Dad's Birthday at Disney

When we were in Tennessee, the beginning of September, Dad and I were talking about his trip south the end of the month. He wasn't going to come down for his birthday, but the more he thought about it, the more he liked the idea of spending his birthday with us. The week before he came down, Rick and Csilla were visiting and Csilla made the suggestion of going over to Disney for his birthday since he would get in free as part of Disney's promotion for this year. I broached the subject with Dad and he loved the idea and asked if we could go to the Animal Kingdom since he had only been there once before (we had gone to EPCOT when he was here in January). I wasn't sure how tired he would be after driving down the previous two days, but he was game to go.

We got up Wednesday morning and headed over to Disney. We stopped at a Burger King before arriving at Disney so we could eat lunch and not pay the exorbitant food prices at Disney. With our stomachs full, we drove the few miles over to Disney.
Upon arrival, we went and got Dad his "birthday button" which had his name on it. He thoroughly enjoyed all of the many "happy birthday's" that were wished him. When people asked him how old he was, they couldn't believe him when he said 94. Most of them thought he was in his 70's!!!

The first thing we did was go to the "Festival of the Lion King" show. He enjoyed the show, but the main thing he wanted to do was see the animals.
After the show, we headed for the Kilamanjaro Safari. We anticipated having to wait a short time, but the park was so uncrowded, we were able to "walk" right on to the safari vehicle. Among the animals we saw on the "safari" were lions, elephants, giraffes, hippos and rhinos.




After the safari, we walked the Pangani Jungle Exploration Trail where we saw more animals - gorillas, meerkats and okapi.

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From the Pangani Trail, we started to walk to "Asia" to explore the Maharajah Jungle Trek to see more animals. However, Mickey's Jungle Jammin' Parade was occurring and the way over to Asia was blocked for the parade. We did not intend to stop and view the parade, but since we had no choice, we stood and watched. Many of the performers in the parade stopped and wished Dad a happy birthday. He was just thrilled!
Once the parade passed, we continued over to Asia. The tigers were magnificent and the birds were geautiful.

After taking the safari one more time and seeing more animals, we headed for the gate as the park was closing.

We had made previous arrangements to meet Rick and Csilla for dinner at Giordano's Restaurant. We had a wonderful dinner together and after a full, wonderful day, headed home.