Disney Day 3: Animal Kingdom

For our final day in Disney we planned to hit Animal Kingdom early and if Forest caught a nap in the stroller while we were there then we would extend our day by either hopping over to another park or staying at AK all day depending on how we felt. If he didn’t nap then we’d probably just stay at AK til 2/3 and then call it a trip. We had gone pretty hard for 2 days and we wanted to avoid Disney burn out by pushing it too hard if we were tuckered out. 

We got to Animal Kingdom about 20 minutes before it opened, and like at Magic Kingdom, they let everyone into the park early. Our plan was to rush to Kilimanjaro Safari ride and then ride it again with a fastpass after 9:50. However, unlike Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom let’s you in early but they rope off everything but the main entrances to the park until 9 so there was a bit of a mob behind us waiting for them to drop the rope. 

We had a feeling that everyone behind us had the same plan but luckily with Forest in the stroller we were pretty quick! The crew actually let us take our stroller all the way to the safari truck at which point they took it from us and parked it at the exit point. Forest LOVED the safari, especially since the animals were ‘not pretend’. He got most excited about the zebra, wild dogs, hippopotamuses (he exclusively says ‘hippopotamus’ vs hippo which is pretty stinkin cute) and rhino that he spotted. 

Since we finished up our safari so early, we still had a good 30 minutes until our fast pass to ride it again so we did the jungle trek to see some more animals and then caught the train over to Rafiki’s Conservation Station.

Forest loved the train and did not want to deboard. He said he wanted to see the shed where the train slept. Ha!

 We managed to coax him off with the lure of a petting zoo just down the path from the train station. Does Forest love trains or goats more? It’s a toss up. 

Since we were among the first to arrive to the conservation station we also had plenty of time to convince Forest to get Rafiki’s autograph. He insisted I accompany him, but he willingly stood with me for a photo op with Simba’s pal. 

Afterward we took the train back to Africa to re-ride the Safari only to find that the fast pass line was out the door. We had no idea why it was so crowded but since we had already ridden it first thing that morning, we decided to skip it and trade our Fastpasses in for something else. Our turn to skip the line for expedition Everest was upon us so we hiked over to Asia and took turns exploring with Forest (who was a few inches too short to ride) while the other rode the coaster solo. 

We had about an hour until our fast pass to ride the Kali River Rapids so we went to see Finding Nemo the musical which Forest loved. He seemed a bit sleepy eyed towards the end of the show so we tried to get him to nap by power walking him in the stroller for 45 minutes with no luck. When it became apparent that he wasn’t going to nod off we reassessed our plans. We went to Dino Land to check out the boneyard and their rides before heading to the Kali River Rapids to cap off our day. 

Welp, apparently the Rapids had been closed for hours for some mysterious reason and our fastpasses were then transferred to any of the other major park attractions, which explained the heinous line for fastpasses at the safari earlier, especially since DINOSAUR, one of the only 5 major rides at AK was also closed for refurbishment. 

The closure of the two rides and the narrow pathways throughout the park were making us all feel claustrophobic. Despite skipping his nap, Forest seemed in high spirits so we decided to leave AK and check out Hollywood Studios if nothing else than to complete my collection of Disney Park Starbucks mugs. 

However, we got all the way there, saw the jam packed parking lot and just could not bring ourselves to load up the stroller and do more Disney. We gave F the option of more Disney World or the resort pool and he chose the pool so we said goodbye to Disney and headed home. We spent the afternoon swimming and playing on the playground at the resort before eating pizza and hitting the sack for an early bedtime in preparation for a 5:40 AM wake up for our flight the next morning.  

It was a successful first family trip to Disney World. I'm sure we'll be back again someday!