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This is our recommended one-day itinerary for seeing the highlights of Animal Kingdom. (Okay, okay, it's technically Disney's Animal Kingdom, if only so that it doesn't get confused with the non-Disney offering Animal Planet, but nobody really calls it by its full name.) The itinerary makes a few assumptions: You're traveling with small children, you don't care whether you ride thrill rides or not, you've got one day and one day only to see the best of what's there, and you have no prior experience with Animal Kingdom.
And that you have the exact same tastes in entertainment as we do. But since everybody does, there's no problem with that, right?
Note that there's a lot of descriptions of stuff in amongst everything here, so if you want just the itinerary, we've summarized it at the end. But otherwise, now that we've gone through the intro, it's on to…
Like all Disney parks, Animal Kingdom's hours change day to day—make sure to check ahead of time. However, it's worth noting that, nearly consistently, Animal Kingdom closes earlier than all the other parks. In addition, when Animal Kingdom closes, it simply closes—there's no end-of-the-day fireworks extravaganza like the Magic Kingdom and Epcot, or special-effects-laden show like MGM Studios. One major reason for both of these is the same: Animal Kingdom is actually a zoo disguised as a theme park. The park closes early so that all the animals can get tended to while still having enough time to do whatever they do all night, and there's no show with loud noises and flashes of light because the animals would be stressed by it. If you really want to see fireworks (and Disney does know how to put on a good fireworks show), get the park hopper option on your ticket and go to the Magic Kingdom or Epcot after Animal Kingdom closes and check out the show there.
Important note, related to Animal Kingdom's status as a zoo: Because Animal Kingdom has so many animals, it may be tempting to try to feed them, especially the cute ones. Do not do this! The animals are on very carefully monitored diets, and stuff we eat that you'd never dream could harm anything certainly can hurt, even kill, some animals. In addition, do not drop or throw anything into the water—that would be more danger for the animals.
Anyway, because Animal Kingdom closes early, you're going to need to be fairly efficient in seeing what's there. This is especially the case because of the park's size—some of the stats on size Disney types can throw at you are a bit misleading, since they usually include areas of the park that visitors can't get to, but it's still huge. It would take a long time to take all the little paths around the park and see everything there is to see—and they put a lot of effort into the scenery of the park, with little surprises around every corner to surprise even people who have been there many times before, so it's tempting to try.
Therefore, you'll want to get to the park when it opens—actually, a bit before it does, so that you can go through the turnstiles right at opening time. Since the experience of some of Animal Kingdom is dependent on the behavior of the animals you'll see, some of the fun is diminished by letting the day heat up before you get to them. Therefore, you'll need to plan to hit those parts of the park that are dependent on the animals being out and about early on. Fortunately, lots of people will be heading straight for the thrill rides right at park opening, so by going to the rides we recommend early you'll see more interesting stuff, and you'll fight sparser crowds (at least at the beginning of the day).
Also, if you have kids under eight (maybe even under ten) and you're not bringing a stroller, rent one. It's worth renting a double stroller even if you only have one child, so that you have a place to stash whatever you're carrying. Animal Kingdom has a lot of shade, fortunately, but the size of the park means that your children will get tired by the end of the day.
Food is expensive at Animal Kingdom, as it is at all of the Disney parks. Some of the parking is very close to the park entrance, so you could bring lunch and, essentially, have a picnic/tailgate party out there, but being parked close enough to the turnstiles to avoid losing lots of time by doing this is a hit-or-miss proposition; also, the park itself is so large that you might lose a lot of time just getting to the turnstiles. If you do this, make sure you get your hand stamped and you keep your ticket as you exit the park, or you won't be able to get back in. We should note that the Tusker House Restaurant has a very good vegetarian sandwich, overpriced (of course) but filling, and not quite as overpriced as everything else in the park—recommended for a relatively light lunch. There are a number of McDonald's (usually not by that name, but showing the golden arches logo) french fry stands in the park—avoid them. The last thing you need while you're walking however many miles you end up walking in the park is a ton and a half of grease and salt swimming around in your intestines all day.
