Category Archives: animals

Oh I Just Can’t Wait to be King!

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Disney’s Lion King

Lion King Cast

The Festival of the Lion King is the MOST POPULAR show at Animal Kingdom. Filled with music, lights, color, costumes and the most familiar and beloved songs from the Lion King, this show delivers! I see this extravaganza every time I go to Disney. It never fails to awe.

Lion, Warthog, Giraffe or Elephant?Tiny helper makes animal sounds

You don’t get to choose. When you enter the realm of the Lion King your seat assignment determines your animal. Before the show begins costumed cast members teach each section their animal call. Everyone knows a lion roars and an elephant trumpets. Sometimes the sounds the giraffe or warthog make can be a bit strange. Was that a grunt? How about a baaa like a lamb?   You must know you animal sound! You’ll compete for the loudest section by sound.

Elephant FloatIs That Simba I Hear?

4 huge floats open the show while dancers, puppets, and stilt walkers all pump up the audience to the tune of I just Can’t Wait to be King! By now you’ll be grinning and singing along. If you are lucky enough to have a lower level or floor seat you’ll practically interact with the Dancers.

 

 

 

Hakuna Matata

Timon

Fire DanceHere comes a large center stage filled with bouncing, tumbling “Tumble Monkeys”and leading the light- hearted mayhem is Timon, everybody’s favorite meerkat. Gymnastics are fine but hold on to your seats. We’ll get to watch a real fire dance. Marvel that no one is taken to a burn ward! The beautiful aerial ballet of the birds is performed to the ballad, “Can You Feel the Love Tonight“. But this is Disney so it won’t be soft and beautiful for long. The whole cast returns for a lively sing-a-long of the “Lion Sleeps Tonight”.

CAn you feel the love tonightFast Pass

You should not miss this presentation. It is so much fun but get a Fast Pass. You’ll get in quicker which means better seats. (There are no bad seats in the Harambe Theatre but floor seats put you right in the thick of things) You won’t spend an hour standing in line and before you know it you’ll be singing “The Circle of Life“.

What’s a Visit to Orlando without A Mouse?

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Disney World, Orlando

Who goes to Orlando without at least one visit to Mickey Mouse? Even when Hurricane Irma blew through Orlando, the Walt JR on the job at DisneyDisney World Parks only closed for a couple of days. After spending a day with the manatees I only had 2 more days in Orlando so I hooked up with my BFF, JR. He works for Disney so he knows all of the shortcuts and tricks to a great visit. He’s also a Disney Photographer so he gets me to places where I can get great shots of my own.

Entering Disney

Don’t try this yourself. It’s illegal!

(Disney Tip) If you are one of those people who love photos of your vacation and plan to buy the photos the Disney Photographers take of you and your family, The Disney Photo Pass is the way to go.  It sounds expensive but it will save you money in the end.

Animal Kingdom

Animal Kingdom Entrance

Disney is always adding and subtracting attractions and parks so it’s always changing. Through all of this “newness” I still love Animal Kingdom the best. I picked JR up at his work location. That was an adventure all by itself. Apparently GPS doesn’t work too well  in Disney’s back stage area. I wound up at the entrance to Magic Kingdom.The cast member at the entrance allowed me to turn around. A call to JR for directions soon had me pulling up to his work location. With JR to navigate I found the Animal Kingdom entrance with no problem.

Kali River RapidsFast Pass and the World of Pandora

Fast Pass is the best way to reserve your favorite rides. The Kali River Rapids is my favorite  ride but prepare to get wet. It wasn’t running when we first arrived. The crews were still repairing damages from the hurricane. Once it reopened we weren’t prepared with a change of clothes so we skipped it this time. My focus this trip was to see the new Pandora – The World of Avatar. Its been featured in a Disney Special on TV and it looks amazing. I have to see for myself! There were no Fast Passes for Pandora rides but we wandered over to check out the newest “land” in Animal Kingdom anyway.

Rainforest of Pandora

Air Boats and Alligators

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Tom & Jerry’s Air Boat rides

The last part of the Florida Adventure tour is a 30 minute air boat ride. We had a 45 minute bus ride from Crystal River to Lake Panasoffkee for a 30 minute boat ride. I’ve been on air boats before but not on Lake Panasoffkee. Upon arrival the group was split in two. Only one air boat was operational. Or maybe it was because there was only one captain available.

Cruising the Lake

airboats and alligator

My group followed the Captain Jerry down the dock where we boarded a medium sized air boat. There were plenty of earmuffs on each bench seat. You really need to use them because the roar of the huge fan that drives the board is deafening. We started out slowly but soon Captain Jerry kicked up the speed. A great blue heron took off as we roared past. Captain Jerry slowed the boat and pointed it out. He said it was the first bird he’d seen since the hurricane. Usually the lake was teeming with birds.

