Roman Family: Animal Kingdom

Highlights from our day at Animal Kingdom:

1. THE JUNGLE TRAIL

At the end of our jungle walk we met a very sweet young woman from South Africa. She had come to work for a year at Disney in April. She told us a bit about where she was from and some of her struggles in learning to live in our country. Disney does all it can to make the transition as smooth as possible, but she was ready to go home! And it turns out that the city she was from in South Africa is the same city that is home to an orphanage that we helped raise money for in September!

She went on to express her gratitude not only to us, but to all Americans who generously give not only to her country but other African countries as well. How I wish I would have thought to take a picture of her!

2. NEMO ON STAGE

The picture is a bit blurry, but we must have a picture of Marlin and Dory!

Mr. Ray picking up his students.

The sharks! Aiden liked the sharks!

Flo

Gil

3. Rafiki's Planet Watch

We weren't sure about taking time to head out to the Planet Watch area, but we were glad we did!

Our kids love animals and they enjoyed the hands on area!

They also liked the exhibit building where they saw a huge python, beetles and other animals.

Emma talked with one of the caretakers about working at Disney caring for animals.

Aiden liked the various samples of animal scat they had available for observation!

One of the nice things about the Planet Watch area is that is much quieter than the rest of the park! We brought our lunch along and found a quiet picnic table to stop and have lunch.

Rafiki!

4. KIDS WILDLIFE EXPLORATION PROGRAM

During our jungle walk we met a young employee named Emma and she gave our kids a card with a stamp and told them they could collect a stamp in every area of the park once they completed the task at each station.

Of course the kids accepted the challenge!

They had fun doing the tasks and somehow we kept running into the employee Emma at the various stations!

When we found the last station, we found Emma working there!

So the same girl who got them started was able to give them their final stamp and their animal booklets. And she recited the wilderness pledge with them!