Photos: The Festival of the Lion King; Olivia's farewell chalk drawing outside Pop Century Resort; making music at AK; Expedition Everest; white rhino with baby at AK.
Our last day (well, our last non-travel day) was spent at Animal Kingdom. Olivia got up early and went to AK with Grammy and they met the Lunds for breakfast with Mickey, Donald, and Goofy. John, Emery and I lingered a little longer and met them at the park opening. We headed to the safari first which was really an amazing way to start the day. The animals are roaming free as if you bump through "Africa" in a jeep. You get to see some animals close up that you would never see otherwise (unless you actually went to Africa.) The highlight was probably seeing the white rhino and its baby really, really close up. After the safari, we headed to the Kali River Rapids where everyone got soaked. Now before I tell you what we did next, let me tell you about my brother-in-law, Dan. Dan fears no ride. There is no drop, dip, loop, splash, or zoom that could make him think twice about getting on a ride. Dan had picked up enough Fast Passes for John and I to ride one of the main attractions -Expedition Everest. I had already chickened out of a couple of rides that I really wanted to go on (Tower of Terror) and it was our last day, so I agreed to go on Everest with my niece, Mykiah, Dan and John. Kim had already ridden it, and she's not a big roller coaster person, and she promised me there were no major drops. That is what I hate the most - the click, click, click, click up the hill and then that anxiety of waiting for the drop. So off I went because it did look like a really cool ride.
The ride starts by taking you up a huge hill (see photo) - it really was huge, I couldn't look because we just kept getting higher and higher. Dan and Mykiah were in front of us and as we neared the top, I'm yelling "Dan, do you promise you don't just drop straight down the other side of this hill" because if we did, I knew I would die of a heart attack. He assured me that we would just drop a little and then turn really fast. Well, we did a lot of fast turns and lots of drops that really weren't so bad and then you reach a point where the track is gone. It's of course been pulled up by a Yeti. So our car stops and Kim had told me you go backward at one point - guess this is it since there's no more track. Then I have a horrible thought - Are we going to go backward down that huge hill we just came up? So I start to panic again: "Dan, are we going backward down that big hill?" "No, it goes a different way," he assures me. "Well what does it do?" I scream. "I don't know; it's in the dark," and he laughs his crazy Dan laugh. Mykiah is looking pretty amused as well. Honestly, after that I remember very little. I know I screamed like a crazy woman the rest of the ride. At some point the car stops again, at this animotronic Yeti comes out and roars and grabs at the car. Now I should know that it wasn't real but at this point I was so freaked out you could have stuck a sock puppet up there and I would have been screaming. When the ride ended, my head was pounding from the screaming and I needed water bad. John asked if I wanted to go on it again, and I said "Maybe when we come back to Disney in four years." But certainly not that day. I did get myself a stuffed Yeti for a souvenir of my bravery however.
We saw "The Festival of the Lion King" later that day which was a great show. We also stopped and watched some musicians who pulled Olivia up to join in the show. That evening we ate at Boma, a restaurant in the Animal Kingdom Lodge. It is an African-inspired buffet and John says the best buffet he's ever seen (which is a huge compliment from Chef John). I didn't know what half the stuff was, but we all enjoyed experimenting and they had great desserts.
That night, John and I left the sleeping girls with Grammy and headed to Magic Kingdom for Extra Magic Hours, when they stay open 'til 1 a.m. for resort guests. I was like something straight out of Night of the Living Dead, but John got to ride Space Mountain which was majorly important to him because it's the one ride he remembered from when he went to Disneyland when he was little. Then we did a bunch of shopping on Main Street USA and hit the hay at 1 a.m. The next day was check-out day - pretty sad - but it does always feel good to be home. Can't wait 'til next time!
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