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Tuesday, February 5, 2008

Animal Kingdom & The Disney Studios

The last two parks of our Orlando adventure were Animal Kingdom and The Disney Studios (formally MGM Studios).

We went to Animal Kingdom on our 3rd FULL day there. This was the day we should have just stayed home....infact, after naps, we didn't attempt any other parks that day. This was Beth's overly tired and cranky-to-the-max day. We broke down and rented a stroller here and it was nice, but it WASN'T nice having to keep up with the darn thing after we got off each ride. The "cast members" move them around and keep them "organized" and the stroller was NEVER where we left it! Beth, on the other hand, was happy, and so were Bob's shoulders! We didn't do much at AK. We did the Kilimanjaro Safari, the Rafiki kid's area (Beth's favorite) and the Bug's Life show (we all hated it - will NEVER do it again!). We also ate at Yak and Yeti - which might have been the highlight for me!

Kilimanjaro Safari was nice -not what I had expected at all. I detected a little bit of "the Jungle Cruise" in it - as far as the "commical" guide and the part at the end about being chased by poachers. The animals were beatiful. I didn't realize that all the Safari animals are housed at night and AK closes earlier than the other parks because it takes 2 1/2 -3 hours each night to get all the animals into their enclosures and fed! WOW!




Beth LOVED the Rafiki kid's area, especially the "vet" center and petting zoo. That was a cool area.


We never made it into a whole section of the part - like the Dinosaur area - or saw any of the shows I really wanted to see- like The Festival of the Lion King or the Nemo stge show. We were just too tired and Beth desperately needed a nap. I think AK was my least favorite park and I don't necessarily feel the need to return...unless I'm headed to Yak & Yeti's!

The last morning we were there, we went to The Disney Studios.

This was mainly a show park for us - no rides. We saw the newly revamped Playhouse Disney show - which now includes Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Little Einsteins, Handy Manny and My Friends Tigger & Pooh.
NEW Little Einsteins set:

Beth screaming BLAST OFF!!

We also saw the Voyage of the Little Mermaid show (very cute - no pictures allowed!) and the Beauty and the Beast stage show - my absolute favorite! I took over 30 pictures at this show, but I'll only bore you with one!


We ate at the ABC Commissary and then let Beth play in the Honey I Shrunk the Kids playground - her favorite!
Then it was time to go. Once the kids are older, there will be more to do there. Age 4 1/2 is not an easy age for The Studios. We rode no rides here. Beth wouldn't even THINK (nor would I) about the Tower of Terror and she was too short to ride the Aerosmith rollercoster. None of us are Muppet fans, so we skipped that show, but from I heard from other people around us - that was probably a good thing to skip! I liked The Studios. We all had a good time, despite being drop dead tired and working on a time schedule to make it back to the resort to catch the Magical Express to the airport.

All-in-all the trip was great! We leared A LOT about what to do/not to do next time and I feel a lot more educated! Disney has changed a lot since the last time I was there in 1996! Plus- this time, "I" was "in charge" and had my own child. I still absolutely LOVE it!
So, from here on out- its back to regularly scheduled blog business and I promise to post some pictures of Sarah soon! She's 21 months old now - wow- that happened fast! That is how old Beth was when we moved to Kentucky in Jan. '05.

6 comments:

Unknown said...

Hi, Katie--
Carrie from March 03 here...I have girls that are near yours in age (Anne Claire is March 03 and Chloe is October 05), so I have always enjoyed reading your blog :)! We went to WDW in the summer of 06 and I totally agree with you about the Animal Kingdom! My husband & I decided that if you have a good zoo near home, you shouldn't even mess with the Animal Kingdom :)! We did the Safari ride (and we really suspected that *some* of the animals were not real, but were animatronic or whatever) and the Pocahontas show, Anne Claire bought a precious book in the gift shop, and that is honestly all I remember of the Animal Kingdom!

I have really enjoyed the WDW posts! I'm so glad you had fun!

Carrie

Katie said...

Thanks for commenting Carrie! I'm glad you are reading!

Katie said...

So, I will have to reference all these tips in the future. The far away future (because like I mentioned before, we won't be attempting this for years to come.) It did look like fun, so thanks for putting in the extra blog effort. The whole time I was thinking, "How'd Bob like it?"

Katie said...

Bob really liked it - but was completely exhausted. He is WAY more adament about staying somewhere else the next time we go. He wants to go back just me and him - to play at night at Downtown Disney/The Boardwalk/Pleasure Island. He saw House of Blues and started drooling!

Mama E said...

I enjoyed reading all of your entries!! I can't wait to go back!

Leia H said...

Some day I'll try to get to those shows - we've never seen any. I've only been to AK once, and was not a fan....