Up early today for an 8 AM breakfast at Boma in the Animal Kingdom Lodge.  Of course there is no bus direct to the Animal Kingdom Lodge, so we hopped the first bus we saw to Typhoon Lagoon.    At the next stop within SSR, we saw an Animal Kingdom bus, so switched to that.  Doing the resort-to-resort bus transfer, it doesn’t make that much difference, as the travel time is more when the bus to your next destination shows up, rather than distance,  This was true in this case, as we waited about a half hour at Animal Kingdom for the Animal Kingdom Lodge bus.  Still, we made it there about 8:15, and there were plenty of empty tables at this hour. 

We will have to stay here someday.  It’s truly a beautiful resort, even without the benefit of animals outside your window.

Boma is a great breakfast.  They ask upon checkin about food allergies, for those concerned.  Everything was great.  J7 and I especially liked the quinoa.  It was a soupy porage-like dish, with a sprinkle of what seemed to be some sort of brown sugar and sesame seeds. 

After our meal, off to Animal Kingdom.  We headed to Expedition Everest.  A lot of construction walls in Asia, probably for the new restaurant as well as a few other things it seems.  The Finding Nemo show building is going up as well, and looks to be pretty large.   The Everest area looks every bit as cool as it does on TV.  Definitely a draw, as the park was much more crowded  than it seemed last year. 

J4* rode while I and the other “Chicago brave” folks checked out the shop.  There was a shirt emblazoned “Scream like a girl’ that caught my eye (and my wife’s too I found later).  Apt for me, as I (on the rare occasion I get up the courage for a thrill ride) do just that.  In fact five years ago on Tower of Terror, I amused my friend Liz and her family who rode with me, as they had never heard a human scream like that.  They were especially amused when I stopped, they soon realized, merely to catch my breath and scream some more.

We chickens headed over to Rafiki’s Planet Watch.  The kids really enjoy this.  I enjoyed the freshly cleaned bathroom (and the cool high power hand dryer there that actually blows your skin around!).  Seriously, I like it too.  They were treating a small bird for an eye infection while we were there.  I did refrain from joining my daughters in the goat pen.  J7 would be there still had we not moved on.

We met up with J4* who reported the ride is very fast.  She liked it, although not so much the heights you reach (she said you can see all the other “mountains” of Disney).  You do only catch a glimpse of the Yeti, as designed.

We saw “Flights of Wonder” for the first time.  Last trip, J7 didn’t want to do it, then reversed herself of course after the last show.  It is a good bird show.  We’ve seen quite a few over the years (there’s a good on at the Ren Faire near us), but it ranked right up there and did feature more exotic species. 

We had time to “Festival of the Lion King.”  First time we saw it in the enclosed theatre (and first time J7 remembers it, having been 3 the last time).  Still a great show, if unchanged aside from the air conditioning.

We stopped at the bridge to Camp Minnie Mickey to get a picture of the Dragon Rocks waterfall, last vestige of the Beastly Kingdom promo on the boat ride back in ’98 (we never saw that, taking ’98 off from parks to have J7!).  J11 loves dragons, so she was very interested.  Maybe the Dragon in the park’s logo will finally appear someday!

Now the temperature was climbing and we were dragging a bit, so back to SSR for a lunch of cold cuts and fruit.  We relaxed in the room for a few hours (it too a bit to get there waiting for buses – we went to the 12:40 FotLK and were not back in the room until 2:30).  Our timing was excellent, as a huge thunderstorm rolled in about 3. 

While it was still showering, we headed out to our 6 PM reservation at Jiko in the Animal Kingdom Lodge.  We took a bus to Magic Kingdom this time, and luckily the Animal Kingdom Lodge bus was waiting.  We were there in under 40 minutes total.

We had never been to Jiko before, but would gladly go again,  J7 and J11 ordered of the kids’ menu, but that even featured salmon, chicken breast and filet.   J4* and I aren’t big wine drinkers, but we ordered glasses, as we had heard the South African wines here were great.  She had a chardonnay and I a pinotage, a grape native to South Africa.  Both were very nice.  I used my “order the second most expensive glass” methodology to good results.  We’d never make it through a bottle, but we did get fresh glasses as they had none open of what we ordered.

For appetizers, we ordered the “Taste of Africa” flatbreads and hummuses (hummusi?).  Very tasty and plenty of hummus for dipping (outlasted the bread, but went well with the normal table bread too).  The cheeses were all surprisingly mild, but very good.  The sweet chutney that came with them was delicious.

J4* and I both had the scallops.  Fantastic!  Served on a spicy mix of onions and tomatoes with cilantro and on top of a rectangle of some cornmeal type bread (I’m sure allearsnet.com could inform you exactly what we ate!). 

After dinner, back to Animal Kingdom.   First to “It’s Tough to be a Bug,” with J7, newly 3D brave after her success at “Honey I Shrunk the Audience.”  J4* and J11 shopped.  Headed to dinoland where J7 was disappointed (and we secretly glad) to find the Boneyard closed for the night.  J7 could live in the Boneyard.  Some trips, we think perhaps we should forgo the hotel and just stay there with her.

At dinner J7 had announced she would try Dinosaur, but J4* brought up some of the scary parts and ended up talking her out of it. In retrospect, J4* realized that she was remembering some things from Universal’s Jurassic Pak ride. Still, it was probably for the best as when J4* rode the ride (a walkon during Extra Magic Hours evening), J7 was uncharacteristically afraid of Cretaceous Trail, which featured dinosaur statues and occasional “dino noises.”  While the typically scared J11 would go in, J7 refused, so we stayed away. 

After J4*’s ride (which she pronounced J7 could have handled, had he kept her resolve), we wandered back to Asia.  The animals were all in, but the park did look nice in the setting sun.  The violent storm left the evening cool and refreshed, so it was a good night.

J7 announced it time to return to the hotel, so we did.  Even with few rides the kids would do open, we did enjoy EMH in AK.  On this beautiful night, it was nice just to enjoy this beautiful park.

Back to SSR and bed!