WDW Trip Report: Animal Kingdom

28Jan07

Well, a few days after my trip, I’m here with my four part series on my trip to Disney World, which was on Wednesday.  I didn’t get as many pictures as I would have liked to due to weather conditions, but that’s okay, because I’m going again soon, and hopefully the weather won’t be as bad.  So, the first part of my four part series focuses on Animal Kingdom.  The park has improved quite a bit over the past couple of years, with the addition of Expedition Everest: The Legend of the Forbidden Mountain, and the brand new Finding Nemo: The Musical, which wasn’t open when I was there due to a media event, but I have seen the show, and I will be reviewing it soon.

We started the day off at Animal Kingdom, where we decided that it was immediately time to hit Expedition Everest a few times before we considered doing anything else.  The attraction won my Best Theme Park Attraction in the Bagel Awards this year, and it definitely deserved it–even now, the ride is still as exciting as ever before.  For those who haven’t ridden it, or seen my review on the ride, Everest is a high-speed rollercoaster that sends you zooming down the forbidden mountain.  This indoor/outdoor hybrid coaster features some of the best effects ever.  The track switches, for example, are quite intuitive.  For example, towards the beginning of the ride, you come to a dead stop, then shoot off backwards into the mountain.  The track switch is simply amazing–the switch itself just “flips” to the other side, and easy as that, you’re on your way into the mountain.  It’s quite amazing how it worked.  The ride also features the largest animatronic figure currently in use in an Orlando theme park (possibly even any theme park in the world, for that matter, but I have no idea), the Yeti.  If you remember King Kong from the old Universal Orlando venue, it was pretty big, right?  The Yeti is almost as big as that.  Me and my friend ended up riding Everest four times, and it almost made us feel as bad as it did when I rode it 9 times in a row last year.

Then, after Everest, we decided to go to Dinosaur.  This impressive attraction, which was formerly known as Countdown to Extinction, features one of the most genius ride systems I have ever known–this is how Back to the Future AND Jurassic Park should have turned out at Universal.  It would have been a perfect system for both.  The ride pits you in the middle of a search for the Iguanadon, a rare dinosaur.  However, as you progress through your adventure, you get closer and closer to experiencing what changed the Earth forever.  Will you make it out in time?  Dinosaur is one of my personal favorite Disney attractions–it’s so well done, so perfect–wow.  I really enjoy this one.  I’ll be giving it a full review soon enough.

Then, as there’s not too much more that needs to be done at Animal Kingdom, we went on the Kilamanjaro Safari.  This long adventure takes you across the Serengeti Plains, where you’ll encounter some of the many different species of the African wilderness–giraffes, elephants, zebras, etc…the ride is actually kinda cool, but I didn’t get too many pictures, since the ride vehicle moved too quickly at points throughout the adventure. 

And that’s all there really is to do in Animal Kingdom, with the exception of Finding Nemo: The Musical, but it wasn’t open, so we couldn’t experience it like we would have wanted to.  This park is really starting to shape up–before Everest, the only thing worth going to the park for is Dinosaur, and everything else wasn’t that great.  Now that Everest and Finding Nemo are open, the park is starting to become a whole lot better, and its definitely something that needed to happen.  I really hope they start adding more to the park.  I give my Animal Kingdom experience for the day a 8.5/10.

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