We drove down to Orlando from Montgomery on May 20th. We arrived at Animal Kingdom Lodge which was huge and awesome African style! Disney cast was super welcoming and most everyone acted like they worked at the happiest place on earth. We had an awesome room with balcony overlooking giraffes, antelope, zebra, wild cattle, pelicans, red river hogs, ostrich and more. After settling in and exploring the hotel we relaxed at the pool before bed. On Monday we explored our first park, Animal Kingdom. The mad rush of people streaming in at 8AM to get to their favorite rides was ridiculous and frightening. I had a fear of dropping something for fear I'd be trampled stopping to get it. I have never seen anything like it. Our first ride was also the first ride for many others the Kilimanjaro Safari. We took these open vehicles out into the park and were within feet of giraffes and all kinds of other animals. Later on that day we saw a short Lion King production similar to Broadway and Gavin loved it. He was tired of waiting in lines and kept asking to play angry birds. Right after Lion King was over he said, "That was so cool, I even forgot about Angry Birds!" Also at Animal Kingdom we saw tigers and a really awesome Gorilla exhibit. Gavin looked for and was the first to find Divine, the lady camouflaged as a vine amongst the trees in the park. We ate at Flametree BBQ for lunch on our meal plan and WOW was that A LOT of food. We visited DinoLand in the park next which had a few frightening moments of losing him playing amongst a sea of kids. He could maneuver much quicker through the crowds of screaming kids and sweaty parents than we could. We went back to the hotel for a nap and dinner at our hotel in an African restaurant called Boma. It was delicious! That evening we went to Magic Kingdom with our park hopper using the Disney transportation. It was quite magical and so much fun for his age. We explored "scary" rides like Pirates of the Caribbean and Buzz Lightyears rides and caught a performance by Mickey at the Cinderella Castle. He liked the Speedway ride that allowed him to drive a car along a track. I drove in front of them and swear my car was broken. I got off the ride and he said to me, "Mommy you are a horrible driver!" A few short hours later they were blowing up fireworks and it took all of our concentration to push our way out of the HUGE crowd that had formed to either leave the park or stay and continue with the show.
On Tuesday we checked out Epcot and he loved the Soarin ride, a simulation of flying over all kinds of terrain. After the ride he said, "That was awesome, I love flying!" It was pretty awesome! We rode several other rides such as Nemo. He played with some baby ducks who wanted his cinnamon roll and we enjoyed a boat ride through the Disney Greenhouse and saw how they grow plants. It was very interesting and gave us some ideas. We had a character dinner at Epcot's Garden Grill, a revolving restaurant. We met Mickey, Pluto, and Chip and Dale. The food presented was supposedly from Mickey's Garden (green house). Gavin loved being able to give the characters fist bumps!We went back to the hotel, napped, and came back to Epcot to enjoy some German food which was delicious and to see the portion of Epcot that has represents replicas of the many countries.
On Wednesday we slept in until 8:30AM and enjoyed a little quiet pool time and a quick lunch and nap before heading to Hollywood Studios. There we caught a 3D Muppet ride which was very cool, had dinner at Mama Melrose Italian, saw a fun Little Mermaid show, a spectacular Indiana Jones stunt show, played at Honey I Shrunk the Kids playgroup where all the bugs and grass were enormous, and rode a fun Star Wars simulator flying through space and Gavin was the rides secret agent so his picture showed on the screen!
On Thursday we visited Magic Kingdom again to finish the park. We got there at opening and got to throw confetti and sing along with Mickey who welcomed us into the park. We rode It's a Small World ride, Peter Pan, Goofy's roller coaster where we discovered Gavin loves roller coasters and the ride length is far too short in comparison to the lines! We rode Winnie the Pooh's ride, found the Sword in the Stone, rode Splash Mountain, rode the train around Magic Kingdom, sat patiently through the Hall of Presidents with daddy, though it was kind of cool to see the Presidents looking so real even though they were robots. He met Donald in Frontierland and posed for photos and then we got rained on on our way to Crystal Palace for dinner. There we enjoyed dinner with Pooh, Tigger, Eeyore, and Piglet. Tigger was very playful and a lot of fun. On our way out the door we stopped in to see Mickey unplanned and also got a great family shot with Minnie too. It was a great time! After heading out with moved on to our new hotel at Doubletree Sea World for a nap. It had putt putt, a fun pool, oversized chess game and more so we hung out outside the rest of the evening.
On Friday we visited Sea World. By now I was convinced that everyone in the world was following us to theme parks! It was also very crowded. We petted sting rays which Gavin loved and did twice! We watched very closely at the dolphin tank and almost got to touch them. We saw a really fun dolphin show and killer whale show. Shamu was huge! They gave a really nice tribute before the show to the military and gave us free entry into the park! We saw a Wild Arctic exhibit with polar bear, beluga whales, and a HUGE walrus. We sat through a 3D ride of the life of a Sea Turtle and saw manatees. We continued on through sharks, manta rays, and Sea Lions. It was a great time. After a nap and dinner we had some more pool time at the hotel.
We had a wonderful and memorable trip to Orlando. I couldn't have asked for more!
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