Disney World, Day One - Animal Kingdom

I am so excited to finally be writing about our trip to Disney! It was, by far, the most fun we have had as a family so far. I hope the memories stay vivid in my mind and heart like they are right now, forever. I have had a ton of friends asking me for help and guidance in planning. Since I feel like I lived and breathed Disney for months, I am excited to help others out too! We are already planning our next trip, in just 19 months from now!

Addie Kate was four and Drew was nine months. Addie Kate was the perfect age. We had planned to go last October, but when I was still sick pregnant from Drew, we decided to put it off another year. And am I glad we did. Addie Kate would have been too young. She would have enjoyed pieces and parts, but the need for naps and whiny-ness of a three year old wouldn't have been much fun. Every. Single. Thing. was magical for Addie. Everything. The looks on her faces showed such awe, wonder, amazement, happiness, and sheer delight. If only I could have hired a photographer and video crew to follow us around and capture every single moment. (And we had a video camera, my mom's camera, our camera, and my iphone. Still not enough.) Drew came with us, because he was still being breastfed. I'd rather have a baby than a breastpump, it wasn't time to stop breastfeeding, and I refused to put that trip off one more day. He's the most laid back child ever anyway, so he just happily went along for the ride. Having an extra adult there was certainly helpful. My mom was content to just hold him and bounce him to get him to sleep. A 10 minute nap does that boy a world of good - he wakes up laughing a smiling like he's slept all night. Plus, he was able to go on just about every ride with us! We had no idea about that! 

So, because we were taking a baby and a four year old, we decided to drive. Our kids are great travelers. Always have been - they really don't have a choice with our lifestyle. In fact, I wasn't even worried about the drive for them. More for me - Tommy and I much prefer flying for any trip just about over three hours. But, we knew we'd still need to rent a car if we flew, and it just didn't work out. So we rented a minivan. It was my idea. Our cars get traveled way too much, plus even our big car just still wasn't enough room. We put AK in the far back, and she was happy as a clam. My mom sat in the seat beside Drew so she could easily reach both kids, and she didn't have to climb to the way far back. (We made that mistake on our trip to DC last summer, when even though we took our car, we forgot about having that capability.) Again, Drew's the happiest, most laid back baby ever, so he too was just as happy. He got fussy one time that I could think of, and it was dark outside and just bedtime, etc. I gave mom my phone to keep turning off and on for him (showing the lights) and he just cackled until Tommy could get us to the hotel.

We left Greenville about 4:00 that afternoon. We met my parents in Harbison at the McDonalds (because I love their [regular] coffee more than Starbucks these days). It was also right beside Walmart, which was perfect, because we had to send mom in to buy another car DVD player. Not even five minutes into our trip, ours stopped working, and there was no way we were making that trip without one. Those things are such pieces of junk. We knew better than to buy a car with one, so we just keep buying the same one over and over again. It usually breaks before the year warranty is up. So we hopped out and got Mom loaded and the new DVD player working. We all used the bathroom, got some fries and coffee, took pictures by the minivan, (ha!) and were on our way! We made it all the way to somewhere mid to south Georgia for dinner at Cracker Barrell. That's my preferred place to stop with kids. Lots to look at and see, plus they can eat a vegetable and fruit instead of fast food. (We have learned over the years - again, seasoned travelers!)

Oh that minivan cracked me up! Tommy and I refuse to get one! It was roomy though. And I imagine if it hadn't been the baseline model and had more bells and whistles, it'd really have been convenient!

We stopped just south of Jacksonville for the night. It was almost 11 at that point. Tommy wanted to go all night, but I was worried that if the kids slept that much in the car, that we wouldn't be able to get them to sleep in the hotel, which means we wouldn't have been able to sleep. So thanks to Tommy's millions of Hilton points, we just found an Embassy Suites and spent the night. That also had us only doing about 2.5 hours the next day. My kids are so used to that kind of driving that it was nothing. And we got us a great breakfast in so that as soon as we got to Disney, lunch wasn't the first thing on the agenda.

