Disney Day 4: Animal Kingdom

On Saturday morning, we had 7:45 breakfast reservations at Chef Mickey's at the Contemporary. We were still on our high from the day before, so the girls woke up in good moods and were very cooperative getting dressed {rare for them during the trip}. We had been taking the bus every morning, but we decided to take a taxi on Saturday so we could sleep in a little bit more instead of having to be at the busy stop so early.

We had a great time seeing Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy, and Pluto!

Waiting on the characters to come by.

SC did not want to pose with him by herself, but she let me hold her for the picture.

The Main Man.

Twirling her napkin with the rest of the restaurant.

SC didn't want to pose by herself with Donald either for some reason.

Love that the characters act so excited to see the kids!

We got a kick out of how Pluto had to hold the autograph books up on his nose in order for sign them.

It was a fun spot, but I was disappointed by the food. It's hard to mess up breakfast, but I didn't think it was anything great, and it's really expensive {like everything else at Disney}. The eggs were disgusting, and clearly not real eggs. I think next time I will try to do dinner at Chef Mickey's- maybe our first night there since it's not at a park and therefore can be done on a non-park day. But we still had a great time and were excited to make our way to Animal Kingdom!

We had Fast Passes to do Kilimanjaro Safari first thing, so we headed straight there. We all loved it, especially Sallie Cate!

Then we headed to use our next Fast Pass at Festival of the Lion King. The show was lots of fun, and SC especially loved the gymnasts and all of their "tricks." 

We had some time before our last Fast Pass, so we headed to Dinoland, USA. I was less than impressed. It reminded me of a bad theme park from the '70s. I don't know if it was just the color of everything {a dull orange}, or the crowds, or the fact that SC really couldn't ride anything, but I just did not like it. We rode Triceratops Spin, which is the same thing as Dumbo, and then had lunch at Restaurantosaurus. It was basically the same food as Pecos Bill in MK. My plan had been for us to eat at Flame Tree BBQ, but it was closed for refurbishments. 

Riding Triceratops Spin

After lunch {where some rude teenage girls cut in front of us and gave me an even more negative impression of the park}, we headed to use our last Fast Pass at Finding Nemo- The Muscial. We all loved it and had the song "In the Big Blue World" stuck in our heads for a while. :) It was precious. SC had to leave about 10 minutes before the show was over to use the potty, and by the time Curran and I got outside, SC was asleep in the stroller. We decided to call it a day and head back to the hotel. There was lots we didn't get to do, and there was lots we couldn't do because of the girls' ages. I know we will enjoy AK more when they are a little older.

Had to get a photo in front of the Tree of Life before we left.

SC slept through the whole bus ride but unfortunately woke up as soon as we got back to the resort, so she only had a short nap. John took Curran to the room to nap, and SC went with me to get some snacks from the resort's market, and we also did a few loads of laundry and went on a walk around the resort. 

We woke up Curran so we could head to Magic Kingdom. We had dinner reservations at Crystal Palace, and we also wanted to try to squeeze in a few things we didn't get to do the day before. Our dinner reservations were at 6:30, and we got to the park a little before 6, I think. My plan was to rush to a Fast Pass kiosk to see if we could get one because all of the wait times on my phone app were long. We were walking towards Adventure Land and I glanced to my right and saw that the wait for meeting Tinkerbell was only 5 minutes, so we ran over to the Town Square Theater. We walked right up to the rope and were the first people in line! Sallie Cate was SO excited!! She had been talking about meeting Tinkerbell the whole trip, but the lines were always pretty long. They got their autographs and picture taken, and as the girls were walking away, Tinkerbell asked for a hug. SC ran back and tackled her! It was so funny!

Running in to meet Tinkerbell!

Tackling Tink with a big hug!

Then as we were walking out, a man and his family were leaving the park and stopped us. They said they had a Fast Pass voucher good for 5 people to be used on any ride, and they couldn't use it so they gave it to us! I was so excited and thankful! We probably should have used it on a ride, but the girls really wanted to see the Mickey at the Town Square Theater next to Tinkerbell {the only Mickey who talks}, and the wait was 30 minutes, so we used the Fast Pass for it and walked right up. 

Mickey said "Touch your nose."

"Now touch my nose!" The girls thought that was cute.

Since we didn't get a picture with Mickey in our matching shirts the day before, I washed them and asked John if he would pretty please wear it again that night hoping we would get a picture. I do love him so. :) {John that is, not Mickey :) }

Sallie Cate was on cloud 9 after that and took off running down Main Street. That was fun and not embarrassing at all to be chasing after her. She was kind of acting like a lunatic at this point in the evening. Short naps do that to her. :) It was 6:30, so we went straight to the Crystal Palace for dinner. There was a wait, so I took Curran with me to try to find a Fast Pass kiosk. We walked all over Adventure Land and I couldn't find it, and John called to say our table was ready, so we had to run back because they won't seat you without the whole group. I almost didn't keep our reservation at Crystal Palace because we had so many table service meals, and the girls don't watch Winnie the Pooh and have never really gotten into the characters, but I'm so glad we kept it! The girls loved meeting the characters, we thought the buffet was good, and the atmosphere was fun!

SC didn't want anything to do with Eeyore. :)

Happy girl!

After dinner, I checked the wait times on my app and everything was pretty busy. So we went back to Adventure Land to try to find the kiosks, but even the line for those was ridiculous. So we did the Swiss Family Robinson tree house and the Tiki Room. I had no idea what the Tiki Room was, but it had a 10 minute wait when nothing else did. It was....interesting. :) Then I got a famous Dole Whip from Aloha Isle which the girls and I shared {John didn't like it}, and we went to Fantasy Land to use a Fast Pass kiosk there. Unfortunately there was really nothing available that would work for us {all of the times were like 11pm}, so we saw PhilharMagic for the third time. What can I say, we liked it! :) It was after 8:00 by that time, and we wanted to leave the park before the Electrical Parade started. People were already all over Main Street getting their spots for the parade, so it was a nightmare trying to get out. We got stuck for about 30 minutes because the crowd could not move at all. Thankfully SC had fallen asleep in the stroller, and C sat on John's shoulders to see the parade, so she was content. But people were pushing and trying to cut around us when we were all trying to go the same direction! People were so rude and I was beyond annoyed! We finally got out of there and made it back to the resort in one piece.

During the night, SC woke up crying, and when I got out of bed to check on her, she threw up everywhere. :( :( :( It was awful! She was sick all night, and the poor thing had never had the stomach bug before, so she was freaking out. It was so sad. And she got sick in both beds, so I had to call housekeeping to bring new linens. Thankfully Curran slept through the whole thing, but needless to say, John and I didn't get any sleep that night.