Verbal Illustrations: A Magical Trip of a Lifetime

As day 6 dawned, we were well aware of the weather. Having had two almost rain out days, and being that rain was in the forecast for every day that we were there, we decided to change a fastpass we'd had planned for the day. Ironically, that fastpass was for arguably the wettest ride at Disney, Kali River Rapids. Rain was expected from noon on, so I moved our fastpass from the warmest part of the day, 4:00, to the cooler part of the day, 9:30 a.m.

Allow me to say, the fastpass was not necessary at 9:30 a.m. In fact, the stand-by line may have been shorter.

Apparently - 70 degrees and the possibility of being soaked, coupled with the possibility of remaining wet for a good portion of the day - yeah, that tends to run people off from the wet rides.

It's also important that I note that I dressed myself and the kids in quick drying material. Aaron chose his own clothes. Enough said.

This picture was taken about 30 minutes after our fastpass for Kali River Rapids. We rode Kali River Rapids twice this day. This was probably the driest Aaron was all day.

I'll be honest, I can't look at this picture without laughing hysterically.

From Kali River, I took a short ride through the single rider line of Expedition Everest, and we headed over for our fastpass for Kilimanjaro Safaris. I'll spare you all of the pictures of animals that are much closer than the pictures make them out to be, and I'll share just one that shows the perspective.

We were not disappointed with our animal interaction on this ride. Frankly, the safari truck itself was fun.

It was the next attraction, though, that took the cake for topping our day, and of all things, it was a show. Festival of the Lion King is heralded as the best show Disney offers. I had no idea what the show was like, only that the Lion King was a part of it.

We were VERY pleasantly surprised.

Pixie dust for our family started upon entering the theater. 100 or so people went in before us, and as we were ushering ourselves towards the nearest stairs to move up in the theater, a cast member caught Aaron and ushered us to a reserved, front row bench, perfect for the four of us. I really think we had the best seats in the house.

Then - B's luck befell him again and he and Ans were chosen to participate shaking shakers with the performers.

This experience makes the top five for best experiences in the whole trip. For sure!

Following Festival of the Lion King, Ansley's world fell apart again. Ear infection, tackled. The next battle would be against sin and sunscreen.

Exiting the Lion King, we noticed the sun had made a fierce appearance and was beating down. We walked to park the stroller for our next attraction, and I pulled out the spray sunscreen to spray the kids down.

Approximately 1.25 minutes after spraying Ansley she burst into tears regarding some situation in which she didn't get her way. (Hence the sin.) As the tears fell, she rubbed and rubbed and rubbed her eyes. What ensued was a flat out squaling fit that lasted the endurance of a 5 minute time out in the forest of strollers, and continued through a swift walk to the nearest restroom to allow her to finish her fit in privacy.

Once she'd finished falling apart, she began to rub the tears out of her eyes. And rub. And rub. And rub, until finally, she was crying again. I began threatening another trip to the restroom, thinking the fit was rearing it's awful head again, when she began telling me how bad her eye hurt. I put two and two together and realized that eye was probably chalk full of sunscreen at this point. The more it hurt, the more she cried. The more she cried, the more she rubbed. The more she rubbed, the more it hurt. It was a vicious cycle. All in all, it was probably a good 45 minutes of telling her to keep her hands off her eye and just to let it water. Here's a picture post the sin and sunscreen incident:

That's a rough life for a three year old, let me tell you. Still smiling though.

When peace prevailed and the eye incident was over, we headed to The Tusker House for a late afternoon lunch, our sit down meal for the day.

I took zero pictures of food here. I know, slacking, but let me assure you -- the food was a-mazing, and this was the one meal I was least sure about. The restaurant boasts African food mostly for their lunch and dinner offerings, with a few normal dishes here and there, but mostly geared towards the kids. We were all about trying new foods, but African food seemed a little much for us even. Oh my, was it good. I'd say this placed top three or four in food offerings. It was good.

I did get the pictures that mattered most:

From Tusker House we rode a few more rides, we took in Finding Nemo the Musical (also very good), and rode Kali River Rapids one last time. We met Pocahontas to end our day, and it rained on us as we were leaving to get in the car. I'd call that a successful day!

Us with Rafiki - this actually happened first thing in the am, but I thought I'd post the character pictures together. Ans was scared of him, hence my appearance in the picture. It was the only character she was hesitant of.

I was a bit leery of Animal Kingdom. It was the only park I hadn't visited previously, and I'd teetered with the idea of exchanging it for another day at MK, thinking it would gear better towards our kids. I'm glad I didn't follow through. We experienced everything we wanted to experience (minus "It's Tough to Be a Bug" which was under refurbishment), and honestly, it was beautiful. There seemed to be less hustle and bustle, more sites to take in. I'd love another day in the park with my kids dressed better just to move them from one place to the other and take pictures. I had fun with the camera that day...