Speaking of food, it's worth talking about water. First, the good news: Of all of the Disney World parks, Animal Kingdom's water fountains have by far the best-tasting water. (Florida water generally doesn't taste that great, but Animal Kingdom's water, while not perfect, is certainly better than your basic water from the Florida Aquifer. We're convinced they learned from their mistakes with the earlier parks and set up filters or something for this park.) The bad news? There's not nearly enough water fountains. Your best plan of action is to bring a bottle of water for each person in your group (frozen if you can, so that as it melts you'll have cold water), and you can refill them from the water fountains when you pass them, so that you won't have to worry about a water fountain not being nearby when you need one.
By the way, don't let the fact that Animal Kingdom has the most shade of any of the Disney World parks lull you into a false sense of security—you'll still need to bring and use sunscreen.
Just to orient you, Animal Kingdom, like the Magic Kingdom, is divided up into various "lands": Oasis, Discovery Island®, Africa, Asia, Camp Minnie-Mickey, DinoLand USA®, and Rafiki's Planet Watch®. (Yes, some of these are actually registered trademarks of the Walt Disney Corporation. I'm not going to worry about marking them as such any more, though.) You enter the park into (and exit the park from) the Oasis; Discovery Island's the one with the big tree. Discovery Island is at the center of the park, and all of the other lands are attached to it by bridges except for Rafiki's Planet Watch, which you have to take a train to from Africa (which, actually, is a very interesting crowd control method). The most interesting thing about the park's layout is that after you enter into the Oasis you must go to Discovery Island to get anywhere else. Luckily, this quirk ends up being fairly transparent. Of all of the Disney World parks, we'd say that Animal Kingdom has the most attention paid to its architectural and landscaping details—when you're in Africa, it's like they're trying to convince you you're actually in the real Africa, the buildings and all in Camp Minnie-Mickey try to make you feel you're at a summer camp in the woods somewhere, and so on. Even Discovery Island, which doesn't really have an overarching theme, has a lot of little surprising decorative details that pull it together into a cohesive experience. (Rafiki's Planet Watch is a notable exception to this rule.)
So once you enter, the first thing you need to do once you've gotten through the turnstiles is pick up a map in the language of your choice; make sure to also pick up a "Times Guide", since you'll be using it in this park. (A widely circulated tip is that if the turnstiles are packed, there's a secondary set of turnstiles you can get to by walking through the Rainforest Cafe that's to your left as you approach the park's main entrance. We never had to deal with a serious wait at the main turnstiles, however, and so we don't know how well this alternative entrance works.) Anyway, like we said above, you'll be entering into the…
The Oasis is designed to slow people down—there are a lot of little trails and turnoffs (called The Oasis Exhibits) where you can see all sorts of cool animals. There is nothing wrong with letting your kids (okay, or you) take a moment to look at particularly interesting things, or to pop into the cave behind the waterfall, or whatever, but your goal should be to get out of the Oasis without losing too much time. You are in a zoo, though, so don't let your goal for efficiency ruin that aspect of the park.
Anyway, from the Oasis, there's only two places you can go—out of the park, or to Discovery Island. You won't be doing anything in Discovery Island, though—you'll just be passing through. (Though you should be aware that Discovery Island has a set of trails and turnoffs of its own called Discovery Island Trails, which are set up to slow people down the same way as The Oasis Exhibits. Treat them similarly.) You'll cross a bridge to Discovery Island, and the path will come to a T short of the big tree (which is called the Tree of Life). Take a left, and the main path will curve around the Tree of Life, eventually forcing you onto the bridge to…
Once you're in Africa, there's one ride that's a must-do, and that you need to go on first thing: Kilimanjaro Safaris. As you're in line, pay attention to the signs and the bits on the television screens—it gives you some of the backstory that'll make it more enjoyable as a ride. Once you're on it, though, the main thing is the animals—you're in an open-sided truck, surrounded by animals of the African savannah. You're safely separated from the more dangerous ones (even though it doesn't always look like it), but the ones that aren't dangerous to people are free to roam around, and they get right of way—if there's a herd of gazelle on the path in front of you, your truck waits until they're done crossing. (Reminder: Don't feed the animals! This is important.) Have your cameras out and ready, and if your camera has a zoom lens, that's all the better to snap pictures of the carnivores. You should know that you'll only get really good chances to take pictures of animals during the first two-thirds or so of the tour, before it turns into something more like a ride—so don't hold back on taking pictures, figuring you'll get something spectacular at the very end.
