WDW Day 3 - A very tired crew at Animal Kingdom....

On Saturday we got up in the morning and we were one tired crew. For the past 3 nights we had gone to bed exhausted feeling SURE that sleep would come the second our heads hit the pillow, and then we would lie there for HOURS tossing and turning and freaking out. Then we'd fall asleep around 3 am only to wake up at 5 or 6. We had several group reunions on the balcony where we would hang out and look at the animals in the middle of the night. "You still awake too huh? Bummer...." Saturday was the low-point for this as we knew we had a 1/2 marathon to run the next day and all of us were wondering how we were going to do that with 6 hours of sleep in the last 4 days. But we were at DISNEY, and being exhausted at Disney is still better than being well-rested home right? So there was nothing to do but soldier on and tell that exhaustion that there was just no room for it in our schedule. Off to Animal Kingdom! We got there for rope-drop and met up with Kellee's Sister-in-law Jo. Here's Mickey and Pals opening up the Animal Kingdom:

 

We snagged our Everest FP's (which we actually used!) and then headed to the Safari's. On the way we stopped to take in a view of the Tree of Life:

 

When Karen got accosted by King Louie! He snuck up behind her and gave her a wild Monkey snuggle. We were all in hysterics!

 Ballu was with him and they stopped and interacted with us for a good 5 minutes. One of my fav points of the day was goofing off with Louie. I got this awesome new "Disco Yeti" T-shirt that shows the Yeti doing a dance pose with a disco ball. The Shirt says "Fix me". It's hilarous. You can see it if you click on the pic of Karen and I on Everest. So I thought I would get mad props for my shirt in AK park, but Louie was the ONLY one who "got it" and he pointed to it and was laughing and doing all this pantomime about it like "I know right? What's up with THAT?" I loved him!

 

After that we finally got our group shot with the Tree and then we kept heading to the Safaris.

 On the way we passed some fabulous African performers who were generating an awesome vibe for all the people heading to the Safari line:

 The Safari's were amazing as always. Love this attraction first thing in the morning as all the animals were out and we got great views. I took a million pics but I won't bore you with all of them. Here are my 3 favs. I like this one because you can see another Safari vehicle in the background:

 Ankole cattle and some Tommies:

 The Lioness out sunning herself on the rocks:

After that we headed to Everest but then saw that Kali River Rapids only had a 5 minute wait so we hopped on! I sat with Ivana, and Kellee and Jo sat 180 across from us. We figured we had a 50/50 chance of soakage! Meanwhile Karen and Zoe were waiting for us on the shore. They did NOT want to get wet!

The story had a wet ending for the 2 Aussies! They got fully immersed when a giant wave went right over the backs of their seats. The looks on their faces when it happened was priceless. They were SOAKED!!!

 After that we had 10 minutes until the Festival of the Lion King so we had to head in that direction. We took a picture of the forbidden mountain and told the Yeti that he would have to wait just a little bit longer to meet us:

 Festival of the Lion King was awesome. I always forget parts of this and I am always amazed by the energy and gusto of the cast. It's easy to forget that they perform this 7+ times a day. They really give it their all and it seems like each performance is their first:

 

Finally it was time to head to Everest. We had just enough time before a lunch meet-up that we had planned. This is one of those attractions where I get a little sad using FP as I feel like I am missing out on an awesome queue line!

 

Watch out Yeti, we're comin' to get ya!

 

Jo took this great picture from the top of the ride:

 

 Auuuuggghh! Curse you Disco Yeti!

 

 At noon we had promised to meet Meegan, a reporter with Runner's World Magazine. She wanted to interview Zoe, Karen and Kellee about their running experiences and how they decided to do the Princess. I guess she was trying to interview people from other nations that had foreign versions of "Runners World". Ivana and I just interviewed each other....

 Our hopefully soon to be famous friends! If the photographer got a good picture of them on race day, they'll make the magazine for sure. How awesome would that be?

 

It seems like AK is the park that I always have to leave early. It's OK though... I'm coming back in Nov 2011 and I have 2 days allocated for AK park. I WILL see the Nemo show, and I WILL spend some time in Dinoland and I WILL ride the train up to Rafiki's!! Someday.... 

But this was not that day. I had promised the girl's some shopping and there was no way I was going to sacrifice ANY time out of our Epcot day on Monday so AK got the knife. We headed out to the Premium Outlets. No pictures of this but believe me we did some DAMAGE!! Thank God I came with one suitcase that had 2 more suitcases stuffed inside it!

When we got back we were really pooped and we were all worried about getting enough sleep to physically do the race the next day. The original plan was to go to Narcoosee's for our 7:10 ADR and watch WISHES again over dessert but we just couldn't rally. We talked Sanaa into taking us in at 6 pm and had another awesome meal there. We hung out at the Savannah overlook while they got our table for us.

 Zoe even snagged this pic of all 4 Giraffes together! I was bummed about missing Narcoosee's but like I said, I do get to come back later this year so I feel very lucky. It's just one more thing to add to my Disney "to do" list. Poor Jeff.... thank God for DVC... the more I plan trips and go to Disney, the longer that list gets!

 We were in bed by 8:15 and I was lucky enough to actually fall right to sleep. Our alarms were set for 3am... Princess half, here we come!