Miss Jobson, no one in Africa calls them Thomson’s Gazelle. They are tommies. Tommies!
Once again: yesazu, but not just a zoo.
When Animal Kingdom opened in 1998, it needed animals, and it needed a signature attraction. It wanted to show you some of those animals, but it wanted to do so in a way that fit the story telling and thematic place-making of a Disney park. It was a zoo -- no matter what the advertising said -- but it was going to present itself like no other zoo.s
Thus, in Africa, you don't just see the animals entirely in exhibits. Rather, you enter the village of Harambe, and in the back, register for a sight seeing tour across the African wilderness on a safari tour.
Frankly, it's an extremely simple concept, and thus this will probably just be an extremely simple blog post. This ride is no more complicated than a truck being driven through animal enclosures.
That does not make it any less incredible to actually experience, though. In an area larger on its own than any other theme park, Safari drivers take you through one of the most convincing reconstructions of a different location seen anywhere. The magic of safaris is the animals, but in the mean time, WDI built such incredible ways to see them.
Take the start, as you wind through the jungles and see animals hiding in the foliage and the water. It's lush, with varied sight lights that manage to give the animals large places to roam while still giving you a chance to see them in different ways. The darkness and flowing water makes for feeling somewhere exciting and dangerous.
Speaking of sight lines, the ride calls attention to the look across the horizon as you enter the Savannah, but that doesn't mean it's not impressive. Cresting that hill as the trees part and you see so many animals across such a wide expanse really is an example of the careful visual planning that makes all of Animal Kingdom incredible.
Winding around the savannah gets you up close with animals in a way that you will struggle to find anywhere. It's one thing to look across a fence at a giraffe. It's another to have one stop your truck as it crosses the road, while a wildebeest looks in the window and a zebra dashes in the distance.
This gets to another one of Kilimanjaro's great valuable elements, which is its re-ridability. The animatronics of Pirates of the Caribbean do the same thing every time, but you never know where or how you'll see the residents of the Safaris. It's the closest you can come to seeing them in their home environment without the difficult proposition of going to their home environment.
Then there's the rickety bridge. And the elephants. And the rhinos. And the cheetahs. And the lions, up on their rock. Sometimes you see babies, sometimes you see play. Sometimes they get close, sometimes they peak from behind plants. It's different every time, and like nothing else anywhere in the parks. All of that coupled with a message of conversation, remind us how beautiful our planet is and how much we need to project it.
In terms of the changes over the years, I'm not sure any are big enough to call them completely different attractions. If you miss Little Red, I don't think you're wrong, but I like more room for more live animals. If you miss Wilson Matua. . . I'm actually with you, but I still love the ride.
It's a truck through beautiful environments with amazing, up-close looks at animals, with a sky-high capacity. Simple, but effective, and worth doing every single time.
Simple can be good. Simple can be great if the rewards are worth it.
Kwaherini!
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