Animal Kingdom Adventures

Hello everyone! I recently blogged about our first family trip to Disney World. More specifically, our resort, Port Orleans French Quarter. You can read that post here. Today's post will be all about our day in Animal Kingdom. We had one day for each park on this trip. My husband and I have previously been to Disney World as kids, but Animal Kingdom didn't even exist when we were there!(Aging ourselves!) Anyway, we were very excited to finally get to experience it, especially since our little girl loves animals and trips to the zoo! First, let me just get this off my chest. I have heard so many people say that they would probably skip Animal Kingdom because they have a great zoo at home. Animal Kingdom is NOT a zoo. It's SO much more than that. Yes, there are wonderful animals and walking trails that feel like a zoo, but the attention to detail on those trails alone is phenomenal. But there are also great restaurants, awesome shows, great thrill rides for adults and kids and rides for little kids, an AWESOME safari experience and live entertainment everywhere you look! I definitely wouldn't skip it! 

The theming in Animal Kingdom is incredible! This view can be seen walking over the bridge into the Africa section. We had reservations at Tusker House for breakfast around 10:15. This gave us time to get into the park and figure out where we needed to go! Tusker House is a character meal available for breakfast, lunch and dinner. It was one of the best experiences from our whole trip! Characters at this location are Goofy, Daisy Duck, Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse all dressed in their safari gear! It's seriously so cute! 

Once again, the theming in this area was just unreal. The buildings looked like they had been there forever! We checked in for our reservation and were given a buzzer to let us know when our table was ready. We probably waited five minutes and then were warmly welcomed in the restaurant. I wish I would have thought to take pictures of the decor inside! It was so beautiful! I was just awe struck and trying to take everything in! 

Now, onto the food! When I made the reservation online, I noted a gluten allergy. When we checked in, they asked who had the allergy and gave us an allergy menu. When our waiter came to bring us our drinks, he asked again who had the allergy and said he would alert the chef to come and talk to us. I wish I knew the chef's name because he made our experience so awesome. We got some things off the buffet (if you're worried about cross contamination and don't want to risk the buffet, they can also make you anything that's on the buffet in the back on a separate space) and then he brought us each a plate of gluten free Mickey waffles and berries and said they were working on more shortly. As if that wasn't enough, he then brought us out a plate of pastries. 

These were Udi's muffins and what I believe are Kinnikinnick donuts. Delicious! We couldn't even finish all of this plus our buffet plates! Tip for next time: bring big ziploc bags to pack leftovers! 

When the chef brought all of this out to our table, my husband and I just looked at each other and almost teared up. We were seriously blown away by how much food we could eat and how warmly welcomed we were. Most of the time, when we eat out with an allergy, we're not taken seriously and most people don't even understand what we're talking about half the time. Disney seriously has done their homework with hiring such wonderful chefs that take care of people with food allergies! 

As you can see, the little one loved her gluten free Mickey waffle! 

If the food wasn't enough already, we then got to meet Mickey and his friends! They were all so cute in their safari gear! All the characters were great with our little girl. Mickey spent so much time with her. I may or may not have shed a tear or two (okay, I totally did!). 

Everywhere you turn, there's something going on. Live entertainment, characters roaming around...you never know what you will see! This band was so good and very entertaining! We probably would have stayed and watched them more except it was really hot and we were standing right in the sun. 

We then went on to explore the African trails called Gorilla Falls. Such gorgeous scenery and the animals were beautiful! 

I believe they had three gorillas on this trail when we went. This was the closest one that we could see. Just beautiful creatures! 

We couldn't resist stopping in to Starbucks for a refreshing frappuccino! This was by far the prettiest Starbucks I've ever been in! 

Next, we headed to the Finding Nemo show. We all LOVED this one! For one thing, it was in the AC (!) and it was very cute! We didn't need a FastPass for this so if you're thinking about using one, I wouldn't. We had great seats and walked in right before the show started. 

After the show, we explored Dinoland, then made our way over to the Asia area. We explored the Maharajah Jungle Trek, which was really cool! Really an awesome experience! 

We had a reservation for Yak & Yeti that afternoon for a late lunch but we cancelled it because we were still so full from breakfast! My husband rode Expedition Everest (he was able to walk right on the single rider line) while my little girl and I rested in the shade! She was a great tour guide! 

For all you thrill seekers out there, Expedition Everest is right up your alley! My husband loved it! 

We then made our way to the Pandora area for a FastPass on the Navi River ride but decided to stop for a bite to eat at Nomad Lounge. I had done some research before the trip so I knew where the gluten free snacks were! We had to try these churros to see what the hype was all about! And they did NOT disappoint! They come with two dips, Vanilla Cream and Chili Strawberry! Oh my goodness! So good! These are naturally gluten free so you don't have to order special for these! They also have other gluten free items on their menu as well. 

Disney World offers churros in several different locations, but these are the only ones that are gluten free! Hopefully they will be available in more locations one day! 

Day dreaming of these guys right now.....

The Pandora section was incredible. I'll admit it, I've never seen the Avatar movie. My husband has tried to explain it to me. Even if you've never seen the movie, you will still love this area! It was beautiful! We didn't do Flight of Passage this trip but it's on our list for next time! Navi River ride was more our speed with a little one! And it was beautiful! And very relaxing! 

Our last FastPass for the day was the Kilimanjaro Safari ride, back in the Africa section. We booked our FastPass window for about an hour before sunset and it was perfect. We saw a ton of animals moving around, except for the lions who were literally passed out! But that's to be expected, especially on such a hot day! This was such a fun experience! We can't wait to do it again!

My daughter had never seen elephants before so this was a special treat for her! We even saw some babies! 

Our experience at Animal Kingdom was so much fun and we will definitely be going again on our next trip since we didn't get to see everything that we wanted to see the first time! If you have any questions, please feel free to ask! I had so much fun planning our trip and love to talk with other Disney Moms!