Day 5 : Animal Kingdom

On our last day, we had an evening flight so we went to Animal Kingdom which only opens until 5 or 6, so it worked out well.

Here Samantha got to get a photo and autograph with Pocahontas..

We got a front row seat to the Lion King show...

At the character trails, we had to make a choice of which character to wait for, and Samantha chose Minnie's line...

We also got to see Thumper and the girl Thumper? Can't remember her name at the moment...

We got to go on the safari ride and see hippos, lions, crocs, among others...

There was a goat and sheep petting and feeding area...

Here's some videos of the kids brushing the goats.  B gets a little too curious in the 2nd video....

Here is the Tree of Life which you can pretty much see from anywhere in the park.  I was amazed by the resolution of this photo.  If you click on it to enlarge it, then right-click to save it, you'll be surprised how many different animals you can make out when you zoom in...

They have their own Dumbo-style ride, except its Triceratops and they tilt front and back besides just going up and down...

Long day done, off to the airport and back home...

Day 4 : Free Day

After 3 park days, we decided to take a day to just chill out at the hotel, enjoy the pool. We stayed at the Kidani Village near Animal Kingdom, the whole theme of the hotel is safari, so the entire hotel is a crescent shape where the whole center area is an open savannah with animals that actually live there, so you can see giraffes and other savannah-type animals roaming around throughout the entire day.

In the morning, we headed over to the Polynesian resort where we had a character luau breakfast at Ohana, with Lilo and Stitch, Mickey, and Pluto.

Later in the day, after a long nap, we went over to the Contemporary resort, did some shopping and had dinner at Chef Mickey's.  All Mickey's friends were in the kitchen and came out to say hello...

Day 3 : Back to the Magic...

The next day we headed back to MK, since we only got a half day there on day 1. This time YeYe was done with his conference so he got to come along for the fun. On day 1 we just missed the opening show with the Mayor and arriving train.  This time we got there in time to hang out and watch the characters pull into the train station.

Dumbo wins first-ride prize again.  Since we had 4 grown-ups, we were able to do the child-passing trick and get 2 or 3 rides in pretty quick...

Small World and the Carousel, as well as the Philharmagic show.  Brendan liked it, while Samantha managed to be a little less scared than when she was 3...

We each got a pull at the sword in the stone.  Daddy actually got it out, but put it back because he didn't want to create a scene...

This time we headed over to Mickey's toon town fair, and Samantha rode Goofy's plane roller coaster.  We also headed into the judge's tent and got pics and autographs from Mickey and Minnie...

Daddy's favorite ride, Buzz Lightyear, got several rides throughout the day...

The Tomorrowland Transit Authority ride is a nice, calm ride, but still fun for the kids to be up high and get a tour around tomorrowland...

Lunch character reservations at Crystal Palace with all the friends from the hundred acre woods...

The whole week was a birthday celebration, so every character restaurant we dined at knew about the birthdays and brought out birthday cupcakes...

After lunch we got a good spot on Main Street for the Dreams parade...

This time we chose not to take the afternoon break at the hotel, and headed over to Frontierland to ride Thunder Mountain railroad.  If you zoom in, you can see Daddy, YeYe, and NaiNai riding here...

We skipped Splash Mtn, but went to the Bear Jamboree, the Tiki Bird show, and also Tom Sawyer's island while Brendan took his nap.  Tom Sawyer was cut short when Sam tripped and scraped up her knee a bit on the asphalt.

A couple space mountain rides later, we watched the Wishes fireworks show, and headed out.