The Den

Finally I'm taking time at the coffee shop this morning to add another day or two to the DisneyWorld saga.

So after two days at the Magic Kingdom, we decided to spend friday at the Animal Kingdom, the newest theme park at Disney World. I think of all the surprisingly cool, and even impressive things I experienced this week, the Animal Kingdom park was high on the list.

The Animal Kingdom is a kinda cross between amusement park and zoo, but it dosn't really feel like a zoo at all. Its divided into several themed areas, the biggest being the "Africa" section, and there's also "Asia" which seems to focus on the India and the Himalayas.   There are several larger and smaller trails and walks with animals along the way. Even though it isn't really a 'zoo', like most modern zoos, the Animal Kingdom is also engaged in various conservationist activities, and leaves me feeling mixed about seeing animals in captivity, while believing that the animals may be healthier and safer there than in their real (but diminishing) natural haibitats. One of the areas of the park, only reachable via the well-done replica of an early 1900's African train, is the Conservation Station, where such efforts are presented. Here we also found the observation windows looking in on the veterinary surgery, where they were performing a minor operation on a small bird when we visted. There's also a petting zoo there with various domesticated, but exotic to North America, animals for kids to get close and personal with.

The most combined Zoo/ThemePark thing is Kilimanjaro Safari Ride. Visitors load up into these bus-sized opensided landrover, which hold about 30 ppl. An audio track of a radio conversation is played while the driver navigates an intentionally bumpy "dirt" road through a man-made central African forest, and then savannah. The radio banter sets the scene where our driver, and we, are chasing after some poachers being caught in the act. As the truck passes through the terrain, various real 'uncaged' african animals. The reproduction of the habitats is pretter convincing, esp. for those of us who've never been there. And, if you read a bit about the design and engineering of the place, its pretty amazing, how there are "hidden" barriers all over the place to keep, e.g. the lions separate from the antelopes, (and the humans), and how the layout is such that the places the animals naturally want to hang out are the places where they'll be easily viewed from the truck route. Check out the gallery for some photos of the animals visible on the ride.

The other big "ride" we did that day was the Kali River Rapids - pretty fun, although as you are warned over and over before getting on it, you WILL get wet, possibly soaked. Its basically a "whitewater" rafting rollercoaster in big "innertubes, that can hold about 8 ppl each. It was fun, although kinda chilly the day we did it, which made the lines pretty short.

The Asia section impressed me the most because I've actually been to towns (in Nepal) like those being replicated. Aside from the massive numbers of north american tourists, it really did make me feel like I was back in that part of the world. Unfortuantely we didn't get to take a ride on the showpiece rollercoaster there, the Expedition Everest, because Bethany was 4" under the minimum height requirement. Next time, I'm sure.

We also stopped in at the "It's Tough to be a Bug" exhibit, hosted by Flik, from A Bugs' Life.  Its a movie presentation that I've seen several times before (its on the Collectors Edition DVD release of A Bugs' Life), but here its in a large theatre, and projected in 3D - ya know, with the glasses and all.  Not only 3D, but the seats are also rigged with fans, odor generators, and various tactile stimulators in the seats, so its kinda overwhelming to watch. So overwhelming in fact that poor Bethany *really* didn't like it and was glad to leave.

While my mom and sister went off for the afternoon to get all spa'd up, Bethany hung out with me, Wayne and BG for the afternoon and we wandered to the Dino Land area. Again we didn't go on the roller coaster because of the minimum size limit, but there was  fun playground for bethany to run around in for a while. After that we headed over to Camp Minnie-Mickey to get some photo-ops with the characters there. As I'd mentioned in the post about Thursday at the Magic Kingdom, the characters have 'handlers' - employees who help them interact with the public. It was pretty funny as we were in line to take photos with Donald Duck - Just before we got to the front of the line, the handler announced that Donald had to go "check on his nephews" and would be back in 5 minutes. Now, these things are expected, as of course, the actor in the suit needs a potty break occasionally, and so on. But this break was obviously a shift change, because when Donald came back, he was clearly at least 5" shorter than he had been mere moments before!

The evening's dinner plan was what proved to be the worst of my fears for the whole week's adventure - dinner was at Planet Hollywood in "Downtown Disney" - another area, several miles away from the theme parks. The only cool thing about it was how we got there, by boat from our hotel. There are rivers and canals connecting many parts of Disney World, so we just hopped on a boat and it took us right there on a leisurely 20 min evening ride.

I didn't see much of Downtown Disney, and thats OK. Its pretty much intended to be a flashy, consumerist-oriented shopping mall, very plastic, concrete, and 'fake'.   The only thing there that I might be interested in seeing (but didn't this time) is a permanent installation of Cirque du Soleil. The rest of it pretty much turns me off. But I endured dinner at Planet Hollywood - Denny's quality food at twice the price or more, in a cheesy, loud, movie-maniac,  ball-shaped building that made me think more of Logan's Run on a bad acid trip than a place to have a nice dinner.  At least it was covered under our meal plan.

Although that dinner was the worst experience of the week, the next evening proved to be the best, and I'll tell ya about it next time.