Up at Disney's Animal Kingdom at Walt Disney World

Lighting Up the Night

Lights at night fill the area around UP! A Great Bird Adventure in Disney’s Animal Kingdom at Walt Disney World, as seen during the 2019 Band and Chorus Disney Trip.

We had enjoyed a long but fun day on this particular day. The small group that I was with visited three of the four parks at Walt Disney World on that one day. For whatever reason, we did not make it to Epcot. But we did spend some time in all of the others.

We ended up the day at Animal Kingdom, and our main goals were to ride Expedition: Everest and Flight of Passage in Pandora. And you will be happy to know that we did accomplish both of those goals.

As we were walking through Animal Kingdom, I was interested to see all of the lights outside of the Up bird show. As you can probably tell, there were no more performances of the show that day. But at least they left the lights on, because it would look bad if everything were dark.

I don’t know who the people are in the photo, but they had found a relatively quiet place to sit. And if you look closely at the lower right of the photo, you can see stone statues of Russell and Dug from the movie Up, and those characters appear in the show. I should try to get a better photo of them one of these days.

Seeing the Show

We did not see the Up bird show on that particular trip. However, Laura, Jaylin, and I had seen it before, during our visit to Disney’s Animal Kingdom in the summer of 2018.

As you can see from the photo above, the show featured the costumed characters, along with real, live birds, including this beautiful bald eagle. We have always enjoyed the different bird shows in this theater at Animal Kingdom, and the new version was good, especially since it was a change from what we had seen before.

However, there were several “official” looking people in the front rows when we saw the show. After it was over, they stayed in their location a long time going over notes. Not too long after that, changes were made to the show. We haven’t seen the updated version that is running now, and I wished that I could have heard the comments that the official people were sharing with each other. I am sure it was an interesting conversation!

See more photos from these trips at the 2019 Band and Chorus Disney Trip and June 2018 Florida Trip pages.

Always Improving

I do appreciate that they were taking a good show and trying to make it better. There is nothing wrong with that.

That can be a good practice in so many areas, actually. Look around at what you do. If it is not good, definitely make some changes. But if it is good, you might still take another look at it to see if you can make it better.

There might be a more efficient way to do something. You might be able to save a little time. You might be able to save a little money. If so, you can put those resources that you saved to use in another area. You might be able to include more people or reach a bigger audience. Or you might be able to put out an even better product.

As you examine things, you might run into setbacks, too. From time to time, I like to examine the route I take to get to work in the mornings. Sometimes I try going a slightly different way to see if that way is better. Occasionally, I will find something better. But at other times, I might find that the new way is actually slower and the old way is still the best way. Nothing wrong with that, either. You don’t know if you don’t try. But it was still worth trying.

Don’t just get in a routine and stay there for the rest of your life. Look for ways to change for the better. Because it just might be worth it.

Bible Verse

For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. - 2 Peter 1:5-7

About the Photos

As is mentioned above, I took these two photos on two separate trips. Because of that, I took these photos with two separate cameras. The photo from the show was taken with the Olympus OM-D camera, and the nighttime photo was taken with the Sony A7 II. You can probably guess that an equipment upgrade happened between the two trips.

I have enjoyed using both cameras. They definitely have their differences on what they can do, but both have served me well.

First Photo: A single Raw exposure, processed in Aurora HDR. Read more about photography tips, photo software, camera gear, and more at Steve’s Photography Tips.
Camera: Sony Alpha A7 II
Lens: Sony FE 28-70mm f/3.5-5.6 OSS Lens
Date: March 9, 2019
Location: Disney’s Animal Kingdom, Walt Disney World, Florida

Second Photo: A single Raw exposure, processed in Aurora HDR. Read more about photography tips, photo software, camera gear, and more at Steve’s Photography Tips.
Camera: Olympus OM-D E-M10
Lens: Olympus 14-42mm IIR
Date: June 13, 2018
Location: Disney’s Animal Kingdom, Walt Disney World, Florida