Canucks Road Trip 2012
Since we have plans to go to Africa, we made Disney's Animal Kingdom our last visit, turns out this would be a completely wild day.
Disney's Animal Kingdom theme park is the largest animal-themed park in the world! The Tree of Life at the center of the park is the landmark location visible from everywhere. The intricate carving that make up the bark of the tree are amazing.
As you wander through the different regions of the park, there is birds of all kinds, colours and sizes.
One of my favourite animals is the tigers, so a wander to see the Tigers in the Maharajah Jungle Trek was a requirement, whether they are playing together or napping, these big cats are some magnificent creatures.
One of the centerpieces of the Animal Park is the Disney version of a Safari, you all load onto trucks and bounce through a high speed tour of the Safari area, you get to see the animals of the Serengeti, but never stop long enough to appreciate them, or take a decent picture. As we are walking to the Kilimanjaro Safaris Expedition we check out the park map and notice a little info bubble "Wild Africa Trek", a privately guided expedition into the true-life world of African Wildlife! After asking around, we find the info booth tucked away in a back alley... instead of a 20 minute tour, this one is 3 hours, and we can get on the next tour that only has 7 people. It's not cheap, but it's worth it.
It all starts with some basic instructions, and then they load us up with special vests to carry our free water bottles, strings to attach our sunglasses, and an uncomfortable harness and clip for what may be some exciting elements of our trek.
We walk through the Pangani Forest area, and quickly exit the public area through a locked gate into the paddocks.
The first use of our harness is overlooking the Hippos, we are on a non-fenced ledge, about 12 feet above the hippos. We are connected to a cable, just in case we were to slip and fall into their area. One of the guests would have gone in if not for that cable.
We stop and enjoy watching the hippos laze around, and navigate their riverway as the packed tour buses pass through and barely stop. From the tour trucks you can't see the huge group resting in the riverway, from our vantage point we can clearly see them and the trucks are long gone before we clearly see a large hippo yawn and check us out.
From the hippo area we unclip and head towards the Indiana Jones style rope bridges. One by one we cross the Disney re-created rickety bridges, and look down on the rather intimidating Nile Crocodiles.
From both the bridge and another unfenced ledge lookout we have an amazing view of what at first appeared to be fake crocodiles, until they started moving around, and you realize just how large and potentially dangerous these prehistoric beasts may be.
Once again we are connected via our harness to a cable allowing us to safely hang over a ledge 12 feet above the Crocs and watch them frolic (if that's what Crocs do), and once again the same guy nearly slips and falls into the pit.
Leaving the rivers of the Nile, we are finally able to take off our harnesses, load into our private viewing truck, and head off to the Serengeti.
Every time we see an animal, the truck pulls off and stops... we casually watch and take photos as the tour trucks just zoom by.
As we start working our way to our lunch stop we come upon the Elephants. A large herd with several young calfs.
After watching the elephants for a while, it was time for lunch, served in a little observation deck in the middle of the Serengeti area.
The view while eating lunch was spectacular, and the lunch was so good, Tandoori Shrimp, Red Pepper Hummus, Salmon roll, Curry Chicken, Prosciutto, and Fruit. All served in these portable stackable serving trays, apparently that was a traditional safari lunch...
can't wait for the real thing now, and we get to keep the water bottles!
From the platform we can see a Lion and Lioness napping on a little bluff. After Lunch our truck takes us a little closer.
Just around the corner we watch a couple Rhino's, very carefully, as apparently they have been known to charge a few of the trucks.
As it is a Disney theme park you knew a trip to the Animal Kingdom wouldn't be complete with Timon and Pumbaa.
The group shot with our guides at the end of our tour, what a great surprise for our day at the Animal Kingdom.
With the tour over we still had enough time to check out a couple rides before heading to Downtown Disney. First up was the Expedition Everest ride, seemed like it was just going to be new version of the classic Matterhorn ride at Disneyland, but it was so much better than that. With an Everest themed camp that you walk through in the line, to the actual ride, such a great addition!
The Dinosaur ride looked like it might be good, but it was a sad rip-off of the Jurassic park ride, too bad this was the last ride at Disney,
oh well, at least the Safari was awesome!
DOWNTOWN DISNEY
Our final stop before heading back to Miami was the Downtown Disney area for some shopping and supper.
With Mickey and Harry fully covered, it was time to make the long drive back down to Miami. After a short night sleeping in the Miami International Airport Hotel, we left the balmy sun destination of Florida, and returned to Vancouver... where it is snowing. Nice!