We had told Addie Kate our itinerary. Not that she had any clue what Animal Kingdom, Magic Kingdom, or any of that was, she's our girl that does much better when prepared. She loves surprises, but we knew she needed to know this ahead of time. We didn't want her to expect to see the castle and princesses right away (which was basically all she associated Disney with), and have a meltdown as soon as we got there. We planned to do Animal Kingdom first, because, at least for us and our age kids, we knew we'd do the least in this park, although we knew it'd still be a favorite. We knew we wouldn't be there when it opened, and we knew we had things to do that afternoon/night. It was perfect planning and I was so glad.

When we got there, we had to add on the park hopper pass to our tickets. Tommy had gotten his tickets through his work, being a federal employee, he got us a discount. (Disney gives out discounts for a variety of things, this being one, although it was very tee-tiny, as in maybe saving us $10, it's still worth looking into.) This took a while, which stunk, but we were able to use the bathroom, I was able to breastfeed Drew, and we got to see Goofy and Timon.

This picture (above) is Addie Kate hiding/acting shy from Goofy and Timon. She did not want to see them. She's never been a fan of dressed-up characters, and this was our biggest fear for our trip. It took all three of us to get her over her little hump. And it worked. By the time we saw the next character, she was over it.

With doing all my research, I knew that we had to go straight to the Jungle Safari in the back of the park. It was crowded and it's not the easiest place to get around. There's lots to see and do, but we plowed through and didn't stop to sightsee, in order to get back there with hopefully the least wait time. This is their biggest attraction, so it's a must to do first. We knew we'd have a little wait anyway because we weren't there at the park's opening, and we'd wasted so much time adding on the park hopper pass. Luckily, since the park had used so much of our time messing around with those passes, they gave us each one free fastpass. I knew to use it for this line, because we really hadn't planned to do anything else. You still have to wait a little bit even with the fast pass. This is something we prepared Addie Kate for and she did beautifully. And our girl is a whiner. I can't remember one time that we had an issue with waiting in line. It was great. (Again, the perfect age here is the key!)

I put this picture in here to note Drew in outfit number one. Poor little man was fighting an ear infection and any antibiotic he's on gives him an upset tummy. Luckily, I spent a great amount of time each night packing our bag for each day, including several changes of clothes for him.

 And here's our ride!

The animals were amazing. Truly amazing. We had never seen most of them, but fortunately knew of several due to our neighbor going on two African safaris. He has several animals from his trips at his house, as well as some guides. It was also nice to know that this "safari" in Disney was authentic! These are animals you really would see on a true safari in Africa.

The animals were just out roaming around. It was really, really neat. We were so close to so many of them. And it was cool seeing them in their habitat and not behind guardrails! A little unnerving, but luckily, we were in a truck that could get us out of there if anything were to happen!

The ride was bumpy, it splashed and sloshed through creeks and muck, and it was fabulous. Addie Kate loved it, and so did all of us adults!

The elephants were my favorite, and hers I believe, although typically the giraffes are her favorite. There were three baby elephants and I could have taken them home with me, they were so cute. And I am so not an animal person!

 There were two species of giraffes, which I didn't even know exsisted. And one was a baby.

This ostrich came right up to our truck and spread it's plume. I'd never seen anything like that before and it was beautiful. It was so neat to see it so close!

Yep, that's a lion. There was a male on the other side. Again, a little unnerving with them being so close, and not behind an enclosure!

 The cheetahs were gorgeous.

 That little elephant is almost as cute as my little Drewsie!

 I'm not sure I've ever seen a rhino. I'm sure Riverbanks has them, but I don't remember seeing them.

 

 As soon as we got on the truck, I realized Drew had pooed everywhere and it had leaked through his clothes. There was nothing I could do. It wasn't a calm trip where I could change him. I put a changing pad between him and me and hoped for the best. Then we looked at the end and that precious thing had fallen asleep!

 My precious girl in her animal inspired Minnie outfit.

She was dancing to these African drummers, while I was in the women's bathroom changing Drew. Disney has baby care stations that would have been a much better bet, but I just got him in the quickest thing I could find. Then I had to call in for reinforcements. It was everywhere. Again, so thankful to Mom there for an extra set of hands when we needed it. 

