Disney’s Animal Kingdom

Our Favorites At Disney’s Animal Kingdom

Tree Of Life – take the time to look at the amazing carvings.

Avatar Flight Of Passage – fly your own banshee around Pandora – stunning!

Kali River Rapids – you will get wet! (38″ height restriction)

Maharajah Jungle Trek – gibbons and dragons and tigers and things.

Conservation Station – meet some of your favorite Disney pals!

Dinosaur – 65 million scary years – lots of thrills! (40″height restriction)

Festival Of the Lion King – singalong with Simba and Co.

Expedition Everest – simply abominable (the Yeti that is!)

Kilimanjaro Safaris – a great way to interest kids in conservation.

Insider Tips At Disney’s Animal Kingdom

Rain Break – After a very early start you should have seen most of this ‘kingdom’ by the afternoon so consider a stop at the Rain Forest Café on your way out, the parks most popular ‘watering hole’. Everyone should eat their lunch in a thunderstorm at least once!

Patience – If the hippos aren’t in view when you arrive, wait a few minutes – it’s worth it. The same applies to the gorillas and the tigers.

Understanding Disney’s Lighting Lane At The Magic Kingdom Park

Park guests can now secure reservations in advance of their visits and make plans for multiple days.

CLICK HERE FOR FULL DETAILS

Understanding The Disney Genie Service

The complimentary Disney Genie service helps you enjoy more of the magic during your theme park visit with 2 easy-to-use features.

The My Day feature lets you see your booked theme park plans for the day in one place. Plus, get personalized recommendations customized to your preferences.

Disney Genie service is located in the My Disney Experience app, and you can get the magic started even before you visit the theme parks!

• Be sure you have the latest version of the My Disney Experience app and log in to your Disney account.
• You’ll need both valid admission and a theme park reservation for the same park on the same day, linked to your account in the app.
• Summon Disney Genie service by selecting the icon on the app home screen.
• Choose the experiences you’d most like to do and then select your interests.
• Once you’ve completed these steps, you will see the My Day section, where you will find planning tools and itinerary recommendations for your visit.

 

Before You Buy Your Disney Tickets

Get the answers to the most frequently asked ticket questions BEFORE you purchase.

Exploring Magic Kingdom Park  – Lands and Guest Areas

Rides At Disney’s Animal Kingdom

Avatar Flight of Passage

Get a banshee’s-eye view of the beauty and grandeur of Pandora on a rite of passage you won’t soon forget! Bonding with a mountain banshee is a crucial step in the life of a Na’vi hunter—and flying on the back of one of these powerful winged creatures represents an important rite of passage. Now, as a visitor to Pandora, you’ll finally have the chance to test yourself in a similar way.

Expedition Everest

The biggest thrill on offer is Expedition Everest – enjoy a ‘hairy’ Himalayan encounter aboard this roller coaster ride to the top of the world! It’s simply abominable (the Yeti that is!) and we love it. Board an old weather-beaten train and head up the “top of the world,” for an unexpected encounter! Broken tracks, big-foot and a surprise backward exit away from danger keep riders guessing what happens next! Will you make it back to civilization safely? Or will the Yeti claim another victim?

Kilimanjaro Safaris

Kilimanjaro Safaris needs to be your first stop, so head all the way to the back of the park. There’s tons of African wildlife on view and it looks, feels, and smells like the real thing – amazing! The ride definitely has the feeling of an actual African photo safari, with ‘rough’ roads and a myriad of animals everywhere you look – you’ll see antelope, baboons, black rhinos, cheetahs, crocodiles, elephants, flamingos, gazelle, giraffes, hippopotamus, lions, okapis, ostriches, warthogs, white rhinos, wildebeests & zebras – all laid out in neat alphabetical order. (Kidding!)

Kali River Rapids

Kali River Rapids, is a river rapids ride along the Chakranadi River through a rainforest, past an illegal logging operation, and down a waterfall – all that in just 3 1/2 minutes! Your raft and consequently your entire family floats free in the current and is washed downstream through rapids and waves. A lot of attention has been paid to visual detail and also to make sure you get wet (read soaked) – great on a hot day but if it’s 60 degrees when you visit don a poncho or a large trash bag!

Primeval Whirl

Primeval Whirl is, in fact, a spinning roller coaster  –  a ‘steel wild mouse’ coaster to be exact in the “Mild But Wild ” category! Themed after old-fashioned carnival roller coasters, you’ll enter your own personal  “time machine” and travel along one of two tracks with bells ringing and lights flashing. Each car spin in circles as you go, meaning that your ride experience will vary each time you ride. Isn’t that the perfect excuse for doing it 2 or 3 times?!

Dinosaur

Located over in the Dino Institute, this is best described as a dark thrill ride featuring a harrowing trip through time to the Late Cretaceous Period – got it?  The walls of the queuing area are covered with life-size casts of real dinosaur skeletons and the very likable Bill Nye the Science Guy sets the stage for your adventure. This moving simulator ride is guaranteed to bump, bounce, and careens its way through a primeval forest where you’ll encounter a number of superbly well done Audio-animatronic dinosaurs some really terrific special effects designed to keep your nerves jangling[/vc_column_text][us_separator size=”small” type=”default”][vc_column_text]

Lands At Disney’s Animal Kingdom

Discovery Island

Surrounded by the Discovery River, the Discovery Island is effectively the hub area of Disney’s Animal Kingdom – a good place for friends and family to join up! Here you’ll find the spectacular Tree of Life – it’s visible throughout the park so again a great place to meet.

