Theme Park Insider fans love the park for its Festival of the Lion King show, Kilimanjaro Safaris ride and the Expedition Everest roller coaster, despite the animatronic Yeti that's been frozen in place for years, due to a broken support structure.
If you've visited Animal Kingdom recently, please consider yourself invited to rate and review its attractions and dining facilities on our Disney's Animal Kingdom listings page. But let's also talk about the future of this theme park, the youngest park at the Walt Disney World Resort.
Animal Kingdom will be the home to the new Avatar project, currently underway with an opening date yet to be announced. But Animal Kingdom's been the subject of many other Disney plans and fan rumors over the years.
Looking ahead to Animal Kingdom's 20 anniversary in 2018, what would you most want to see the park have opened by then? Would you like to see the Yeti repaired? Or would you rather Disney focus on Avatar? What about adding a new continent, such as Australia, America, or -- to match SeaWorld Orlando's upcoming attraction -- Antarctica? What about those Beastly Kingdom plans that were once supposed to be included in the park? And now, some fans are talking about Animal Kingdom as a good home for a stateside version of the Mystic Manor ride that just debuted to wildly enthusiastic reviews at Hong Kong Disneyland.
You can't choose "all of the above." To see where's fans' priorities lie, please select the option that's your top pick for this park.
Happy birthday, Animal Kingdom!
I voted for Mystic Manor, though I could easily be talked in to adding a new continent (Australia gets my vote). I'm excited for the Avatar project as well, despite it not really fitting into the world Disney has created with this park.
Scrapping Dinoland USA, with the exception of Dinosaur, is a must as well.
Secondly, get Avatar/Pandora done and done right.
Third: Nuke Dinoland, USA, add Mystic Manor and update Dinosaur to be a "sequel" (not an exact clone) of the Indiana Jones attraction at DLR.
Fourth: Do something, anything, to improve the Rafiki area, and get a REAL train for gosh sakes!
Four steps to making DAK one of the top parks in the world.
But first: FIX THE &^%#$#@ YETI!!!!!
Do something with the yeti. And if all you're going to do is put strobe lights on it, you might as well put up a disco ball and roll some bee gees music during the ride.
Rafiki's planet watch is awful. No one goes there willingly more than once. I mean, if you're going to put people on a train facing sidways, at least have something for them to look at instead of walls of plants and berms. I was expecting something from the train ride and it was a big fat zero. Much like that section of the park.
The architecture suggests a mix of English, Indian, and Russan influences. In other words, a perfect fit for Animal Kingdom's adventuring focus that seems a little frayed.
I still think they need to finish the Avatar project.
Another roller coaster would be great, though I can't think of anything that would be Australia-themed in that regard.
Give up on Avatar. It's not going to happen.
I Respond: That's incorrect.
ONE OF THESE ATTRACTIONS WOULD EASILY GET THE JOB DONE
1. INDIANA JONES RIDE
2. MYSTIC MANOR
3. JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH
...my personal vote goes with Indiana Jones though
Other options, in order of preference, would be:
-Beastly Kingdom replacing Camp Minnie-Mickey or Dinoland USA
-A new E-ticket using technology not seen in the US Disney Parks
-Major overhaul of Expedition Everest
-Avatarland
From what I've heard, Animal Kingdom is the weakest of the four Disney World parks (although it does have a couple of the best individual attractions), so it definitely needs something new. I just don't think building an entire land themed to a non-Disney movie that somewhat copied a Disney movie is the smartest move.
That being said, I voted for a new land (Australia Mate). If I was king of this kingdom, I would get Avatar up and running by 2015. All the while, there would be some quiet movement as far as site prep and ground clearing would be concerned for the new land. With Avatar up and running, things start to pick up on the Aussie expansion pad, but with no official announcement until 2016, so Avatar land does not have it's thunder stolen for a good year.
Once the 2016 announcement is made for Australia to open in 2018, things kick into high gear. A version of Mystic Manor easily fits in Australia for all of you pining away for it, as the story could revolve around a world renowned explorer from the land down under and all of the artifacts he's collected in his travels. Prep begins to move the Nemo show over to the new land since this only makes sense. A great barrier reef as well as outback attractions are no brainers here. At the same time, the Yeti FINALLY goes under the knife, with Avatar land now in place to pick up the slack.
