Possibly the most unique of the Disney parks and something different from most theme parks in the city. Whilst Animal Kingdom does have some fantastic rides, the big attraction here is obviously in the title. Now I’ve been to countless Zoo’s and Safari Parks, and whilst there is always the concern about the happiness and morale of keeping such animals, you leave satisfied enough. This park put most of those Zoo’s to shame, and I will come onto that in more detail later on.
On paper, Animal Kingdom is still a theme park, with the addition of a wide array of wildlife. Split into sections of the world each with its own theme, it’s fairly easy to plan your day out. For example, the Asia part of the park allows you to walk through the Tiger Trail, grab some quick Asian fast food and then ride Expedition Everest, which is up there with one of the best rollercoasters in Disney.
So in terms of things from a ride/rollercoaster perspective, Animal Kingdom is pretty good. As well as Expedition Everest you also have DINOSAUR, the Kali River Rapids, and a new part of the park that I will come onto that soon enough. There’s a decent balance between everything, if you want a break from rollercoasters, you don’t just have to sit around doing nothing, there is lots more to do.
Kilimanjaro Safaris whilst technically being a ride is a genius idea in my opinion. You take an area that apparently is bigger than Magic Kingdom itself, fill it with different animals from what you would see on a typical African Safari, space it all out so it looks as if you really are on Safari, and have somebody drive a massive jeep/truck to drive through it all. All the normal annoyances of a Safari Park in the UK, such as sitting behind some idiot in front that has to take 45 minutes to take a picture of a crow or pigeon that they’ve miraculously never seen before are all eliminated. Whilst the process is quick and a new vehicle arrives every two minutes, the experience doesn’t feel rushed. You see the attraction, e.g. seeing elephants, have a look, take a photo, learn a little bit about them and then move onto the next thing. It’s a really cool concept in my opinion.
Add to this the walking trails with the other animals, such as the Maharaja Jungle Walk which includes Tigers, and the Gorilla Falls Expedition Trek are really fun and they really do capture the theme of the park being as close to the wild as it can. For the smaller animals like reptiles and insects, there is another area in which you may even be lucky enough to see one of these creatures up close or even touch or hold them.
Finally, I come onto the newest part of the park. Pandora World. Based around Avatar this was a great idea to expand the park even more and allow a proper full day to be spent here. The execution of this corner of the park is magnificent. Avatar has become well know for it’s beautiful visuals and the boys and girls at Disney truly have done a fantastic job in recreating this. The main feature ride, Flight of Passage is being described by many as the best ride in Disney, and they’re not far off. Something totally different to the norm they like to stick with, this goes outside the box, almost tapping into Universal style. But I’m sorry. Queueing 3 and a half hours for a ride kind of takes away how good it was. I get that its a new ride and everyone wants to ride it and it will naturally be popular when it first opens. For the most part seeing Pandora was rather nice. But when you’re stood in extremely hot weather with no cover it can become a tad dangerous. And not only were Disney not prepared for this, but decided it would be a good idea to try and sell water to people that looked as if they were about to collapse. And due to the queueing time we missed the other Avatar ride which is a shame, but something that can’t be controlled amazingly.
All in all Animal Kingdom was my favourite of all the Disney Parks. It offered a certain variety which you don’t find in many theme parks, and the ones that do something similar normally end up being painfully awful or just dam right cruel. The rides were decent overall, analysing the other park as a Zoo or Wildlife reserve if you like, it was really good. The exhibits were all in good order and were spacious, the only criticism you could think of would be the noise from the rollercoasters. But the fact that my only criticism of this park is the fact that a brand new attraction had overly long queues isn’t really a bad thing. Within a year or two those line times will reduce significantly because there will be something else new in one of the other parks.
The best tip I can give for this is to visit this park last out of all the Disney ones. Do Magic Kingdom first so you can soak in the atmosphere and be your first real experience, then finish with this as it will leave you with a great lasting memory.
Rating – 4.5 Stars
An Average Explorer 