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| Opening ceremonies with Minnie, Goofy and Pluto at the Animal Kingdom. |
Let’s start off our park tours with the newest addition to the Disney theme parks family, and my second favorite of the four: Disney’s Animal Kingdom.
The Animal Kingdom opened on Earth Day in 1998 and continues Walt’s legacy of preserving and learning about the wild nature around us. It is the largest animal-themed park in the world. You can discover over 1,700 animals within its 500-acre landscape. The Animal Kingdom functions as a theme park, research center and conservation area, all in one.
There are 7 unique areas of the park:
- Oasis
- Discovery Island
- Camp Minnie-Mickey
- Africa
- Rafiki’s Planet Watch
- Asia
- Dinoland, USA
I’ll give you a special “Miranda Tour” of each of these areas, along with some of my secrets for how to best navigate and make the most of your time at the park (plus be on the lookout for photo tips). And knowing me, I’ll also probably throw in a story or two of my own adventures here :).
I’ll do this same thing for each of the other theme parks, as well as the water parks and Downtown Disney area. There will most likely be multiple posts on each park, because there is a lot to see and do and I don’t want you to miss a minute of the magic.
Alrighty, enough chit-chat, let’s get ready to roll!
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| Map of entire Animal Kingdom park |
The Oasis
After you walk through the gate, straight ahead are the Oasis Exhibits. The Oasis is a tiny “island” of sorts made up of ponds and tropical plants that houses a variety of wildlife. Short paths cut through the oasis to give you views of these animals. Each viewing spot also has information about each animal and it’s habitat.
There are wide walkways on either side of the Oasis. Both end up in the same spot, so take whichever side you prefer. The paths converge just before crossing the bridge to Discovery Island.
*Imagination Photog Photo Tip! This bridge is the most popular spot to snap a photo in front of the Tree of Life. You’ll see a Disney Parks photographer already set up here to take photos for Photo Pass. They’ll be happy to take a picture of your whole family, both for Photo Pass and with your own personal camera. If it seems really crowded, there is another lesser-used spot right in front of the Tree. (This is my personal favorite spot). It’s marked with a Kodak Picture Spot marker.
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| This shot was taken at the picture second spot on Discovery Island. That's me and my sweetheart on our honeymoon in October of 2009 :). |
Discovery Island
This is the very heart of the park. You can get to all other areas of the park from here. Walt liked to design his theme parks like a wheel, with one central icon (in this case the Tree of Life) as the hub and all the other areas branching off from it like spokes.
On Discovery Island you’ll find more trails to more animal exhibits in front of the Tree of Life, as well as lots of shops and places to eat. My absolute favorite quick-service meal spot is to the left on Discovery Island. It’s called the Flame Tree BBQ, and it melts in your mouth!
There is only one attraction on Discovery Island. The 3-D interactive show “It’s Tough to Be a Bug” is located inside the Tree of Life. This show is great for all ages, although there are a few moments with Hopper (the mean grasshopper) that probably would’ve scared me a little bit when I was really young, and then been forgotten five seconds later as Flik told another funny joke. I don’t really want to tell you much about this one, because half the fun is in the surprise ;).
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| Parrots on one of the Discovery Island trails. |
There are four different ways you can go from here, but I’ll just explain the way I usually do it. Most people make their way through the parks in a counter-clockwise motion, going from right to left. But I do it backwards. I always go from left to right. In this case, the first stop to the left is Camp Minnie-Mickey.
Camp Minnie-Mickey
This is the main character meet-and-greet spot in the park. There are pavilions set up everywhere where different characters will come out at scheduled times to take pictures and sign autographs.
There are also a couple of attractions in this area. The main one is The Festival of the Lion King. This is an amazing show of acrobatics, dancing, singing, plus appearances by some of your favorite Lion King characters. The audience also gets involved in the show, with the kids being asked to come down and dance in the final number.
There is another live performance area in Camp Minnie-Mickey that seems to change a lot. The first time I went in 1999 it was a Pocahontas show. The next year it was a Tarzan skate show. In 2007, it was back to the Pocahontas show. I’m not sure what it is right now, but everything I’ve seen there has been really great. Definitely drop by and check it out.
Ok, that seems like a good place to stop for now. I don’t want to make you scroll down for days reading this. The next blog will take you through the rest of the Animal Kingdom, which includes Africa, Rafiki’s Planet Watch, Asia, and Dinoland, USA.
Don’t forget to feed your wild side!
Miranda
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