WDW: Animal Kingdom

Out of the four Walt Disney World theme parks, Animal Kingdom is probably my favourite. It may be the largest in terms of its physical size, but it's the smallest when it comes to the numbers of rides and shows it has. (Though they are currently building Pandora there. Yes, Avatar is coming to Animal Kingdom in 2017 - I'm not sure how I feel about that!)

One of the reasons it's my favourite is because I got this amazing photo with one of the giraffes on the Kilimanjaro Safaris - long-term readers of this blog will know that giraffes are my absolute favourite animal. (And, yes, I did buy new Minnie Mouse giraffe ears at the park. How could I not? Even if they didn't go with my zebra dress!)

Morning is apparently the best time to do the Kilimanjaro Safaris as more animals are awake, so we made sure our FastPass+ selection for the ride was then (the normal queue was around 50 minutes long at that time). We did, however, walk straight back on it in the afternoon.

     

Some animals we'd seen in the morning were no longer around, but new ones were out grazing and mooching around. Kilimanjaro Safaris was definitely my favourite experience at the park, along with Expedition Everest - Legend of the Forbidden Mountain.

Expedition Everest made up for the Big Thunder Mountain hole in my life (it was closed in the Magic Kingdom, plus it was closed when we were at Disneyland Paris at Easter). It's a similar rollercoaster to BTM in that it doesn't go upside down, though you *do* get chased by a yeti and the ride goes backwards at one point. Such fun!

We skipped Finding Nemo - The Musical so we could go on Kilimanjaro Safaris and Expedition Everest again, though we did watch Festival of The Lion King. (And ended up in the Team Giraffe corner. WIN!) Festival of The Lion King was super colourful and enjoyable, and afterwards we stopped off at Harambe Market for lunch since Expedition Everest was temporarily closed (inclement weather that, thankfully, fizzled out). The food was surprisingly tasty.

As well as the animals you spot on Kilimanjaro Safaris, there are also various animal trails. If you have small children, catch a train to Rafiki's Planet Watch. We didn't head there, but it has a petting zoo so it's perfect for little ones! (Plus you can meet Rafiki.)

     

The Tree of Life is the main focal point of Animal Kingdom. If you look carefully enough at the tree you can see carvings of animals - there's apparently over 300, so it may take you a while to count them all! Oh, and It's Tough To Be A Bug! takes place underneath the Tree of Life. I'm not a fan of creepy crawlies... except for the A Bug's Life cast, of course.

If you're visiting Animal Kingdom, FastPass+ choices should definitely be used for Kilimanjaro Safaris and Expedition Everest. We did make the mistake of using a FastPass+ choice on the Kali River Rapids, but the only other ride it seemed worth using it on was DINOSAUR (which was closed). Maybe use a spare FastPass+ choice and meet a character? We didn't stop to meet any, but we did spy Flik, Baloo, Dug and Russell.

What do you think to Animal Kingdom? x