Hooks/Korte Disney Vacation: Animal Kingdom & Magic Kingdom

Friday had arrived....our last official park day. I couldn't even stand to think about it, and I didn't want to talk about it. Kate asked me if we had to go home the next day and I told her that we weren't allowed to discuss that. It was just too depressing to think about.

We had early breakfast reservations in Animal Kingdom at Tusker House with Donald Duck, Goofy, Mickey Mouse, and Daisy Duck. The food was a buffet, and it was quite tasty. There were standard breakfast items and Mickey waffles, but also a few African inspired dishes that I was happy to try out. Of course the characters were fun as usual, and this time our reservation allowed us to enter the park before it was actually open, so it was kind of cool to walk around and feel like you had the whole place to yourself.

After breakfast, we hopped on the safari. The okapi were running around their enclosure, which as kind of fun, and we spotted the black rhino. The hippos were asleep in the water and we only saw 3 giraffe and one elephant. Other animals were out and about, and we sat on the back row of our safari truck, which I highly recommend because we could turn around and have a really good view of everything from there.

We watched the Festival of the Lion King show next, and then headed across the park to catch Finding Nemo: The Musical. Along the way, Kate and I stopped to meet Baloo and King Louie, as well as Mickey and Minnie (again). Kate had purchased a Minnie Mouse Ariel doll the night before and she brought it to the meet 'n greet with her. She got a big kick out of Mickey when he took it from her hands and proceeded to pretend to swim around the room with her doll.

After Nemo, we ate a quick bite and then I left Nick and Kate at Animal Kingdom and headed back to the hotel for a little bit. They went on to do a couple more rides before hopping over to Magic Kingdom for the remainder of the day. I did laundry and packed as much of our clothes as I could. This enabled me to be able to stay at Magic Kingdom as long as possible that night. It didn't close until 11:00 that night, and I had no intentions of leaving before then.

I made it over to Magic Kingdom around 5:30, and we met Mickey Mouse, again, only this one talks so he was slightly different. Kate also met Tinkerbell. We hooked back up with Will and Heather, and the rides started. We ended up doing Big Thunder Mountain Railroad twice (it was so cold!), Pirates of the Caribbean again, the carousel, and It's a Small World. We had some pizza for dinner, and eventually decided we were too cold to stay. The weather was really chilly, windy and rainy on Friday, so we were actually quite cool that night.

We had some gift cards to blow, so we hit Main Street to spend our last few dollars. Will and Heather finished shopping first and headed back to the room, but by the time we finished shopping the throngs of people trying to all leave at the same time was crazy. Since we were only 30 minutes from park closing time, we decided not to fight the crowds and headed back to Tomorrowland. We walked into Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Station, Journey of the Little Mermaid, and then got in line to end our trip with one last ride on Seven Dwarfs Mine Train. It was about 40 minutes past closing by the time we walked out of the front gate and after midnight by the time we made it into our hotel. Kate fell asleep in the stroller again. We managed to close down the park three times this week. It was awesome.

Today's Character Count: Mickey x2, Donald Duck, Daisy Duck, Goofy, Minnie Mouse, Tinkerbell, Baloo, King Louie