After a bit of congestion on I-4 caused by a car that apparently decided to spontaneously combust (I'm not making that up) we pulled into the Animal Kingdom parking lot around 9:30. The weather was perfect; sunny, and cool, but not so chilly that we needed jackets. As we approached the Tree of Life we noticed that the next showing of "It's Tough to Be a Bug" was about to start,so we hurried in. My wife paused along the way to take some pictures.
We sat near the back of the theater. Several rows in front of us was a group that had obviously never seen the show before, because they jumped up and squealed when we got "stung" and again at the end of the show when the bugs "exit" under your seat.
Next, we went to Dinoland and rode Dinosaur. The park was crowded, but the line moved quickly and the advertised 20-minute wait time was more like 7-10 minutes. I wanted to look towards the camera that takes your in-ride photo and make a face, but I haven't ridden Dinosaur since 2007 and forgot exactly when the picture is taken. Maybe next time. Another thing, the post-show "film" really needs a bit of an update. The CGI igunadon might have been passable in 1998, but now it just looks embarrasing. Claymation would be an improvement.
After the ride we walked through Chester and Hester's Dino-Rama. The carnival games looked fun, but I wasn't about to pay $2.50 per ticket to play them, so we headed into Asia and did the Maharaja Jungle Trek. This is one of the most superbly themed areas of the park, in my opinion. Marie got an excellent picture of one of the tigers:
. . .and a nice close-up of an unidentified bird in the aviary.
When we were in the area where you observe the bats, a funny thing happened. Most of the bats were doing normal family-friendly bat things, like hanging upside down, but one of them evidently did not know that he was in a Disney park being observed by families with small children, because while hanging upside down he was, um, orally pleasuring himself. I am totally not kidding. "But maybe no one noticed but you," you say. But that is not the case. Everyone was pointing and laughing at this particular bat. You'd think that a company like Disney that does not acknowledge the existence of sex would have removed all the remotely suspicious organs on its animals (or at least put little pants on them) but I guess that would probably provoke the animal rights people. And no, I do not have any pictures of this. You're just going to have to get your bat porn somewhere else.
After that exciting adventure, we went to see the Flights of Wonder bird show. Although we've been to Animal Kingdom several times, this was the first time we'd seen that particular show, and I highly recommend it. It's funny, informative, and the birds are amazing. They have scarlet macaws, parrots, an African King Crane, hawks, and a bald eagle.
The stage of the show area is themed like an ancient Indian aviary. Marie noticed an interesting detail: a row of hidden Mickeys on one of the ledges:
I had wanted to ride the Kali River Rapids after the bird show, but we decided not to because it was still a little too cool outside. Later that afternoon, we would be regretting that decision. By this time it was a little after noon, so we went to Restaurantosaurus and had cheeseburgers. After lunch, we concluded that we'd done everything we wanted to do and since the day was still young we decided to go to EPCOT to check out the Flower and Garden Festival. On the way out of the park, we stopped for a picture with Baloo.
I was excited about going to EPCOT, of course, not only because I've never been to the Flower and Garden Festival, but also because the TRON monorail had debuted the day before and I was hoping to see it. Unfortunately, the TRONorail had been pulled off the EPCOT line by the time we got there.
Since it was Saturday and the weather was nice, the park was extremely crowded, so it was pretty much impossible to get a good picture of most of the excellent character-themed topiaries, since there were dozens of people around them taking pictures of their loved ones in front of them. I suppose I could have been rude and stepped in front of somebody, but that's not how I roll.
For a hardcore EPCOT Center geek like me, the best thing about these annual events is that the former Wonders of Life pavilion serves as the festival center, so it's possible to go inside and take pictures. By now the weather was really starting to warm up, and the interior of WoL was not very well air conditioned. I wonder if the high costs associated with cooling such a large open space in during Florida's torrid summers contributed to the decision to close the pavilion.
The old attractions are long gone, of course, and their signage has been removed, but if you look closely you can catch a few glimpses of things that haven't been changed.
After we got done wandering around WoL, we checked the tip board and discovered that we would probably not be riding the park's two most popular attractions that day. Test Track had a 90 minute wait time, Soarin' was 120 minutes (and all Fastpasses were gone).
One of the best things that's happened at EPCOT in the past year is the restoration of the Universe of Energy pavilion to its original color scheme. I wasn't able to get a picture of it in January (since we had to keep moving to avoid hypothermia) so while Marie got a drink at the water fountain I snapped a picture.
After that, Marie went over to the Fairy Garden area behind Innoventions East. I went out onto the bridge between there and the Odyssey pavilion and took some more pictures.
After that we headed across the World Showcase. It was really getting hot, and by the time we got to the Africa Trading Post we really needed some liquid refreshment. While I stood in line at the Coke stand, Marie bought herself a hat to keep her face from getting any more sunburned. Then we continued across the World Showcase and got a few more pictures.
BTW, that's the Characters in Flight balloon from Downtown Disney peeking over the treetops. I'll bet those folks had a beautiful view!
As we made our way back towards Future World, we decided to head for The Land and do the boat ride. On the way, we stopped to get some pictures of the fountains in front of the Imagination pavilion. I think it's really sad that the fountains, which used to be just whimsical window dressing that foreshadowed the much more entertaining offerings you'd find inside the building, are now the only good thing left in the Imagination pavilion, aside from the gift shop that sells retro Figment shirts.
Doesn't Marie look cute in that hat? I think she looks cute.
Inside The Land, we discovered that the boat ride had a 20-minute wait. Still, the line was moving pretty briskly. On the way in, I noticed something cool: the Fastpass machines have the old EPCOT Center-era Land pavilion logo on them! Naturally, I had to get a shot of it.
On the ride, Marie got a couple shots of Mickey-shaped objects.
It was around 4:30pm when we got off the boat, and since we were sunburnt and our feet hurt, we decided to call it a day. On the way out, we ducked into Mouse Gear so I could get another shirt to add to my retro EPCOT Center T-shirt collection, and I took the obligatory "Mr. Iger, tear down those tarps" picture:
And inside the store I took one of the corpse of the DreamMobile.
Finally, as we left I got a pretty decently unobstructed shot of the giraffe topiary outside Project Tomorrow.
And that's our trip. We may be heading back on April 2, since we both have that day off and the plans we did have for that day fell through, but nothing is concrete yet. Maybe one of these days I'll finally get to experience Sum of All Thrills and see the TRONorail.
Thanks for reading!
. I volunteered at a wildlife rescue service for a few years, and worked with raptors most of the time. This show brings back memories - but I have to drag family members to it 
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