Disney World: Animal Kingdom

I suppose I should start by giving our overall plan for the week.  We bought the 4-day single park passes (for Jason and I; the kids got in to all parks free because they are under 3.)  The loose plan was to go to a park in the morning, stay for a couple hours, come back for lunches and afternoon naps, and possibly go out again in the late afternoon.  This meant Meredith missed her morning nap every day (since she doesn’t sleep in the stroller).  It made her quite cranky!  We had an itinerary set with the rides that are rated the best for preschoolers at each park.  I like having a plan!
Anyway, on Monday, we went to Animal Kingdom!  My parents and brothers and girlfriends took Russell with them at 7:30 am.  Jason, Meredith and I got there around 9:30 I think – we wanted to let Meredith sleep in.
First stop was the safari!  Here are Kelly, Russell and Jason waiting in line.

Meredith hated waiting in line, but she loved all the rides, including this safari.  Both of the kids love animals, so they were excited to point them all out.
Taking a snack break with Pops and Mimi:

We then watched a little bit of the African drummers/dancers, and then stood in a super long line to meet Mickey Mouse.  Not worth it!  That was the only character line we stood in all week.  Next time, I think I’ll do one more character breakfast (Chef Mickey’s) to meet the characters easier.  But, I did get this cute picture of Russell and Mickey:

And I almost forgot to say this, but then we saw the scariest 3D movie ever marketed for kids - "It's Tough to Be a Bug."  Seriously, they shouldn't let kids under 13 in that show!  Russell and Meredith did well, but there were kids crying all over the place.  I didn't get any pictures in there.

We didn’t end up doing a whole lot at Animal Kingdom.  We were still trying to figure things out on that first day.  I was thinking we could have lunch and naps and head back out, but it just didn’t work out that way.  We did end up checking out the playground and pool at Old Key West in the afternoon…


…for about 15 minutes, until it started to rain!
We got into our groove the next day at Magic Kingdom and got to do a lot more!