Our last day of fun brought us the the newest of Disney Parks, Animal Kingdom.  Just after our last trip, stories of a new roller coaster being built surfaced.  From what we kept hearing, it was a great one.  That was the plan, get through the gates, head towards Asia, and get the line out of the way before the crowds really packed in.

Awesome is all I have to say.  I knew there was some illusion to a set of broken tracks a head of you.  But I won’t tell you what happens next.  I have never seen any coaster do this before.  There is a huge, steep drop that leads into a smooth banked turn.  Fun Fun Fun.  Do it.  Worth it.  Just watch out for that pesky yeti.

From there, we headed to Dino-land.  It is the Midway style area.  There is a little fun coaster there, that does unlock the car at some point from the wheels, letting you spin after each sharp corner.  The main attraction here is the Dinosaur ride.  A wacky scientist wants to transport a dinosaur back with you after sending your jeep through an adventure to find it.  When Mason was 5, he asked us when the ride stopped if we got our dinosaur.  Since there are monitors all around showing it wondering hallways and dented walls, we told him yes.  Then we spotted him peering around every corner.  He still loved the ride this time.

The Tree of Life is amazing to look through and find animals, but under it houses another 4D show, It’s Tough to be a Bug.  It is on par with Philharmagic for how good the 3D and 4D effects are, but I think the characters that appear, the fogger, air blasts, and water all build a better audience side experience.  There are those stinging wasps, spiders, and grubs to watch out for.

We had another great lunch at the Yak and Yeti Restaurant.  I thought the chicken sounded good, but since I was still set on getting my fill from the free food plan, steak and shrimp.  After lunch, we wondered around the Asia exhibits.  A good chuck of the park is a zoo.  However, Disney does a great job of not making it look like a zoo.  Instead of concrete walls, there are ruins that separate animals.  On the Africa safari, the clever mounds block the pits, and you can not see anything between you and the lions.  You’ll also notice that you will have a hard time finding the fences.  Luckily for us, there was a tiger roaming around, right near us.  Mason loves tigers.

There are two stage shows here, One for Nemo, and another for Lion King.  While a theatre is a good break from the heat and walking, we actually passed on these.  We were actually spent and looking for a short day.  We decided there wasn’t enough in Africa worth doing, nor did we want to take the time to go to Rafiki’s area.  These were things we had seen before.  We told Mason, that if we could leave early, we would hit the hotel pool.  That kid is part fish after all.  I got to test the underwater functions of our new digital camera.

Our bus to the airport would be leaving around 5.  7am flight.  Ugh.  The best part, is we would be in Des Monies before 4, and have time to eat and shop before heading home.  We did get a nice 2.5 layover in Dallas….I think.  Our luggage liked it so much, it decided to stay longer and take the next flight home.  There was a line of people missing bags from that flight.  Finally, American had it delivered around 11:00 that night.  I read their website…the will try to deliver your luggage within 24 hours of your flight.  That is their guarantee/service level??!?!  You pay $15/bag for this.

Anyway…awesome trip.  Reagan begs me for a return almost every week.  Oh yeah, that shock to the system?   It was 80 degrees when we got in the plane.  It was 38 when we got out.  We had some strange looks at the Target parking lot in Iowa.  We were the only ones wearing shorts and T shirts.  Everyone else had their winter parkas on.  We didn’t plan on you people messing up the weather while we were not looking.

I’ll add one more post….all the tips/complaints/insights/breakdowns next.  Might be handy…and how much did we eat?