Expedition Kiboko

Walt Disney World

Wednesday, March 6, 2013

Animal Kingdom

My leg felt better this morning (yes, even after all of the walking the day before), so I walked around the hotel grounds while listening to "Rhapsody in Blue".  This was an appropriate soundtrack to all of the musically-themed decor.  Then I got ready for the day, and Linda and I went to the food court.  I had a Mickey waffle and bacon.  Linda laughed because I ate the ears first.  She probably doesn't remember our friend's consideration of this as "so that he can't hear himself screaming".  

Since this was Magic Morning day for Animal Kingdom, there was a long line for the shuttle.  When we arrived at the park, I saw that we were following a cute little girl with a ladybug backpack.  I couldn't resist taking a picture of her backpack, because I want to show the picture to a friend whose daughter's bedroom is ladybug-themed.  

We wanted to make sure to beat the regular crowds to the most popular attraction, so we high-tailed it over to Expedition Everest.  I honestly couldn't remember anything about what anyone had said about this ride before I got there, except that they loved it, and there's a yeti.  Well, ohmygoodnessgracious, if this wasn't the best ride of my entire week at WDW!   The ride was AWESOME!  There's a big yeti.  I wasn't believing the model of the huge footprint until I saw the huge yeti.  But also, we went BACKWARDS!!!!  AAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!  That. Was. Amazeballs.  

Yeti Footprint

So, of course, I yelled "AGAIN!!!!" like the baby in "Dinosaurs".  The wait was still only 15 minutes, so we went back into the queue.  The theming of the queue was yeti-ful, and the Mustang Coffee at Expedition Everest is made with Yak Butter.  This fact may not be as funny to you if you don't know about my amusement with yak butter and Tazo Decaf Chai Tea.  I would like to try yak butter some day, by the way.  Not the Urban Dictionary kind.  This is a family website....most of the time.  OK, I'm back.  I somehow got engrossed by all of the internet stuff related to yak butter, like this Tibetan Milking Stool Yak.  I don't know if it's called "Yak" because there's a picture of a yak on it, or if it would actually be of use while milking a yak.  I've typed "yak" far too many times already for the day/week/lifetime.  I've lost my mind.  Anyway....the ride.  A teenager said the Line of The Day (see the end of this post).  I can't remember if this was on the first ride or the second one of the day, but it applies to both.  The second ride didn't disappoint, and I thought of going back many times that day, but calmed the heck down and did other stuff instead.  I bought a shirt as well as our picture from the 2nd ride from a surly CM.  Linda and I didn't not care about his surly-ness because we were still excited about the ride.

We then had time to stroll, so we got a locker.  Their lockers are so totally old school that I felt like I was also supposed to be renting ice skates.  I meant, they use keys!  Those ones with the orange top!   If you don't know already about Linda and her obsession with dinosaurs, you know now.  I knew already because my family and I helped her fulfill her dream of seeing the dinosarus at Cabazon this past November.  So, of course, we headed off for Dinoland.  On the way there, we saw the Meet and Greet for the characters from the 100-Acre Wood, so it was Tigger Time for Linda!  He was hilarious because he was trying to get other people to jump up due to the fitness logo on the gal's shirt.  They didn't get it.  They need to learn character mime, I guess.  We showed him a picture of his topiary at Epcot.  He was quite proud.  He loved Linda because she seemed to understand him, plus she was wearing him on her sweatshirt.  

Tigger & Linda

Our next stop was Dinosaur.  I remember this ride last time as being not-as-exciting-as-Indiana Jones-at-Disneyland, but I didn't want to harsh Linda's buzz, so I didn't say anything.  I thought o Michele from EPCOT being scared of the Carnotaurus.  Our picture reflects that we were a bit frightened, too.  

Yikes!

We didn't do much else in Dinoland, and on our way to our next destination, I saw a group of girls dressed kind of like Disney characters.  They were totally cute, and I told them so.  They are from Japan, and allowed me to take a picture of their cuteness.  Seriously, I would have hung out with them all day if 1) I didn't have other stuff to do; and 2) it wouldn't be so creepy to have me there because I wasn't as cute as them.  

Cute Strangers

We marveled at our favorite ride again, then watched some Siamang apes hang out at the nearby shrine, and ate lunch at Yak and Yeti Anandpour Cafe with our dining plan.  I had the honey chicken, and for dessert, I had banana pudding.  We listened to the black birds near us, which had interesting calls, almost like whistles.  

Best Ride at WDW

Then Linda did a very uncharacteristic thing and agreed to go on Kali River Rapids.  Seriously.  Linda does not do rides in which there is a possibility of getting wet.  Yet she agreed to this one because she figured that she doesn't know if she'd be back anytime soon.  OK, then.  We subsequently got very, very wet.  I was drenched.  I thought of buying clothes from the very well-placed kiosk nearby, but they were expensive and I figured that I could deal with the wet everything somehow.  They did have underwear to purchase, which I very seriously considered, but no.  

We went to the Maharajah Jungle Trek, wherein we were advised that we'd be seeing tigers and bats and birds.  Linda was excited about the tigers.  I was excited about the bats.  This is actually the very first place that I saw bats in real life, back in 2003.  They're so damn cool with the way they hang from their feet and spread their wings and stuff.  I mean, their faces can be so menacingly ugly, but the rest of their bodies fascinate me.  

