Disney's Animal Kingdom Review - 8 hours (including visiting the Lodge)
DAK is more than just a zoo, as it is also a massive, 500-acre theme park that is the largest of all the Disney resorts. I spoke to many members of ZooChat before venturing down to Florida, and opinion is widely split on this park. I personally believe that just about every single exhibit is very well done, the pathways are gorgeous and lushly planted, there is zero litter anywhere, employees are buzzing around absolutely like gigantic bees, and the atmosphere is festive and fun. However, my wife and I do not appreciate rollercoasters or any other rides that involve much movement and thus a huge chunk of the park was off limits to us in terms of enjoyment.
We were there for the animals and to admire our first ever foray into the world of Disney, and both of us were thrilled but at the end of the day a little disappointed in what we saw. After the brilliant African section of the zoo, and then the quite impressive but smaller Asian section of the zoo...that's all folks! I'm exaggerating as the place has 5 more areas that are all a fair size, but the scattering of animal exhibits after Africa and Asia leaves a little to be desired. There are gift shops around every corner, "cast members" in costume who are the main reason that the kiddies are there, and food establishments are a dime a dozen. But where are the animals amongst the glitter of the performances, incredible attention to detail, and Goofy characters? The animals are definitely there but they seem to be hiding, as the overall ambience that Disney has created kept reminding me over and over again of when I visited San Diego's Seaworld in 2006.
The Best:
Kilimanjaro Safaris - this is Africa in all of its glory in an outstanding jeep packed with camera-clicking tourists. The detail in the creation of the jeep, the waiting area for visitors, the enclosures for the animals and the sense of really being in Tanzania, Kenya or South Africa is intense. My wife and I went straight for this ride as soon as the park opened, and then after the first safari we went back into the lineup and after another 25 minutes or so went on the exact same ride again. It's about 18-20 minutes in length, and is basically a whirlwind African safari that is truly exhilirating.
Seeing a massive elephant paddock, nile crocodiles, hippos in separate exhibits, waterfowl, bongo, okapi, wildebeest only a few feet away from the jeep, white rhinos alongside the vehicle and black rhinos in their own enclosure, mandrills, giraffes, ostrich, lions, cheetahs and a variety of antelope is breathtaking and unfortunately far too short for any hardcore zoo fan. The first safari I sat in wonderment while Debbie snapped away with the camera, and then on the second ride I took the photos while she sat back and took it all in. There are zero fences anywhere and only moats setting the animals apart from the jeep, and for some of the areas the animals are walking all around the vehicle and ignoring the whirring cameras.
What really is a major disappointment with the ride, and thus taints the overall impact, is the time frame of the trip. People are lining up for an hour or more later in the day to take this mini jaunt to Africa, and thus the employees are pumping out jeeploads of tourists at an incredible rate. The safari ride flies by at a speedy rate, and I would have loved to have spent more time watching the animals at my own pace. We flew so fast by the okapis that I don't think that I even have more than a couple of photos of them, and the mandrill exhibit looked fantastic but we spent about 5 seconds looking at it before the jeep lurched forward down the track. Seriously, my wife and I even joked about it because as everyone was directing their attention at the elephants on the right hand side of the jeep the mandrill enclosure was passed in 10 seconds or less on the left. I timed it on the second run through and it was about 8 seconds and then gone! Where is the education and excitement in that? Some animals are easier to see, but it was interesting riding it twice consecutively and seeing how many of the animals had shifted position from one ride to the next. Too fast and too short of a ride, but overall still enormously exciting.
Pangani Forest Trail - I think that here lies the second best gorilla exhibits I've seen in my life, bettered only by Congo Gorilla Forest at the Bronx Zoo. There are several viewing options, via a glass window, a swaying suspension bridge, and then wide and overgrown pathways. There is a small family group and a separate bachelor group of gorillas, and the lush hillside, rocky, dense, jungle habitats are spectacular, and I was shocked at how many hiding opportunities the massive apes had. My photos that I'll upload later will show a fantastic pair of habitats that are spacious, naturalistic and totally appealing to all ape lovers.
The okapi, colobus monkey, gerenuk, meerkat, underwater hippo viewing and African bird aviary are all nicely done and photogenic, although they aren't the best of their kind and have been repeated at several other zoos. The research hut with a host of reptiles, amphibians and naked mole rats is quite brilliant, but far too small for the herds of mooing zoogoers that tramped through it and for once there was a battle between us and the public. It was as if we were trapped in the famous wildebeest migration in an east African nation!