The Discovery Island Trail allows visitors to roam and admire the foliage and gaze upon even more exotic birds and wildlife. Adventurers Outpost is where you can get a face to face photo op with Mickey and Minnie before they head off on their next expedition into the wild! When the sun goes down the Discovery River is where you’ll find the night-time show Rivers Of Light. The soundtrack pulls you in as fireflies come spectacularly to life, before a hypnotic procession across the water featuring live performers, floating lanterns, fountains, special effects, animal imagery and giant water screens – what a way to end your day!

Pandora – The World of Avatar

This 12-acre Orlando land – six years in the making – is set in an area of Pandora not seen in the movie. Disney “Imagineers” chose instead to create the Valley of Mo’ara, a stunning landscape packed with dense jungle, flowing streams, a cave teeming with bioluminescent life and those famous floating mountains – the effect is very clever though, gravity is a factor, even at the Most Magical Place on Earth! Avatar Flight of Passage is undoubtedly the crown jewel Pandora – a virtual reality thrill ride that evokes one of the original film’s most jaw-dropping spectacles, hero Jake Sully’s first flight on the back of a winged, dragon called a banshee. But this time around, you’re in the saddle!

When it’s time to wind down after your flight, the Na’vi River Journey is a much gentler entertainment option for the whole family. This slow and steady boat ride takes you through an impressive cave where you’ll see luminescent flora and fauna, hear a very hypnotic sound track and meet a Na’vi Shaman of Songs –  her huge yellow eyes will have kids wondering if she’s real!

Africa

You’ll enter ‘Africa’ through the village of Harambe – a Swahili word meaning “come together.” You’ll find a variety of terrific African style snacks and beverages and also the train station for the Wildlife Express. Be part of a nightly celebration when a host of singers, dancers, and musicians descend on the village – that’s lots of fun. After your Kilimanjaro Safari Adventure that departs from Harambe you can tour the Gorilla Falls Exploration Trail and be entertained by some magnificent ‘Silverbacks’ and their family groups.

For a break from the heat, check out Festival of the Lion King, an air conditioned explosion of colors, music and amazing singing, dancing and acrobatic talent.

Rafiki’s Planet Watch

Rafiki’s Planet Watch is an area dedicated to the care and conservation of resident animals, while also serving to provide educational experiences to guests. It’s only accessible by riding the Wildlife Express Train and well worth the 1.2-mile trip. At the Conservation Station, you can experience live in-house veterinary treatments and animal wellness practices. Watch food prep in progress & discover the different diets of the world’s animal populations.

Also be sure to check out the nursery and see the nurturing and feeding practices for the Animal Kingdom’s newest and often cutest residents. Right outside the Conservation Station, you’ll find the Affection Section (yes that rhymes too!) — an outdoor petting zoo where you can enjoy hands-on interactions with sheep, goats, pigs, donkeys, cows, llamas, and other beasts of manageable size.

Asia

Disney’s Asia is a melding of the landscape, culture, history, creatures, and architecture of some of the planet’s most exotic and intriguing countries. Tropical vegetation, crumbling ruins, and ancient temples were replicated from countries such as Nepal, Mongolia, Indonesia, Cambodia, Thailand and India, and the mythical kingdom of Anandapur was the result! According to the “back story” of Anadapur, it was established in 1544 as a royal hunting reserve. The main village thrived, however, the reserve has found itself in a state of ruin and decay and has been turned by the current royal family into a conservation area.

The Tiger Tree is draped with scarves, garlands, and bells as a tribute to the spirits for prayers that have been granted. The walkways are imprinted with leaves and palm fronds and are flanked by bicycles, rickshaws and other tropical transportation options. Check out dozens of very acrobatic gibbons performing for their ‘captive’ audience and bird lovers will be enchanted by the Flights of Wonder performances.  Meander over to the Maharajah Jungle Trek and see tigers and other exotic and endangered species and everyone needs to go check out Kali River Rapids and it’s commendable efforts to publicize deforestation.

DinoLand USA

Arguably a little ‘incongruous’ in terms of ‘fitting in’ to Animal Kingdom’s collection of lands Dinoland USA is an interesting combination of an anthropological dig and a quirky American roadside attraction. It’s home to a children’s play area, a nature trail, a 1,500-seat amphitheater, and of course the Dinosaur thrill ride. There’s also a couple of kid-friendly type coasters there are also a couple of natural history exhibits including Dino-Sue, an exact replica of the largest, most complete Tyrannosaurus Rex ever discovered named after ace fossil hunter, Sue Hendrickson – it’s 40 feet long and 13 feet tall so it will get your attention.

Young paleontologists should also head over to The Boneyard where they can dig up a few old friends and please don’t miss Finding Nemo – The Big Blue & beyond, a vibrant, sing-a-long adaptation of the ‘fish are friends’ hit movie.

 

The adventure begins by catching up with the fish from Dr. P. Sherman’s office in Finding Nemo who made their way across the ocean to the Marine Life Institute.With live performers, animated backdrops and a theater decked out with innovative lighting, sound and special effects to create Nemo’s undersea environment, this newly updated show takes you back to the extraordinary underwater world—all over again!

Disney’s Animal Kingdom Park Hours

Open every day during peak times 8:00 am – 11:00 pm – call 407 824 2222 to check for specific days or go online.

Location & Info

Location: 1145 East Buena Vista Boulevard, Orlando, FL 32830
Telephone: (800) 934-7639 or (407) 824-2222