Day Six - Crazy Golf and Magic Kingdom Take 2!

Today was supposed to be another quieter day, we were going to play crazy golf in the morning and possibly nip back to the Magic Kingdom in the afternoon.

We went to one of the Disney adventure golf parks (we got free entrance with our Disney tickets).  It was good, well laid out, clean (like the rest of Disney/Orlando!) and good for an hour or so.  I don't know how much the entry was to get in, but there did look like there were better adventure golf parks about for probably the same amount.  It did have one very cool thing though - ducklings!  We actually had to stop play at one point to let mum and her dozen or so ducklings traverse the course!

 How cute is that?? lol

Dan then wanted to see what the Disney Broadwalk was like - we were thinking it would be a little like the Disney Village in DLP.  It was actually very disappointing.  There are a few hotels there, a couple of places to eat and a couple of shops.  We did eat in the sports bar though and the food was really nice, so all wasn't lost!

So then it was into Magic Kingdom for the second time.  This time we decided to take the ferry from the car park to the park (which takes about the same time as the monorail really).

More photos of the boys:

  

And Dad's hat choice of the day....!

Hmm, my memories get a little hazy here!  I know we had Fastpasses for Big Thunder Mountain, Space Mountain and The Barnstormer (the Disney app coming to my rescue again lol!).  I don't remember going back on Big Thunder Mountain, although I'm sure we must have.  I remember Space Mountain though - it was another of the things I really remember about going when I was 16, so I was really happy to be doing it again.  We made use of the child swap thing this time, with Dad, Dan and Ollie going on first:

It's an indoor coaster, pretty dark with lots of neon lights.  I went on with Dan and Ollie afterwards and really enjoyed it.  Ollie thought it was awesome!

We also did the Speedway ride (think giant sized Scaletrix!).  I remembered it being pretty rubbish, and yes, it was still pretty rubbish!  The idea of riding on a giant Scaletrix track sounds fab, but unfortunately the reality is far less interesting!  To be honest I'm surprised they haven't "Cars"'d it up, there were no Cars rides like there are in DLP.

I don't remember what else we did there, but we stayed until the park closed, watching the fireworks at the end.  I think I took about 300 photos of the fireworks alone lol, obviously very few of them actually being any good!

  

And, despite not being a particular Disney fan, the castle did look pretty cool lit up at night:

Having just found this photo below, I remember now that we did two or three more runs on Splash Mountain before we made our (slightly damp!) way home that night too!

(it doesn't show other than their hair, but they definitely did get splashed on Splash Mountain!)

Day Five - Animal Kingdom

Today, expecting lots of animal sightings, I decided to take my SLR (had held off before now because I thought it would be a nightmare to take around on rides etc.). So I'm afraid there's LOTS of photos!!  Before we start though, I'll show you the delight of Hat 2!  This is how Dad was going to go round Animal Kingdom until we suggested that his head might get a bit hot! ;o)

Animal Kingdom was a complete unknown for us, it wasn't built when I went before, and I hadn't read up on it that much.  We decided to go early (for us!) and arrived mid-morning.  One of the first things you see when entering the park is the centerpiece - a massive, massive tree covered in carvings of different animals (somewhat cheesily called The Tree of Life), of course, it's not real, but it is very realistic and the carvings are great (kids loved spotting different animals).

 

The first attraction we saw is actually underneath the tree.  It's a 3D show based on It's A Bug's Life, and it's called It's Tough To Be A Bug.  We thought it would probably be a bit babyish but it didn't have a long wait time, so we thought we'd give it a go.  I'm really glad we did as it was really good, and 4D, not 3D.  It was a short show with the characters from the film in it telling us a bit about themselves.  It has the usual 3D stuff in it, along with a bit of rain and fog in places.  There's a little more 4D at the end that I thought was hysterical, but I won't spoil the surprise for those going soon!

The 3D glasses!

We then walked round into the "Africa" section of the park.  I must say I think Disney have done a really good job with this park, it has a much more "nature park" than "theme park" feel.  It's extremely leafy and didn't feel too busy.

(the mountain in the distance is actually a ride!)

