park hopping - magic OUR way!

Since I already had everything open to finish off Day Three, thought I might as well get going on Day Four - although I don't know how far I'll get. I make no promises!DAY 4Monday, February 11, 200823ºC/75ºF VERY sunnyOn our fourth day we thought we might try the morning Extra Magic Hours at Disney's Animal Kingdom Park. I seem to recall we didn't really get much out of it. We did however eat breakfast at the fantastic Rainforest Cafe and were constantly awed by the animatronic animals and atmosphere there. The breakfast was pricey, but worth it. The restaurant was amazing both food and decor-wise.We did a lot of things we didn't do last trip because we weren't running around trying to do everything in 4 days. This time around we tried to check out some of the live action attractions and ended up falling in love with the Festival of the Lion King performance and will likely go see it again assuming it's still running the next time we visit. I don't even LIKE the Lion King movie and I loved this spectacle! I tried to take photos but everything came out blurry since I wasn't using my flash. But believe me this is worth seeing if you're ever there!Before our performance started we had some time so I made Shawn wait in line with me for some character meets. Heh. I skipped Mickey and Minnie this time around though because quite frankly, I don't actually like them. I am more of a Donald fan.Donald was also very approving of my wedding and engagement rings. Don't forget we had those Just Married buttons on since it was our honeymoon trip. We got some fun photos in our PhotoPass photos of him checking out the bling and giving Shawn the nod of approval. Haha. We did the water rapids ride again and this time enjoyed being soaked as we traveled down the hill because it was so bloody hot that day. What we did miss out on this time around that we really wanted to do again was the Kilaminjaro Safari ride since the lines were too long and the FastPass wait was still three hours away. We thought we'd come back another day but we didn't make it back to the Animal Kingdom again after this.Our plan, since the weather was so nice and hot, was to try and get to one of the water parks that day, of course only one was open while we were there so it limited our options. Or we wanted to try and get a round of mini golf in. Neither of those happened and we ended up back at the hotel room ready to take a nap before heading out once more to the Magic Kingdom to um, wander around I guess (I'm reading my notes from the trip to try and remember if it was for any special reason - I think we just wanted to try and get on some of the rides we didn't get to yet?)One attraction we didn't see in 2004 but I always wanted to see (because I remember my Mum talking about it so much when they went in 1975...) was the Jungle Cruise. This always has a huge line, but this time around it wasn't so bad and we waited in the line. Of course we DID get FastPasses for it!Funny, I keep thinking we went on this ride really late at night, but seems we went around 6:30 pm. Ha! It was dark, that's all I remember. But it was a cool ride. We ALMOST got on the Annabelle boat, but we were the cut off for number of people and so ended up on the next one. Drat. I did snap a photo though. ;) I think Annie would have liked to have lurked around the Jungle Cruise with all the crocodiles and whatnots, feasting on the wild game.And since we were already AT the Magic Kingdom when the Spectro Magic parade started we got some pretty decent spots, although I had stupid children PUSHING me and STEPPING ON MY FEET the entire time. They had a ton of room to see but one kept hitting me. I was NOT amused. Not just because of my dislike of children, the little girl I let sit in front of me so she could see was VERY polite and sweet, but this other boy and girl who were about 8 or so were horrid.  Of course the only photos that didn't come out blurry were the creepy ones - anything I WANTED a photo of is a blurry mess.The parade was pretty and all, but I'm not really a parade person. It's a lot of standing in crowds for no real reason. But it's nice to know we saw it. I think the only park parade we didn't see was one at the Animal Kingdom. For the life of me I can't think if Epcot HAS a parade? Anyhow, it was an experience.Day Four photos can  be seen here!