Day Three: Animal Kingdom

After another leisurely breakfast on the patio, we headed to Disney's Animal Kingdom™. We visited this park in November, 1999 for the first time right after it opened and wasn't until December 2005, that we visited again. Each trip, we would plan a day at Disney's Animal Kingdom™ but then decide to do something else. That was of course before Expedition Everest :)

The weather continues to be awesome. Warm, sunny with a breeze and no humidity. Parks had a decent crowd, not overcrowded which was nice. First thing (after checking Disney Outfitters of course) was head over to Asia and get a fast pass for Expedition Everest. With Fast Pass in hand, we headed over to Finding Nemo-The Musical. Sadly, the show was having technical difficulties, so ended up being down for the day.

Mary isn't a roller coaster person, so Amanda and I were left on our own to tackle Everest and the Yeti! We've been lucky with each trip and been able to get the front car. As we were waiting for the rest of the car to load, anticipation was building and once everyone was securely in their seats, we were off! We LOVE this ride and I decided to try and get some photos. Got some great shots and thought the photo at left came out awesome! For those who haven't braved Everest yet, it's the moment in the ride where you have no where to go but in reverse! We couldn't convince Mary to ride it again with us but one of these days we will :)

For lunch we decided to try Yak & Yeti's. We've been following the construction of this restaurant and was looking forward to having a sit down restaurant inside the park. Reviews I read at AllEars.net weren't very encouraging but we thought we would give a shot anyways. Glad we didn't listen to the reviews, the restaurant was awesome! We had not only a great meal but great server as well. For appetizer, we had the wok-fried green beans (battered green beans with a sweet Thai chili dipping sauce that had just the right kick to it) and the Berry Cherry Limeade (Limeade with cherry sauce and sprite), very refreshing! Our meals were awesome and filling. Amanda and I had the Sweet & Sour Chicken and Mary had the Mandarin Chicken Salad. I was the only one who still had room for dessert :), so tried the Mango Pie. OMG! This was one of the best desserts I ever had on property. Highly recommend Yak & Yeti's to everyone, the next time at Disney's Animal Kingdom™.

We spent the rest of day taking the Kilimanjare Safari in Africa, rode Dinosaur in Dinoland, the Festival of the Lion King in Camp Minnie-Mickey, caught Mickey's Jammin' Jungle Parade and did some shopping :) Was a full fun day and really have come to appreciate this park over the past couple years. Happy 10th Anniversay Disney's Animal Kingdom™!

We returned to our resort, rested up and then headed for dinner at Olivia's. We had a great meal as always at Olivia's and been truly blessed with awesome servers throughout our trip so far. I had the Key Lime-Mojo Roasted Chicken Breast with cilantro pesto (can you tell dining is just as important as being in the parks? LOL!). With our meal, they served a pina colada bread as a starter, made with fresh pineapple and coconut -- out of this world! Our server Cari brought us a 2nd loaf with dinner and boxed what we didn't eat to take back to the room plus added a freshly baked loaf -- talk about a great midnight snack :)

After dinner, we took the boat down to Downtown Disney to stroll around and do a little shopping before heading back to the resort, having a limoncello on the patio (sorry Michelle, couldn't wait) and calling a night.

Until the next entry ...