Disney’s Animal Kingdom (part 3)
Continuing from Part 2…
Safari Time
As mentioned in the previous post, this was our first foray into the world of FastPass. When our time came, we walked into the ride and essentially cut in front of everyone who did not choose to use FastPass. We felt kind of bad for cutting in front of everyone. But this was the only time we had any reservations in doing so. While everyone else had to wait 45 minutes or so, I think our wait time was a total of 10 minutes – if that.
See? FastPass is our friend!
So we boarded our safari bus and began our trek into the ‘Heart of Africa.’ OK – so it really wasn’t Africa, but it’s probably the closest most people will ever come to Africa (Of course, it’s no the closest we’ll get, but I don’t think we’ll be taking any safaris on our little trip to meet Little Girl).
In many respects, it really does feel like the animals are just naturally there and this isn’t really a zoo. Of course, there are safeguards in place to make sure the animals like the lions and crocodiles could never get to the safari buses, but they’re so hidden that it feels like you’ve just stumbled upon these amazing animals.
But they don’t keep all of the animals at a distance. The giraffe decided he wanted a closer look at the safari bus in front of us. So he walked over and stuck his head in the bus! Did you know that giraffe tongues have salmonella on them? Yeah. I didn’t either. I do now after they had to redirect the giraffe away from the bus.
We thought one of the giraffe’s buddies was going to come do the same thing to us when he came closer to our bus while we were waiting for the group in front of us to get their giraffe away from them.
Unfortunately, he didn’t come over to our bus. He did get awfully close to us, though. It was quite tempting to jump out and pet him. Fortunately, cooler heads prevailed.
In addition to seeing so many amazing animals, our encounter with the giraffes was probably the most memorable part of the safari. It was even better when the giraffe that was close to our bus walked past us and went over to a pool of water to get a drink. The giraffe confirmed what Aiden had taught us earlier in the day: Giraffes spread their legs to take a drink. Aiden was excited to see it happen.
I’m beginning to wonder what kind of secret stash they had in the bus in front of us. First they get a giraffe to come over and lick all over them. Then they were stopped by rhinos in the road. And while waiting for the rhinos to get out of the way, an ostrich came over and started pecking on the bus!
The safari lived up to the hype. And it was definitely worth the wait in line – all 10 minutes of it.
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