Today? Day 2!
Day 2: The Animal Kingdom
and Dinner at Epcot
Day 2 started our with a slightly later wake-up call, as we headed to The Animal Kingdom around 9am. This is when we realized the bus transportation would not always be as simple as it was the first day, but it wasn't too horrific. The rainy weather had also completely cleared by Day 2, leaving behind some extra humidity (or maybe that's just Florida) for us to enjoy while waltzing around The AK (Animal Kingdom, duh).
L-R: Sister Swimmer, Sister Singer, Me and Handsome Husband - in front of the "Tree of Life" at Disney's Animal Kingdom
The Animal Kingdom had lots of things to look at, but we were pretty efficient with our time. We hit the popular rollercoaster, Expedition Everest (shown in the collage above, with people stuck on it ...thank God that didn't happen to us), and we couldn't miss the opportunity to check out the Safari with real live animals!
Not even kidding you, no zoom on that photo of the giraffe - so cool to be so close to the animals!
While at The Animal Kingdom, we checked out a fabulous musical based off the the movie, The Lion King. Either I have gotten overly emotional in my elderly age, or this musical was amazing (most likely both) because I felt tears coming on, especially when they started singing The Circle of Life. (This could also be due to the fact that I had a mild obsession with The Lion King when it first came out. [I also had an obsession with bike shorts, and had a propencity to wear only Lion King t-shirts with brightly-colored bike shorts. I. Was. Cool.])
After a quick ride on the rapids ride (you know the one, you get soaked and half your shit stuff [can't get all curse-y on a DWorld post] gets ruined in the process), and a looksie through the souvenier shops, we were done at The Animal Kingdom for the day.
We waited a while in our soaked clothes (post Rapids ride) for a bus, and headed back to our resort. We had grand plans for a dip in the pool, but our exhaustion won, and we took some mid-day naps instead.
After our re-charge, we headed to Epcot for the first time on our trip, as we had reservations in the Japan Pavillion for a Teppan dinner! In other exciting news, I wore hot pink pants!
Excited for Epcot, and for hot pink pants.
Do not be fooled by the artsy angle on this photo, it was taken by none other than yours truly.
Before doing some "sightseeing" in the World Showcase, we headed to the Finding Nemo ride, which was cool in and of itself, but what made it super cool was the aquarium you got to check out post-ride, which hidden Mickeys, people scuba diving right in front of you, and prime make-out spots (even Disney loves a good smooch).
After suffienctly getting our fill our fishes and kisses, we were off the World Showcase to, well, see the world.
If you're never been to Epcot, you are missing out on a super cool place! The World Showcase is an area of Epcot that contains "pavillions" representing the following 11 countries: Mexico, Norway, China, Germany, Italy, America, Japan, Morocco, France, UK, and Canada. It is incredible, and each pavillion is modeled entirely after it's representative country. The architecture, souveniers, food and employees are truly indicative of that specific country - that's right, the employees that work in each pavillion are from that respective country! It was super fun to walk through the countries and hear the native languages being spoken between employees.
The UK Pavillion at Epcot
The France Pavillion at Epcot, and my budding artist Husband
The Japan Pavillion at Epcot
A look inside Teppan Edo, the restaurant we ate at.
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After our fabulous dinner, we did some more walking around Epcot, although the Pavillions were closed. We knew we were coming back later in our trip, so we headed back to the Hotel Room to end Day 2 of our Disneyworld vacay.
The Epcot "golf ball" from across The World Showcase at night.
Next? Day 3 at Disney's Hollywood Studios, and a fancy dinner with the Disney Princesses!
Great pictures Casey! I cannot wait until we get to go to Disneyworld...we are hoping to go sometime next year. And yeah, the humidity is just good ole' flordia for you! The south in July and August is brutal. Glad you are having an awesome time :) Thanks for your sweet comment on my blog, and happy to follow back!
ReplyDelete~Angela
You're not getting overly emotional at your age because I have the same feelings about seeing that show at AK - its amazing! Only problem I have no is that its coming to STL in August and I can't decide if I should go see it or just let my memories remain from Florida.
ReplyDeleteI also really loved Epcot and we grabbed a snack in Germany and had dinner at the Coral Reef.
I'm excited to hear about your princesses in your next post, we didn't get to do dinner with them.
I freakin' LOVE Disneyland!!...I could probably go every week if I could...we live in L.A. its no where from us...Looks like you guys had a GRIP of fun...I've never to Florida, though...that's somewhere on the bucket list.
ReplyDeleteBe Blessed <3
Visiting from Monday Meet Up