Disney World Dazzles--Part 2

After viewing the Asia section of Animal Kingdom, next we visited Africa....We took a safari tour, which is a really fun way to see the typical animals you would see at the zoo in a not-so-typical way...You board a "jeep" type vehicle like this.....

The driver carries on a pre-recorded "conversation" with a ranger who is "investigating poachers" on the African range. It's sort of like a pretend "Let's Catch the Poachers and Save the Animals" trip. Meanwhile, the driver provides little tidbits about the animals you see as you drive around the "savanna"....The animals can be very up close and personal, like right next to the vehicle! You could have stuck your foot out and touched this guy with it.

And of course, you see the usual giraffes, gazelles, and kudu that you would see at the zoo, but it's such a bigger, more beautiful environment for these animals, that it seems more natural and humane to see them in Disney's park than at a zoo in a confined area.....This ugly fella could have easily charged our vehicle, so the driver didn't hang around long for us to take a picture of him....He said that rhinos have poor eyesight and a bad temper. Sounds like my ex...haha.....

We saw several groupings of ostrich eggs in different places as we made our way around on our jeep tour. Ever the skeptic, Sparky wondered if they were real eggs..They were according to the guide...Well, how come no bird was sitting on them? she wondered. She didn't get an answer to that....We had to move on.....We saw some more exotic animals that we hadn't seen in zoos...They were cool!

Then, we decided to go to Hollywood Studios for our next stop....We took a tour that was supposed to include special effects and how they do it in the movies...After watching an "actor" get a wave of water through a wall and window, a REAL torrential downpour took place and ended the special effects tour early. We sat outside under an umbrellaed bench and waited it out. On to a movie tour on a tram through movie history with animated "actors" and "actresses". The technology of the moving characters, their faces and mouths, seemed a little dated, even for Disney. There's a little live action with "Mugsy" and the guide on our tram, a fake shoot out, and lots of visual action and imagery to hold most people's attention, including Sparky's. That was one of our longer waits to get to see the tour, about 30 minute wait. Disney does a great job with keeping wait times down with their Fast Pass (?). You get your ticket ahead of time with a pre-stamped return time and come back to the ride later.

By this time we were getting hungry, so we headed to the Hollywood and Vine Restaurant for an all-you-can-eat buffet for 29.99. Yes, that was expensive, but it was the best buffet we had ever tasted. Chicken with Asiago cheese sauce, prime rib, pastrami rubbed pork loin with pickled apples, maple mustard glazed salmon, vegetable casseroles, tons of other choices and a terrific dessert center. The food was really very tasty, perfectly prepared, and not your typical buffet food. Well worth the money, in our humble opinion, so we pigged out!

It was getting to be early evening....our last stop of the day, Magic Kingdom. Eldo said that Sparky really needs to see the evening parade on Main Street down the street to the castle...We're going to save the magic for tomorrow's blog, there's so much to say and show.....See you at the castle!

Disney World Dazzles Sparky

I know I'm probably in the minority, but I've never been to Disney World in my life until yesterday. We just decided that since we're seven miles from the park, and it's one of Eldy's favorite destinations (he thinks he's been about ten times or more) that we would go. We didn't pick Lake Magic RV park for that reason, we just have been checking out our Florida Max Pass parks as we start to make our way out of Florida. But it's just too tempting not to go and is an added bonus that Lake Magic is so close....Let's go see the magic!

Sparky was thinking this was a place for little kids, for families with children and that she wouldn't be too interested because she's not into amusement park rides. She couldn't have been more wrong. It really was a magical place, and it's going to take two days to tell you and show you how magical it was for her....You could write books on Disney World, but Sparky is just going to share her impressions with what she saw without trying to give a complete tourist breakdown on what's available! It would take WEEKS to cover what's there for a visitor. Hopefully, you'll see a little different perspective here...So here we go.......

Where do I start? It's one of the most beautifully designed amusement parks I have ever seen. The landscaping, the flowers, the architecture in the different sections, the layout, the cleanliness of the park and the facilities, how easy it was to get around, the food, the easy transportation to get from one part to another, everything was truly amazing! The cost to get in for an adult was 85.00 per person. We purchased a "Hopper Pass" for each one of us for 35.00. That enabled us to visit as many different parks within Disney World as we wanted to for one day. They have lots of different combinations of Hopper passes and admissions, depending on how many days you wanted to explore the park. We had just one day, but we did a LOT and ended up visiting three sections of the park. We rode a few rides, but no roller coaster. (Let it be said I was REALLY disappointed that Sparky would not ride the Killaminjaro roller coaster ride with me, says E.) No way, no how am I ever getting on a roller coaster. You could offer me a hundred bucks and I STILL won't get on one!

Let's start with Animal Kingdom, because that was the first part of Disney World we visited....We walked into the park, and the first thing Sparky saw was roseate spoonbills. Sparky went nuts with the camera! (242 photos later......) Here are some of my favorite shots from the Animal Kingdom visit.

Here's another spoonbill....

The settings in which you see the animals are very very natural and realistically designed with their real habitats in mind. It's not like a zoo where there are glass walls and fences everywhere. There are a lot of natural barriers in place that separate you from the animals, yet keep everyone safe from each other! "Asia" was wonderful, the atmosphere was amazing....the settings in which the animals were seen was beautiful....We lots of exotic animals we can't remember the names of that you don't normally see in a zoo....We both felt that it's wonderful to come to Disney when you are young, but it's even more wonderful to come as an adult to see these kinds of things. You have a whole new appreciation for the park and Disney's vision as an adult....


Seeing the beautiful settings in "Asia" felt like being in another world or country so different from your own...

We saw other beautiful, incredible birds flying around above us and walking at our feet in the "Asia" section of Animal Kingdom...Like this Mandarin duck.....

These little beautiful lemon yellow birds were flying above us and busily working inside their nests upside down! The holes for the nests are at the bottom! They are called Taveta Golden Weavers.

You walk past the Tree of Life....manmade but so real looking....

And then you start to see the intricate carvings that make up the tree....

We went for a short river ride and got soaked, we watched a 3D movie with special effects "It's Tough to be a Bug" and endured screaming young children who didn't understand that the bugs weren't REALLY crawling under their seat or flying into their faces. A lot of kids were scared on that movie! We really enjoyed the Asia section of the park. It's wonderful to be a kid for a day....







These guys didn't get to go on the water ride probably. But they were having a ball in the fountain!

A street scene from the "Asia" park......

An unusual animal seen in the Asia exhibit...Or was it Africa? It's all starting to blend together....

OH! I almost forgot the flamingoes...these have always been in captivity here at the park, but what a privilege to get to see them! They are not native to Florida, you know...

Here's one preening himself....

The Disney guide/host standing nearby had an ipad, and he played a mating call of a flamingo for us...All of a sudden...heads came up.....

She's HERE??????

And then one of them did a quick mating feather flourish!  Most of them looked up to see what the excitement was about.  Cool!

See you tomorrow.....More Disney magic!