One of the character breakfasts that e really like is at Animal Kingdom's Tusker House. The characters are dressed up in safari gear and spend a pretty good amount of time with you. Mickey loved my runDisney shirt at was excited when I told him I was going to run Dopey.The food was yummy. I had waffles, potatoes, plantains, and rice.This buffet is a bit pricey but I was stuffed afterwards.
After we finished our race and got our medals (and I took a trip to medical to get some ice!), we went back into Animal Kingdom for the After Party. It was about midnight! Animal Kingdom is so neat after dark! The Tree of Life is lit up, as well as Everest. Unfortunately, my phone camera does not do well in the dark.
The lines were really short, so we rode Expedition Everest twice. It is such a better ride in the dark. You don't see the drop coming at all, and the rush is more intense. We also went once Kali River Rapids and got wet, not soaked, which was refreshing. It was so not crowded, the other people in our tube got to stay on the ride for a second time.
We then went on Primeval Swirl (or something like that). I don't need to go on that one again. Too much spinning. There was a short wait before we started because someone had gotten sick. I can see why.
Then we got some pictures printed out at the New Balance Booth and visited some characters: Baloo and King Louie, Pluto and Goofy, and others.
It was a fun night and a great experience to be in Animal Kingdom after dark!
May 4. Heidi and I got to Animal Kingdom around 7:30 p.m. hoping to be able to exchange our shirts for a smaller size, but we had no luck. No smaller sizes were available.
We relaxed in the car for a while, put on our bibs, and then went to get some pictures taken. It was pretty crowded, but the energy level was high. There were two snow machines pumping out snow on everyone and the DJ was blasting music and talking to the crowd.
The race officially started at 10 p.m. but we were in corral C so we started at 10:12. The first mile was in the parking lot, but it was still exciting. They had speakers out with music and animal sounds. It was also amusing to see the other runners. One guy was dressed as Tarzan and had a stuffed monkey making tons of sounds. In this mile was the first obstacle - jumping over hay bales. Pretty easy.
The next mile was inside the park. We ran towards the Tree of Life which was lit up, and then through Asia, backstage for a bit, and then past Kali River Rapids and Everest. We then went backstage and ran past the back of Everest, coming to the second obstacle - tires. There was a short line for this but we got through it pretty fast.
The third mile was all backstage and not much excitement other than waiting for the finish line to come. My knee was hurting pretty bad by this point, but I kept running. We came to the last obstacle - crawling under a net. I passed by this one because of my knee and crossed the finish line.
We were handed a clue card and were back off to the front of the park to get our next clue. For the clues, each was a direction of the compass. We were running all around the park getting more clues until we finally had to use all the clues to figure out a puzzle giving us the final answer needed to cross the finish line. We had about 3/4 of a mile to run to the finish line, so we hobbled there and got our medals!
We went for a character breakfast one morning at Animal Kingdom's Tusker House. The chef walked me around the buffet and told me what was safe to eat. He also went back and made me a huge plate of Mickey Waffles because this was what I really wanted!
I didn't take a picture of the rest of my food but it included breakfast potatoes, fruit, and some other things that I don't remember. Also, the jungle juice was very good.
They also brought me a card signed by Mickey and the Gang for my birthday, along with a cupcake muffin that I couldn't eat.