Disney Day 3: The Animal Kingdom

We went to the Animal Kingdom our 3rd afternoon at Disney. We went at the perfect time as everyone else seemed to be on their way out. There was really no wait time for any of the attractions we were interested in.

Here are Makena and Megan in front of the Tree of Life, the centerpiece and icon to Animal Kingdom.

We hadn't gone far when we found ourselves in another parade! Mickey and all of his friends were decked out in their safari gear.

There were a lot of pretty birds near the entrance.

We took everyone on the Kilimanjaro Safari. This was one of Phil's favorites from our entire Disney trip. They take you through the wildlife preserve in an open sided vehicle and the driver narrates and points out animals along the way. We spotted quite a few animals but I wasn't able to photograph many of them.

We saw okapis, antelopes and giraffes,

cheetahs, lions and elephants,

big horn cows,

white rhinos,

and ostriches.

Megan wouldn't open her eyes. :)

Me and a little monkey I found on the safari. I think we'll keep him. :)

Next we hopped on the Wildlife Express Train that took us over to Rafiki's Planet Watch. We spotted Rafiki himself but chose not to wait in line for pictures or autographs. We went straight to the petting zoo that they call Affection Section. There were goats and sheep, chickens, llamas and a couple of miniature donkeys. Makena and Megan really liked the sheep because they were a lot calmer than the goats. And they held still so the girls could brush them.

The girls were in a picture taking mood and wanted to stop for these fun photo ops.

Next we went to the Camp Minnie-Mickey greeting trails. All of the lines were very short. We practically walked right up. First we saw Minnie...

 Then we saw Goofy...

Then we went and said hi to Donald Duck.

And finally, we saw Mickey. He had changed out of his Hawaiian shirt from our breakfast at the Polynesian and was now in his safari gear.

On our way out of the park, we heard that the Festival of the Lion King was about to have it's last show of the night. It was a great Broadway style show full of circus style acrobatics. At this point I was pictured out so this is the only one from the show...

It was a really great show!