I sold our Sit & Stand Joovy stroller. I hated that thing. It weighed too much. I picked us up this Combi side-by-side and my two loved it. Like a crazy amount. It was perfect. (Notice Drew in outfit number two. Bless him!)

We grabbed some lunch (my research had told me where to go for what we wanted [sit down, quick service, etc.], and my iphone app told me what was close by - I told everyone of our choices and we chose from what was closest. [My girl in picture above, a little tired and a lot hungry, waiting on lunch. We had pizza and a salad. She had grapes too. I was so excited to be eating very little junk so far!]) and headed towards Camp Minnie Mickey. This was where the characters would be and the Lion King show was. Tommy and I sent Mom ahead with the kids to get in line or see a character or something. We stopped to buy Addie Kate's autograph book. I knew exactly what I wanted and couldn't get it ahead of time. Well, that was probably the most nervous I was the whole trip. Little did we know that the Lion King show was letting out right as we were walking that way. It was like two fish swimming upstream in a very crowded river. It was chaos and I was scared to death. My phone was in the stroller with Mom. Tommy had his phone, but I was worried that Mom would never hear us. Finally she did pick up the phone and told us they were in line to see Mickey. She'd picked a great spot - out of all that traffic. We met up with them and started talking to Addie and prepping her for meeting Mickey. She was all excited about her new book (not that she had any idea what an autograph was at this point!).

   

 Precious boy all happy and excited!

 When it was time to meet him, she did great! We couldn't have asked for more! She walked right up to him and gave him her book. I think that really helped distract her from being afraid.

 She had the most adorable little smile - it was full of nerves with a side of excitement and happiness and not knowing what to do or expect. I loved it. These are the smiles we won't have on our next trip.

 The whole family hopped in to see this iconic mouse. We couldn't miss him! 

We went next door to meet Minnie, when the people in line with us told us that we just had to see the Lion King show. I had put a question mark next to it in my notes - just not knowing how much time we'd "waste" seeing a show as opposed to enjoying the park. But it was worth it. We ducked out of line to see Minnie and hauled tail to see the show (Mom had run around there to check on the times and we had about two minutes to get there. We were right across from it, but in Disney traffic, that could have taken five minutes!). Luckily, there wasn't a bad seat in the house, and we ended up on row two or three anyway.

It was pretty dark in there, but was quite entertaining. They had four people entertaining the crowd as everyone filed in. Then the show started. The floats with Simbah, Nala, Timon, and Pumba were beautiful and huge. There were dancers, singers, and acrobats.

This stage was a trampoline and these "monkeys" were acrobats that were quite entertaining. The show was perfect! (I was really excited that we saw it since Addie Kate and I will be seeing the Broadway performance of The Lion King this summer!) 

(Please excuse the photography. It was super dark and hard to photograph. Plus I'm sure we weren't supposed to!)

The whole day was wonderful! It was steamy and drizzly until after the show, when it decided to pour. We had planned to stay for the parade and then leave, but we learned that they'd likely not be doing the parade in the rain. So we opted to leave, check into the hotel, and decompress a bit before our fun night.

We went into a gift shop and let Addie Kate pick out one souvenir. She is such a good girl and was very good about picking out one thing in each park. Here, she just wanted a stuffed elephant, and that's what she got.  (We told her on the way down that she could pick one thing from each park. We also told her that we'd look at the end of our trip, that we weren't going in every store we saw. She remembered and would even repeat to us ,"I get one thing in each park. We look at the end!" Ha!)

Little man had a minor meltdown, but sniffed it up pretty quickly. We couldn't resist taking a few pictures though!

Our one mistake was only remembering that we parked in the "dinosaur" section of the parking lot and not the number of the row. So it was raining, Drew was done so I was carrying him, and we were walking all over that parking lot looking for a minivan (which was the majority of the cars there!). We finally found it and got our soaked selves out of there. It was so much fun and so different from the typical Disney park - none of us had ever been to Animal Kingdom, and though we debated on even going, it was definitely worth it! (Although we were glad that we picked this to be the first day/shortest day park for us.)