Florida fun Part 2 - Animal Kingdom

Animal Kingdom was such a beautiful place, the obvious main attractions were the animals varying from small species like birds and meerkats to large, vicious ones like tigers and rhinos. We visited the safari area when we first arrived which took us on a tour of the exotic animals around the tropic habitat and then we went on a walk around a trail expedition which meant we were even closer to the animals (the highlight being the gorillas, as you'll see in the pictures below.)

After that was over and done with we went to explore the rides which included a 3D Bugs Life experience which was fabulous, the rapids water ride which we got drenched on, the Expedition Everest which I thought was brilliant and the Dinosaur which was a lot less thrilling but still had amazing special effects. Unfortunately my grandma lost her prescription sunglasses on there though and we were waiting around for about an hour before we left to try and get them back which failed!

Other attractions included the tree of life and the carvings in the wood wherever you went which was so impressive. Every inch of the carved animal was perfect and added to the general feel of being in a jungle type location. There was also different sections, you could go to Africa and Asia and even though I've never been to those continents, it generally felt as though you were walking around there as the tiniest detail was so noticeable and stood out as you travelled around. It fit into the theme with buildings, performers, and decor.

The top left photo is me and Chloe outside the Animal Kingdom entrance, the top right photo is me and my Brother, Harvey outside the 'let memories begin' sign which were current in the Disney parks and so cute. The bottom left photo is me, my Brother and my Mum in one part of the described location, as you can see we were surrounded by bamboo sticks which looked and felt as if you were in a different country. The bottom right photo is just a demonstration of the added extra Disney things that were sweet to look at; this one especially with the Donald Duck family heading off on their travels, aw.

These ice creams were seriously tasty, it was pretty hard to find a 'normal' ice cream place as all it seemed to be was frozen ice cream or 'Dippin' Dots' so it was a joy when we found these whipped flavours in a waffle cone. Not only were they nice, they cooled us down a hell of a lot (but not for long).

The photo on the left is all of us outside 'Minnie and Mickey camp' it was actually a cleaner picking up the bits and bobs that suggested she take the picture of us all, like I said the American citizens were dead friendly. And of course the photo on the right is me and Chloe with the camping type version of Donald Duck!

I thought I represented this cat outside Pizzafari rather well. Pizzafari was the restaurant we ate in. Great pizza, great salad and there was a hot lad in there. Bonus!

The photo on the left was a woman disguised as a tree, well her job was to camouflage herself into the tree which must have been a anti-tiring occupation despite the fact she kept moving her arms which looked like branches now and again. This was only the reason we noticed otherwise you couldn't tell there was a person in there at all, we wondered why people were gathered round staring . The photo on the right was just one of the buildings I mentioned when I was talking about it looking and appearing as if it was an active town in Asia/Africa.

The two photos on the top left and right were of course us bringing out our inner child and queuing to meet the characters spread around the parks. This was one of my favourite parts of the experience, you don't think of someone being in the suits although they must have been boiling hot in there which meant they had to kept taking quick breaks and EVERY SINGLE TIME we got to the front of the line, the characters went away for a few minutes. It happened to us in nearly every park; just our luck!

The bottom left photo was the ice cream van we bought the delicious ice creams from, I thought it was a lovely creation and it looked so cultural. The bottom right photo is the Africa sign; everything was so prim and proper!

This was the Mount Everest ride, isn't it gorgeous? The setting looked just like you were up a hill looking down on a mountain (forgetting it was ridiculously hot). The ride was well worth the queue too, it was based around a yeti that had escaped and you had to go backwards in the dark to get back to safety and find your way back to the beginning on a speeding rollercoaster. 

The first photo is the Tree of Life which as you can see was not only amazing to look at but the animals created an illusion as though they were wrapped round the tree when it was all just wood carving. The second photo is the start of the safari with a giraffe going shy at the sight of us all watching it and hiding behind a tree popping its head round instead. Here's a few more pictures I picked out of the many I took of the safari...

How pretty were its horns? So unusual.

This was how close we were to the rhinos, thrilling!

I'm sure the elephants in Florida were even bigger than usual but you can't help thinking they're so cute!

Being this close to the gorillas was without a doubt one of the best experiences ever. We spent most of our time stood on the bridge watching their every move. It was so fascinating how human-like they are. There were three or four of them, one sat down eating, the others moseying around. They were massive, especially the one in the two pictures shown below. She (I presumed it was female as we didn't see anything whilst it rolled over right onto its back and laid down to go to sleep ha ha) actually came over to the place the tourists were stood and first started munching on food, then sat and posed for people to take pictures. It was incredible. 

This was one of my favourite pictures I snapped. It totally reminded me of the 'simples' meerkat on TV. 

It seemed every animal in this collage decided to take a break and lay in the heat!

Well that's another day done, hope you enjoyed reading this/looking at the pictures as much as I enjoyed taking them. Look out for the next one which is going to be Universal Studios!

Lots of love...