Let me start of by saying I hate HATE writing, and I do not think I do it well. But I do love Disney and I love helping families plan magical vacations to Disney, and well also to cruise and All Inclusive. But my first passions the reason I became a travel planner and learned more about other destinations and experienced them was because of my love for helping others plan their trips to Disney.
I am doing a series on this blog, comparing all the parks to each other. I will come back and up date this blog as I write for the other parks.
Magic Kingdom
Disney Hollywood Studio
Epcot
For this blog I am going to list the attractions then comment on my thoughts, my son's (9 year old thrill seeker who hates big drops only), and my mother who is 59 years old with a medical condition of a bad heart, so was in an electric wheel chair.These are our thoughts, and may be different from yours. A saying I love to say and I hope you get the meaning. "One person yuck is another person's yum so don't yuck their yum." I usually say this in regards to food options, I mean unless the restaurant has all HORRIBLE reviews, I tend to find that not everyone has the same taste, but this can apply to everything in life including rides, attractions and shows. So unless there are a ton of bad reviews, take a review with a grain of salt...and this includes mine. I tried to be impartial but that is impossible for anyone to truly be.
Before I start this review, a lot of the attractions at Animal Kingdom are looking at animals and I can't say that I can add anything to those except to tell you what animals are there...But I am going to write all the blogs the same, so I am listing the attractions, and will just skip listing the food places. Also, this is our FAVORITE park at Walt Disney World, many people chose Magic Kingdom, and I can see why but to us Disneyland beats Magic Kingdom and we go to Disneyland all the time so...that is why we liked Animal Kingdom best.
Oasis
The Oasis Exhibits- you can see Barirusa and Spoon billRainForest Cafe®- I am part of the Landry club (the restaurant chain that owns the Rainforest Cafe), we went to this one for breakfast, because it is one of my favorite breakfast spots when I am staying at Disneyland Hotel and have to walk Downtown Disney to get to the theme parks. This Rainforest Cafe, I was informed is the largest one out of all of them across the nation. And I can believe that, it was very large and I really like the lay out of this one better than the one at Disneyland. The food to me was the same.
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| Rainforest Cafe Fish tanks |
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| Rainforest Cafe next to our table |
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| Rainforest cafe outside AK |
Discovery Island
Wilderness Explorers-Become a Wilderness Explorer by completing lots of challenges and earn badges as you work your way around the park! We got a book and, my son was overwhelmed by it and tried a few badges but quickly became frustrated and we stopped. It is very educational and I wanted to take the book home for later and ended up loosing it.
It's Tough to be a Bug!-This attraction is also at Disney California Adventure and the show is exactly the same. It's a 4D show that can be scary for young ones. Though this attraction has a FastPass+, you don't need one. At Disney California, this attractions, FastPass system was turned into Radiators Racers FastPass distribution because you don't need a FastPass for this attraction at either park. I think children 6 years to 10 years old that aren't easily scared will find the humor in this show.
Discovery Island Trails-Stroll along tranquil pathways and discover many animal around the Tree of Life. Some of the animals are Otter, Cotton-top Tamarin, Ring-tailed Lemur
Adventures Outpost-FastPass to meet Mickey and Minnie in their exploration headquarters. My son refused to let us do any Character meet and greet, though my mom and I did one at this park, it was because there was no line.
Flame Tree Barbecue-We had quick service lunch here, because everyone raved about the food and the value if you are on the dining plan, because you get a lot of food for you buck. I should have read the reviews better....I don't like smoked BBQ that well I like flamed and smothered in BBQ sauce, this food isn't smothered and taste smokey...so its my yuck but a LOT of peoples yum.
Pizzafari- We only ate here for lunch on our second day at Animal Kingdom because my son had requested Pizza. I have to say its flat bread with unusually pizza topping choices. It is NOT pizza. My son wasn't happy with the choice. It was OK pizza.
There are 7 other dining options in Discovery Island, most are quick service, I didn't try any of them. There was lots of little entertainments going on around the dinning spots, with dancers, singers and drummers. It was nice to have the entertainment while dining. There were also lots of little shops, we wondered around but bought nothing form them
Africa
Festival of the Lion King-Love loved this show, we saw it twice because we liked it soo much. Has puppetry, acrobats, and is very interactive Broadway type show. The second time my son volunteered.