The other major attraction in Africa is the Pangani Forest Exploration Trail. This is a (long) path through a mock-up of African forests with lots of very cool animals for you to look at, including, bizarrely enough, a shack with a community of naked mole rats (there's a Kim Possible tie-in there) for you to see. This is one of two such trails in Animal Kingdom, though, and to take them both while seeing all the other lands of the park would probably take too much of your time—and since the one in Asia is in our opinion cooler, our default recommendation would be to bypass this one. It's a shame, really, but sometimes you have to make such decisions.
Jeanne points out that if you want the zoo experience more than the theme park experience, you can make a trade: Go through the Pangani Forest Exploration Trail now, and completely skip the stuff in either DinoLand USA or Rafiki's Planet Watch when it comes up. (If you've got small children and you do this, though, you must have a stroller—it'll add a lot of walking.) This is listed as an option in our itinerary—and if you luck into being at the park on a day with really sparse crowds, you may be able to end up hitting everything anyway. (If we had to choose to skip either DinoLand USA or Rafiki's Planet Watch, we'd skip the former and go to the latter. However, this is due to the preferences of our children, not to any inherent superiority of one over the other.)
Incidentally, in the introduction to the itinerary, we mentioned Tusker House as a restaurant with a good vegetarian sandwich. Tusker House is in Africa, about halfway between the bridge to Discovery Island and the entrances to Kilimanjaro Safaris and the Pangani Forest Exploration Trail.
Anyway, you're done with Africa. From here, you head toward the bridge to Discovery Island, but just before crossing it you should take the path that breaks off to your left. (Sometimes there's a woman named Devine who performs here. You'll know what we're talking about if you see her—trust us.) Anyway, as you walk along the path, before you know it you'll find yourself in…
You've only got one thing to do in Asia—you need to go on the Maharaja Jungle Trek before the tigers take their daytime naps. This is a long (self-paced) trail that leads you past animals in more or less natural-seeming habitats. There are three parts of the path you should know about:
There are three other attractions in Asia: Kali River Rapids, Flights of Wonder, and Expedition Everest—Legend of the Forbidden Mountain (and that's a terribly long name, which is why most people call it Expedition Everest, or even just Everest).
Kali River Rapids is a whitewater rafting ride of the sort you find in many large theme parks; we recommend that you skip it. It should go without saying that it is to be avoided on a cold day, but on hot days the line is long, and there's a height limit that might make it unridable for your children anyway. In addition, as with most of these types of rides, the rafts hold twelve people, which makes for a (in David's vehemently-held opinion, anyway) less fun ride than those with six-person rafts. Also, this ride is designed so that you don't run a risk of getting wet, but so that you're essentially guaranteed to get soaked. Less fun, all in all, than it should be.
Flights of Wonder is your basic bird show, though in a very attractive setting. You can consider this one optional—you can go if you really need to sit down and get out of the sun (in a non-air-conditioned theatre, though), and, perhaps more importantly, since it will take a chunk of time out of your day, if you find yourself doing very well for time. If you like these kinds of shows, it's probably worth going to one of the showings later in the day. If you do go, the best seats are about halfway back, off to the side rather than in the center.
Finally, Expedition Everest (a ride that actually has its very own official web site). This is the newest ride in Animal Kingdom, and it's a major thrill ride. Those two items put together make for exceptionally long lines, which is a severe problem for a one-day itinerary. (In addition, there's a height limit that may well rule it out for you anyway.) We never went on it—it opened since the last time we were at the park—but we've heard nothing but positives about it. Therefore, even though we're not going to include it on the itinerary, we will note that if you go on it you should definitely FastPass it.
Anyway, once you're done with Asia, it's time to pay attention to time. Look at your Times Guide (you did pick one up when you got into the park, yes?) and find when the next showing of Festival of the Lion King (in Camp Minnie-Mickey) is; on a perfect day, you'll be able to do this next. If the next showing is forty to sixty minutes in the future, that's your next stop—it'll take about ten minutes to get there walking comfortably, and the Times Guide is serious when it says to arrive thirty minutes ahead of time, so forty minutes 'til showtime means you'll be there just in time, and up to sixty minutes before showtime means that you can simply take some time looking at the animals in the Discovery Island Trails on the way. If it's less than forty minutes you don't have enough time to go to see it right away, so you should go to see It's Tough to Be a Bug! (no, that's not saying that that's overwhelmingly exciting, the exclamation point is part of its name), and if there's more than sixty minutes you might as well fill in the extra time by going to see It's Tough to Be a Bug! We'll write this as if there's forty to sixty minutes until the next showing of Festival of the Lion King; if this isn't right, of course, you simply switch the next two items.
