From The Past: July 29, 2008
On our second day at Walt Disney World, we visited Disney’s Animal Kingdom.
The Kilimanjaro Safaris was wonderful and we saw all kinds of animals. I was very impressed the animals were not behind fences and in a very natural habitat. This is definitely not the same as a zoo!
We saw a 3-D show called It’s Tough to be a Bug! and then rode Expedition Everest which is a fun, fast roller coaster.
Primeval Whirl was a “mouse trap” type of roller coaster that spun us around and had lots of curves and hills.
DINOSAUR was a very jerky ride that tried to take you through an exciting world of dinosaurs. It was really too rough to enjoy.
We had lunch at a place called Pizzafari. Kevin and I hadn’t had pizza in over a year, so it tasted awesome! We went through many shops and then took a shuttle bus to Disney’s Hollywood Studios. The first thing we rode was Rock ‘N’ Rollercoaster Starring Aerosmith. This ride takes you from 0 to 60 MPH in three seconds. It has twists, turns, corkscrews, hills, and loops. We all LOVED it! When we left this ride it was pouring rain. Thank goodness we had ponchos! We walked from shop to shop which were all packed because everyone wanted out of the rain.
Once the rain subsided, we experienced the Studio Backlot Tour. This was an excursion which took us behind the scenes of movies and showed us what happens in films that we don’t know or even think about. It was interesting; however I was very distracted by the heat. Not only was it hot, but it was also humid because of the earlier downpour. For this reason we were looking for something indoors.
The Great Movie Ride was perfect for getting us out of the heat. It is located in a replica of Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, California. It even had the hand and footprints of “stars” out front to make it as authentic as possible. Disney has spent a lot of time and money on making each ride and its surroundings perfect. They are also very smart when it comes to making money. At the end of each ride, the exit doors lead right into gift shops which feature items in relation to the ride you just left. For instance, if you rode a space ride, the gift shop had space-type items to buy. This was a very smart move on their part.
The last thing we rode this day was The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror. Yes, I rode it and even enjoyed it. A bellhop leads you to a seat in an elevator and takes you up 13 stories. They then proceed to drop you a few floors, take you up or down and drop you again and again and again. This ride is random, so each time a person rides it; the experience is a little different.
We had a great day!