Spring Trip with 3 Newbies-Day 4-Animal Kingdom & Epcot

Thursday, 4/30
Today is the day we have ADRs at O'hana. DDs are super excited since they are huge Lilo & Stitch fans. We took a cab since the bus system is a bit slow and we didn't want to be late. We arrived at Poly with no issues. This is a beautiful resort and on the top three of my list of resorts to stay at on our next trip. I can see why it is so popular.
Breakfast was great-loved the Hawaiian bread and the juice was amazing! Lilo & Stitch did not disappoint DDs and Pluto kept coming back to the table to "eat DD-8s head" She loved it! We got some cute pictures of this. We all left happy and full. We asked our waitress to confirm that the best way to get to Animal Kingdomwould be to take the monorail to the TTC and then get on a bus. She said yes that was the best way. Well, that did not work out. We took the monorail and got to the TTC. Once there we asked about bus locations and the man told us we could not get a bus to Animal Kingdom. He said we would have to take the monorail back to MK and then get a bus there. Geez! Okay, so we head to the monorail only to discover it is not "down" and we have to get a boat-along with the other 400 people expecting to take the monorail-to the MK. Okay, it's fine, we haven't ridden on the boat yet. We waited a few minutes-not long at all-and arrive peacefully at MK. We get on a bus and it takes us to Animal Kingdom. This is my favorite park in terms of theming and the ambiance there. I love animals and wish this park would add more to keep people in the park longer. Pretty sure Avatar Land will help.
We had a 11:15 FP for the safari and head straight there. We get right on and got lucky with seeing animals. We saw white rhinos which was pretty neat. Got some good pictures too. After the safari we walked the trail that is located right by the safari exit. DD-8 did the Explorer Badge quests throughout the day and loved learning all about the animals. The CMs were very nice and informative. We had a FP for EE and headed towards it. DD-11 decided she didn't have any desire to ride this one once she saw the drop and DD-8 agreed with her. So DBF and I rode solo while the other one stayed with the girls. I wish they had tried it but I understand. Next we headed towards Dinosaur-one of my favorites. We rode twice since the line wasn't too long and it was hot outside. We made funny faces on the second one since we discovered where the cameras were. DDs and I looked terrified while DBF pretended to be sleeping. It was funny to see on my Disney Photopass website. :mickey: After Dinosaur we rode Triceratops Spin twice since there was zero wait. DDs loved this one.
Next we headed towards Kali River since it was almost time for our FP. Glad we had a FP since the wait time was 70 minutes and it was very hot by this time. We got somewhat wet-not soaked like last time I rode-and it cooled us off. After KRR we headed towards some more of the trails and stopped to get a mango smoothie on the way. Love those!! DD8 got some more stickers for her Explorer badge book and by this time it was almost 1700 which meant the park would be closing. We decided we would head back to Epcot and go to UK in the world showcase since DBF is a huge Beatles fan. We stopped in Club Cool and sampled our favorite soft drinks first then headed to UK. While DBF was getting his Beatles gear DDs and I waited in the very short line to see Pooh and Tigger. We got some very cute pictures and saw Duffy the Bear on the way out of the park as well as took some nice pictures of the topiaries. We got a Mickey bar to cool off on our way to the buses and headed back to the hotel. We decided we would head back early so DDs could swim again-they LOVED the big pool at AoA.
We ate in the food court for a late dinner after swimming and then walked around the resort to see the Cars section and the Little Mermaid section. We got some cute pictures and headed back to the room. The mousekeeper once again had a huge display on DDs beds. She mad a boat and put Grace-the American Girl-in it with all of their stitch stuffed animals around the boat. She dressed the stuffed Stitch in DDs Frozen dress and made snowflakes out of washcloths and put them around him. She also made stingray out of washcloths and put it on my bed. She is truly an amazing employee who loves her job!!
We decided that we had been getting up early and walking a lot on the trip so we would sleep in tomorrow and let the girls swim in the morning for one last time before heading out to the parks. They loved this idea and I looked forward to sleeping past 6:30 a.m.