Therefore, the next thing that you do will take you across the bridge to Discovery Island, around the Tree of Life, and across the bridge to…
When you're in Camp Minnie-Mickey, you're supposed to imagine that you're in the Adirondacks. We've never been able to figure out how the Adirondacks got to be so flat, but maybe that's just us.
Anyway—one cool item: As you cross the bridge to Camp Minnie-Mickey, look at the approaching shore to the right and you'll see what some people call a crocodile and others a fire-breathing dragon.
Your sole purpose in coming to this land is to see Festival of the Lion King. We would actually say that, for the non-thrill-seekers among us (i.e., those who don't care if they miss Expedition Everest), the only two must–sees in Animal Kingdom are Kilimanjaro Safaris and Festival of the Lion King.
Before getting to Festival of the Lion King, though, we'll mention Pocahontas and Her Forest Friends. It's a trained animal show, and it's not bad as those shows go, but it's not that overwhelmingly wonderful, so we would say to skip it. If you do go, the first three rows (the seats are backless benches) are for the children, so if they're willing to sit apart from you have them sit there so that they can get a better view of the animals. (But remember, if you're not in line for Festival of the Lion King at least thirty minutes ahead of showtime, you stand a very good chance of not getting in, and Pocahontas and Her Forest Friends isn't worth missing Festival of the Lion King for.)
Anyway, so you're in line for Festival of the Lion King, which takes place in a fairly large enclosed (and air-conditioned!) theatre with bleachers surrounding the performance area. The show's nearly a half hour long, so now may be a good time to run your kids to the washroom (which are past the theatre)—just remember to have someone to keep your place in line. Also, this is a good time to break out snacks—there's nothing to do except wait in line, and there isn't even any place comfortable to sit while you wait.
Once you get in, though, it'll be worth it. A lot of people say that Festival of the Lion King is Disney's best live show, and we'd agree. It's probably better if you've seen the movie The Lion King, but that was such a popular one that you probably have. (David has one complaint: He thinks that the bit based on the song "Be Prepared" is too short. That's just the sort of thing he would think, though.)
Be patient when the show lets out—they have to get a lot of people (the theatre's bigger than it looks and feels) out of a single exit so that they can load the place up for the next show. If you can, avoid using the washrooms as you exit—they develop instant lines. More importantly, avoid taking the "opportunity" to use up lots of time standing in line to meet various Disney characters. (Disney calls this "character greetings". "Greeting" is apparently Disneyish for "wasting time".)
What you need to do is—walking relatively quickly, so as to beat all the other people who are about to do the same thing as you and your kids—is take the bridge from Camp Minnie-Mickey back (yes, back—the way this park is set up, you have to do a lot of backtracking) to…
There is one stand-in-line attraction on Discovery Island: It's Tough to Be a Bug! This is Animal Kingdom's 3–D movie, and it's based partially on the characters from the movie A Bug's Life. It's a very well-done movie (it works with four of your senses, not just one or two), but there are some frightening moments. This is particularly the case if you or one of your kids is frightened of spiders—if this may be an issue, try to sit as far back in the theatre as you can, the last row if you can manage it. (David notes that the first time he went to this he didn't get the full effect of everything because he was leaning forward, not sitting properly in his seat at a particular point in the movie. It didn't detract from the overall experience, though.)
One note about the line for It's Tough to Be a Bug!—this is a show where you get to almost hope that there's a bit of a line. (Not a huge line, of course, but a few minutes worth.) In order to get to the theatre, you wind through the root system of the Tree of Life (which helps you start to feel like you're bug-sized after a while), and the Tree of Life has hundreds of animals (real and mythical) carved into it, some of them very cleverly worked into the curves of the tree. It's fun to play "spot the animal" with your kids.
