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WALT DISNEY: Day 5 ANIMAL KINGDOM

Day 5: Disney Animal Kingdom: Animals, awesome rides, a safari, a tree that don't light, and burr it's cold!

Up at the crack of dawn, well that's nothing new for Sakari, it was her normal time to get up for school. BUT, today she was playing hooky and no school for her because we were going to Animal Kingdom!

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We ate breakfast and headed out the door..layered in clothing because it was quite chilly today. I did not order this weather! We are in Florida. It's not supposed to be like this. If this is the kinda weather everyone migrates to for winter then I'm going to have to go further south next time!

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We put the location in the GPS and....once again it told me to get on the coin $1 freeway! Ugh! I.don't.have.any.coins! I'm on vacation. Do you accept a credit card? No? Well fine then...I flew on past the coin machine and never looked back this time. I didn't hear any sirens and I calculated in my head how many tickets that was for me so far.

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Once on the Mickey Mouse freeway, Animal Kingdom was easy to find.

Did I mention that it cost $25 to park at each of the Disney theme parks? That's just so crazy to me! The hubby had brought a few fifties and several hundreds with him and it was eating up that money!


 


We managed to park in the "I can't walk long distances" parking lot and grabbed a people mover to get the rest of the way in. Out at the entrance there was a lovely couple having their picture taken so I figured I'd take their picture too obviously. They were in shorts and short sleeves! Are they crazy? They must have been visiting from the north.


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We immediately headed to the people mover desk, turned in my manual stick shift model for an updated automatic with turbo boost and they gave me usage instructions: no piggyback riding, do NOT run over other people, share the road, give a nod when you encounter someone else on a people mover (it's the I can't walk code of ethics), "we are not responsible for your belongings left in the extra wide shopping cart in the front, and sign here that you promise to purchase your people mover should you decide to mod it.


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I was armed with my personal map I had designed prior to vacation, equipped with the "must do's" and people mover information. (I don't think I shared my Disney one, but it was just like this...only Disney World stuff of course.) Once again, I had studied this map and knew exactly where we wanted to go. I checked the wait times at each attraction and said "this way" to the fam.


Putt putt putt this people mover just had absolutely no speed to it, even on the turbo function. Geesh! My family was walking faster than me and sometimes they would get so far out of my sight that they thought they had lost me. No worries "beep beep" here I am. Sorry, didn't mean to draw attention to myself for those around me wondering why I am honking. Don't worry, it's not for you...it's for my hubby who has managed to gain 2 football fields ahead of me. 


 

So Animal Kingdom is divided up into these little "lands" with the middle section being the "tree of life" area. It's a beautiful large tree with many many carvings in them. It's like playing where's waldo trying to spot how many animals are in the tree. Just when you think you have it all figured out, there's more. It was my goal to head to the first ride, but we got caught up in this beautiful area a little longer than expected. 


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