Day 3 – Animal Kingdom

We woke up and grabbed a quick bite of continental breakfast at our hotel (Quality Inn and Suites on Turkey, I couldn't recommend them more highly) and then took off early so that we could arrive at our Disney resort early enough to check in, park and catch the bus to Animal Kingdom. We got all checked in (Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort: Aruba) and hit the bus stop. We sunscreened, grabbed our daybag and strapped on our magic bands transitioning us over to Disney Time!

Magic bands ready!

We arrived at Animal Kingdom in time for rope drop and headed to Pandora. Even with the early magic hours Flight of Passage was a crazy long wait. Mark and the littles headed over to ride Navi River while Grace and I waited in line. By the time they got out we met back up and were ready to ride. It was definitely worth the wait as it was one of our favorite rides. By the time we got out off, the wait had soared to 210 minutes! It’s a great ride…but that is just crazy!

Pandora was awesome!

We left Pandora and headed counter-clockwise around the park to cash in on our fast passes. Norah was super excited about riding Expedition Everest so we rode that one a few times, hit lunch at Yak N Yeti and then cooled off at UP! Bird Adventure. Though outside, it was shady and breezy so it was nice to escape the heat a bit as it was HOT on Monday.

She might look scared before Expedition Everest, but this girl is BRAVE!

We then headed for our Safari. This is one of my favorites at Animal Kingdom and the girls were amazed at all of the animals roaming around “free.” It is pretty cool to see so many animals not contained and the use of natural barriers to keep the animals safe. Our driver was hilarious and though the lions were escaping the mid-day heat, we got to see tons of our other favorite animals munching and playing. 

Tons of animals, living and prehistoric!

After the Safari we watched the African dancers and the girls were invited up to participate in the Harambe Wildlife Parti! They had fun learning some African dance moves and were in awe of the dancers and their crazy climbing and balancing skills! 

All 3 girls on the left side learning the moves.

Mid-afternoon we knew we would be hot again so we planned a cool down at the Lion King show. It was just as magical as I had remembered it (a must if you’ve never been to AK). It gave us a chance to rest our feet a bit, cool down and rejuvenate for more thrills.

Of course, when it's hot a little frozen lemonade is a must!

By dinner time we had ridden everything, most things 2-3 times, so we headed back to Pandora where we started our day to ride one last time and take a final photo in front of the Tree of Life before we bid farewell to Animal Kingdom for the day. We figured we would catch the bus back to our resort and get settled in since our room was ready and then come back to AK at night for the Rivers of Light show.

We settled into our room and the girls' curiosity got the best of them so we explored our resort and took a dip in the pool. Since our resort was so close to AK we decided to watch the “River of light” fireworks show from the pool instead of heading back to the park to watch. The fireworks were incredible and we didn’t have to catch the bus or be among all the people. It was an awesome night.

After seeing the fireworks from AK we also got a glimpse of the Fireworks at Epcot (maybe?).