paul riley

Having had a successful day the day before, we decided that the fifth day of the holiday we would approach it in pretty much the same way. So once again we packed a backpack and left the villa early, only this time Disney's Animal Kingdom was our destination. This, like Hollywood Studios, is located to the south of the Disney World area, and we arrived and were at the gates by about quarter past nine.

Walt Disney World Resort - Disney's Animal Kingdom Theme Park

Once though the gates we had our first attraction already planned out, the Kilimanjaro Safari, which is pretty much at the other end of the park to the entrance.

The park itself is, like the others, divided into sections that radiate out from the central Tree of Life feature, and the safari is located in the Africa section. One thing we immediately noticed about this park is that it seemed hotter and more humid, which I think is in part down to the dense vegetation probably stopping all breezes, which in turn are not able to blow any of the humidity away. Read More...

From the exit of the safari, Pangani forest exploration trial is pretty much next door, and gives you a chance to see even more wildlife, but this time on your own two feet, this is much more like a zoo, although one in Africa not the UK. The animals on display here are a mix of primates (monkeys and apes), small mammals (meerkats) and birds. Compared to the Safari this is very much more low key, but worth the visit.

As you wander around the Africa section you will hear what sounds like a steam train periodically tooting its horn, this we found out was the train that took you to Rafiki's planet watch. This part of the park is very much an educational attraction, enlightening the visitors to the work done by Disney in the area of conservation.

To get to Rafiki's planet watch you take the Wildlife express train, a train in which you sit sideways and view parts of the safari park and the areas behind the scenes where the animals welfare is looked after. Read More...

We wandered back to the main central area, mainly to refocus and regroup, and noticed that some of Disney's characters were out on a meet and photo opportunity session, this was something we had all but overlooked in or plans for the park visits. Unfortunately we had missed the opportunity that time but the characters are out regularly with times and locations detailed on the Times Guide, so we took the chance to eat, it was already lunchtime pretty much, and our plans to keep our energy levels up appeared to be working.

Finding ourselves by the Chinese we thought we'd do the Great Movie ride, none of us knew anything about it but the rating in the guide book we took with us indicated that it would not scare the children. The queue for the ride took you past a number of movie artefacts before you passed through a 'cinema' showing trailers for a number of very famous films of yesteryear. Read More...