Saturday, January 19, 2019
(If you missed a day, check out the “archives” to the right –>)
Today, our plans take us to Africa and Asia as we explore Disney’s Animal Kingdom.
DinoLand
Elease, Joe and I started our day early with a bus ride to Animal Kingdom. I think we were all surprised to see how many people were waiting to get through the gates. Big crowds usually mean long waits at the most popular attractions. Fortunately (?) for us, we had a FastPass+ to ride on the Primeval Swirl. Never heard of that ride? There’s probably a reason for that.
Primeval Swirl is a roller coaster ride located in DinoLand, in a small and apparently unpopular part of Disney’s Animal Kingdom. This neglected part of the park looks, sounds, and smells like the fun zone at any state fair in the USA. The ride for which we used one of our limited FastPass+ resources was like a combination of the Wild Mouse and the spinning teacups in Fantasyland in the Magic Kingdom. It wasn’t such a great ride, but it got our day started.
Ancient Ancestor of Wild Mouse 
DinoLand
It’s tough to be a bug
Next, we visited one of my favorite attractions and arrived there to find no line at all! “It’s Tough To Be A Bug” is a 4D theater experience; you wear 3D glasses but there’s a fourth element. That fourth element is your sense of touch. Things that are happening in 3D might be accompanied by a puff of wind, or a poke in the back, or the unmistakable smell of a stink bug.
The theater is located underneath the Tree of Life, a visual landmark that is prominent from almost anywhere in the park. The tree and the theater are covered in lush artwork that depicts life in its many forms. The show was fun, as always.
Bugged-eyed during the show 
The Tree of Life Theater 
Here’s where we get in!
Lunch
Days in advance, we made reservation to dine at Tiffin’s, a Disney signature restaurant in the Animal Kingdom park. This restaurant is first class in every way. It is attractive from the outside, and an art gallery on the inside.
We were escorted to our table where we met our waiter. He seemed very intent on making sure we had an excellent dining experience. Personally, I ordered a seared octopus appetizer and a surf and turf entrée consisting of lobster and beef tenderloin. In both cases, the food was nothing short of outstanding.
Kilimanjaro Safari
After lunch we wanted to experience the Kilimanjaro Safari where you pile into the bed of a truck and head out into savanna, jungle, and waterways to encounter live animals in the open environment. The photos below show just some of the many animals we were privileged to see. The ride really was fun, but the wait was not.
All of those people we saw at the front gate must have decided to come to Kilimanjaro Safari at the same time we did. Our wait in line was well over two hours! Yes, it was a great experience, but spending 20-25% of your park time in line for a single ride seems to me to be a bit outrageous. Oh well. It’s done now.
Crossing into Asian
The biggest, fastest, scariest ride in the Animal Kingdom is the roller coaster that zooms through the middle of Mt. Everest. Elease was absolutely dead set to ride it, even though Joe and I might have had some second thoughts, at least temporarily.
Here we see Joe working up the nerve, I mean, calmly planning his strategy for conquering Mt. Everest.
Rivers of Light
One of the benefits of eating at Tiffin’s was that we were given passes for excellent seating for the Rivers of Light show. This show is performed nightly just as the park is closing.
Here is just a glimpse of the show we saw. If you’d like to see more of it, see me in May and I’ll be happy to show you the entire performance.
The end of another day
After the show, we were in the perfect position to capture Mt. Everest by night. Two nights in a row, we may have snapped our best picture of the day as we were leaving the park.
Elease trying to capture… 
…this!
So that ends our day at Animal Kingdom, and the Caracci’s last day at Disney World. We say goodbye tomorrow morning.
