The Great Experiment

My last attraction at Animal Kingdom was the "It's Tough to Be a Bug" show, which I sat in the back for. Since I know what to expect, I enjoy watching the audience more than I enjoy watching the show. :-) There was no line for this attraction, either... but I still had to wind my way through the whole long queue area, which took several minutes. "The entrance is six miles in that direction," quipped one cast member to me as he stood watch somewhere in the middle of that maze.

And that's it, really; there's not a whole lot to Animal Kingdom other than the four rides I went on today (the Safari, Kali River Rapids, Dinosaur, and Tough To Be A Bug). I did forget to go to the live Lion King show, which is really fun to watch, but that's about it. There are lots of shops all selling the same merchandise, and there's a lot of walking to do and not much shade to be had on a sunny day. The parking lot is as large as the entire Magic Kingdom (according to the parking lot tram castmember, who wanted to make sure we remembered where we'd parked), but I don't think they're going to fill it until they can add some more draws to the park.

The "Tree of Life" (fifteen stories tall!) is a nice centerpiece to the park, and the carvings on it are beautiful, but it's hard to get up close to. It's usually either hidden by other trees, or you're stuck across the lake from it; the only way you can really get down close to it to see the carvings is to get in line for "It's Tough to Be a Bug," and that queue is an arduous adventure unto itself (it's hard to find shade from the midday sun in that queue). I did manage to take two good closeup photos of the carvings on the tree, and I left them untouched at my camera's 'Standard' resolution so as not to lose any of the detail; you can see these photos here and here.

Some other photos I took:

The future site of ... something? Not the Beastly Kingdom, that's at the other side of the park

The only thing in the park with the word 'Beastly' in it

He's as annoyed as I am that Beastly Kingdom became Camp Minnie-Mickey

Flying Yak Air Transport

This monkey knows how to get around

I was wondering how long it would take Pooh to show up in this park

Stylized owl decorations

"Hey, I'm running out of branch!"

Ooh, gimme the camera, PLEASE let me taste the camera

Giraffe carving

Another giraffe carving

Giraffes

The unicorn and giraffe parking lot signs

My camera's memory card finally filled up at one hundred thirty-one pictures today; I'll bet I got fewer than Tuesday's 181 because the images I took at Animal Kingdom were more complex and didn't compress as well.

But I did manage to get one final shot of the sunset. Florida has really pretty sunsets, and I think this is because Florida has clouds, and California doesn't.

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