Animal Kingdom '23 part 1

 Disney's Animal Kingdom park day! Tons of pictures to get to.

Nothing like a theme park entrance, early in the morning. We are actually here before the park is scheduled to open, expecting a crowd, but it looks like they are already letting people in.

A glance over at the park maps, and it's neat to see all the different languages available. It would have been neat to have seen one in the Star Wars "language" of Aurebesh, but that would have been more of a cool souvanier than... actually useful for anybody.

Getting to the park when it opens is called "Rope Drop" because traditionally there's a marathon-style rope they hold up and make a big speech. Or so we've heard. We were here at Rope Drop, did we miss it?

The whole reason we all woke up super early was to rush over to beat the line for the big Avatar ride. So we're fast-walking right into another planet.

Floating rocks! Last time I went to Pandora, it was nighttime, and the rocks are not very visible in the dark. So it's cool to see them up there, floating.

Visiting Pandora in July comes with a disappointing realization. The park closes at 7, and it doesn't get dark at night until 8:30ish. So we're not going to see the "glowing plants" at all.

Rushing into the line queue for the ride, we spot a camera in the rocks. Check me out, checking you out, checking me out... checking you out..... I'm checking you out.

We scrambled through a bit of the outdoors which were indoors, so we did get to see some glowing plants afterall. The line slowed down once we got to the laboratory part, so I could get a few pictures. The line was still moving at a good pace.

Dude over there taking a nap. Hey! You're going to miss the ride!

I wonder if they updated the knick-nacks all around the desk, since the last time I came here. They cut some corners around here if you are very picky, there's a lot of repeating books on several different desks and shelves. Nobody's going to notice and point it out on a blog or anything.

Cool shadows and painting on the wall to give you a sense of how big the Nav'i and Banshees are. Simple but effective.

They show random people on the monitor, which I suppose are other tourists. But at no point do you "get your photo taken" to imagine you'd be up there for other tourists to see later. Would that have been a thing they should have done?

Boom, off the ride and into the gift shop. You can get yourself turned into a Nav'i for real! Um... a real... action figure. But they scan your face and it looks like you. Would that work on a tiny plastic pony?

Blue popcorn! The real question is... does it glow in the dark?!

Did anybody in any Avatar movie ever wear a hat like this? I don't think so. I guess it's a typical jungle explorer hat?

These banshee toys were cute. They strapped onto your wrist and would talk to each other if you had some close together.

Nav'i baby! We overheard the shopkeeper tell the story about how they all used to have flowers on their foreheads, but they removed them because everybody thought they were all girls, which was not the intention. They DO glow in the blacklights!

Life-sized Nav'i bust to compare yourself to. They look pretty, but do you think those feathers are itchy?

I'm too lazy to do the math on this thing, but I'm pretty sure this will wind up being outrageously expensive. How can you tell your little kid "NO" to a couple more beads?

CUTE! This little banshee had a magnet bottom and a plush-covered metal plate to put under your shirt, so it could sit on your shoulder. We'd come back later and get a couple of these.

These did not sit on your shoulder, but they were still cute. They are the fish-y ones from the Way of Water movie.

Here's the big expensive shoulder banshees that move like puppets. They expected these to be super popular but I guess they're just not cute enough.

Whatever this thing is? It's cute though. I feel like I'm using the word "cute" too much. I asked if they had any more of the 6-legged horse plushies I saw last time, and they said nope. It was a few years ago, so I'm not surprised.

I know we were just on the Galactic Starcruiser a few days ago, but here's another chance to get some more space food!

Look back and see the mech suit thing that's right outside the gift shop. Looks rusted and abandoned, which it's supposed to, since this park place takes place during the time between the first and second movies.

We thought about waiting for the other Avatar ride, which was up to 65 minutes. It's not that great a ride, it's a simple boat thing around scenery. I mean, it's cool, and we would have seen glowing plants, but we decided to pass on it.

This crazy movie set area was some restrooms. I didn't take a picture of the inside, but it was shockingly clean, modern, and fresh. Like a Vegas casino's restroom. A huge contrast to the image outside!

Otter Grotto, sponsored by Otterbox. Clever. Feel free to drop your phone?

Otterbox should have paid for some actual otters? Ah, that's nature for ya. They're just napping or something.

Creature Comforts, and it's a Starbucks. Did they just call me a "creature"? Should I be offended?

Turtle! They seem to live life in slow-motion. Or... Do they just think the rest of us are moving around at double-speed?

No shortage of beautiful views around here. That's like, half the reason I love theme parks, all the beautiful views!

While checking out these monkeys, I remember how much of the Animal Kingdom park is more or less, just a big zoo, with some other theme park stuff. I was so focused on the Avatar ride, and then, oh... the zoo!

One of the zoo trails has a house with this bug wall. Notable because there's a bug guide in the bottom corner that my friend thinks he actual has! From way back in high school or something. Probably boxed away somewhere in a closet, but it looked super familiar.

Naked mole rats. Don't look! They're naked! Shame on you! Er... shame on them? Put on some clothes! There's kids out here!

Why does that turtle's shell look all squished on the side? Was he sleeping next to the glass for several years? Is that like bed-head but... for turtles?

Snake under the sand. I feel like I want to make a Sand Snake reference from Game of Thrones, would anybody remember that?

Scorpion. You're not so tough looking on this side of the glass. But still... This is freaking me out more than a little bit, being so close to it.

The wonderful area with the river and waterfall, and then you can see under the water and check out the massive amount of fishies! SO MANY FISHIES!

What beautiful clear water and tons of fish. There's so much motion here with the waterfall and everything, a picture is quite inadequate.

There are some cute yellow birds in this picture. One of them buzzed right next to my friend! Yikes! What was that!

This picture doesn't really show, but the hippopotamus is MASSIVE! So huge, right on the other side of this glass. How can you look at this and not think dinosaurs are real? That's practically a real dinosaur right there.

Zebras! That's kind of like a pony, right? Can I get some cool stripes? There were some prairie dogs here, and I tried to get a picture of them, but they were too quick and none of the pictures came out at all.

Gorillas chillin' out. They are so similar to people, it's easy to feel connected to them.

This one was poking at something in the corner and licking its fingers. What was so tasty in the corner? I probably don't want the answer to that, now that I think about it.

Old timer sitting up on the hill. As many people stop to look at it, I wonder how many million tourists it must have seen.

Rainbow! Did I mention how hot it was that day? It was serioulsy 100 degrees outside. You know when you open up an oven, and get blasted by the hot air? That was what it was like outside.

Neat. The under-construction area was hidden behind a wall that was themed to be in the themed area. Did that make sense? You know what I mean.

Photo op! There's the big tree of life in the middle of the Animal Kingdom park.

Here's some stone statues of the characters from the movie Up, they are the best characters and I love them very mu.... SQUIRREL!

Another cool visual spot. Last time we were here, there was a dance show going on over there. There's another batch of pictures from Animal Kingdom, check back soon!