The Kaisands' Blog: Spring Break - Day 4 - Avery's Birthday/The Animal Kingdom

Thursday, March 28, 2024

Spring Break - Day 4 - Avery's Birthday/The Animal Kingdom

Happy 10th Birthday, Avery Leigh!

Here we go, ready for another day at Disney World, but first, a dance party birthday song!

We left a little later this morning at 7:00 and got to Animal Kingdom at 7:35.

We grabbed our Genie + Lightning Lanes for an EXTRA $25/person to help made our wait times almost non-existent and pretty much walk ons! SO GREAT!

ANIMAL KINGDOM - We have arrived as the sun rises!

We happened to be IN Animal Kingdom at EXACTLY 7:56, her birth time, so we had to snag a pic!

We took our time walking in and grabbed a few souvenirs first before our 8:15 breakfast reservation at Tusker House - this is a breakfast buffet with character dining! Our only sit down meal.

We met Mickey Mouse

Donald Duck

Our family fave - Goofy!

And Daisy Duck!

Right after breakfast - we hit the first Lion King show of the day at 10:00

Our first Lightning Lane of the day was the Kilimanjaro Safari - about a 20 minute ride to see all the animals - TONS were out that morning!

We then took a hike through "Gorilla Falls"

After that we took a train ride to "Rafiki's Planet" where we got to experience a few extra things! We saw a little girl and gave her pixie dust bag and the girl gave Avery this Minnie bracelet back - too fun!

We arrived JUST in time to do the "Art Animation Station"

where we had a step-by-step tutorial drawing Pluto.

There was also a petting zoo, so Avery got to get up and close with a goat.

We packed our lunches again and ate at Rafiki's Planet before we got to get going on a lot of rides for the afternoon! Watch out for the squirrels!

The Tree of Life

Expedition Everest was our first BIG roller coaster of the trip and we got put in the front two rows - AHHHHHH! This is a ride with a big drop and then it goes into a mountain and then reverses part of the ride. We all survived!

Aubrey spent some of her gift card on a refreshing lemonade while Avery was hiding pixie dust bags.

We had a character meet with Moana

Instead of a parade, there were "floatillas" that floated by with characters throughout the day.

Here is Pocahontas and Meeko.

We almost missed the "Finding Nemo" show but so glad we didn't - it was AMAZING!

Then we entered the Land of PANDORA - based off of the movie Avatar. We had the girls watch this movie beforehand and I'm glad we did so they could really understand the theming.

Navi River Journey

More hiding of the pixie dust bags

We paid EXTRA ($20/person) for an individual lightning lane for Avatar: Flight of Passage. This was an immersive 4D experience where you "ride a banchee" - you stay on the ground but your seat moves, etc. and they gave so many warnings that if you are afraid of heights or motion sickness to please exit - we were a tad worried but it was EASY! (somewhat similar to the Ark Encounter experience ride we had done a few years ago). Definitely an experience!

Dino-land (closing within the next year to retheme it to Zootopia we heard)

This was a LOUD ride and little bumpy, but not really "scary"

We had lost of Everest ride photo but were able to recover it and I'm so glad we did - its a good one!

The park closed at 8:00 and we felt tired enough to leave by 7:00 and basically fit in everything we wanted. We grabbed Chik-Fil-A on our way home close to our condo and then came back and opened Avery's bday gifts and rest in the hot tub - another AMAZING DAY!