paul riley

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.

On leaving the train you will take a footpath up to the Conservation station itself, along this route is an activity, that helps children to understand nature and how close it lives along side us, Habitat habit. Although the idea is very simple, I was amazed at how much the kids wanted and enjoyed taking part in the activity.

At the top of the hill you find Conservation station, a relatively none descript build that initially draws you in with the promise of cool air. Once inside it reminded me of a museum in the throws of a school trip, with kids looking at, prodding and climbing on various items, though in this place this is encouraged. We also found a couple of Disney characters (Jiminy Cricket and Pocahontas) providing autographs and photo opportunities for the kids.

Going out at the back of the Conservation Station you come to a souvenir shop and a petting zoo called Affection section. Dependant on the time of day and the outdoor temperature an assortment of domestic animals are available for children to pet and groom. On our visit the majority where sheep and goats with their id numbers shawn into their coats. The kids enjoyed this, in particular Felicity, but we felt that the time we had already spent at the park and the temperature were getting to them so decided to head back down towards the entrance of the park.

Whilst passing the Tree of Life we decided to venture onto one more attraction that being It's tough to be a bug. As with the Safari this is a popular attraction and so the queue can be long. The attraction itself is a 3D interactive short movie, were you see, hear, feel and smell the characters from the movie Bugs Life. Be warned our kids found this very intense, which was probably not help by the fact that they were starting to feel really tired.

Walt Disney World Resort - It's Tough to be a Bug!

On the way out of the park we felt it we should stop to get a proper meal as the kids had already started to flag and would probably crash at any minute, to our good fortune at the very entrance to the park (in fact straddling the entrance) is a Rainforest cafe. As mentioned previously we had been to the sister restaurant T-Rex at downtown Disney, the difference here is that the restaurant is themed to look like a rainforest, complete with animatronics animals that periodically act out a little scene of life in the forest.

Rainforest Cafe®