Need Help... Animal Kingdom

[Princess654]

We are going to WDW in Dec 2010 and I am trying to plan out our adventures. It will be myself, DH, and DD (turning 5 at WDW) and my parents. We are staying at CSR. I have been reading everyone's trip reports and looking at the pics of AK. I am not sure that there is anything for DD there - the rides seem to be too old for her and seeing the animals is something we can do at the Bronx Zoo.

Aside from some of the restaurants (yes I will be making some ADRs for AK) but I am not sure if we need to give AK a full day??

Any advice would be great.

TIA

 

[SrisonS]

One word: safari

But I'd suggest maybe doing AK one half of the day, and maybe doing epcot or Hollywood studios the other half. If possible, of course.

 

[cam&phoebsmom]

The 1st time we went with our son he was 5. Here is what he liked:

Safari (and we have the National Zoo we go to regularly-but the safari is different)
Boneyard-both my kids (now 8 and 3) like it
It's Tough to be a Bug
Lion King Show
Nemo show
Kali River Rapids
Pangani trail

This past trip we went for rope drop and then went back for another few hours another day since we had ADRs at Boma and it was EMH for the evening there.

The 1st day we left around 12-1 (we got there at 8am for rope drop). The 2nd day we went back for the safari again, to see the Lion King show, and for the parade which is REALLY cute.

 

[Princess654]

Thanks for the info. I am probably going to set it up as a place to spend 1/2 a day.

Why is the safari so special (not being rude - just not really sure what it is)?

 

[SrisonS]

Thanks for the info. I am probably going to set it up as a place to spend 1/2 a day.

Why is the safari so special (not being rude - just not really sure what it is)?

It's probably about the closest you'd get to going on an actually safari, without having to go to Africa. You're in a free moving jeep, and there's nothing really between you and the animals (at least it appears that way). You could literally reach out and touch an ostrich (illegally, of course.... but you could do it). There are a lot of cool African animals you will see on it though. I've heard that people who've been on actual safari say how close it is to the real thing.

Here are only a couple of pics....



When I say free moving; the jeep has a set trail it takes, but it's still completely controlled by the driver. Here's a giraffe that stopped dead in our tracks one time I went.



(clicking pics will direct you to their Flickr page)

 

[Princess654]

Thanks that makes a lot more sense now why this would be something cool to do. I am going to put it down for a 1/2 day maybe do a breakfast ADR there.

THANKS!!! This board is GREAT.