Disney World as seniors

We hadn't been to Disney World for twenty years and while I don't think Disney World itself has changed all that much, my reaction to it had. Disney was still a beautiful, safe, clean, pristine place. And because it was early January, it was still decorated for Christmas. I had heard much about the Christmas decorations and was excited to be able to see them. We spent most of our time in the Animal Kingdom and Epcot parks. The weather was, shall we say, somewhat uncooperative … pretty chilly, breezy and rainy, but we tried to make the best of it. Besides the weather trying its best to put a damper on things, it was crowded. So crowded! Incredibly crowded! Adults, parents, teens and children … soooo many children. I kept thinking they should be back in school AND if it was this crowded now, what was it like during school vacations??? Oy vey 🙄! 

True to form, Disney is full of incredible details, whether it's the authenticity of the staff that are working in the various areas, costumes, building details,  performances or the food, it is almost always a perfect reproduction of the actual place or event in the world. And that was exactly the trouble I had with it. It was just a little too perfect, a little too clean, a little too neat. It was just a facade. Between the crowds and the park there was a gap in truth. There was not much that had an air of authenticity. Now, it is Disney World where magic reigns supreme so I'm probably just being an old curmudgeon but I don't think we'll go back … unless it's with a grandchild. That might make all the difference in the world. ❤️

On to pics …

The giant tree outside Animal Kingdom

It was decorated with animals, masks,  baubles, giant stars and snowflakes 

Most of our time in Animal Kingdom I spent taking pics of the birds and animals.                                                     We went on the Safari Ride. This giraffe was feeling quite frisky. He raced around the compound. It was pretty funny to watch. The other giraffes just looked at him. Haha.

hienas 

Every zebra has a different stripe pattern. They are comparable to fingerprints in humans.  (I pride myself with being pretty good with details, but I thought they all looked the same. Is that a cross-"species" effect?)

a baby elephant

Now here's a gorgeous guy. He was the model for Lion King’s Mufasa.

He’s just soaking in every bit of warmth the rays of the sun can provide.

A black rhino. This guy looked like he could barge his way through anything he wanted to. And I mean anything!

An okapi. I loved the stripping down their hindquarters and legs. Such a gorgeous pattern.

And then there was the rest of their bodies. I didn't think their head looked like it belonged to the striped part of their bodies at all! They looked sort of like they took a bunch of mismatched parts and put them together! Haha

Macaws.                                            Scarlet Macaw found in lowland rainforests.

Rosiate spoonbill 

Black-necked Swan from Southern South America 

African spoonbill

Yellow footed green pigeon found in Africa and Asia 

African Jacana found in sub-saharan Africa. Just look at the size of those feet!  It is often referred to as a Jesus bird because it “walks on water” (actually it uses its especially large feet to walk on floating vegetation in shallow lakes). haha.

Bar-headed goose

Baikal Teal duck. I loved those long, draping feathers, sooo elegant.

Masked Lapwing found in Australia and New Zealand. I thought the yellow wattle was pretty funny.

Victoria Crowned Pigeon found in New Guinea. I thought it was beautiful, but the red eyes were a little creepy.

Pied Imperial Pigeon of southeast asia

A Nicobar Pigeon is found along the coast and on the small islands of southeast Asia from India to Malaysia and Australia. How gorgeous is this bird.

Collared Finchbill from Asia

Phillipine Megepode

Black-collared Starling found in southern China (I might like starlings better if they all looked like this)

Pied Imperial Pigeon of SouthEast Asia 

flamingos doing their best ballerina impression

Leaving the birds and moving on ...

Western Lowland Gorilla.                        These gorgeous creatures are on the critically endangered list and the older adult males have these stunning silver backs.  They were spectacular                 

Angola long hair monkey - such a sad face

A very large bat!

El tigre (the tiger) again, so gorgeous!

and a crocodile … just checking his reflection to make sure his teeth are clean and sharp. Haha

a kangaroo 

And a final Christmas wreath in “Africa”.

I was fascinated by this wreath. I liked the shapes and the reuse of materials, both bottle caps and pull tabs. (Maybe I'll make one for our church’s Christmas bazaar next year!)

These were the decorations for Asia.

And of course there were stunning flowers … in the Moana area

hibiscus 

ginger ( I know the ginger looks like it's plastic, but it's not, it's real)

And waterfalls and floating sky islands in the new “Avatar” area.

Leaving Animal Kingdom at night with the tree aglow.

Our next foray into Disney World was to Epcot. We found these marvelous seahorses 

It just so happened Epcot was having a food and art festival.                                 a deconstructed key lime pie and some other bite size delicacies. 

“Vienna”

Hanging out with a giant troll in “Denmark”. It was warm in there so at least it gave us a chance to thaw out a bit.

Japan …

Tiko drummers,

and floating bamboo foundations

We each picked out a “shoulder companion”… Groot chose Martin ❤️

And I picked Remi from Ratatouille.  He joined us at the French restaurant, Chefs de France. 

After eating we explored “Paris” including going on the Ratatouille ride. It was a trackless ride, so you zip about every which way. The line was 90 mins,(🙄) but after the first 15 mins we watched the movie on Martin's phone and were almost disappointed when it was time to get in the ride because we hadn't quite finished the movie. haha  But not to worry, the ride was great. And I didn't get sick at all! 

The moon, Paris and fountains

Next stops: Continuing down the coast of Florida to Port St Lucie,  Curry Hammock SP on Little Crawl Key, Dry Tortugas NP and Everglades NP using Flamingo campground as our home base.