Birds and Hurricanes Great Blue heron

Captain Jerry explained that the birds get into the eye of the storm and are carried far off their normal flight paths. It takes them awhile to get orientated and begin to return. He was very happy to see the Great Blue. A bit further on Captain Jerry again slowed the boat. This time so we could see a smaller bird. It was a heron too. This one was the tricolor Heron.

Where are all the Gators?

We finally spotted one alligator. Captain Jerry said he thought most of the gators were way back in the brush. The lake is usually about 6 ft deep at its deepest. With all the water from the hurricane it was more like 12 feet and still rising. It made for a beautiful blue lake but the marsh grass and Lilly pads were all underwater now. Alligators like to be able to hide. With the deeper water they felt exposed so were way back in the brushy area.

Want to hold the Alligator?

Baby Alligator

Back at the dock the 2nd half of our group headed out. One of the other employees brought out a small alligator to let us hold and take pictures. The really little gators were in an aquarium in the gift shop. Captain Jerry may have been disappointed that he couldn’t show us more gator’s but I didn’t hear any of us complaining. We had a great time all day!

 

 

 

 

Two’s Company Three’s a Crowd

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What is a Crowd?

Manatee

If two’s company and three’s a crowd what is a group of five? That’s what we were drifting along with the Manatee. It wasn’t long before two more boats joined us and these were not little tours. I was having trouble keeping track of my group. So were my fellow snorkelers so we left our manatee friend and headed back to our boat.

Jurassic SpringsJurassic Springs

Our next stop was at Jurassic Springs. It was just a bulge in the  side of the river. There was a pipe marking the boundary. We weren’t sure if a manatee was in there or not.  It was worth taking a short swim to find out. It was much deeper here. The spring was a large crack in the river floor. If you swam down toward the crack the water temperature dropped quickly. Exploration over, there weren’t any manatees. We headed back to the boat.

Sting Ray! Sting Ray!Sting Ray

Slipping back under the pipe we were surprised by a sea going creature we never expected to see. It was a stingray. I don’t know if it got in the river because of the hurricane or if it just wanted a little warm water. The creature didn’t pay us any attention but I couldn’t help thinking of Steve Irwin, Crocodile Hunter. Steve met his death at the end of a sting ray tail.

Baby Manatee

The Canal held another SurpriseChopping on Rope

Our hour and a half was nearing the end. I have to say this was an A++ tour so far. On our way back we detoured down a side canal. We saw collapsed sea walls caused when the water was drained by the hurricane. We had almost reached the end of the canal when Austin thought he saw a manatee. He left us on the boat while he went in to check. What he found turned this into a 5 star experience. There was a mama manatee and a tiny baby. I use the term tiny loosely. The baby was estimated to be about 50 lbs and looked like a fire plug. He was nibbling on the ropes that dangled from the dock . We had a great time with the baby until the crowd found us. With the arrival of the other tour boats, we made our exit.

Baby Manatee

On The Road to Crystal River

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The Road to Crystal River is a long one

Manatee in the Wild

 Crystal River  is about an hour and a half north of Orlando. It gave us a chance to see what Hurricane Irma had done in Central Florida. A few trees here and there and a lot of mangled billboards.  Our tour guide had brought along video tapes to entertain us as well.  She popped in Night at the Museum, Secret of the Tomb. That certainly helped to pass the time.

Get Ready to Get WetMy snorkel buddies

Once in the town of Crystal River we stopped at a small shop to pick up our wet suits. They are $10.00 per suit. I wasn’t sure they would have them to fit me so I brought my own from home. It’s brand new and I was going to christen it with this trip. As Madeline gave instructions for trying on the suits I was really glad I brought my own. She was talking about trying suits on without a bathing suit. Maybe they do that in Florida but we never did that in the cold New England waters. It made me question the hygiene of a rental suit.

Our Dive boat

Pontoon Boats and Manatees

Once we had our wet suits on it was off to the marina. I really lucked out as most of my group was on a large pontoon boat. My boat only took 5 people and I was #5. That meant we pulled out first and got to the first location ahead of the other boats. We spotted one Manatee and the scramble to get  in the water began.

 

Manatee Ahoy

 

getting into the waterWe were given a mask, snorkel and a “noodle”, a long, cylindrical piece of polyethylene foam that makes floating easy. The wet suit also makes you more buoyant. The tricky part is not kicking and using your feet. Splashing and flailing around spooks the manatees. You have to float quietly and move slowly. We were given a long list of do’s and don’ts but I shouldn’t have worried.

 

Manatee swims under the snorkelers

 

The manatees broke the rules right away.  They swam right up to us!