Ride through Africa with the Elephants, Lions, Hippos, and More
Written: Jan 07 '08
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Product Rating:
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Pros: different every time, fantastic views of a wide variety of animals, long ride
Cons: long lines, ending a bit cheesy and contrived
The Bottom Line: It's a fantastic ride with close views of a wide variety of African animals. You never know exactly what you're going to see and the ride is different every time.
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| quasar's Full Review: Kilimanjaro Safaris |
One of my favorite things at Disney's Animal Kingdom park is the Kilimanjaro Safaris ride in Africa. A long jeep ride through the Harambe Animal Preserve styled like a two week safari, Kilimanjaro Safari follows the same long, winding path through a variety of different ecosystems of Africa, but each ride is different.
You and 40 or 50 of your closest friends join a guide in large jeeps and very slowly creep through a hippo pool, a watering hole where black rhinos are known to hang out, an elephant's watering hole, a rock outcropping with lions, and large sections of savannah where you're likely to see giraffes, zebras, antelope, ostriches, and more. While some of the animals are carefully kept a distance from the jeeps, many are allowed to roam freely about the preserve. Some animals are quite happy getting quite close to the jeeps and they can be found crossing the roads or even using them as pathways for their own travels.
You never know what you're going to see on this ride, but I've always seen at least one group of watusi cattle, some sort of antelope, crocodiles, at least a glimpse of a hippo, and at least one ostrich. There are always ostrich eggs laying about and termite mounds dot the savannah.
While the guides claim the lions sleep away most of the day, I've generally gotten lucky and seen at least the male; on two of my rides both the male and female were awake and very active. I've almost always also seen a fairly large group of elephants but I did make one trip with nary a sighting of gray. Giraffes are also usually plentiful, with the children seeming more adventurous and more active than their parents. This is the only place I've ever seen a baby giraffe and they are the cutest, most awkward things. Imagine having to grow into both legs and neck!
I mentioned above that sometimes some of the animals can decide to travel along the pathways used by the jeeps. That actually happened on one of my rides. Immediately after our guide told us that ostriches are incredibly speedy travelers, we wound up stuck behind a group of three ostriches bound and determined to show him up and move as slowly as possible down the road in front of us. We were behind them for more than ten minutes before they left the path. I thought it was really cool and really illustrated the point that these animals really are just out there in the open with us.
The guides do their best to point out all of the animals within viewing range and tell us a little factoid or two about those spotted, but this is pretty much a self-guided viewing tour in the sense that you're free to look in any direction at any time. Most guides are happy when passengers call out animal sightings they missed, so feel free to shout out anything you see that no one's mentioned yet.
There is a story to this ride, but it's barely played until after you pass through the majority of the areas holding animals. There are poachers on the preserve and you're asked to help capture them. In doing so, there's one rather fast somewhat downhill run that provides a little bit of a more exciting ride than the slow meandering to that point, but mostly going off to catch the poachers provides an out from the "two week safari" premise. The ending is a bit cheesy and can be a disconcerting change from the more mellow animal viewing mode, but I guess it's Disney's way of placing their own stamp on the safari ride.
The ride lasts 20-25 minutes and there's a lot packed into the time. The lines for this ride can be very long even with a fastpass, but at least you get something worthwhile for your wait. No two hour waits for a three minute ride here. Be aware that it may close earlier than the park because it requires daylight. In particular, it closes around 4:30 or 5:00 in much of December and January even when the park stays open until 6 or later.
Kilimanjaro Safaris lets out right by the entrance to the Pangani Forest Exploration Trail and the two seem to natural flow into each other. However, the Pangani Forest Exploration Trail is a bit of a letdown after the safari even when the trail is at its best, so you may wish to accept a bit of extra walking and view the two separately. It also helps alleviate crowds if you don't start down the path exactly as a large number of other people coming off of this ride enter it.
Regardless of what you do afterward, do ride Kilimanjaro Safaris. Ride it several times if you can. It's a fantastic ride with close views of a wide variety of African animals. You never know exactly what you're going to see and the ride is different every time. Enjoy!
Recommended:
Yes
Best Time to Travel Here: Anytime
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Epinions.com ID:
quasar
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Location: Metro Boston, MA
Reviews written: 1981
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About Me:
I've been back from Florida for two years now :)
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