Day 4 of Disney

We started day 4 at Animal Kingdom. It opened an hour early for Disney resort guests... That's the way to go people!!

They let us in around 7:45 and we got as far as the center if the park before they roped it off and stopped us there. At 8:00  they opened everything. 

We changed our "strategy" about 8 times before we decided which rides and where to go to.  Because we were so early, we didn't worry about the fast passes yet.  We did a dinosaur ride that I really really liked and then did a ride called Primeval Whirl. 

 

 

Because it was so early, we got to do this ride 3 times before getting off... Awesome!  We felt so accomplished.  It made waiting in lines later in the day no big deal, because after all--we had ridden this coster 3 times. :)

 

We also walked right onto the TriceratopTop Spin ride before walking to another section.  It was thrilling... (just like the Dumbo ride) Bryan was so excited...

We grabbed a fast pass for the Expedition Everest roller coaster and headed to a different ride called Kali River Rapids-- a water ride.  It was a lot like Thunder River was at Astroworld. (Not gonna lie... Thunder river was better)

 

Then back to the roller coaster.  (It's in the mountain behind us.)

 

 

We went ahead and grabbed another fast pass while we where there for later in the day. And then headed to the Safari that super cool.  This was however, the longest line we waited for but it was worth it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bryan had to put his head in a hippo's mouth. :)

 

 

We headed to lunch at a restaurant called "Yak & Yeti."  It was Asian cuisine and I had cream cheese wontons that were AMAZING!!  It was nice.

 

We then headed to a sit down show and cooled off in some AC.  We watched a bugs life film called "it's hard to be a bug" which, sadly, was a let down.  

Then we headed to see the Festival of The Lion King which was my favorite part of the day.  The music in the Lion king is so good.  This festival used The Lion King melodies and had new lyrics that were still appropriate for The Lion King. 

Then we hit The Finding Nemo the musical. I thought it was fantastic!! 

 

After the musical we hopped on the shuttle and went back to Hollywood studios to catch the fantasmic show. 

On our way back to the hotel, oh my... We were caught inbetween two groups from Argentina and Brazil.  Apparently, culturally-- when in large groups they do lots of groups songs and chants to pass the time.  We got stuck inbetween a battle of the chants where they yelled, clapped and danced... It was "interesting."   Bryan stood, with his hand over his heart and starting singing "and I'm proud to be an American" and we laughed most of the way home.  When we loaded the bus, we were packed in!! And the group of girls we were with didn't seem to have the cultural awareness of personal space (mainly ours...)   

I kinda got cranky and started being a little impatient with the groups at this point (I needed a nap.). All week long there were large groups from all over South America that could clearly be identified by their matching shirts and tour guides with flags walking around. It was interesting watching Americans interact with them.  I was shocked to see how many Americans got frustrated, flustered and even rude with the groups. Bryan and I discussed it several times throughout the week.  We decided that a large part of the frustration came from differences in cultural norms.  The foreigners were very loud, liked to sing and clap, didn't walk on the "right" side of the walkway and didn't seem to follow the American norm of personal space. I paid attention to Americans opinions of the foreigners (when your standing in line with nothing to do.... we listened to others conversations.). A lot of people felt that they lacked mannors and were very rude.  What is interesting, is if you we're to take a group of Americans to their country, they would probably have the same frustrations with us for not following their cultural norms... And we would have no idea.

Because of South American schools, it is very common to have large groups at Disney world at this time of year.  Just something to know if you an a trip in July. 

 

 

All in all, it was a great day!  We were starting to really "feel it" though (we had been going non-stop for 3 days now) but I wouldn't change anything if we do it again!