Browsing Tag: animals

When one thinks of Disney World, numerous things come to mind. There is Cinderella’s Castle, Mickey and Minnie Mouse, Spaceship Earth, Toy Story Land, Flight of Passage and more. However, did you know that Disney offers many behind the scene tours? Disney is much more than amusement park rides, character greetings, and parades. Each of the four parks has its unique adventures. A year and a half ago, my friends and I were able to experience one of these adventures. Come along as we head over to Disney’s Animal Kingdom and experience the Wild Africa Trek.

Disney’s Wild Africa Trek is a VIP experience viewing the savannah animals in their natural habitat. It takes you backstage to areas of the Harambe Wildlife Preserve that you see while on the Kilimanjaro Safari from afar.

Upon arrival, you check in with the guides and given a locker to store your belongings. You can bring a camera, so long as you wear it around your neck. However, the guides take a ton of photos, and you receive a link to download them all. Each person is given croakies for their sunglasses, a name tag, a safety vest, and a harness. Also, everyone is given a stainless steel water bottle to clip on to your vest. It gets hot out there!

The tour starts along the Pangani Forest Exploration Trail. Here we saw all sorts of birds.

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At the end of the trail, we headed into the woods. This is where the trek gets interesting. Our first stop is the hippopotamus pool. We head over to the outlook to get a closer look. This is where the harness comes into play. In order to keep us safe and from falling into the jaws of a hungry hippo, we are clipped to a safety line.

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In addition to our two guides, we had an animal expert on hipppos and crocs to talk to us about these beautiful creatures.

HIPPO FACT – The hippo’s closest relatives are whales and porpoises.

Next stop, the friendly crocodiles. I must admit, as much as I know Disney is all about safety and I would be clipped to a safety line, I was a little nervous for this next part of the trip. For those of you that have been on the safari, you may recall seeing a rope bridge over by the crocs. Well, this bridge is what we crossed over to get to our next part of the trek.

Again, I clipped to a safety line. However, I was shaking and some of the slats were a bit far apart from one another. For a shorty like me, it was a bit frightening at times.

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Once we were all across, we met with a crocodile expert and she told us all about these mysterious creatures.

CROCODILE FACT- Crocodiles really do produce tears.

After spending some time learning about these historic animals, it was off with the vests and harnesses and aboard a safari truck. The trucks are different than what is used in the regular safari. There are benches around the outer edge of the truck and the middle is open, so people may stad up when we stop to looks at anmails. We rode around the savanah and saw so many animals.

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About two-thirds of the way into our trip, we stopped at a lovely spot to have a bite to eat. It is a large observatory deck with a gorgeous view of the savannah. It is set up with tables and chairs. We were asked to sit back and enjoy the lovely meal and view.

This wraps up our Wild Africa Trek. It was so cool, and I am so glad we did it. If you are ever down in Disney and looking for something different to do, I highly recommend this adventure.