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Tim’s Family Trip Report – 03/07/2011 – Animal Kingdom/Magic Kingdom

By WDW Fan Boys on March 8, 2011 in Trip Reports 0

The day started with a “mysterious stain” on the back of my shorts. I don’t remember going to the bathroom in my pants, but I suppose anything is possible

This was my sister, brother-in-law, nephews, and cousin’s last day and we got a late start. My sister wanted to bring my nephews back over to the Magic Kingdom earlier than we had planned so our group split up mid day. Those of us that stayed at Animal Kingdom were able to visit both Finding Nemo the Musical as well as Festival of the Lion King for shows, Kilimanjaro Safaris, Expedition Everest (x2), and Dinosaur for rides, and the Oasis, Tree of Life, Discovery Island, Pangani Forest and Maharajah Jungle Trek animal exhibits. Photos for all of those will be below the rest of the Animal Kingdom write up.

My cousin had never been to the Animal Kingdom before and she seemed to really enjoy it, with her highlights being the two shows, Kilimanjaro Safaris and Expedition Everest. Over an Expedition Everest I was expecting to see a new species of antelope called the Addax, but I didn’t see it on either the Wild Africa Trek tour or today’s ride on Kilimanjaro Safaris. It’s possible they were not in site, but if anyone knows any more information about them it would be appreciated.

Over in the Pangani Forest, the Jafar rock has been trimmed (I’ve seen an overgrowth of plant life on previous trips), so you can now see the original intent – a rock made to look like the villain from Aladdin, Jafar:

We all had a mid afternoon snack at Dino-Bites – Ice Cream Cookie Sandwiches that were enormous. They were very good, I highly recommend them. Another point of note, one of my favorite things to do during the Festival of the Lion King is watch the Fire Twirler when he’s not twirling fire. Normally he has no rhythm, but today seemed to be an exception.

Stork: Tree of Life

Giant Galapagos Tortoise: Discovery Island Trails

Ring Tailed Lemurs: Tree of Life

Wildebeests: Kilimanjaro Safaris

Masai (I believe) Giraffe: Kilimanjaro Safaris

Elephant: Kilimanjaro Safaris

White Rhinoceros: Kilimanjaro Safaris

Lion: Kilimanjaro Safaris

Okapi: Pangani Forest

Gerenuk: Pangani Forest

Gorilla: Pangani Forest

Gibbon: Village of Anandapur

Komodo Dragon: Maharajah Jungle Trek

Tiger: Maharajah Jungle Trek

Some Blue Bird: Maharajah Jungle Trek

Another random bird: Maharajah Jungle Trek

I took a few shots of the Tree of Life, but would like another chance at night with a tripod.

After Animal Kingdom we headed over to Magic Kingdom where we were able to get a much better view of The Magic, Memories and You Castle show. I was very impressed with the visuals, and the photos are almost inconsequential. I do see this being a logistical nightmare for cast members though – they were using the run off exit behind the Tomorrowland side of Main Street to usher guests to the exit.

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All in all, this was another good day, and we’ll see my sister’s family and cousin off tomorrow morning.

WDW Fanboys Blog – 03/29/2010 – Episode #016 – Google Maps Follow Up

By WDW Fan Boys on March 29, 2010 in Blog 0

On Episode #016 of the WDW Fan Boys Podcast, we had the privilege of speaking with Kevin Yee of MiceAge.com about several topics pertaining to Walt Disney World. One of the things Kevin mentioned was a large area of cleared land behind Expedition Everest that could be the future home of a new Australia land in Disney’s Animal Kingdom.

As Kevin said, there is a huge area of cleared land; but as we discussed on the podcast there does not seem to be an easy way to access this land.

Please note that the top of this map is North, and that you can select the images below to see a full size image.

As you can see in these images, the large area of land is North of Kali River Rapids and Southeast of Conservation Station. In our show discussion, Kevin alluded to a walk way to Conservation Station that has long been discussed as guests fail to find their way back to Conservation Station because the only way to access it is via the Wildlife Express train.

As you can see in the images above, to access this land from the Expedition Everest/Serka Zong area of Asia would be somewhat ill conceived. While the access road can certainly be moved, guests would have to walk by the Expedition Everest Barn (that houses the Roller Coaster Trains) to the East, and Kali River Rapids to the West. The chopped down rain forest scene of Kali River Rapids is directly to the West of the Expedition Everest Barn. As the path would continue North, the tree cover is largely obscuring the Kali River Rapids river, and you would have to pass the Kali River Rapids Water Tank before reaching the cleared land. I don’t believe there would be enough room on either side of this pathway to merit the circuitous route you would have to take to access this land from Serka Zong.

The images above show the Anandapur section of Asia that features the entrance to Kali River Rapids and the Maharajah Jungle Trek. Immediately north of this area is the Cleared patch of land. The problem here is that the combination of the train tracks, Maharajah Jungle Trek and Kali River Rapids create a lot of congestion in this area so to access both Conservation Station and the cleared land from this point something would have to move. My guess would be the train tracks.

In the image above, you can see a closer shot of the Anandapur village. The Africa Train Station is surprisingly close to Asia, separated only by an access road. I would guess that the easiest route to this cleared land would be to the West of Anandapur, over the access road presumably crossing where the train tracks currently reside. While the Wildlife Express train is certainly educational, it may be rendered obsolete if a walking path is created from Asia to Conservation Station. To me, this is the most logical solution, but unfortunately right now nothing official has been announced on the use of this land or any of the other cleared land in the Animal Kingdom.