Kilmanjaro Safaris-Have your camera out for this ride. I was worried about dropping it, so I didn't and missed some great shots of animals. We had a Giraffe so close to us we could have touched it. We liked see the animals on this ride. I can see how this ride can be AMAZING or horrible and its all weather the animals are active or not. Once the hippos were active and the next they weren't. Same with the other animals. So if you had a so-so experience try it again...unless you don't like watching animals...you will see Elephants, lion, gorilla, giraffe, hippopotamus, zebras and more.
Gorilla Falls Exploration Trail-Walk through tropical forest inhabited by African wild life see Elephant, lions, gorilla, Colobus monkey
Wildlife Express Train-I have never been on this train, I have gone to Walt Disney World many times and I always say I will but then because of its location never make it back to that part of the park in time to go to Rafiki's Planet Watch.
Donald's Dining Safari at Tusker House-They had some good unique food here, and it was one of my more favorite buffets. You get to see Goofy, Mickey, Donald and Daisy
I had a drink at Dawa Bar while waiting to be seated at Tusker house, it was an ok drink. Across from the Tusker House is Tamu Tamu Refreshment that service Dole Whip with alcohol, we didn't get it, but we did get an ice cream sandwich from there, which was two big chocolate chocolate chip cookies between soft service ice cream. There are other quick service options and shops here.
Rafiki's Planet Watch
I am ashamed to say we never made it here. You have to take the wildlife express train to get here, you are supposed to see cotton-top Tamarin, Tarantula and other animals. Only animals are there.Asia
Flights of Wonder-really cool bird show...I was chosen to give a hawk a dollar and since the hawk didn't want to do the trick I was instead invited up for an owl to fly over my head...I took a video and posted it below. We saw this show twice, we liked it and both times the show was different.Meet and Greet-Its not on the map but right outside the Bird show is a meeting area and Baloo was always there and when I saw no one was going to see him I rushed over to get a photo, my mom joined me but my son refused.
Kali River Rapids-When I booked my trip, I saw this ride go on the refurbishment list, which made me sad because I had always loved this ride and knew my son would...but I had hope it said it would open a day before we left, which is why we planned a second day...but a week before we came...they extended the refurbishment....:( Anyways, you do get wet and its a fun rapid ride.
Expedition Everest-Legend of the Forbidden Mountain-If you can't tell from the many many photos posted...this was my son's FAVORITE ride over all the four parks. And I didn't even post all the photos we took on this ride. You must be 44 inches to ride this speeding train thru the Himalayan Mountains while avoiding the cluthes of the Yeti...some people compare this ride to Disneyland's Matterhorn but there is no comparing...this ride is WAY better and different. Only thing the same is there is a Yeti in both.
There are several restaurant and shops in this land. We didn't try any...though I heard great things about Yak & Yeti
DinoLand U.S.A
The boneyard-its a fun little playground with slides and a sand box where kids can dig up dinosaur bones.Fossil Fun Games- These are carnival type games that cost extra with dinosaur theme that you can play, we didn't
Finding Nemo-The Musical-There are new songs you never heard in the movie, its a puppet show. Its cute but I was happy with seeing it once.
Primeval Whril-I always said this ride looks like Goofy's Sky School (a ride at Disney California Adventure Park that is my son's FAVORITE ride there) meets the tea cups so I thought my son would like this ride, and though he said he did...he didn't request to go on it more than once. I thought it was cute and I actually liked it better than Goofy's Sky School
TriceraTops Spin-Dumbo has been turned into TriceraTops with back seats! We didn't go on them though.
DINOSAUR- The Indiana Jones track has been moved to this ride. (ok only those that have gone to Disneyland would get that) but this ride is jerky and I remember when I was in my 20s finding this ride fun scarier than I did in my 30s. Of course it could have been because my friends and I in our 20s were being quite more silly....but this time around I didn't find the POP of the Dino as scary. And my son didn't notice him at all as you can see from the picture.
Well that is the end of the park map and the list of rides and attractions listed on the Animal Kingdom Map. Here is the map I was looking at as I was writing.
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