One of Disney's Hidden Gems.

So far in this blog I have spent most of my time in the Magic Kingdom.  On this occasion, I would like to start in a different park. Walt Disney, throughout his life was fond of animals. He spent hours of time and footage looking at how animals behave, often making wonderful movies that were shown on Disney's Wonderful World of Color. I remember seeing big cats sitting on his desk, and documentaries all about animals. His always to found a way to entertain his audience with his shows about animals but by exposing people to the world of animals He certainly raised people's awareness of the wild places around them. It seems appropriate that an animal based theme park would be a natural extension of what Walts vision of Walt Disney World should be. So, on April 22, 1998, the Animal Kingdom debuted in central Florida.

If you have read the previous post you would know that our family would take my mother-in-law to visit her sister in Tampa.  From time to time we would take a day to do something on our own, just my wife and kids and me. We visited the Animal Kingdom on one of these family adventures while in Florida.
This particular visit was on a hot day in august. It was one of those days where if you could get your hands on it you could squeeze water out of the very air itself.  It is also important to note that I don't do round and round well.  Attractions that spin leave the fluids in my inner ear spinning and my stomach in partial rebellion. There is a specific attraction in Dinoland USA called the Primeval Whirl that, for all intents and purposes' should be called the Primeval Hurl.  I don't blame Disney nor do I blame my wife for her coercion to participate it what can best be called a combination of a roller coaster and the tilt-a-whirl. Its was truely my own fault.  I should have had a stronger Will and resisted any pressure to get on the silly thing.  But I crumbled.  So after minutes that seemed like hours of spinning and bouncing I exited the attraction not feeling nearly as well as when I got on. My wife described me as White... Unwell looking.. Pale... It was all true.. I was flat sick.  Fortunately, I didn't give up my breakfast like my stomach seemed to be insisting that I do, so the results of my encounter with this attraction were not messy. However, any opportunity to sit for any period of time would have been welcomed at that moment in time.

After leaving Dinoland, and still reeling a bit from my encounter with the Primeval Hurl, we saw a little attraction that we might have passed up on any other day.  The Flights of Wonder in Asia at the Animal kingdom is a show dedicated to the birds of the world.  This attraction puts together the natural behavior of a number of different species of birds and adapts them into a very entertaining show.   If you have been at Disney before you will often see small flags leading groups of people through the crowds at the park.  Its a clever way for group leaders to keep their groups together.    Part of the story line revolves around the a trainee bird handler who is demonstrating the behavior of the birds and a guide who has lost his group. Guano Joe, as the tour guide is called stands in for the audience, giving the bird handler someone to show the behavior of these beautiful birds. The show is quite funny and for about 25 minutes or so the audience is truely enraptured by what these birds can do.  The birds are all beautiful in their own way, even the less cuddly ones.  They were comical, graceful, goofy and thoroughly entertaining. I will be the first to admit.  The Flight of wonders isn't the glitziest of shows.  It doesn't make your heart race or provide any adrenaline rush.  It provided me with long moments of entertainment and wonder. The show was funny and rich with information about birds.  It also gave me a chance to recover from my dreadful run in with the Primeval Hurl.