Maharajah Jungle Trek: this is the Asian section of the zoo, and features a couple of rides that we didn't go on. Expedition Everest is a massive rollercoaster, and the Kali River Rapids is a whitewater rafting ride that guarantees that everyone would get quite wet. Since we don't enjoy the queasy feeling from rollercoasters, and since it was a cold day and we didn't want to get wet we then skipped those two attractions.
The animal exhibits are hit and miss for me, as the main attraction was the 2 tiger enclosures (6 tigers on show with 3 in each exhibit) but I am simply not a fan of the ruined temple habitats that pop up in many zoos. I'd rather see a woodland area instead of the wide open paddocks that allow the tigers barely any room to escape from the public. Plus, the visitor pathways with an abundance of painted murals, crumbling steps and staggering attention to detail have obviously been more costly than the actual tiger enclosures. The white-cheeked and siamang gibbon islands are nicely done, even with the ruined temple approach, the komodo dragon was swimming back and forth in its moated enclosure (I've never seen a dragon swim like that before but sadly don't have a photo due to the angle of the moat), the malayan tapir exhibit is nice and lush, and the Rodrigues and Malayan flying fox habitat is excellent with at some points zero barriers between the bats and the visitors. The Asian walk-through aviary is very nice, and the banteng/Eld's deer/blackbuck antelope paddock is spacious and spread out nicely for viewing opportunities.
The Average:
At this pont in the day we had spent about 3 hours exploring the African and Asian sections of the zoo, but then we realized that we had spent $75 each plus $12 for parking ($162 in total and we still had to grab lunch!) and already seen all the best parts of the park. Take away the rides, cartoon characters, gift shops and restaurants and there isn't much left after the African and Asian areas, unless you have kids and want to spend the rest of the day waiting in line for the rides.
Dinosaur U.S.A. - mini theme park all on its own with carnival-style booths, rides, cotton candy, popcorn, a cool-looking fossil-themed playground, and a few reptiles in scattered enclosures.
It's Tough To Be A Bug - movie for kiddies.
Finding Nemo Theatre - more kid stuff.
Lion King Theatre - more kid stuff, and if someone went to all the shows at DAK then it would be a challenge to fit it all into the day.
Oasis Exhibits: muntjac deer, rhinoceros iguanas, babirusa pigs, giant anteaters and loads of birds in a series of haphazardly placed exhibits. Most people just walked past these little trails and didn't bother to see what was in the small but lushly planted enclosures.
Wildlife Express Train - we took this short ride and I was impressed with the holding buildings for animals such as elephants, cheetahs and rhinos. The Conservation Station building is informative and provides a behind the scenes view of the park; the petting zoo looked to be average; the cotton-top tamarins had possibly the only poor exhibits in the entire park as they were small cages rather than enclosures; several walking areas were nicely planted but lacking any visible sign of animal life.
Camp Minnie-Mickey - more cartoon characters to line up and hug. Awwww...
Discovery Island Trails - the gigantic "Tree of Life" has 325 animal sculptures on it, 100,000 leaves, and is 14 stories in height. Surrounding it are a totally bizarre mix of animals, such as asian small-clawed otters, red kangaroos in with axis deer and african crowned cranes (what is that all about?), lemurs, flamingos, tortoises, etc. It's all very nice and pretty but does it educate the public?
Overall:
I fully realize that some members of ZooChat adore Disney's Animal Kingdom and think that it is the holy saviour of zoos due to the excellent exhibits and surroundings, while others think that it is parallel with the Seaworlds and more about entertaining rather than educating visitors. For my wife and I, who have yet to start having kids, it represented a place that was as commercialized as any that we've ever visited. The deluge of gift shops and other merchandising possibilities (Mickey Mouse straws, hats and diapers) was overwhelming, and much of the park is rides without many animals for true zoo fans.
The African safari is splendid, even though it is far too short at just about 20 minutes, and the gorilla exhibit, bird aviaries and several other habitats are truly exemplary in comparison to any other zoo. I just can't imagine my wife and I ever visiting DAK ever again, but if there was ever an addition to the park (South American, North American and Australian wildlife are barely even recognized) then perhaps we'll pop out some youngsters and head back to Disney.
P.S. On a final note we drove the couple of miles down the road to the Disney Lodge and it is a WOW in capital letters! The hotel has a spectacularly impressive entrance, massive atrium with huge windows, and everything is tastefully "Africanized" to seem as authentic as possible. There are enormous, multi-acre paddocks with all sorts of hoofstock wandering outside the windows of the hotel's rooms. I would have loved to have stayed there and woken up to see zebras, giraffes, wildebeest, bontboks, pelicans, herons, gazelles, etc calmly eating grass as if they didn't realize that they are part of a billion-dollar zoo. We took a bunch of photos that I'll post later in the gallery.
I am sooo not a patient person!!
