Day 3: Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios

This was such a great first day. We had been told about all the special treatment we would get, but you never know how cool it is until you start to experience it. We were a little shy about how exactly to get to the front of the line or about flashing our badge around, but it is like they are trained to recognize you and not make you feel bad at all about getting all this special treatment. They told us exactly what to do and we got to see and do so much because of it. We started the day at the Animal Kingdom and it is like a zoo and theme park all in one. We took Taylee on this river raft ride where you get wet and that was not the best way to make her trust rides right off the bat. She doesn't like getting splashed and all three of us came off the ride soaked.

Next we went to see this Bug's Life show in 3D. She was excited before hand because you got these cool glasses, but it didn't take long into the show before she was totally freaked out and we had to leave. It was a cool show though, just too intense for a three year old. We were now 0 for 2...

She had to take a picture of me...

After not much luck during our previous activities, we decided to try something a little safer. They had an African safari ride that was really fun. She liked this one.

There we lots of cool animals that we don't get to see here in Idaho and we all enjoyed this ride.

Driving around Florida, there are swamps everywhere and Aaron kept telling Taylee that the crocodiles live there. We finally saw one here...

Giraffes...

And even Gorillas!!

After Taylee being unsure about things all day we stumbled on this place called camp Minnie Mickey and here were all her favorite characters. This was the first time she had seen anyone and she had been asking all day, "where's Mickey?" We didn't know yet that our badge got us to the front of these lines too so Aaron took Tay to meet Chip and Dale while I held our place in line for Mickey. He came back saying that we didn't have to wait to meet the characters either!

This was my favorite moment on the whole entire trip. She was so excited to finally meet Mickey and she walked right up to him and just started talking to him and showing him her Mickey and he hugged her and there was no other way to describe the feeling of it except for saying it was truly magical. I cried and really felt like this was what the whole trip was about. This turned Taylee's mood around and made her feel like this was the best place ever!

She wasn't nervous at all to see Mickey. She didn't want to see Minne and was unsure about Donald. When she got up to him she showed him her Mickey and he took him by the tail and hung him upside down and waved his hand in front of his nose like Mickey was stinky and Taylee thought this was hilarious. She kept saying all day, "silly Donald". He definitely won her over.

And Goofy is always good!
We also got to see the Lion King show which was incredible. She loved it until they started to sing the song that Scar sings in the movie and a guy was up there eating and spinning fire and that scared her. It was a really fun show to watch.

After half the day at Magic Kingdom we headed over Disney's Hollywood Studios. We loved it here too. They had a Playhouse Disney show that Taylee absolutely loved!

Just waiting for the show to start...

It was like a live show of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Handy Manny, and Little Einsteins in one. So perfect for Taylee!

They had a special place here too were tons of different characters were hanging out and she got to meet lots more of her favs. She loves the incredibles and wanted to meet them, but got a little nervous when it came down to it. They were good with her though and she had a good time with them!

Mickey again!!

Pluto wasn't at the Animal Kingdom so she wanted to see him for sure. Now Minnie was Ok cause she was with Pluto...

We saw Pocahontas, Pinocchio and Gepetto, Aladdin and Jasmine and others, but Taylee didn't want to meet them. As we were trying to leave the building we walked around the corner and there was Snow White. No one else was around except for the worker that stays with her and as soon as Taylee saw her she ran away back around the corner. She did not want anything to do with her. Snow White went and got a sticker from the worker and just held her hand around the corner so all Taylee could see was the sticker and her hand. Taylee refused to take it. I was impressed at how hard Snow White tried to win her over, but nothing worked. So mommy took a picture with her instead.

Hollywood Studios had some really fun rides including the Toy Story ride which was fun for all of us. Aaron and I rode some good ones here too. Except for it taking all day for me to get dry from our first ride at Animal Kingdom, it was a really really great first day!