Life in the Lowcountry: Disney Day 5: Animal Kingdom

Animal Kingdom is so much fun.

The animals. The detail. The environment, it's just great!

Each park has a center staple, the castle in Magic Kingdom, the Epcot ball, Mickey's hat in Hollywood Studios and this huge detailed carved out tree in AK.

Cadence wore her Zebra Minnie outfit, with matching zebra bows of course. I wore my Lion King shirt and Tarl wore an AE shirt. He said it had an animal on it...he had me there :)

The first thing we did was go to the Safari ride. It's amazing. You get to see so many animals and it lasts a long time. It gives your feet a rest and it was wonderful to see Cadence's face light up with all the animals wandering around.

Cadence and I have an equal love for giraffes and they came so close to the safari truck!

The lions were roaring and that was so amazing to hear. Scary, but amazing none-the-less.

I honestly never knew that a gorilla actually beat their chest like King Kong. I just always thought that was something made up. Let me tell you, when they feel threatened they seriously beat their chest! A baby gorilla was just born at the beginning of September and although an adult gorilla may not be the prettiest thing a baby one is the cutest thing you ever did see.

Well daddy gorilla did not like having all the people around his baby and sure enough he beat on his chest. It was very cool to see and Tarl, Cadence and I mimicked him the rest of the day making each other laugh. It's something we'll never forget.

After the safari we went and met some characters.

For lunch we had reservations at Rainforest Cafe in Animal Kingdom.

There are two locations, one in Downtown Disney and one in Animal Kingdom. I originally had Downtown Disney Rainforest Cafe planned but they were in the process of refurbishing it so the experience wouldn't have been as fun so I changed it last minute and am so glad I did b/c the one in AK is awesome!

There are elephants, snakes and tigers (all fake) inside. They move just as if they were real. It also mimicks a thunderstorm inside as if you were in the rainforest.

Her prize for the day was this plush Nemo. We watched the Nemo play and she loved it, as soon as we walked out she saw a Nemo stand with big and small sizes and she couldn't resist.

Afterwards we rode two scary rides, the dinosaur ride and Expedition Everest.

The dinosaur ride is scary just for the fact that the dinosaurs roaring look so realistic.

It has always scared me even though I know they aren't real so I kept Cadence's face covered with my body the entire time so she wouldn't freak out. Tarl was dying laughing at us.

She was tall enough to ride Everest but it is a huge coaster, fun but big.

She rode it like a champ, but she hated it!

We had so much fun at Animal Kingdom but it got so hot midday that we decided to call it a day and head back to our resort, one last picture before we go!

Once we rested I told Tarl we still had not watched the Electrical Parade in Magic Kingdom.

It's a parade they do at night with glistening lights and dances - so spectacular.

So we headed to MK and it was amazing!

This time we took the bus to MK. It's free to Disney Resort guests and we wanted to make sure we used all forms of transportation. A quick photo by our little photographer, Cades.

...and a family selfie :)

FYI - it's so humid and my hair frizzes instantly, so I pretty much wore my hair up the entire time we were there. I straightened it twice and it frizzed up into an afro as soon as I walked out the door...a top knot bun from then on!