Transatlantic - The Day Before

We (my husband and I) have returned from our transatlantic cruise.  It was amazing and I have so much to share!  I took about 500 pictures and want to make sure I cover as much as I can so I am going to take each day at a time.

As I always recommend with any cruise, we went down to Orlando the day before.  You definitely don't want to deal with any flight issues on the day your ship is scheduled to leave port.  I also like to use my pre-night as a chance to try a Disney resort that I haven't stayed at before.  I am on a mission to stay at all of them.

So for this stay, we were at a Little Mermaid standard room at the Art of Animation resort.  The Art of Animation is considered a value resort but the Little Mermaid rooms are really the only ones that fall into the value price range.  All of the other rooms are family suites and have a higher price tag.  They are in sections themed for Cars, The Lion King and Finding Nemo.  

I had checked in online at home and we were on the Magical Express bus heading to the resort when I received a text that our room was ready!  We had our room number and were able to head right there when we arrived which worked out great.  I was excited to see the theming of the room and it didn't disappoint.  So cute!!

We stopped at our room to change into cooler clothes and headed to Animal Kingdom.  It was already about 2 pm when we arrived at the park and we had a tour scheduled for 4 pm so our only plan was to get something eat.  We went Harambe Market and enjoyed a flatbread and some shade before checking in for our tour.  

The tour was called Caring for Giants and was about the elephants that reside at the Animal Kingdom safari area.  There was only 4 of us on the tour, Chris and myself and another couple which was great.  We were taken backstage to a small bus that drove us to a viewing area.  At the viewing area, a cast member was there to give us information about the elephants that live at the Animal Kingdom.  He pointed out each one by name and told us about their daily lives there and about their species in general.   It was very funny to hear about their individual personalities.  About halfway through, an ambassador from Africa came to speak about conservation efforts for the elephants in Africa.  We each received a button because a portion of our tour cost goes to conservation efforts.  Then it was back on the bus to return to the park.  It was only an hour long and it was simple but I really enjoyed it.  The cost is listed as $30 per adult but we paid less than that with an annual pass discount.  I thought it was worth the cost.

We then did a few inside attractions to stay cool (it was about 88 degrees) while we waited for it to get dark.  We had a fastpass to do the safari between 7 pm and 8 pm and then we had a fastpass for Rivers of Light.  We waited as long as we could to get online for the safari so it would be as dark as possible.  I have done the nighttime safari before and enjoyed it.  I liked it this time as well, even though the lions were just relaxing this time - the last time I got to hear them roaring.  When we came out, we realized we had cut it a little close for Rivers of LIght so we quickly made our way over there.  We went in the fastpass entrance and it was pretty full but we were able to find seats.  This was my first time seeing the show.  Overall I thought it was good.  When the water projections were clear, they were awesome but the problem was they weren't always clear.  Still I think it is a good addition to night time activities at Animal Kingdom.  

The park was closed by the time the show was over so we exited with everyone else.  We did get lucky to get right on a bus back to our resort without a wait.