We just returned on Saturday from a wonderful trip! I wanted to share our experience at a couple of the extra activities we did on our trip this year.
Up Close with Rhinos:
We added this 1 hour tour to our Animal Kingdom day. It was amazing! They do not allow cameras at all, but they try to make up for it with having some photo ops at the end (nice little touch).
The tour takes you back stage which was fun, you take a ride to the Rhino barn. The zoo keepers come out and tell you all about the rhinos and let you ask questions. Then they allow you to come see the rhinos. You can each take a turn and come pet the rhino from the outside of his enclosure. The kids got to color a bag with chalk for the rhino and then they fill the bag with his favorite treats and we got to see him open the bag and eat the snack (they said rhinos enjoy the smell of the chalk and that is why they use it on the bags). Our kids are 10 and 8 and they did not become bored during the tour and loved it! Just wish we had a picture of us petting the rhino. It was also nice to know that the cost of the tour goes directly to conservation efforts. The cost was $40 per person.
Wonderland Tea:
We have a “Princess Day” every visit…it always includes make overs at BBB (MK is our favorite location), Lunch at BOG, and Dinner at CRT…we also like to throw in something else (last visit it was Tiana’s Ice Cream Social)…this time we added the Tea Party. Realizing that my oldest is 10, I know this may be our last trip with “Princess Day”…I might be able to get 1 more visit where she is excited to participate.
This was a great event, the parents leave the kids for 1 hour to play games, make a craft, decorate a cupcake, and have a tea party with Alice and the Mad Hatter. At the end (after getting to spend a nice relaxing hour sitting in the Grand Floridian lobby) they give you a photo pass card with pictures of the whole event.
The girls LOVED it! They got to decorate tea pots and saucers to take home. The pictures of the event were great! Well worth the $50 per child in my opinion. The group was small and it was alot of fun overall!
Mermaid School
We signed up to go to mermaid school on our final morning…right before ending our trip at the Bon Voyage Breakfast. It was a fun way to end the trip. The pool opens an hour before regular pool hours for the mermaids. They teach you how to swim in the tail, play games, have you swim through rings, dive down to get “treasure”…ect. The girls had a BLAST! They also provide all attendees with a coupon to purchase the tail for $10 off at the end of class, which makes the tail to come home around $100. The class itself was $50 per person. They say the class is for all ages (just have to be over 4)…we did not have any adults in the class, but they said they do get them. We had one little brother attending and he did great too…so not just little girls attending! I want to say we had 8 swimmers total, so it was a small class and lots of attention.