Disney Trip Recap, Day 2

Okay, so there will be MANY pictures today. I guess I took the most shots on day 2 of the trip. We visited the Animal Kingdom on this day of the trip, and we finished our day by traveling to Downtown Disney. It was a good day!

The Ankole (an-coal-ee) cattle were grazing in the savannah this morning.

The wildebeest was taking it easy.

The resident giraffe family was enjoying breakfast.

The elephant was showering himself with straw of hay.

The white rhino family proved that human families aren't the only ones who get hungry at Disney!

And the uncle made his way awfully close to our jeep. This shot wasn't on zoom; he was RIGHT beside me. I was a little nervous he'd get upset and charge us!

Next it was time for a ride on TriceraTop Spin. It. Was. HOT.

Hannah worked her inner fashion model while Miss rode a ride.

Okay, so I think I took the most shots of this next part of the trip - Finding Nemo: The Musical. It's a retelling of the Nemo movie set to music. It's definitely a Broadway-caliber show. It was excellent; we've seen it before but never with such good seats. I promise, I really was selective. I think I only posted a third of the photos I took! If you know the movie, you'll recognize several scenes. It's very faithful to the movie.

Some people find it distracting that you see the performers and the puppets, but I think it adds a neat dimension.

The performers used a ramp occasionally to run off or on stage. We were seated right in front of it, which really made us feel like we were in the middle of the action. Hannah loved being that close, especially when they brought up some puppets on giant poles and sort of flew them over the audience.

"Fish are friends, not food!"

"E-CAPEEEEEEEEEEE!"

I love how the puppets are designed to have facial expressions - eyes can close, they can frown, look worried, etc. So creative!

The school of fish are doing their thing modeling after the famous Opera House in Sydney.

Racing on top of the jellyfish.

The Crush song is one of the highlights of the show. The puppet is huge, and the guy singing definitely channels his inner surfer dude. It was great!

Hannah loved the penguins (they made a joke about not being able to fly, then the poles "snapped" and they fell over).

Curtain call.

We were seated in the row behind where the 5 people remain. Great seats!

As we left the park, Hannah got to meet Timon from "The Lion King."

As we got back, I decided to get some pictures of the resort. I thought it was a great site for wonderful shots - the hotel was very photogenic! :)

This is the check-in building.

Boat transportation to Downtown Disney - a nice change from the boats, though the mosquitos were a bit bothersome.

This is the food court section of the check-in building. The resort is modeled after riverside communities in Louisiana, so the old fashioned water wheel really adds to the feel of the resort.

A not-so-good shot of the wonderful pool that we enjoyed almost every day.

The path from the check-in building to the building our room was in.

This was our building, in the Magnolia Terrace section of the resort (which is spread out among various buildings like on a college campus). I loved it and had specifically requested it because I liked the pictures I'd seen of the room decor and loved that these buildings were designed to look like mansions in the Bayou. So charming!

I loved walking up these stairs... it made me feel like a heroine in a 40s movie a la "Gone with the Wind." But I'm way less high maintenance that Scarlett O'Hara... right? ;)

Headed back to the main building to board the boat to Downtown Disney.

At Goofy's Candy Company at Downtown Disney (my favorite snack shop on property), there's a fun house mirror. Hannah thought it was hilarious to make herself all scrunched up like this!