Animal Kingdom - Feb 27

Our first theme park was Animal Kingdom. The park focuses on animal conservation with the centerpiece of the park an artificial tree called “The Tree of Life.” We focused our visit on the Asia and Africa themed areas and attended a few shows in a couple of the other lands. It was a very educational experience but I don’t think kids, especially teens, would care that much for the park.  Little kids had a Dinoland with kiddy rides, but the thrill rides were limited to a wet rapids ride.

The day was cloudy and cold and even though I came prepared with hat, gloves, and jacket, I still shivered most of the day. Fortunately, it didn’t rain.

I had a couple of favorite experiences. The first was the jungle safaris truck ride. You went out into a large area on trucks that were patterned after the trucks used in Africa for photo safaris (but much bigger), looking for wild animals. We saw a lot of different critters and most of them were pretty active. Disney did a great job creating a landscape mimicking the Africa lands, including the savannah. It was difficult to tell the difference between what was real and what was artificial, like the giant termite hills. Just after the driver/guide told us that the termite hills were artificial, the gal from New Jersey that was sitting behind us hollered out to her crowd of 15 or so family members, “Hey look at how huge those anthills are, can you believe that?” The one thing that kind of put a damper on this ride was that New Jersey crowd; they didn’t seem to understand the concept of talking at anything less than the hollering level and the kids had no idea what staying in your seat meant, so the guide had to constantly remind them.

The second great experience was the walk we took through an East Indian ruin (of course, just a facsimile), and looked out on animals and plants of the region. I felt like I might have been transported to that area. Of course, minus the humidity, bugs and creepy crawlies.

It didn’t take all day and night to see the park, the park actually closes at sundown, so we had a nice low key intro to visiting a Disney theme park in Florida. That evening, we went to the Animal Kingdom Lodge to have dinner at their African themed restaurant, Boma. The hotel was beautiful, with thatched roofs on the portico and entry area.

The "Tree of Life" is huge (see the little people at its base?)



When you get closer to the tree, you see that it has carvings of all sorts of creatures on it. We actually saw a show in an auditorium underneath the tree, you walked on a path winding through the roots to get to it.

 

 

This was a 30 minute live musical of Finding Nemo, using puppets.  It was very well done. Very creative puppets, including this stingray operated on a tricycle bike.

Many of the puppets were operated by two and three people.

A bird show showcased several unusual birds, including this bald eagle.



This vulture had been trained to fly low over the crowd's heads. I certainly ducked when it passed overhead.



This bird is aptly named a mustached owl.

 

Maybe because it was a cool day, but the animals, including this hippo, were pretty active.



These trucks wind their way around a park area stopping when animals are spotted so pictures can be taken. At one point, we had to stop for a few minutes to allow a herd of elephants to cross a road.



This is a Baobob tree; the driver/guide described it as an upside down tree where the roots are on top.

This is a white rhino. The driver/guide said these are rare. Disney recently just had a baby white rhino born to a mom who was also born at the park. The grandmother is also at Disney.

I told Russ that Disney must bait the area to get the lion up there.  The rocks were an exact replica of the ones made famous in "The Lion King".

We decided we would not be comfortable being in the same water as this hippo, even though it is a plant eater.

It was fascinating watching the hippo swim. He was very graceful swimming in circles around a small island.

 

This 45 minute production of "The Lion King" was full of acrobatic stunts, dancing, singing and colorful costumes.

These fruit bats were huge - I think at least 2 feet long. I know they are not harmful, but still creepy looking.



Waling through the ruins of this East Indian palace was very interesting. Attention to detail was amazing.



The park had a problem with pesky birds bugging you when you sat at a snack stand to eat your lunch. But instead of typical pigeons or small swallows, these white ibis were aggressively chasing you for food.  They knew when the day was winding down and returned to this area to spend the night. I know Disney has done a lot for animal conservation, but they created a problem for these birds.