Kilimanjaro Safaris
| Kilimanjaro Safaris | |
|---|---|
| Park | Disney's Animal Kingdom |
| Land / area | Africa |
| Type | Safari ride with live animals |
| Opened | April 22, 1998 |
| Designer | Walt Disney Imagineering |
| Height req. | Any height |
| Status | Operating |
Kilimanjaro Safaris is a safari attraction in the Africa area of Disney's Animal Kingdom in the Walt Disney World Resort, Florida. Opened with the park on April 22, 1998, it takes guests in open-sided vehicles through the fictional Harambe Wildlife Reserve, a habitat of about 110 acres (45 ha) holding live African animals. It is among the largest attractions ever built in a Disney park — its area alone is slightly larger than the whole of the Magic Kingdom — and it remains the defining attraction of Animal Kingdom's live-animal mission.
History
Walt Disney had considered a ride with real animals during planning of Disneyland's Jungle Cruise in the 1950s, and set the idea aside because live animals could not be relied on to perform on cue. Florida's space made it practical, and when Animal Kingdom was designed under Imagineer Joe Rohde, the safari became its centrepiece.
Building the reserve required extensive earthworks and planting to create distinct African landscapes in central Florida, and to hide the barriers between species. Moats, water features, rockwork and changes in level keep predators and prey apart and keep animals in view of the road, while backstage barns and care facilities sit out of sight of guests.
Kilimanjaro Safaris opened on Earth Day, April 22, 1998, as one of the park's opening-day attractions, sponsored in its surrounding village by the fictional settlement of Harambe, modelled on an East African coastal town.
Experience
Guests board large, open-sided safari trucks, each carrying up to about 32 passengers, with a driver who also narrates the trip live. Because the animals are free to move, rest and hide as they choose, no two journeys are the same, and narration is unscripted beyond the facts about each species and habitat.
The route, lasting roughly 18 to 22 minutes, passes through several habitats in sequence: a forest area with bongos, okapis and hippopotamuses in and around water; the open savanna, where giraffes, zebras, wildebeest, antelope and ostriches roam over a wide grassland dotted with termite mounds and acacia-like trees; elephant and flamingo areas; and rocky kopjes where lions rest on outcrops. In total more than 30 species live in the reserve. Barriers and the road itself are disguised, so from the vehicles the habitats read as one continuous landscape. A warden's outpost with Nigerian dwarf goats, added in 2021 near the end of the route, is the one point where guests pass an animal encounter area on foot level. There is no height requirement, though guests must transfer or be assisted from some mobility devices depending on the vehicle.
Animals are generally most active in the cooler early morning, which has made the safari a traditional first stop for many visitors. Since May 2016 the attraction has also operated into the evening on many nights, when artificial lighting designed to suggest a prolonged sunset allows nocturnal behaviour to be observed.
Original storyline and changes
As originally presented, the safari had a plot. Drivers received radio messages about elephant poachers in the reserve, and the journey built toward the discovery of a poached adult elephant known as Big Red and the rescue of its calf, Little Red. A scene showing the adult elephant's carcass was removed before the park's official opening after negative reactions during previews, but the poacher chase and calf rescue remained as the finale for many years.
In 2012 that ending was removed and its area converted into an additional habitat, initially for zebras. The attraction settled into its present form, in which conservation is conveyed through narration and the animals themselves rather than a scripted incident.