{Disney 2012: Animal Kingdom}

On our second day, we ventured off to the Animal Kingdom park. We arrived when the park opened. It was also a low crowd day, so it was a great day to explore Animal Kingdom.

The Tree of Life, a sculpted 145 foot tall, 50 foot wide tree is the centerpiece and icon in Disney's Animal Kingdom park. The Lion King characters are main features of the park.

We've never seen the movie Lilo and Stitch but William became a fan of him after our Character breakfast with him at Ohana's.

The kids loved the Kilimanjaro Safari expedition. We saw a lot of giraffes and lions. Samantha quickly recognized them.

Another recommended must see at Animal Kingdom park, is the Festival of the Lion King. It's a 30 minute broadway show packed with characters from the Lion King Movie.

Unfortunately, Samantha wasn't a big fan of the dark environment and loud sound effects. We had to step out. It worked out great because they were setting up a character signing spot for Pocahontas. We were second in line and this was Samantha's first "princess" meet. She was enchanted!

Very happy she met Pocahontas!

My nieces and nephew came into Disney a couple of days earlier than us. I am so glad that we got the chance to spend a day at the park with them. Jake and William are best buds and just had a great time hanging out together.

The Dino-Rama area was a cool section. The boys loved this area a lot.

Ed and Samantha riding the Tricera Top Spin.

My niece, Paige and me.

William won this green sharkie, while playing one of the arcade games at Animal Kingdom.

I was pleasantly surprised to hear that William enjoyed riding Dinosaur with Ed. From what I heard, it is a really scary ride.

Here's William with Everest in the background. Ed and I had a chance to ride it with the grown ups. So fun!

More playtime at the Dino-Rama area.

As we were walking out of the park, Mickey's Jammin Jungle Parade were just started. We decided to grab a quick ice cream snack and enjoy the music.

A very tiring day, but a lot of fun!