Opening Up Animal Kingdom

Day 6
December 30, 2010
We were at Animal Kingdom when the gates opened.
That is where we spent Julien's Birthday five years ago and it was so nice to be back although we were two years late.
From the moment that we walked through the gates, it was a night and day difference from Universal Studios.
We actually had the employees of Animal Kingdom speak to us, welcome us to the park and even asked us if we had any questions...you know...common sense customer service.
As soon as we got into the park, my first stop was at guest services.
Notice that I completely left out the story about guest services at Universal Studios, because it was awful.
The older gentleman who helped me at Animal Kingdom surprised me a bit.
He reminded me of someone who would work at a funeral home, not at a theme park and frankly, he intimidated me a bit.
I just knew that this experience would be a nightmare as well.
I told him what I needed, he asked a few questions, walked to the back and came back a few short minutes later with the information that we would need - for our entire stay!
Not only that, he answered questions for me, made dinner reservations for me and actually thanked me for visiting.
Holy cow...what'd you know?

After dinner reservations...then lunch reservations were made, we fueled up on coffee, bundled up and headed out on safari.

It was just as awesome as I remember it being.
We said several times how grateful we were that it was so cold outside.
There is no way we could handle that adventure in the heat of the summer.
Animals that big can't smell pleasant in humid 100 degree weather.

They were amazing...


and beautiful...

and sweet...


and sleepy.

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