We started our third and final day at Disney in Animal Kingdom.
The Tree of Life, a 14 story, 50-foot wide tree that dominates the whole park
Closeup of The Tree of Life
Breakfast was a buffet at Tusker House, which was excellent. Because we had early breakfast reservations, we were able to enter the park before it opened, and this meant that all the Disney characters who would normally be working their way around the park were able to visit us right at our breakfast table.
Mickey visits during breakfast
Donald signs Kyle's autograph book
Daisy pays a visit
Goofy drops by
Our waitress was kind enough to bring by a birthday surprise for Ian
A (late) birthday surprise for Ian!
Animal Kingdom is broken up into 7 different areas. Tusker House is in the Africa area, and it really does have the look of a building in an African town.
Tusker House, where we had breakfast.
A sign painted on the outside of the restaurant. Good thing we were there in the morning!
I feel like we're in Africa!
After breakfast we went on the Kilimanjaro Safaris ride. This is basically a big, bouncy bus that drives through a huge animal exhibit. It was tough to get pictures because the bus was bouncing around so much, but this was much better than any zoo. There were many animals from the African savanna that none of us had ever seen before.
A rhino after his morning bath
Nile Crocodile
A baobab tree
Ankole Cattle
Wildebeest
Eland
African Elephant
Greater Flamingo
White Rhinos
White Rhino
The elusive Cheetah. This is apparently a rare sighting on this ride. Right after I took this photo the cheetah hopped off the rock and loped off into the woods.
Scimitar-horned Oryx
Lion
Warthogs
Ostrich
After the safari ride we proceeded around the central lake to the Asia section.
The Tree of Life from the other side of the lake
Anyone want a Coke?
Mount Everest (which is really a big roller coaster) visible across the lake
Next up was Dinoland, U.S.A.
Kyle meets Goofy and Pluto. Pluto was kind enough to offer his nose as an armrest.
