"Travel Tuesdays"... Disney Day 1 - Animal Kingdom & Chef Mickey's

I know it's been a while since I posted for "Travel Tuesdays," but here is the first post about our trip to Disney in December. This will not only feature lots of pictures, but it will have some tips, too, in case you're planning a trip to the most magical place on Earth!

Day 1 for us was spent at Animal Kingdom. I wish we could have spent a little more time there, but we took advantage of the time that we had. We rode almost all of the rides and saw several shows. We did miss out on seeing some of the animal exhibits, though.

Tip #1: Hotel Check-In will probably take longer than you expect. Plan accordingly. There wasn't even a line when we got to the hotel, but it still took a while. There's just a lot of information that they go over with you, especially if you have the dining plan.

Check out this "tree."

Baloo & King Louie were our first character encounters! They were so much fun!

Chip & Dale

Petting Zoo

Rafiki!

Eliana had no idea we were about to meet Mickey & Minnie! It was so fun surprising her!

Tip #2: Flame Tree BBQ is fantastic! The food was great, and the service was even better! Their computer locked up when we scanned our magic band. They were going to charge our room, but we didn't have a room number, yet. When the cashier found out it was our first day there, she said, "Have a magical vacation! This one's on us!"

The "Lion King" Show is great! Eliana still talks about this, and says it was one of her favorite things we did.

Tip #3: The Finding Nemo show may be a little scary for toddlers. When we planned our trip, Eliana wasn't afraid of anything. Once it was time for our trip she was afraid of storms, sharks, villains in movies, bathtub drains, etc. We sat near the top in case we needed a quick escape.

We ended our first day with dinner at Chef Mickey's. This is a character dinner buffet with the Fab Five (Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy, and Pluto - I'm not sure why Daisy always gets left out). The food was fine, about what you would expect from a buffet. However, we loved the character experience! Each character came to our table multiple times. It did get a little hectic at times trying to get something else to eat without missing Eliana talking to one of the characters. Make sure someone in your party has a camera with them when you get up to get food.

Tip #4: If your kid loves the Mickey characters, try to reserve this meal. It is one of the most popular ones, so definitely try to snag it 180 days out.

Tip #5: The lobster mac & cheese at Chef Mickey's is quite yummy!

Tip #6: I added this tip after my husband reminded me about it. Leave earlier than you think is required to get to Chef Mickey's (really to get anywhere on Disney property). We missed a turn on the highway, had a hard time finding a parking spot, and the restaurant is on the 3rd floor of the building. It takes a while to get there.