#giordanos

Disney’s animal kingdom

Each day I wonder which park will be my absolute favorite and it has been so hard. I have the biggest love for animals and was so excited for this park.

We got so many congratulations from strangers and from workers today. One of the employees would bow whenever he would see us and would say “hello his majesty and her majesty” or “ here comes the great prince and wonderful princess, we’re so honored to have you at our park” and it just filled us with so much joy and made us so giddy.

We decided to eat at the rainforest cafe because neither of us had ever eaten at one before. When I was a kid whenever we’d be downtown Chicago I’d always pass and beg my parents for us to eat there but they always said it was too expensive and not worth it and that you’re only paying for the ambiance. I now understand where they were coming from but I at least finally got to try it and still loved the ambiance anyway.

The thing I was looking forward to the most was the safari tour. I loved that the animals were free roaming instead of caged up. I am a nerd and love learning facts and info and loved hearing all the stories of random people that helped save endangered animals and how they did it. I squealed when I saw a baby giraffe and one of the giraffes running freely.

I also learned that many elephants were being hunted because they were trampling farmers crops on their migration paths and farmers would lose out on profit and would eliminate the elephants to protect their crops before they could get destroyed. A researcher noticed that elephants were afraid of bees and that their skin is sensitive and it is very painful for them to be stung by bees so whenever they hear bees buzzing they start to run out of fear of being stung, lots of times this running frantically filled with fear would lead them through the crops. The researcher told the farmers to create hives and safe havens for bees and in turn it helped farmers make extra income off honey and it saved their crops because elephants were no longer running off their migration paths because bees were no longer buzzing past them. I relate to the elephant so much because I too run when I hear a big buzzing around me.

We went through the avatar area and it looked truly magical and felt like I was in another place for a moment. The mountain in the distance was a roller coaster and it gave me a heart attack because they let us ride front row and at one point the ride looks like the tracks are broken and abruptly stops you at the edge of the tracks.