Disney World Part 4

Our second to last day was a long, fun-filled one! I think I had over 30,000 steps on my FitBit! On this particular day we hit 3 parks. Are we crazy? Yes, yes we are. :) 

We woke up on New Year's Day ready to ring in the New Year at...Animal Kingdom!

'

All of the parks have themed Christmas trees. This one had really neat wooden ornaments on it!

This day was scheduled to be our split park day. We arrived at Animal Kingdom bright and early. We used Genie Plus to make an early reservation to ride Kilimanjaro Safari (insider tip, the animals are most active in the mornings.) We loved seeing all the animals! 

Like Father, like son. Haha! 

While we were on the ride, Sammy kept asking, "What animal do you like?" We saw giraffes, rhinos, lions - they were so active! After this ride we ran into Starbucks for some morning caffeine for Dustin and I, and a cake pop for Sammy. 

A cake pop at 9AM? Sure, it's vacation! 

We spent the rest of our time at Animal Kingdom enjoying "The Festival of the Lion King" which is an absolute must-do for us. It's a Broadway quality show that has amazing singers and dancers. It's super interactive and we all loved clapping and singing along. We also enjoyed Pandora, which is the Avatar inspired land. DinoLand was a hit with our dinosaur loving little boy! 

Disney is just designed for little kids. This aquarium was nestled into an animal viewing area and had a ledge for little kids to stand on to get an up-close view of the fish. 

Pandora is SO PRETTY! The attention to detail is incredible. It's one of the only places in Disney World where you can look up and see details like the floating islands. Amazing! 

Ready to ride "TriceraTop Spin!"

This may be my absolute favorite picture of Sammy. Ever! He was absolutely living his best life. 

We enjoyed a little lunch at Flame Tree Barbeque before leaving Animal Kingdom. Dustin and I both ordered the BBQ Pork Macaroni and Cheese and inhaled it. Haha! I think Sammy enjoyed an Uncrustable. As always - use Mobile Food Ordering. Worth it! 

After we finished our lunch, we got back on the bus to our resort and we all took a very delightful 3 hour nap. We knew if we wanted to make the most of our time park hopping that we would need a break and so would our feet! We woke up, freshened up and went to Hollywood Studios using the Sky Liner. Ahh...the very best form of Disney transportation. :)

Now, this may be an unpopular opinion, but I feel I need to say it. Of all the Disney parks, Hollywood Studios is my least favorite. There - I said it. Don't hate me! I just am not super into the rides there or the food. I was excited to see Toy Story Land (this was new since the last time we visited), but I'd really much rather eat a bratwurst in Germany or ride literally anything at Magic Kingdom. This being said, my expectations were low. We ended up having a great time though! We rode Toy Story Mania, saw Pluto, and Dustin was able to single-ride the new Stars Wars Ride. 

Ok, I lied. This may be my favorite picture of Sammy. He was so excited to see his pal, Pluto!

Everything in Toy Story Land is designed to make you feel like you're the size of the toys. Super fun!

Toy Story Mania was a super fun ride! Unfortunately the wait times of the other Toy Story rides were super high, and we weren't able to use Genie Plus to secure a spot, so we didn't get to ride them. Next time! :)

At about this point, we'd done everything we had really wanted to hit, it was getting close to dinner time, and so I looked at Dustin and said, "You're going to think I'm crazy, but let's go to EPCOT for dinner and fireworks." He looked at me and said, "Let's do it!" Sammy was in a great mood, we were hungry for a bratwurst and a grapefruit beer from Germany, so off we went! 

At this point in our trip, we learned that the aquarium is super quiet at nighttime! Sammy loved being able to really take his time looking at all the animals. 

We enjoyed our dinner from Germany, got a couple of caramel treats from the German Werther's Caramel store (including caramel corn to bring home), and loved watching "Harmonious." Sammy blessedly fell asleep and slept through the entire Sky Liner ride back, and transferred (still asleep, insert all the praise hands) to his bed. We were SO EXHAUSTED, but this was an amazing day!