Our first day at Walt Disney World was spent at the Animal Kingdom. It is a beautiful beautiful park. When we originally planned our trip, we were planning to go only for two days, and only to the Magic Kingdom; however, my husband's desire to see Kilimanjaro Safari prompted us to commit to a third day (Animal Kingdom) and then three lead to four and four lead to five. Anyway, we got to the Animal Kingdom very close to the time that it opens; and we headed directly to Kilimanjaro Safari. Kilimanjaro Safari is a feature that allows you to pretend that you are on Safari in Africa.
When we got there we used the Williams' families strategy for Fast Pass. Joe and Will got in line, and I too our tickets to the Fast Pass Kiosk to get a Fast Pass to ride again, later in the day. We have heard that riding the ride multiple times is even recommended because you just never know what the animals might be doing. We were excited to see the animals in an environment that is more natural than the typical zoo provides. We were not disappointed. And, one of the cutest moments of the whole trip happened on that ride. Will was so excited by the animals (keep in mind this is the very first thing we have done on our much anticipated trip). Will sees a giraffe and he said so excitedly, and in such a loud and grown up voice, "Hi Giraffe, I Will!" I am not sure if it was cuter that he introduced himself for the first time to my ears, or if it was the fact that he actually thought the giraffe cared and might respond! We saw many exciting animals, and I particularly loved seeing the baby animals!
We left Kilimanjaro Safari and went on to other attractions. It was a very very hot day. And, we were tired. The excitement and travel and heat had successfully worn us down prematurely that day. Yet we still had our Fast Passes to ride Kilimanjaro Safari again. So we pushed on. Despite the fact that we had our Fast Passes, we still had to wait a short time (10 minutes)...and Will had the tantrum. And when I say the tantrum. I mean THE tantrum. It was a tantrum of epic proportions. We felt stuck, should we back out of line? Should we go forward? Should we hope that if we just get on the ride he will recover? But just like everything else at Walt Disney World...the cast knew what to do. Along comes an official looking guy who said to us that he would like to help if he could. Might he suggest that we go to the Child Care Center and give Will a break, and that he would give us a slip of paper so that we could go on ANY ride we wanted that day and go right to the front of the line. Could he put the magic back in our day? We were so relieved, he helped us out of line, he helped us to take the break we should have known to take for ourselves, and he helped to make it so that it was easy to return to the fun when we were ready. When I hear families worry that Walt Disney World is big, and scary and crowded, and that their kids or worse their husbands might not be ready. I shout, "relax!" Believe it or not, Walt Disney seemed to know what he was doing with this place and families!!
1 comment:
You sooo have me wanting to go now. I can't wait till Ais is just a little bigger - need to be out of the 3 naps a day stage. :)
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