Florida 2011: Ani-DULL Kingdom

Day 251

NOTE: First and foremost I would like to apologize to anyone who reads this and is offended with my description of the Animal Kingdom at Disney World; it’s nothing personal, and for those who have visited and enjoyed Animal Kingdom I say more power to you! For me, though it was kind of a dull experience…

Monday January 31st - Today me and my family spent the first of two days in the “happiest place in the world”…Disney World! I was most excited and anxious about this part of the Florida trip. The parents, Jordan, Erin and I had planned out our visit to Disney World beforehand, choosing to visit Animal Kingdom first, since none of us had ever seen it before.

Don't look so smug, Jeremy! You're almost as bald as Kojak!

Before we entered the park I bought myself a Disney cap to cover my head because, well let’s face it, I don’t exactly have much of anything on my head to protect it from getting sunburned! Then we all went inside Animal Kingdom, which was busy, but not overwhelmingly crowded. The first thing we did was ride the Kilimanjaro Safari, where we rode a bus, and it was a really cool expedition! We saw all sorts of animals, like giraffes, rhinos, elephants and a couple of lions!

Mom and Dad on safari

Babar?

Rhinoplasty?

The Lion King?

Out Of Africa?

Then we rode the Wildlife Express Train, which we assumed would be an exciting experience, but it was more of an “eh” experience, as we just moved from part of the park to another. We got to see things like a parking lot, trees, grass and more trees. Yawn.

No "eh" nor "ah" - just "AAAAH!!"

And as we walked through the rest of the Animal Kingdom it continued to be more “eh” and less “ah”; although there was one more great experience before we left the kingdom for good: Expedition Everest - Legend of the Forbidden Mountain (sounds like a movie title, huh?) It was actually a roller coaster, and Jordan, Erin and I rode it. I was nervous at first, but it ended up being so much fun! Jordan rode it a second time, this time with Dad and they both like it!

We ended up visiting the park for just 2 or 3 hours and that was plenty of time! In my opinion the Animal Kingdom, outside of the fascinating variety of animals and a really cool roller coaster ride, was just a glorified zoo. Fortunately, after this place we went to a different part of Disney World that was way better! But that’s another blog post…