On the second day of vacation, we went to Animal Kingdom, probably my favorite of the Disney parks. It hasn't changed much since the last time we were there five years ago. There was one new ride called Expedition Everest and a new Finding Nemo Broadway style show. We wandered around the park, grabbing a Fastpass for Expedition Everest because at 9:30 the line was already over an hour long. Rather than waiting in line for an hour, a Fastpass allowed us to do other things while waiting until a certain time to ride. While waiting we were able to ride Dinosaur, get pictures made with Eeyore, Tigger and Pooh, look at the Asian animals section of the park and watch the Finding Nemo show. That was a much more productive couple of hours than just standing in line.

The Finding Nemo show was in the same vein as Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King on Broadway. I didn't enjoy it as much as Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King, but I believe that much of that can be contributed to the music. Finding Nemo is really not a musical, but they tried to make it into one. There were really no catchy tunes in the show except Just Keep Swimming which we continue to sing to each other.

Expedition Everest is a new roller coaster ride that takes riders on a trip through the home of the mystical Yeti. Almost half of the ride is ridden backwards in complete darkness. At the Disney parks, I think Expedition Everest was my favorite ride.

After riding Expedition Everest, we sat through It's Tough to be a Bug, a 4-D show starring Flik from A Bug's Life before lunch. After lunch, we wrapped up the park by watching a very kid-oriented Pocahontas show (starring an incredibly white Pocahontas), walking through the African animal section, riding the Kali River Rapids, watching the Jammin' Jungle Christmas Parade, taking a Kilimanjaro Safari, riding Expedition Everest again, riding Primeval Whirl, and finally watching the Festival of the Lion King show before leaving the park. The trek back to our car was quite possibly the worst event of the trip as we had to briskly walk through the rain to the tram stop and then stand in a downpour waiting for a tram to the parking lot. But the fun didn't end there. Erika was sitting under the tram speaker which acted like a shower head by dumping a nice stream of water over her head. Of course all of this happened on our way to dinner at a nicer restaurant that took reservations. The Disney people were gracious enough to extend our reservation allowing us some time to change into dry clothes.

The third day was a fifteen hour marathon at the Magic Kingdom. Because we had seen all of the Christmas shows the first night we were in Orlando, we were able to take in all of the rest of what the Magic Kingdom had to offer. We managed to ride everything we wanted in the park and all of our favorite rides twice Including Pirates of the Caribbean, Space Mountain, Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin and Splash Mountainbefore calling it a day. The one thing we hadn't seen the previous night was the Spectromagic Parade (formerly known as the Electric Light Parade). We managed to catch the last run of the parade before riding The Haunted Mansion one more time. Overall it was a lot of fun but quite tiring as well.