Disney Day 3 - Animal Kingdom

November 30, 2010. After a late night at Magic Kingdom we were out early the next morning to visit Animal Kingdom. This is the newest park in Disney World, which opened in 1998, the year Scott and I got married at Disney. This is another large park and requires lots of walking to get around.

Animal Kingdom is also decorated for the holidays, but with an animal motif of course. Notice the ornaments on this tree that’s located at the park entrance. 

Marilyn and Harry at the Tree of Life, the center piece of the park.

The Tree of Life is just such an amazing creation, featuring 325 animals carved in the trunk.

Scott in front of the Expedition Everest ride, the latest roller coaster to hit Disney World. He was a bit tentative to go on at first but thoroughly enjoyed the thrilling ride.

We went to see Finding Nemo, the Musical. What great puppetry and singing!

After seeing how soaked people were getting, Scott and I bailed out of the Kali River Rapids ride at the last minute. The Yellen’s still went on and got a bit wet. Kayla and Jill had rain ponchos so that helped keep them dry. I hope Kayla was able to breathe in that thing, she looks completely wrapped up!

Then it was time to see some animals.

Komono Dragon

Tigers

Peacock

Elds Deer

Interesting birds

Crowned Crane

Pictures from the Kilimanjaro Safari ride were difficult to get because of the speed and bumpy conditions.

Some other kind of interesting bird

Wildebeest

Giraffe

Elephant

Baby Elephant on the right

Flamingos

Cheetah

White Rhino

Back side of the Tree of Life

There were some specially decorated trees by the character greetings. Can you guess who they belong to?

This was the tree by the Festival of the Lion King show.

The Festival of the Lion King is a great show and a must-see every time we come to Animal Kingdom.

Harry and the gorilla in the Tree of Life.

Michelle and Scott at It’s Tough to be a Bug 3-D attraction, our last stop before the park closed.

Disney Day 2 - Magic Kingdom

November 29, 2010. Day two at the parks brought us to the Magic Kingdom, the original park of Disney World. We had beautiful weather and extra ‘magic’ hours so we could enjoy the park for a few more hours.

Like everything else in Disney World, the Magic Kingdom is all decorated for the holidays. The entrance was beautiful with a lovely display of poinsettias shaped as Mickey of course.

As soon as we got onto Main Street the parade started. This was a new parade called the ‘Move It, Shake It, Celebrate It Street Party’. All the favorites were there…Mickey, Donald, Minnie, Goofy, Baloo, King Louie, Woody, Jessie, Chip, Dale, Mr. Incredible and Frozone. Everytime I see anything Incredibles related I think of my favorite lines from the movie. Frozone: ‘Where is my Super Suit’, Wife: ‘Why do you need to know?”

The first thing we did after getting our first Fast Pass was drag Scott onto his least favorite ride, It’s a Small World. As you can see he didn’t take it well.

Pretty amazing when you think this ride was originally designed for the World’s Fair in 1964.

We took a spin on the teacups in the Mad Tea Party ride. Jill, Kayla and Neil in one cup.

Then it was off to the Tomorrowland Speedway. I think they use the term “speed” a bit liberally since you can only go about 5 miles per hour. Here’s Scott with his racing face.

We found a hidden Mickey on Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin.

Our self portrait with the camera.

The Yellen’s on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. This turned out to be a favorite so we rode it several times and I’m sure we’ll go again before we leave Disney.

Kayla while we’re waiting in line for Pirate’s of the Caribbean.

Another classic ride, this was the last attraction which Walt Disney participated in the design and it opened 3 months after his death.  The attraction was updated in 2006 to add Johnny Depp’s Captain Jack Sparrow character.

The Castle just looked beautiful at night with the Christmas lights.

Main Street also looked lovely.

I left an attraction early so I could run out and see the fireworks. Disney did not disappoint and it looked spectacular over the castle. It was hard to find a spot to take pictures because everyone else in the park had the same idea.

Disney Day 1 - EPCOT

November 28, 2010. Our first day at the parks was spent at EPCOT. This is a very large park with lots to see. EPCOT is triple the size of Magic Kingdom!

Our first order of business was to get our Fast Passes for Test Track then we went to one of my favorite attractions, Ellen’s Universe of Energy.

Dinosaur from Universe of Energy…don’t worry, I didn’t use flash photography.

Our timing was perfect and we were able to go over to Test Track right after the Universe of Energy ride let out. I was able to shoot a quick picture as half of our party drove by.

The less intense or Green Team version of Mission Space had a very short wait time so we jumped on the opportunity to fit in one more ride before we had to head out for our lunch reservations.

Jared posing with the space suits before our mission.

We ended up splitting boys vs girls for our missions. Kayla was our captain and Jill was our engineer. What a great mother / daughter team.

On our way to lunch I had to stop and take a picture of this great Pluto topiary along with the lovely Kayla.

Kayla waiting over the beautiful Koi pond at the Japan pavilion.

The gang at Teppan Edo, one of our favorite places to eat at EPCOT. 

The onion volcano never gets old.

A quick stop in the UK to visit with Tigger and Winnie the Pooh.

Jill and Scott at the Imagineworks Labs.

Scott and the kids at the Living Seas.

Turtle Talk with Crush is another favorite and it’s always a different show every time you go. Jared waiting to get into the show.

The Living Seas can be dangerous. There are sharks there!

We got to the manatee exhibit just as they were getting the evening meal, romaine lettuce.

The main fountain at EPCOT

The EPCOT geosphere at night

Leaving for Disney World

November 27, 2010. We departed for Disney World early this morning. The airport was busy when we arrived in Orlando. The Magical Express whisked us away to Saratoga Springs where we’ll be spending the week.

You can see Downtown Disney from our room and there was a hot air balloon. We think it’s some sort of ride but we’ll have to get down there and check it out. From a distance it was hard to identify all the figures on the balloon but now we can confirm the 3 spots were the fairies from Sleeping Beauty; Flora, Fauna and Merryweather.

With everyone traveling in today, tonight's plan was to take it easy so we went for an early dinner at the Wilderness Lodge. Everything is decorated for Christmas and as expected, Disney does a spectacular job.

Christmas tree in the lobby of the Wilderness Lodge.

Scott and Jared hard at work coloring at the dinner table.

The first of many meals together this week.

Our friend Darcey was able to drive down from Jacksonville for the weekend. Here we are with a cute bear display at the Wilderness Lodge.

Scott and I on the bridge in the Wilderness Lodge lobby

Marilyn and Harry at the bridge, you can see the water in this picture.

The Yellen family also posed at the bridge…perhaps this will be their Christmas card this year. There will be plenty of photo opportunities, I’m sure.

Totem pole Darcey