Disney had also seemed to take a step up when it came to "dressing" the park, obviously none of it is authentic, but they had gone a long way I thought to make it look/feel as good as it could:

We had Fastpasses for one of the rides with the longest wait times - the Kilimanjaro Safari, so off we went on that.  As you'd expect, it's a safari ride, and it shows an area of the park that cannot be seen by any other means.  I'm sure the tour guide told us that the animals in this part of the park are actually looked after and managed not by Disney but by a separate conservational group, but I can't remember the names.  

Obviously the animals are still in captivity, but are free to wander round this part of the park (animals who might be a danger to each other are kept apart by clever "ravines" etc., so you don't see any cages or bars).  Again, I'm no expert, but the habitat looked great and the animals looked very well cared for.  They looked like they had lots of space, food, water etc.,

 

We then went through the Pangani Forest Exploration Trail, which was a walking tour through various enclosures, with a number of different animals.  Again, it was very lush and spacious;

    

    

    

I also took what I think is my favourite photo of Toby of the entire trip:

And a rather nice one of both boys:

Toby barely wore his sunglasses all holiday.  He thought they looked cool hanging from his t-shirt!  Shame this meant that they were easily lost one day though!  Whilst having a photo of the boys up, I must mention that they were supremely well behaved on holiday.  Of course not perfect, but what child is? lol.  They did well.  There were very few, if any, tantrums.  They weren't too demanding, they played well together and didn't wind each other up anywhere near as much as they do at home! lol.    Of course, telling them if they were misbehaved they wouldn't go to Harry Potter World was great leverage!

Anyway, next we ventured into "Asia" and I dragged the guys into "Flights of Wonder", a bird show.  My nan was a huge fan of owls and I've kind of taken on her obsession in recent years, so I wanted to see the show.  The show was good, and they added quite a few comic elements in that I guess would appeal to the little kids, but I did find it more than slightly corny.  Added to that was a rather overplugged conservational message that got a little tiresome.  Still, there were some fab birds, and they had them well trained.  If you like birds, or want 20 minutes shaded rest in between rides etc., you'll do worse than to stop here for a bit!

After all that it was time for lunch!  We had a surprisingly nice chinese takeaway from one of the stalls called...

And that also ticked another thing off the list - eating chinese takeout in one of those cardboard boxes you always see the characters in American sitcoms eating out of! lol.  Plus, time for one of my favourites of Ollie:

After refuelling, it was time for the first proper ride of the day!  Expedition Everest.  Firstly Dan, Dad and Ollie went on and I stayed with Toby (getting a theme here? lol), but there wasn't a massive queue, so Ollie dragged me on, with Dan coming along for the ride.  It was FAB!  I loved it.  It's a fairly fast roller coaster (not Busch Gardens level, but not kiddie either lol) where the premise is finding the infamous Yeti.  The waiting area is cleverly done with lots of interesting artifacts to look at, making the wait seem shorter.  We enjoyed it so much we went on a third time!  

By now it was late afternoon and we wanted to see a few more bits of the park.  Animal Kingdom is one park that closes quite early - 8pm - and we weren't planning coming back, so we wanted to see as much as we could.

Having said that, looking at the map now I can see lots we didn't do (all the more reason to go back lol).  Next on the list was the slightly out-of-place feeling "Dino-rama"!  A dinosaur themed fun fair, complete with "hook-a-duck" type games where toys (sadly not Disney merchandise) can be won.  There was also a couple of rides, both fairground type rides.  The one we went on was half way between a small coaster and the Waltzers!

We then went back into Asia as we had a Fastpass for the Kali River Rapids - a ride that was pretty similar to the other "rapids" rides around.  We got wet, but not too wet!  Weather was hot enough to dry us out very quickly.  

Finally for Asia we went through the Maharajah Jungle Trek.  It's not much of a jungle or a trek, but there were more fabulous animals on view...

Again we thought the way they'd set this all out was good, and the "decor" etc., was a nice touch.

And another nice photo of the boys...

And here comes Hat 3!

So, after all that trekking, and another fab day, we leave Animal Kingdom.  We head for Downtown Disney (the Disney restaurant and shopping area in Orlando) and something to eat.  We ended up in Planet Hollywood, which was pretty cool - a huge huge dome with three floors of restaurant and all manner of movie memorabilia on show!

And then we all went home VERY tired!!