Disney Trip: Day 3

We started the day at the Animal Kingdom. One of my favorite moments of the entire trip happened first thing when we went on Kilimanjaro Safaris. Emily was picked to be an Honorary Game Spotter. She got to ride in a seat right behind the driver; she was given a pair of binoculars to help her 'spot' the game; and the driver interacted with Emily the entire trip. So the twenty other people in on our bus heard the driver say Emily’s name a few different times. The driver asked Emily what her favorite animal was; Emily said that hippos were her favorite animal. When we passed by the hippos, the driver specifically pointed out the hippos to Emily. At the end of the trip, we were given a little card that said that we had experienced a Magical Moment at DisneyWorld… and they put Emily’s name on it. It’s part of a new celebration that have going at Disney about fulfilling dreams. Pretty cool. Emily really enjoyed it.


Another attraction that we saw on this particular day was a show called The Festival of the Lion King. This was a tremendous show that Emily just loved. She especially liked the “tumble monkeys.” (men dressed up as monkeys that did cool gymnastic tricks) This was the first day that we encountered a ‘character.’ We ran into Rafiki… Emily got her picture taken with him… and we bought her an autograph book. She ended up getting around fifteen or twenty character autographs by the end of our trip. That was fun for her.


That night we went back to Epcot. We ate at San Angel Inn, which is the full service restaurant located in the Mexico pavilion. It’s one of my favorite settings. You are sitting inside… but it makes you feel like you are outside at night in a courtyard. We got a really nice table that overlooked the water and the Aztec pyramid. (The water was for a little boat ride… but it was pretty neat.) I’m not a huge fan of Mexican food… but it was alright… especially since every bit of it was free.

Later, we got Fast Passes for a newer ride called Soarin’. It was a very cool ride… they lifted you up off the ground in front of a screen that showed you images of flying over California. They pumped in different smells like pine tree and oranges. It felt like you were hang gliding over the scenery. It was pretty cool. It’s a very good addition to Epcot.

That night was the Extra Magic Hours for Epcot. Disney Resort guests like us were able to stay in the parks an extra three hours after the official closing time. I’ll write my full thoughts on this in a future trip report post… but I’ll summarize by saying that I don’t think I’ll ever try to take advantage of this again… because it tends not to be worth it.

The kids went back to the hotel with Grandma and Grandpa… and Melissa and I stayed after to ride a few of the rides that stayed open. We saw ‘The American Adventure’ which is a show about the history of America… which I really enjoyed. We rode a small flume boat ride at Norway. Our favorite ride at Epcot, without a doubt, is Test Track. That was the last thing we did… and it was pretty fun to ride it at night too. We also took in Illuminations, which is my favorite nighttime show at Disney World.