USA - Part 8 - Animal Kingdom

This section is about our visit to Disney Animal Kingdom that was part zoo and part theme park.  Kristine loved the safaris and animal walks and we all really liked the Expedition Everest ride.

We found Animal Kingdom to be much better shaded than Magic Kingdom and so it was quite a bit cooler and more comfortable.

The centerpiece of Animal Kingdom was the Tree of Life, which is a 44m tall artificial tree that is carved with the shapes of many animals.  It was built in 1998 from a recycled oil platform.

Welcome to Animal Kingdom

One of the videos we got created from the PhotoPass

Disney's Animal Kingdom

The Kingdom was split into an entrance area (Oasis), a central island (Discovery Island), two country themed areas (Africa and Asia) and a Dinosaur area (DinoLand USA).

Oasis
Oasis was the entry area to the park. It consisted of several shops and a Babirusa (pig-deer from the Indonesian Islands) and Spoonbill enclosures.

Entering Oasis

Discovery Island
This was the main central island of the park and housed Otters, Porcupines and Cotton-top Tamarins. It was also the site of the Tree of Life, several restaurants and the "It's Tough to be a Bug!" show under the tree.  Discovery Island also housed the "Adventurers Outpost" which was a place to meet with Mickey and Minnie Mouse for photos.

Discovery  Island

Baloo the Bear tried to scare Kristine by sneaking up and walking a few centimeters behind her and tapping her shoulder, but he failed as Kristine just thought it was one of the kids and told him to stick with us and keep walking.

Disappointed Baloo goes hunting new victims

Tree of Life
The Tree of Life was pretty impressive and we got several shots, both with our own cameras and professional shots:

Tree of Life

Close-up showing the animals

We made friends with Simba, Pumbaa and Timon

And posed for a pre-framed photo

View from the side of the tree

Adventurer's Outpost
Adventurer's Outpost was our chance to meet up with explorer Mickey and Minnie and get our photos taken.  The kids loved seeing the characters and we got some nice photos.

Adventurer Mickey and Minnie

Wider shot

Alana and the characters

Tomas and the characters

Cameron and the characters

Africa
Africa was very focused on the animal experiences, there were several African themed shops and restaurants and two main exhibits - Kilimanjaro Safari (A jeep ride through an animal park) and Gorilla Falls Exploration Trail (A walk through an animal park including gorillas).

There is also a wildlife train that heads over to Rafiki's Palace Watch which had a petting zoo and education centre, but we didn't make it across.

Kilimanjaro Safaris
This will be a long section as the ride was pretty cool and there was lots to see.  Kristine was really happy to see real animals instead of the animatronics she had initially expected.  The enclosures were large and the animals had plenty of room to roam.

The jeep drivers also acted as guides pointing out the animals and giving information about the area and the animals.

The start of the tour

The hippo pond (the hippos are in the back right by the tree stump)

Waterfall in the park

Pieced together chart of the animals in the Safari Park

Welcome to Jurassic Pa... I mean Kilamanjo Safaris (Kris had to tell me to stop whistling the Jurassic Park theme). I was waiting for the raptors to come out...

I went for a swim... or is that a hippo?

'Gator!  As an Aussie I was tempted to wrestle it but it was too hot (the weather not the alligator...)

An animal so new it wasn't on the spotters chart - African Painted Dogs.  And yes they were alive, despite Tomas saying "They're all dead, dad!"

Springboks

Termite Mound

Termite mound or gateway to hell?

Wildebeast (Or as Cameron said "Look dad, Wilder Beasts!"

A fairly unimpressed giraffe

More giraffes

Elephant

Flamingos

This rhino really wasn't thrilled to see us

Rhinos

Sleepy

More sleep

Zeeeeebra

Gorilla Falls Exploration Trail (Pangani Forest Exploration Trail)
After the safari we headed over to the gorilla walk and hiked through looking at the animals, such as gorillas and birds.

Information Poster

Example of an animal journal for a Spider Tortoise

Spider Tortoise

Sign post

Okapi skull and giraffe skull - they'd lost the rest of the animal

Taveta Golden Weaver working on its nest

The gorillas - it was hard to get close enough to photograph

Asia
The Asia area was home to several shows we weren't able to catch due to our time limits, as well as the "Maharajah Jungle trek" animal walk, Kali River Rapids (white water rafting ride) and Expedition Everest - Legend of the Forbidden Mountain (roller coaster).

Asia signpost

Gibbon enclosure

The kids favourite thing was the fountains to start with - they alternated between shooting from the wall and out of the ground, so Tomas tried his best to block them off as they came up:

Oh no! Now its there

Got it! Don't you dare come out of the wall again!

Arrgh!

The fountain - the kids loved it as the water was a thin layer, so once they pushed through it was dry.  But Cam needed to rethink his words "I can put my head in it because it's hollow inside."  (He meant the fountain but it took some thinking...)

 Kali River Rapids
 We were really looking forward to this ride as chance to cool down, but the line got longer and when we finally got in the queue there were lots of delays and the kids were getting bratty so we had to skip it.  It was a white water raft ride that looked pretty fun.

Expedition Everest - Legend of the Forbidden Mountain

This was one of our favourite rides - a rollercoaster that climbs a mountain and then races down the inside, sometimes backwards and sometimes dark.  It follows the story of a climb to Mount Everest and the hunt for a yeti.  It was a fun ride and I got to tick "Visit Mt Everest Base Camp" off of my bucket list.

The ride was visible from a fair distance

Yeti exhibits

Animal masks - including Yeti

Our first ride photo

Second ride - Keir and Alana

Second ride - Kris, Cam and Tomas

  Maharajah Jungle Trek
This was the first animal trek we did and unfortunately we didn't have much luck.  The Komodo Dragon was inside asleep, the bat enclosure was shut as the bats were off at the vet for a check-up and the tiger was hiding in the shadows.

The Maharajah Jungle Trek

Bird Enclosure

Birds

Tiger enclosure

Wall art

More birds

DinoLand USA
This area felt a little out of place in the more down-to-earth animal park, but it had some fairly cool exhibits and rides.  The area was set up to exhibit fossil hunting, paleontology and there was a dinosaur ride that featured time travel back to the dinosaur era.

The zone also had a dinosaur dig playsite (The Boneyard) and whirling kids rollercoaster (Primeval Whirl) and a standard spinning ride (TriceraTops Spin).

Entry to Dinoland USA

Dinosaur skeleton over the entrance - Tomas dubbed him "Sir broken-off tail"

The kids ride area and the TriceraTop Spin

A very hungry T-Rex

Dinosaur
This ride was a ride in a cart through the Dinosaur era, during the final extinction event meteor event and escaping from a Carnotaurus trying to rescue an Iguanadon.

Ride entry

The queue wound around the Carnotaurus skeleton

The Carnotaurus is described as the only meat-eating dinosaur with horns. It existed in the late Cretaceous Period and had a bulldog-like face.  Only one skeleton has been found, but it had the most complete fossilized skin impression ever found of a meat-eating dinosaur.

The Dino Institute

Our ride photo, just as a giant Canotaurus leapt out from the side..  It may also have been just after I told Alana and Tom that the passengers on the right side of the cart had sometimes been eaten.

After Dinosaur we finished up at Animal Kingdom and headed back to our resort for dinner and then off to Magic Kingdom.  There were some cool stock photos provided with our PhotoPass:

Tree of Life

Tree of Life