty, this was sometimes Aidan's favorite part of the entire day!

So, this morning Ella and Aidan wore their special "safari" shirts....

...and off we went to Animal Kingdom!  After the ceremonial rope drop, we made our way directly to the Kilimanjaro Safari, hoping for a short line that would enable us to make it to our character breakfast at the Tusker House at 10:30 AM. We were in luck and got one on of the first few trucks that headed out onto the range.

We made a short trip through the Pangani Forest Exploration Trail where we hung out for a while with a family of these big guys....

....and came across the most amazing underwater viewing spot of a lagoon.  Can you spot what is floating in the water with all of the fish?

This big lady!

Then it was time to head to breakfast.  We ended up having a wait for our table, so I snapped few pics....

....and then it was off to the most amazing buffet I think we have ever had. At least, it was fun until Ella spotted the first character. As it turned out, she ate about two bites of a waffle and spent the rest of the time with her face buried on either myself or Mike's shoulder.

Aidan loved every second of meeting Daisy Duck (again), Goofy, and Mickey Mouse!

After lunch we made a brief stop in front of the Tree of Life for a family picture....

....then headed to check out the toddler-friendly rides down in the Dinoland section of the park which had an amazing playground in which the kids burned off a bit of energy playing.  This is also where Ella and Aidan rode their very first "roller coaster", which was really more like the Dumbo ride in Magic Kingdom. It was a flying Triceratops that they had a total blast making go up and down as we spun in circles.

Aidan spotted Goofy and Pluto off to the side and was immediately done with the ride and wanted to get their autographs, so off he and Mike went while I stayed and rode the ride with Ella over and over again.

We then made our way to what turned out to be the hit of the day for Ella - Finding Nemo, The Musical! On our way, we ran into Minnie Mouse.... 

....and then entered the theater to watch the show.

The kids were pretty hot and tired by this point, so we decided to call it a day. But not before we took the parking lot tram back to our car! 

PS - We also watched the show "A Bugs Life" - while Mike and I loved it and found it hilarious, I don't recommend it for the little ones - Ella and Aidan still talk about how they disliked that show - it was just a bit spooky for them.