Part 7
I was supposed to be at Animal Kingdom at 8:15 to meet up with the Wild By Design tour group, so my plan for this morning was to get up at 6:45, and catch the 7:30 bus. This plan would have worked out great if my room key wasn't missing! I spent 20 minutes searching the room for it, and finally decided to just give up and go to the front desk when I got back and get a new one. Of course, once I decided that, I picked something up and there was my key! Whew! Made it to DAK with time to spare!
Once again, I have few notes today, so I am going to have to remember what I can!
Unlike the other tours I've done, for this tour we had headsets to wear, which let you hear the guide well no matter where you were in the group.
We started off in the fictional Asian kingdom of Anandapur.
The tiger was chosen as the symbol for Anandapur because Disney didn't know of anywhere for which it was religiously significant. I had seen this statue tons of times before, but I never knew it was a tiger!
This bus was actually brought in from somewhere in Asia, and converted into an ice cream stand.
This temple was also imported, I believe it was from India. It's marble.
I had to snap a picture of Animal Kingdom being so *empty!* (This was still before the park opened.)
Next we headed towards Kali River Rapids to check out the stuff in the queue. The curtains over the windows? They're shirts!
If you look closely, you can see that the mother is holding a baby! It was only about 3 weeks old.
We learned that these monkeys do an early morning duet of calls so loud that you can hear it from the Animal Kingdom Lodge!
I was amused by this sign in the Kali line.
Have you ever looked up while you're in line? If not, check out what you're missing! Each panel tells a story.
An example of one of the panels.
I love these statues in the outdoor part of the line!
I translated the paddle on the right to "Let us see how nature and man can prosper together", roughly.
I wish I had gotten a closer look at the maps!
The line winds its way through "Mr. Tanaka's Shop." Not a real shop, but very cool to look at! I like the "Antiks made to order" sign above the cabinet. Also, see the picture of the people on the right? That's the head of Anandapur (King, I think?) and his wife. The larger the photo of them a business has displayed, the better that business is doing.
The general rule in Mr. Tanaka's shop is that anything behind glass is a real antique, anything out in the open is a fake.
The ceiling of Mr. Tanaka's Shop. Always remember to look up!
Just in case you ever find yourself in Anandapur without a map!
I found it interesting that our guide, Dan, told us that there is ALWAYS a huge line for Kali when it opens, even if it is forty degrees out!
Our next stop was the Pangani Forest Exploration Trail, to visit the bats!
These are Malaysian Fruit Bats, or Flying Foxes.
They look like little vampires! Hehe!
They crawled along the rope, grabbing it with their hands and feet.
These panels near the tigers tell the story of the residents of the Kingdom. Of course, I can't remember any of it. Can you spot the hidden Mickey above?
No HM's that I know of in this one, but I thought it was pretty.
At the gorilla area, one of the gorilla keepers met up with out group to tell us about his job and the gorillas. This gorilla apparently didn't find him all that interesting.
After Asia, we took a break for brunch and some good old fashioned sitting down. Here Dan pointed out the "mask shop" overhead, which is named after Jo Rodi, the main designer of Animal Kingdom. If you watch many programs about WDW, you've probably seen him- he's the guy with the big feather earrings and beads and such. In honor of his style, some of the AK CM's named the mask and bead shop after him. (Again, not an actual shop, just decoration.)
After food, it was time to hit Africa! These poor people on the bench probably had no idea why we were all looking at them, but there's a hidden Mickey just below them!
When they were building AK, they wanted authenticity, so they brought in actual Zulus to make these thatch roofs.
The "hotel" over the Dawa Bar. Dawa is Swahili for "Strong Medicine"
I love all of the little touches at AK! Instead of a normal streetlight, you find something like this!
Next up, the Tree of Life! So, how do you hide an elephant in a tree? Well, here's the foot...
Okay, first, find the foot again (down towards the bottom, next to the tiger head.) If you look carefully, you can follow the back up the elephant's body. If not, see the dragonfly towards the center up top? The elephant's head is just to the right of that. See the tusk? And the trunk in the air? Ta da! Hidden elephant!
After the tour, we went over to a seating area to fill out a survey. From here, you could see the construction going on for Expedition Everest. Sounds like it's going to be a cool ride!
The restaurant area we were in (Not sure which!) had a predator/prey theme. The fish on the ceiling are prey...
And these are the prey!
Before I left, I got a photo with the tour guide.
I would have liked to have kept him, but it looked like he was married, so I had to pass this time. I wish I could remember more of what I learned on the tour to share here, but so much of it has slipped my mind now. I do remember learning that the vet office at AK serves not only the animals in the park, but the ones at Living Seas in Epcot, and injured animals found near the roads in the area. We learned so many interesting things about the park on this tour- I highly recommend it! If you're wanting to learn about the animals themselves, however, take the Backstage Safari Tour, since this one is mostly about the design of the park.
Snapped this photo on the way out of AK- another example of how nothing at WDW is plain!
I went back to PO-FQ for a quick rest, and then decided to kill some time at Downtown Disney before the Christmas Party. I hopped the boat from FQ to DD, which is one of my favorite modes of transportation at WDW. It was especially great today because I had a great boat driver. He whispered that there was a girl onboard having a birthday when I got on, and we all sang to her. He also tried to "race" someone who was in a water mouse.
The boat goes past what were once the Treehouse Villas. If I remember right, these can sleep something like 16 people! One of them was used in one of the Ernest movies, Ernest Goes to Camp, maybe? Also, more trees down from the hurricanes!
I got off the boat in West Side, and stopped to say hi to the lego dragon. It looks like he's about to eat Sarasota Springs Resort here!
I decided to spend some time at Disney Quest, since it's one of the reasons I get the Premium AP instead of the regular. On my last trip, I would come out here almost every night to spend an hour or so. In my opinion, DQ is much more worth the price if you have an annual pass. I wouldn't want to pay the big admission price just to go once. I prefer an hour here and there as a break from doing other things.
A lovely portrait of me I made in the Create Zone. I so pretty!
I went upstairs to the Wonderland Cafe to get something yummy, and ended up with a chocolate mousse, which I enjoyed while I spent some time on the internet (They have free computer usage here! Another big reason I like having admission to DQ!) I used the computer's built-in postcard program to send this to my mom:
The program works kind of like Mad Libs, where you choose from a list of options for each blank to make up the letter. A bit goofy, but fun!
Since this portion of the report has been so photo-heavy, I'm going to put the rest of the day in Part 8!