Once you've seen the movie, it's across another bridge, this time leading to…
(Just by way of reminder, you can replace this section of the park with the Pangani Forest Exploration Trail, as mentioned in the Africa section.)
Much of Animal Kingdom is self-paced, letting you take as long as you want (this is actually a very clever method of crowd control), but this is particularly the case with DinoLand USA and Rafiki's Planet Watch. If you wanted to burn half your day in one spot, you could do it here.
Most of DinoLand USA is stuff to look at. It's supposed to be a roadside gas station that morphed into a theme park to make money of the tourism related to local fossil beds, and the amount of detail that went into making it look like that (down to purposefully faded parking stripes to make part of it look like an old parking lot) is amazing—it's worth taking a look around to appreciate it all.
Also, as a way for your children to use up a lot of time, there's a play area called The Boneyard. By now your kids could probably use some unstructured playtime, so it's worth a visit at this point. The Boneyard is an amazingly complex playground, with tunnels to explore, nets to climb on, corners to poke around in, and slides both large and small to, well, slide on. Note: If you've got more than one child to keep track of (in fact, maybe even if you only have one to keep track of), there's no way you'll be able to keep up with them, either with your body or with your eyes. However, there's only one possible exit for the play area; therefore, you can just find a (shaded!) spot inside The Boneyard where you can see the exit and make sure your children don't leave without your knowledge. Because it's so easy for a child to just hang out having fun in The Boneyard and lose track of time, you may have to track them down after a while. It's difficult, but doable.
After some unstructured playtime in The Boneyard, it's time for something more structured and less active: TriceraTop Spin. This is a (very) mellow spinning ride, where your car (a flying dinosaur) can go up and down. Especially if your kids are very small, be sure to have them look at the top of the middle of the ride for a "surprise" (a dinosaur playing peekaboo).
There's one thing that's purely to see, and that's worth a quick walk-by, especially if your kids are into dinosaurs and fossils: A dinosaur skeleton replica that one of Disney's lesser lights decided to call Dino–Sue. It's simply a replica of Sue, the largest Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton ever found. Why the need to add a cutesy label to that, we really don't know.
Also, somewhat hidden away in the corner between (grind your teeth as we say the name again) Dino–Sue and the TriceraTops Spin, there's a short path that leads you through a wooded section. This trail has no name, which is kind of shocking given Disney's predilection for giving everything in their parks names, but there was clearly some thought put into it. It's designed to look like a small slice of the forests during the time of the dinosaurs (even though there wasn't just one time of the dinosaurs, since the earth went through several climatic changes while the dinosaurs were around, but we all know what they mean), and there are a few dinosaur models set up along the path to add to the feeling (even though, in our opinion, they simply drive home that it's not real). One end of the path has a large plastic dinosaur model that your kids can climb on—it makes for decent picture opportunities.
There are two thrill rides in DinoLand USA. The one that's worthwhile is Primeval Whirl—a roller coaster with the gimmick that the individual cars spin. You'll need to skip this one, if only because it has a fairly tall height limit, but you should also be aware that it has a painfully slow-moving line. If someone in your group desperately wants to go on it and you can't talk them out of it, you could have them do that while everyone else goes on TriceraTop Spin and (if they're still not done) Dino–Sue and the dinosaur trail.
The thrill ride that's not worth it is DINOSAUR (yes, the name is all capital letters, and no, that doesn't help the ride, either). The thing that makes it a shame is that the setup has a lot of potential—it's a trip back in time to the moments before the meteor that killed off the dinosaurs hit, and you're trying to bring back one of them. Unfortunately, rather than making the ride exciting, the designers simply made it bumpy. If you have a great desire to get whiplash while you experience poor (and not just by Disney's very high standards) special effects, then by all means take the ride (and make sure to look at the "security camera" shots on the monitors as you leave). If you're at all a reasonable person, stay away.
Well, now you're done with DinoLand USA. This time, though, you can bypass Discovery Island, instead getting a change of scenery by taking the bridge to Asia (which takes you by Expedition Everest), and then taking the path along the river to Africa (though if you'd rather go by the big tree again, feel free to take the bridge to Discovery Island, then the bridge to Africa). Once you're in Africa, find your way to the Wildlife Express Train, which is an outpost of…
(Reminder: You can replace this section of the park with the Pangani Forest Exploration Trail, as discussed in the Africa section.)
