Monday was our bonus day at Disney. Alaina's flight was around 5:00 on Monday, and I had to be back at work Tuesday night, so initially we had planned on not doing parks on Monday. However, adding an additional park day ticket at this point was only about $15 a ticket, so even a partial day was a good deal. It also allowed us to get two full Magic Kingdom days in, in lieu of doing four parks in four days. Kevin and I had argued that the bonus day should be Magic Kingdom but Alaina insisted she thought a partial day at Animal Kingdom would be enough. She convinced us, and it was a good decision. You could surely happily spend a full day at Animal Kingdom, but I felt like we got to see and do a nice amount with the time we had. I think the thing we missed most by having less time there were the shows- they had lots of trained birds, and put on some pretty cool shows with them (We saw pieces of several). There is also the highly rated Lion King show that we missed.
At this point in the trip, Gwen had been running on little to no naps for too many consecutive days, and she was a bit of a handful. I had to leave a Dumbo-type ride with both girls when Gwen had a fit because they wouldn't let her ride in her own seat. Stephanie handled it like a champ, simply noting that the ride was just like Dumbo and Aladdin's Magic Carpet.
We also met our first ride that Stephanie was too small for, the Primeval Whirl. Kevin and Alaina went on it first, and when they described it as a combination of teacups and a rollercoaster, I happily handed over my parent switch pass and they went a second time. There was also a walking safari/zoo experience which I didn't feel that into- as I was starting to be done with all the walking. However, we went, and it was totally worth it. They had incredibly large bats that were so impressive- and they were from tropical climates and not nocturnal, so they were out and stretching and moving. The walk ended in an aviary, and there was an impressive number of birds. There was also an impressive amount of bird poop. Once both kids had been pooped on, we skedaddled out of there.
We, of course, did not miss the safari. We went right to it, as the animals are most active in the morning, and it didn't disappoint. Alaina enjoyed it so much, she went a second time while we took the kids to see Bug's Life.
My favorite ride was Dinosaur. I think it won me over because they really achieved the effect of the ride even when standing in line- and that was something that sold me on so many of the Disney rides.
Kevin and Alaina loved the Primeval Whirl (Aren't they lucky I let them go twice!), and Stephanie was 100% Expedition Everest.
By the end of the day, around 3:00, Gwen was toast. She took off running during a bird show, barefoot and crying. I mention this because it tells you something about Disney. I grabbed her up, knowing that her feet were going to be just filthy, as I have seen them after walking through a grocery store or even church barefoot. But her feet were totally clean! I had heard they hose everything down at the end of the day, and they must really scrub that place!
It was shortly after this that Stephanie had her first and only Disney meltdown. She misunderstood something Kevin told her and lost it a bit. BUT Alaina saved the day with a Mickey Mouse ice cream sandwich, and we headed out.
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