Thursday February 8th 2024

The weather today was perfect for a visit to Disney’s Animal Kingdom. It was a sunny day and the temperature climbed from the low fifties into the mid seventies.

Animal Kingdom is the perfect park to get some exercise and see some animals without a lot of hassle. The walk from where you park your car to where you start seeing animals and interesting vegetation is usually straight forward. If I get parked in the far side of the parking lot, I might use the tram, but that didn’t happen today. I was in the park after a five minute walk.

To enjoy Animal Kingdom, it is not necessary to wait in a lot of long lines. Walking the trails and observing the various animal exhibits provides exercise, education and entertainment. Today I only waited in one line. The wait for the safari ride was listed at 25 minutes, but was probably less. The 25 minute mark was down from 65 minutes when I arrived at the park. It is all a question of timing.

The highlight of my visit today was on the Maharajah Jungle Trek. One of the big tigers was taking the sun in clear sight from one of the viewing areas. The Komodo Dragon was similarly taking the sun. On the other end of the expectation spectrum was the absence of all the gorillas. They were all behind the scenes in their enclosures.

Today’s safari driver needed driving lessons. He had a very heavy foot on the accelerator. This made for a very jerky ride as he transitioned from stopped to moving and vise versa. Taking pictures from the moving safari truck is always a challenge. The jerky uncomfortable ride made it even more challenging. I still got a few good pictures.