At this point, you find yourself in Africa. However, once you enter the line for the Wildlife Express Train, you're technically in Rafiki's Planet Watch, even though it's set up to look like a run-down train station somewhere in subSaharan Africa. We do not pretend to understand the way the map works with regard to this. However, we have learned that in some cases it is best not to question those things which Disney hath decreed.
Incidentally, a lot of people out there really intensely hate the Wildlife Express Train. These people are clueless, and haven't taken the effort to look around the train station and train to see the amount of really incredible effort that's been put into the details of the thing. They also don't seem to understand that it is not a sin for a train ride to be sedate, and that it is not the normal order of things for a train to suddenly transform into a runaway roller coaster. Really.
So anyway, the train will pull into the station, let the previous riders out, and let you on. Make sure to notice the top of the train—they do a pretty good job of trying to make it look like an old train in the African bush. Note that you'll be sitting sideways on this train—each train car has two rows of benches, all facing to the train's left. (It's a way of controlling what you can see.) It doesn't really matter where you sit, except that the view isn't as good on the extreme edges of any car's back row. As the train pulls out, there's not really much to do except enjoy the trip, and let your aching feet rest. You will, however, pass by the places where the animals bed down for the night (and yes, the really tall building is where the giraffes live). If you're at all interested in the care and feeding of animals, you'll be disappointed at not having more than a few seconds to see this (otherwise invisible) part of the park.
Eventually, you will arrive at the train station on the Rafiki's Planet Watch side of the tracks. This is a very different train station—lots of exposed steel girders, and a lot of purple. This is the one part of Animal Kingdom that isn't trying to make you believe that you're in some particular part of the world, real or imaginary—in this part of the park, you're essentially in school.
There's a fairly long path, called Habitat Habit! (yes, that gratuitous exclamation point is part of its name), leading from the train station to the rest of this land. Along the path there's a lot of signs with conservation tips (mostly dealing with what is sometimes called "backyard conservation"), and about halfway down there's an activity area where children are encouraged to find a bunch of (large, fake) insects in the brush to the side of the trail. If you're feeling good for time, let your kids do this (and you can play along, too), but it's a mostly pointless exercise. There's also a group of cotton-top tamarins that run around in some cages next to the trail at one point, which provides some entertaining (and, occasionally, loud) viewing, if you're into monkeys.
As you get to the end of the trail, to your left is Affection Section, and to your right is Conservation Station. Affection Section is, at core, your ordinary small petting zoo—a bunch of (very gentle) goats and sheep that you and your kids can go up to and pet; there's also some brushes provided that you can brush their fur with. As with any petting zoo, you should take basic precautions: Make sure your children know not to put their hands near the animals' mouths and not to pull on their hair, and as you leave, wash your hands (there's ample soap and water provided at the entrance/exit to the area). Also, you should keep track of your children—the animals aren't that large, but they're usually a good bit larger than your children, so a child that runs into one of them is likely to be knocked over; this is not a problem, but you may end up with a weepy child if this happens. David's very much not into petting zoo sorts of experiences, and so would recommend that you skip this attraction. Jeanne and our kids recognize that he is wrong, and enthusiastically encourage you to let your children have fun with the animals for a while.
One note about the animals at Affection Section—they're actually for the most part representatives of endangered species of sheep and goats, which adds an extra layer of interest to this attraction.
So now you've left Affection Section (you did remember to wash your hands, and to help your kids wash their hands, right?), and it's time to head to the biggest attraction in Rafiki's Planet Watch: Conservation Station.
The first thing that you should know is that Conservation Station is air conditioned. Be happy. There's also a number of things that might be going on there at any given time; some things are always available, some are the luck of the draw.
We'll start with the stuff that's always there, even though it's the other stuff that we find more interesting. One tip: The crowds in Conservation Station seem to ebb and flow, and people seem to form into "packs". Therefore, if something you want to see is overcrowded, feel free to check out something else in the building and come back to whatever was crowded later; if everything's crowded, just be patient and you'll have a bit more breathing room soon.
