Day 20: Animal Kingdom

Tom...
Back to the parks today with a visit to Disney's Animal Kingdom. This was the one Dad looked forward to the most, but Mum just didn't want to get soaked. After walking through the gates, the first thing we spotted was the gigantic Tree of Life. We decided that the first thing we wanted to do was to see the "It's tough to be a bug" show, with the cast of A Bug's Life. Twas a very exciting show, the 3D effects were great but the main bit was the stingers that came out of the back of the chair and poked you! Everyone freaked out at that bit!
After that we headed towards the ride Mum and Dad had told us about the most; the Kali River Rapids. This ride involved going in a circular raft down Asian rapids, and also involved getting really wet! Mum had told us before that she would be in the unlucky seat and get the most wet, and she was definitely right! We all got wet, but she was soaked as we went to get some lunch.
We bought some honey chicken and fried rice for our lunch at the closest shop in the country of Anandapur (Disney's asia), and got on our way to the ride I had been looking forward to the most - Expedition Everest.
We got to this massive ride that included an entire mountain range and buddhist temples just to find that it had been closed because of "technical difficulties". Well, this got everyone's mind working, thinking up horrifying scenarios to explain what they might be! Dad explained that they were just taking a while to get the survivors out.
Decided to come back later, so we went to DinoLand USA, which is a dinosaur themed section of the park. We lined up for 25 mins to go on the Primeval Whirl, which is basically just a dinosaur version of the Crazy Coaster at the Adelaide Show. It spun freely most of the ride, but still Mum didn't get sick.
Then we went to the DINOSAUR, a ride Mum had said was pretty tame. There is NO WAY I would call that ride tame. It was an intense ride, not that it was too fast, but it was so dark and dinosaurs jumped out everywhere! Dad tapped Mum on the shoulder during the dark part of the ride and Mum thought she would die! We all came out laughing at just how freaky the whole thing was, and Dad was the only one that kept his eyes open the whole time.
Next Dad and Lucy went on a spinning dinosaur ride, and Zac and I went to see if Everest was open. It wasn't so we went and got Fastpasses for the rapids again. Dad, Mum and Lucy caught up, and we went on our ride again. Mum got even more soaked this time through, almost losing her hat!
We were all nice and cooled down after that experience, so we walked over to the Africa section of Animal Kingdom, to go on the Kilimanjaro Safari. This was great, and we saw lots of animals (real animals) that we wouldn't see much of in Australia. The ride also took us through a poacher chase, and we saw what a poacher's camp looked like too. The best part of the ride for me was when we saw the elephants. There were around 7 elephants, two of them babies. I had never seen elephants before in real life, so that was good.
We got back from the safari via walking trail that led us past more animals, and then we had some bakery lunch. Zac and I had brownie paws, which were huge, unfinishable chocolate cakes shaped as paws, and Lucy had the biggest rice krispie treat ever! We watched the parade from there too, and I played some epic african drums.
From here we ventured on to Rafiki's Planet Watch, which was just a conservation themed section only accessible by train. The train to get there was unique, as all of the seats faced sideways, looking out onto the rainforest. We only stayed at the Planet watch for a short time, because we were running out of time, but we did see some parrots doing tricks!
Next came the highlight of the entire day (for most of us). We had walked back to Asia and discovered that the Expedition Everest was now up and running again! This got Dad and I very excited, and we had to do it straight away. The others were unsure, so just Dad and I went. It was an awesome rollercoaster, with heaps of backwards parts too, and we came out hyped up, encouraging everyone else to have a go. Lucy was feeling courageous after the dino coaster, so she said she would go (but still looked scared) and Mum finally agreed to go with her too. I sat next to Lucy that time, and she decided to scream a fair bit. When we got off we took a look at the coaster photos that were taken mid-ride, and the man selling them pointed at one photo and said, "Who is this?!" Of course it was Mum, pulling a classic ridiculous face. "That's priceless!" the man said, so we had to buy the photo, and it will probably be going on the fridge or in a frame when we get home!
It was almost closing time, so Lucy and I rode Everest one last time, before we headed home.
We needed an early(ish) bedtime for Magic Kingdom the next day.