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WDW Trip Report – 02/08/2010

By WDW Fan Boys on February 9, 2010 in Trip Reports 0

February 8

We woke up to some Ankole Cattle outside of our window.

Our day at the Animal Kingdom began with a walk through the Oasis and some of the Tree of Life exhibits before making our way to the Pangani Forest exploration trail, followed by a trip on Kilimanjaro Safaris.

Oasis photos:

Tree of Life photos

Africa photos:

Pangani Forest photos:

Kilimanjaro Safaris photos:

Following our time in Africa, we made the walk over to Asia where we toured the Maharajah Jungle Trek. Due to the weather (it was in the 60s), the Komodo Dragon and the different species of Bats were not outside. The good news is, the Tigers were out, and I was able to get several photos of them, as well as a few other animals from the Maharajah Jungle Trek.

We continued along the path and watched the Gibbons for a few minutes:

We weren’t aware of the new baby Gibbon, but we didn’t see any of the Golden colored Gibbons anyways. If you would like to read about the newest baby at the Animal Kingdom, click here. Also along the path, I noticed two things that seemingly were references to the same un-built attraction. As some of our readers may know, Asia was meant to have a Skytram type ride that would feature live animals, as well as mythical ones (presumably the Yeti or Abominable Snow man). The first picture is of a sign that was part of a group of signs in Asia (below a large sign for Kali River Rapids). The second sign is of a piece of paper on the bulletin board by the restrooms that are along the walk way from the village of Anandupur and the village of Serka Zong.

I had read a while back that there was a reference to the various animals that were meant to be on this skytram ride. I never heard the official name for it, but perhaps it was “Flying Yak”, and the list of animals species was also part of what was planned.

After my random photo hunt, we went on Expedition Everest using the single rider line, followed by the 1:30 showing of Festival of the Lion King. We dined at Pizzafari for lunch, before making our way over to Dinosaur where we experienced an evacuation after sitting in the vehicle for 15-20 minutes. Before I get to the details of the evacuation I mentioned some details on Dinosaur in the 2/6 trip report that need updating. The Styracosaurus was there, but not illuminated and sunk down out of view unless you were looking for him. The 1st Carnotaurus was working again.

While riding Dinosaur, we were stopped right after the charging Carnotaurus in the pitch black hallway before the Carnotaurus where they take your picture. The lights came on immediately, and I took some photos (seen below). I apologize for the quality of some of them as I didn’t want to use a flash. Also of note, at the portion where they take your photo, your supposed to be looking to the right at the large Carnotaurus. However, on the left is the head of a Carnotaurus. I think this is what they use when the charging Carnotaurus isn’t working.

After the impromptu tour of Dinosaur with the lights on, we left the Animal Kingdom, but not before stopping to see the Giant Anteater in the Oasis.

We made our way over to Epcot, first running into Soarin’ to grab Fastpasses, before leaving the park and riding a full Epcot monorail loop. As we came back into the park we noticed that Spaceship Earth was down, and then Marie overheard a cast member amongst a group of cast members, “So I grabbed a fire extinguisher and used it.” According to My Fox Orlando there was some smoke that triggered the evacuation. The ride was operating again within an hour or so, so it wasn’t too major.

After the monorail loop we went over to Canada to watch Off Kilter perform, and we followed that up with some shopping in the Canadian pavilion. Following this performance we walked over a few countries to China to see the Dragon Legend Acrobats. If you haven’t seen Off Kilter perform, they’re a lot of fun, while the Dragon Legend Acrobats are absolutely amazing.

It was nearing closing time for Innoventions so we made our way to Sum of all Thrills. Afterwards we went into The Land for dinner at Seasons and a ride on Soarin’ before we picked out a spot in Canada for Illuminations.

Another great day in the parks was capped by our return back to the Animal Kingdom Lodge. After dropping our stuff of in the room, we walked down by the recently refilled pool to one of the Savannah overlooks to look at animals through night vision goggles. It was a cool experience and we saw a couple of Patterson’s Elands.

February 9th will see us going to Sea World, so look for that trip report soon.

Wait times throughout the day:
10:58 Kilimanjaro Safaris: Standby 20 minutes, Fastpass 11:36-12:36
11:40 Kilimanjaro Safaris: Standby 30 minutes, Fastpass 12:27 – 1:27
12:17 Kali River Rapids: Standby 5 minutes, Fastpass Unavailable
12:47 Expedition Everest: Standby 35 minutes, Fastpass 3:15-4:15, Single Ride 10 minutes
1:10 It’s Tough to be a Bug: Standby 0 minutes
2:42 It’s Tough to be a Bug: Standby 0 minutes
2:48 Dinosaur: Standby 30 minutes, Fastpass 3:25-4:25, Actual Standby 15 minutes
3:39 Dinosaur: Down, Fastpass 5:10-6:00
4:25 Soarin’: Standby 55 minutes, Fastpass 7:54-8:54
4:25 Living with the Land: Standby 10 minutes
4:35 Test Track: Standby 80 minutes, Fastpass 6:45-7:45, Single Rider 30 minutes
6:45 Sum of all Thrills: Standby 15 minutes
7:29 Soarin’: Standby 55 minutes, Fastpass Unavailable
7:55 Soarin’: Standby 45 minutes
8:31 Soarin’: Standby 25 minutes

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