Animal Kingdom

The next day we did Animal Kingdom.

Our first stop was dinosaur land since we had a dinosaur enthusiast in our company (and since our first Fast Pass was the dinosaur ride).

We had to go separately on the ride. Nick and Noah went first and then Wyatt and I followed. It was really intense. Luckily we both had the foresight to put the boys on the inside of the ride. For some reason, the picture of Wyatt and my ride did not link to our card, but I guarantee you we were both freaking out.

Dinosaur land was also full of characters to meet. We met Daisy (at the top of Charlotte's list), Launchpad McQuack, Scrooge McDuck, and Chip and Dale. Daisy loved that Charlotte wore a shirt with Daisy on it.

I don't think the kids had any idea who this was, but they still thought he was cool.

And I don't think they knew who Scrooge McDuck was either, but Nick and I were super excited

Noah was reluctant to meet Chip and Dale (tired of waiting in line for characters at that point), but after he saw how goofy and fun they were (they were SO fun), he picked them as his stuffed animal present and even approached them at a dance party later that day to show them.

Dance party in the street. We never officially met Donald, but we did get to see him at the party. 

Watching Chip dance with Noah is the cutest thing. Kudos to the actors who play those characters. They were amazing.

https://youtu.be/NP5AOme9H0s

All five of us rode on the flying triceratops ride together. 

And Wyatt and Charlotte and I met Goofy while Noah and Nick rode the dinosaur roller coaster (I accompanied Noah on the second ride). We spent quite a large portion of our day in dinosaur land.

Two months prior to our vacation, I woke up bright and early on fast pass reservation day and ran downstairs to try and score a highly coveted Avatar fast pass. The flying ride got better reviews, but I decided to do the boat ride so that all five of us could do it together.

  

The Avatar section of the park was phenomenal. My pictures don't capture the true magnitude of it.

We rode the rapids and the boys once again loved pushing the secret "elephant spray" button. I was worried how Charlotte would do because I knew she would be hysterical if she got wet, but miraculously, neither she nor I got anything but a sprinkle on the ride.

We also did the animal safari again

 

And even though five year old Noah swore he would never ride it again, we took Noah back up on Everest. Wyatt was tall enough this year, but after our experience with Noah the first time, we thought it best he wait until next time. These smiles are before we rode it. Seven year old Noah didn't like it much more than five year old Noah did.

To close out the night (and of course I don't have pictures of everything we did), we went to see the Lion King show. It was great and I swear it was the same show I saw when I came to the park it's inaugural year way back in 1998.