Day 3 - Animal Kingdom

By day 3, we had kind of gotten into the swing of things.  I had booked our character breakfast at one of the restaurants at Animal Kingdom, because it was one of the only ones with the basic characters AND no princesses.  ;)  Unfortunately, it turns out to be the same day as the extra magic hours so instead of a nice quiet walk into the park, there were still lots of people.  It was a bit annoying, but not too bad. 

The restaurant was at the back of the park, and since we were trying to make our reservations, I really didn't have time to enjoy the walk.  It is a really great park with lots of trees and shade. Our breakfast theme was "Donald's Safari".  We took pictures with Donald on the way in, but they had to give me a separate photo pass for that one and I apparently lost it, but trust me, we met Donald.  I think James was more nervous than when he met Darth Maul...weird huh?  Anyways, once inside, we got our table and the characters started coming by.  However, the no breakfast thing also caught up to us, and it was really hard to eat and meet characters at the same time!  Here is Mickey!



Daisy:



And Goofy!  Turns out Goofy is pretty tall.  Way taller than Darth Maul.



Andy with his beloved waffles:



"Jungle Juice" and coffee were included, but even so, Mark said it was the most we have EVER spend on breakfast.  ;)  Worth it though.  Didn't have to stand in line for autographs.



We aren't the fastest eaters, and by "we", I mean, Mark, but even still we were the way slowest in our section.  Again, it is just hard to eat and take pictures! 

They had a little area set up with different drums!





They had a cool Dinosaur park!



It is really great that they have parks like this to let the kids run around.  There is only one entrance in and out and it is guarded.  However, it is so big with so much stuff in it, it is pretty easy to lose your kids!

We met the UP characters.  I had relaxed on standing in line for the characters at this point.  Good thing because they took a break when we were next in line!



This was really the first park where the fast passes worked out perfectly.  We went from the Safari, to the Rapids, to the Dinosaur Ride, back to the Rapids.  We took one of those little walking paths, which didn't go well.  We also attempted to go see one of the shows there.  The kids revolted.  "No shows, just rides!"

They had these nice learning stations scattered through the park.  We did a few when Mark and I needed to plan.  James and Andy were at this one when we came up with the grand plan.



Do you want to do one more ride, and then leave and go swimming at the condo?

YES!



It was a really great pool.  They had a water spraying area:



And a cool slide!



James was able to do the slide the first day.  Andy had to practice because of the rules (I couldn't go down with him, I couldn't catch him, and no flotation devices).  He was able to go down the next day.  He was ok with that.



That night we went to Downtown Disney for dinner at TREX and to see the Lego store.  So cool!