Bat, Hanging Out in the Sun

Then we saw a tiger napping, but he or she (I don't know) put up his or her head, and posed real pretty-like.  See?

Purrrrr

We did see some pretty birds, but the guide card that they gave us didn't seem to have any of the birds that we actually saw.  Or I just don't know how to translate drawings to real life.  Both could be true.

I had my name written in Thai by a CM named Saskimol.  She said that my name is a common one for girls in Thailand (the nickname, not the real name).  We encountered the plant woman and I laughed at the guy that swore that she was not a real person.  He was scared out of his wits before she moved.  I took pictures of the Tree of Life at this point, mostly because this was the hippo side of the tree.

Can you see the hippo?

We went to Harambe station to take the train to the Wildlife Conservation Station.  We didn't much feel like seeing whatever was inside, so we rested and I dried myself in the sunlight.  When we got back, we went to the Kilimanjaro Safari.  Kiboko!!!  (That's "hippo" in Swahili).  We saw Okapi, Rhinos, Kiboko, Crocodiles, Elephants, a Lioness, Wildebeests, a big cattle-looking-thing, Giraffes, Ibex and Ostriches.  That was a fun jeep ride, and our guide stopped for a short time at the different animals, so that we could take pictures.  

Okapi

Wildebeests

Giraffes

BabyElephant

Then we walked the Pangani Trail so that I could see the kiboko up close.  Hippos in water!  With fish!

Can you see this hippo?

They don't have nearly as many meerkats at AK as they do at Safari Park, much less on that carnivorous island in "Life of Pi".  But the one we saw was cute and posed happily.

What?

We also saw silver-backed gorillas, and while we were observing we saw that one of them was not getting along with the others.  They were clearly angry at him, although I don't know the reason.  But all of the power of animal of that magnitude was overwhelming, and I was really glad that there was a moat between us and them.  Not that they were angry at us, but I do remember a sign at Safari Park that said not to look straight into the gorilla's eyes, so I avoided eye contact.  They are beautiful animals, but wow, they were scary.  Also, they have a distinct odor, because it was the same odor that I smelled at Safari Park, and that's over here on a different coast.

Their Side

We wanted to make sure to catch the Festival of The Lion King, so we made our way to Camp Mickey & Minnie.  The snack I ordered there (from our dining plan) was the strawberry shortcake.  I received the last one for the day, and was happy to share it with Linda because it was kinda big.  The show was fun (we were Team Simba, which made us happy because we got to ROAR).  I pictured Steven and George from Rockapella in the roles the whole time.  

Go, Team Simba!

It was finally time to really shop, and I finally found a little hippo which was made in Kenya.  I also saw the pretty Ariel bag that I spied at DHS.  CM Barbie helped us, and she happily let me take a picture of the hippo on her apron.  She was really fun and also took a picture with us to commemorate the moment.  She package expressed our purchases to our hotel, and even wrote a little note on the receipt, which I discovered when I finally unpacked my luggage at home.  

With Barbie -- see the hippo on her uniform?

We were done for the day at this park, and got in line for the shuttle to Animal Kingdom Lodge.  While in line, I saw a guy with a t-shirt that had the words "Little Jerry" on it, and a picture of a rooster.  As a huge Seinfeld fan, I immediately got the reference, and told him that I love his shirt.  He was happy that I understood it and let me take a picture of him.  I took a lot of pictures of strangers that day.

We arrived at Animal Kingdom Lodge, and saw the animals on the hotel grounds.  Coooolll.  Our dinner reservations were at Sanaa.  We had to wait a long time to be seated even though we were there before our reservation time, but it was worth the wait.  It wasn't Flying-Fish-worth-the-wait, but still, it was yummy.  The Bread Service, which I ordered outside of the dining plan, was YUM.  Naan and chutney!  Chutney and naan!  Happiness.  I was able to order a Mango Lahsi as part of the dining plan, so you know I had to do that.  It was delicious.  I ordered the tandoori chicken.  Linda ordered the same, and we couldn't finish our food (we were full of naan and chutney), so we had the leftovers boxed up by server Michele.  For dessert, I had the Banana Kulfi Sundae, which was like a deconstructed banana split.  The ice cream was in a square shape!  Neato.  Also, Yummy.

Mango Lahsi -- aaahhh, refreshing!

Bread Service

Banana Kulfi Sundae

After dinner, we thought that the shuttle would be able to take us back to Animal Kingdom so that we could take another shuttle to our hotel, but since the park was closed, the bus driver hadn't planned on going there.  We were the only ones on the bus after everyone else got off at some other stop, so the driver kindly took us back to our hotel.  THANK YOU!!!  I had told Linda that we could probably walk home, but she looked at me like I had grown 3 heads.  She was right to look at me like that, because we were really not that close to the All-Star at that point.  It is now a running gag between us: "We can walk it."

What a lovely day at Animal Kingdom and the lodge!  Tomorrow:  people dressed as animals.

Line of the Day: "This is my most favorite ride in all of Walt Disney World!" -- Dude on Expedition Everest, screaming at the top of his lungs