First of all, the entryway is worth a look—lots and lots and lots of different animals. This is also where the washrooms in this section of the park are (an important thing to know, since they're not that clearly marked if you don't know where to look). As you get past the entrance, you're in a large area with all sorts of things to look at, not necessarily to do. There are some exhibits with insects (behind glass!), there are cameras (that you can pan around somewhat) of the animals in their backstage homes, and there are lots and lots of informational kiosks on conservation and animal care (some just text, some interactive and multimedia, some with actual things like snake skins and owl pellets). There's also a room that's set up to look like a scientific laboratory with lots of butterflies and cocoons everywhere. You can't go in that one—you're kept on one side of a glass wall—but it can be fun to count how many different kinds of butterflies you and your kid can find together.
There is one section called Song of the Rainforest, where you go into a booth, put on headphones, and listen to Grandmother Willow (from the movie Pocahontas) talk about rainforest ecosystems and threats facing them. It's not bad, though perhaps a bit heavy-handed in a couple spots, and we'd recommend it. However, if you have kids who are very afraid of the dark, you may need to skip it—the booths put you in total darkness for the duration of the experience. Also, it might be worth telling your kids (especially if you have kids who get nervous at frightening sounds) that if they get scared of what they're hearing, they can just take their headphones off—our then-three-year-old got freaked out at a couple of points, but just took off her headphones until we whispered to her that the scary sound was gone.
As for things that are more hit-or-miss, there are often exhibits of smallish animals in the middle of the building—we've seen animals there ranging from opossums to large insects.
There's also a glassed-in veterinary operating room; that's always there, but sometimes you might see medical procedures being done there. (We've heard that most of these take place in the morning, but we don't know if there's anything to that rumor.) They work with animals from Animal Kingdom there, but also animals from the other Disney parks and even occasional wild animals that they find and that need attention—one day we saw them operating on a (visibly sick) wild otter, which led our then-five-year-old to declare that it was the coolest thing she'd ever seen, and that she was going to become a veterinarian. (Go figure.) If they're doing medical work there, someone will be on your side of the glass wall to explain what's going on; if the room is unused, there's usually someone there anyway to answer questions.
(That leads to something else—there are lots and lots of people stationed around Conservation Station to answer questions about the park, its animals, and whatever other questions you might have. If your kids are interested in stuff about what they see, make use of them.)
One more thing that's hit-or-miss: There's another room on one side of Conservation Station that you can't go in, but this one's not glassed in—it's fronted by a long counter. This is where the food for the animals in the park gets mixed. If you're lucky enough to be there while someone's putting the food together, your kids (okay, okay, and you) can ask questions about how the food gets put together, what kind of things different animals eat, and such. (It also gives your kids a chance to ask "Who eats that?!?" as they point to a dish of mealworms.) They actually have a "cookbook" that details how much of each ingredient goes into the food for each animal, and it does so very specifically.
Overall, really, one of the best things about Conservation Station is that it gives you a chance to peek behind the curtain a bit, and see the sort of things that go into the management of a zoo as extensive as the one you're in the middle of.
You're now done with Rafiki's Planet Watch, so now you'll head down the Habitat Habit! trail to get on the next available running of the Wildlife Express Train. The ride back to Africa doesn't really have any scenery of interest, so just enjoy the relaxation.
You are now done with our recommended itinerary for Animal Kingdom. Depending on the crowds you've had to fight, you've either gotten pretty close to closing time, or you've got a couple hours left. If you've got time left, now's a good chance to either check out stuff that you've skipped (like Flights of Wonder—if there's another show coming up—or the Pangani Forest Exploration Trail), or to spend time looking at all the animals along the Discovery Island Trails and The Oasis Exhibits. Whatever you do, though, there's no big huge "finale" to the day like the rest of the Disney parks, so once you're done, you can just head out to your car and go. (If you leave right at closing time, incidentally, you may see the animals in The Oasis Exhibits getting put into carriers to be taken to their overnight homes. Sometimes this can lead to seeing animals more close-up than you would otherwise.) Remember to hold your children's hands, and be patient getting out of the parking lot, especially if you leave at closing time.
Here's the summary of the itinerary we've just outlined for you, then. Remember that, as it's described above, you may need to move It's Tough to Be a Bug! ahead of Festival of the Lion King.
First you arrive as the park opens, and then…
This page last updated 21 May 2006.
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