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Animal Kingdom Disney Animal Kingdom : Orlando, Florida : Trip Report
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INFO
Hours: 9am-5pm
Tickets: Adults $59.75
Children $48.00
Children 2 and under FREE
See website for a zillion ticket options.

Disney Animal Kingdom

Having only two days to spend at Disney World we had to be picky about which parks we would visit. The only other thing that looked appropriate for our very young kids was Animal Kingdom. My three year old absolutely loves zoos so that's what we picked for our second and final day at Disney.

I expected it to be mostly a Zoo with a Disney theme. At first there were some animals in the Oasis section but I quickly found out there were hardly any in the rest of the park. The Camp Minnie-Mickey section was mostly for the shows. It's also where they have huts where you can meet your favorite Disney characters dressed in their safari attire. We didn't spend much time in Discovery Island and went on to Africa to get some lunch and catch the Kilimanjaro Safari ride. During the ride the rain started and didn't stop so we decided to cut our day short and didn't see the rest of the park.


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We're here!
A Babirusa, a closer relative to the Hippo than the Pig.
Lesser Whistling Duck from Southeast Asia.

Black Swan from Australia.
Military Macaws from South America.
The obviously fake Tree of Life with intricate animal carvings all over the trunk.

Some of the carvings can be made out here.
Lesser Flamingo from coastal Africa.
Some type of Vulture.

Entering Africa.
Showing my daugther a Sausage Tree.

Fish in the Hippopotamus tank
Lowland Gorillas trying to stay out of the rain.
Across the water you can see the Everest exhibit under construction.

Pocahantas and Her Forest Friends

The highlights for us were the shows. The Pocahontas and Her Forest Friends show was very entertaining. I think I'm very concerned for the environment but even I found it too preachy. But as long as it gets the kids interested in preserving the environment then it's fine by me.

This show did actually contain a few animals, mostly things like an Opposum, Skunk, Porcupine, a couple Ducks, etc. Rarely did the animal stick around, they mostly just ran across the stage or over a large log in the background. What I found interesting was there was a branch across the back of the stage and every few minutes one or two Rats would scurry across the branch.

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There's Pocahantas.
Some funny looking talking tree.
Talking to Grandmother Willow.

Porcupine.
There's one of the Rats that ran across the branch.
The whole stage.

Lion King Show

Right next to Pocahontas was the Lion King show. That one was a very high production value stage show. Lots of elaborate sets and costumes. It's basically a musical mostly with songs from the Lion King movies. Great stuff. We all had a good time there and it was just long enough for our kids to sit still through.

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Kilimanjaro Safaris

The only other place to see any real animals is on the Kilimonjaro Safari and that was disappointing because they drove past the animals so fast that by the time I spotted them I usually didn't have time to point them out to my kids, let alone get a good look myself. I think the pace was WAY too quick and I much prefer the way it's done at other places such as Lion Country Safari.

Disney of course couldn't just drive through and tell you about the aniamls. They just had to make up some corny story about Elephant poachers. The whole ride involved the driver talking to a fake pilot who is trying to find the poachers. At one point we crossed a bridge that obviously had some mechanicals to make it shake like it was rickety.

Cute story, but I really wish it was a lot more leasurely. It was almost like a roller coaster ride through a zoo. I guess they think the average kid doesn't have the attention span to pay attention without the extra stuff.

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Here comes the bus.
An Upside Down Tree, probably fake.
Entering the park.

Large Anthill. Hmm, wonder if it's real.
Several Wildebeast and a Zebra.
Fake rickety bridge.

Mommy Elephant tries to keep Baby Elephant dry.
A couple White Rhinos trying to stay dry.
A very wet and miserable looking Lion.

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