Disney World--Animal Kingdom

The second day of our time in Disney World was spent at Animal Kingdom. For some reason I didn't get a picture of a sign saying "Animal Kingdom."

The biggest draw at Animal Kingdom right now is the newest ride, which is "Flight of Passage" in "Pandora- the World of Avatar".

There was a long line, even though it was the first thing in the morning.

But we spent our time in line visiting with the Stinsons,

and looking at the amazing detail that was put into creating the world of Pandora. So the time passed pleasantly.

We saw this life-size avatar once we got inside when we were about to get onto the ride. It was INCREDIBLE! It was like flying around in front of an Imax Theater, and we thought it was worth the wait.

The other ride in the World of Pandora was called the Na'vi River Journey, which was a boat ride on a river in a darkened space with florescent glowing plants and unusual animals. It was pretty, but not one we necessarily wanted to ride again.

Next we went on the safari ride, where rode on a large jeep and saw many animals out in the wild.

We saw alligators,

giraffes,

and elephants, to name a few. It was supposed to make us feel like we were on a safari in Africa. After this ride we ate lunch in the Africa section. The line was long and the food wasn't very good, but at least it was also expensive!

This is the "Tree of Life" which is at the center of the Animal Kingdom Park.

If you looked up close you could see lots of animals carved into the trunk of the tree.

The Stinsons left and went back to their hotel, but Kent and I stayed late to see things lit up at night. I was told to watch the "Tree of Life" at night because at random times there would be light shows on the trunk. Kent and I saw a couple of them.

We also walked through "Pandora, World of Avatar", to see the flowers, trees and bushes light up.

Things definitely looked different and really pretty at night!

This is the same cluster of flowers as the picture above, as it got darker and darker.

We had the Disney World app and saw that the wait time for the "Flight of Passage" ride was only 45 minutes (a few times we checked and the wait was over 3 hours!) so Kent and I went on the ride again. It was by far my favorite ride we went on in any of the parks during the five days we were at Universal Studios and Disney World.

One reason Kent and I stayed late was to watch a newish show at the Animal Kingdom called "Rivers of Light."

It was a spectacular show, and unlike anything we'd seen before.

Flower and animal shapes came floating out on the water, with their colors always changing.

Then fountains started to come out of the flowers and to move with the music that was playing.

I hope this video works, because it was really cool they way they projected a movie onto the water sprays. (Be sure to enlarge it to full screen.)

I took this video during the grand finale.

At the end of the show everything floated back to the shore. It was a unique and fabulous show and I'm really glad we stayed to see it!