Day 7 – Safari and shopping

After a very good nights sleep (and a green smoothie thanks to the blender in our apartment) we were off to the Animal Kingdom. Once again we were parked within walking distance of the entrance BUT when we arrived Kevin realized he had left our tickets at home. He was going to go back but would totally have mucked up our plans for the park so we thought we’d just by day tickets. However, it turns out they could just reissue us with new tickets. Thanks to Kevin who had photos of the tickets on his phone. YAY!!!!

Once inside we headed straight for Expedition Everest. It was only being built the last time we were here (in 2004) so we were very excited to ride it.

We walked right on with no wait and it was awesome. So much so we rode again straight away.

It was another gorgeous day. Love this photo. Shame I was in a hurry as I snapped it as I didn’t get the full reflection.

Next up was the Kali River Rapid where you will get wet, you may get soaked.

Get wet we did, but the girls rode again and got wetter.

 

 

 

Christy went on to ride another 2 times (staying on the ride the whole time) and did indeed get soaked. This photo is after 2 rides. Luckily the day was pretty warm (with a top of 26) so we all dried off pretty quickly).

From here we did the Maharajah Jungle Trek – where we saw bats, birds and tigers (no Komodo dragon as it was still too cold for him).

So sad this was not open yet :-(.

We got fastpasses for the Safari and did the Pangani Forest Trail – where we saw gorillas, birds, fish….

and a sleeping hippo…..so cute… It doesn’t look very dangerous to me :-).

Then it was time for Kilimanjaro Safari – which is basically a drive through zoo.

Even though it was midday by now we still saw quite a few animals – though a number were snoozing…. like these hippos….

This giraffe was right beside the vehicle checking us out.

Back in Africa (the theming of this whole park is just amazing) we watched the Tim Tam Drummers of Harambe.

Time for a bit of shopping and a snack.

We had a bit of time before our lunch reservation so went to see It’s tough to be a bug.

Then it was time for lunch in the Rainforest Cafe.

I haven’t eaten here since I became a vegetarian but I always loved the China Island Chicken Salad so I just ordered it without the chicken. Oh, my, this was SO amazing. Even better than I remembered and definitely did not need the chicken. It was HUGE though so I only got through half and bought the rest home (too good to waste).

In the shop Amy bought herself this hat/scarf/glove thing :-).

A quick pic of the tree as we left the park.

And, since it was there and waiting, we hopped on the tram for the short ride back to our car.

We went back to our room and had a relax. Kevin had a snooze, Christy went for a swim (of course), Amy hung out in her room doing teenage girl stuff, and I played on my laptop.

At 4.30pm, feeling all refresh, we headed out to the Premium Outlet Mall on International Drive. It was about a 20min to drive, but we chose this one because it had all of the shops we wanted to visit.

Christy had lots of fun posing with this guys.

Kevin got to check out a few electronic stores and North Face (where he got a jacket). And the girls and I got to check out LOTS of shops. He certainly gets Dad/Hubby of the year award for his patience tonight.

Amy and I were very excited to visit stores like Forever 21 and Lane Byrant for the first time, and Christy had her first visit to Justice. It was thanks to YouTube I knew about these shops :-).

 

Kevin was very pleased to find a Starbucks but said his coffee wasn’t the best.

Around 8pm we got dinner from Subway. I had the most delicious veggie patty on flat bread. So different to what I get in Australia.

There was then more shopping. Our final shop of the night (around 9.30pm) was Bath & Body Works – which I was so excited about.

Oh, my, so many goodies. I’ll be filming a haul video to so you what we got. I think I need to go back as it was kinda overwhelming and we were very tired… so I didn’t buy very much. Or at least not enough :-).

I was still pretty happy though.

Time to head home. We were too exhausted to visit Victoria’s Secret or J. Crew (will have to check them out when we go to the Florida Mall on Wednesday). We grabbed a big, no make that huge, drink of Sprite, on the way out.

Not to worry between the girls and I it was gone by the time we got back home. Shopping is VERY thirsty work indeed. We got home around 10pm (after refuelling the car and marvelling the cheap price of petrol (gas)). We all went straight to bed, though I went with a cup of tea and some ginger cookies :-). Fast sleep by 10.30pm.

————————————————

I had a request to share some photos of the smash book I am working on. Since I already have a diary in the form of this blog and I will be doing a photobook of our photos, this is a place to put all the bits and pieces we collect. The girls are doing them too. Christy, in particular, is loving working on hers. I bought away all the stuff we needed including lots of Disney themed stickers.