The final phase of my plan would be to take a tactical nuke to Chester and Hester's Dino-Crap-O-Rama. The Bone-Yard and dig site stay, as well as Dinosaur, but the carnival, midway games, spinner and off the rack coaster are removed and the dust is blown off for the plans for the excavator attraction, and revamped. This will allow the park to still have a family coaster, but at least this one will be up to Disney standards. The final piece of the puzzle would be for Disney to strike up some type of deal with BBC Worldwide, to bring a scaled down version of there incredible Walking with Dinosaurs arena show to the park. The Nemo theater, which is basically a part of Dinoland anyway, would once again need to go under the knife to accommodate the show, but what a spectacular thing for all to be able to see, as that show and the animatronics in it are truly amazing and lifelike. This would bring us right up to 2019-2020. I know it doesn't fit all nicey nice into the 2018 schedule, but a lot will have been done by that point, with Dinoland finishing up this 7 year plan. That's the Animal Kingdom Park I would like to see, and would absolutely love to visit!
I loved that show and never missed it when I visited AK.
The park is lovely and as another guest wrote earlier, its so different to the other parks but it could do with an addition of something new.... but what.... gee, let me think.
"Move avatar to Hollywood studios where it actually fits the theme of the park."
Followed directly by this:
"For a roller coaster, how about one based on Rescuers down under with a theme like you are flying on the golden eagle...just an idea and could go in an Australia land."
No disrespect, but I needed this laugh.
I voted for Beastly Kingdom. Would like to see the Yeti get back on his "feet", but I would build something first to swallow people before closing this for the time it would take to redo him. (Her?)
* Australia section will have all the expected Australian animals (kangaroos, wallabees, koalas, emu, crocdiles, kiwi, tasmanian devils, etc).
* There will be an Outback Railroad Station
* There will be a Great Barrier Reef section with a Nemo dark ride...as well as a Great White Shark E-ticket ride of some kind. Since a real Great White will probably never be exhibited in captivity in our lifetimes, what if they did a 360 degree movie attraction like exists for sea turtles (at Sea World, I think) and guest could feel like they are on the bottom of the ocean surrounded by great whites swimming
* The Adventurers' Club is reborn but as an attraction based on Mystic Manor. It would be pretty easy just to tweak what is in Hong Kong...remove Albert the monkey and replace with a different character and include in the ride all the different props that used to be in the Adventurers Club restaurant at downtown Disney. Have all sorts of mythical animals featured in the ride so this gives people a taste of mythological animals. The Adventurers Club outpost could very easily be located near the Outback railroad station...and there could be an Adventurer's Club restaurant attached like the 'Explorers' Club' restaurant in Hong Kong.
Alternatively, you could also do lots of the concepts above in South America by exchanging "Nemo" for "UP" and you could just do a South American version of the Adventurers' Club base.
Dinoland USA screams budgeting and has the same nasty cheap feel - hello Imagination in Epcot - that's still far to pervasive in WDW. It's signature ride "Dinosaur", has been so toned down, that it has lost it's thrill leaving only the unpleasant jerky ride.
Camp Placeholder should been levelled years ago.
I see that others have mentioned Rafiki. The tree of life netting futher symbolising Disney penny pinching.
The park desperately needs another land and at the very least two e-tickets and I don't think Avatar is the solution. It's funny but the only place I ever see that movie mentioned is in themepark blogs, beyond that it seems to have completely disappeared from the public conciousness.
I'd love to see Beastly Kingdom, but the likelihood of seeing that come to fruition is about the same as seeing the creatures it was meant to represent i.e fantastical.
I Respond: Referencing the comments on the 'Mission: Space' page at TPI (where the ride has earned a rating of 8 out of 10) not sure what you mean by "no one."
"Awesome ride! Orange is the way to go!" - David L.
"Perfect thrill ride. Orange Team was intense. Feeling all these G's is realy nice and their extended G's aswell." - Justin Knight
"Great ride, especially the strong one ..." - Jose Carlos Mahbub
"A fun and visceral thrill ..." Sean Huckel
"A first of its kinds simulator, packs a good punch of G-forces for those thrill seekers. Definitely a recommended experience if you want a simulation of lift-off..." - Kevin Connor
"This ride is world class! In all my life have I never been on a space launch simulation such as this! It feels like you are really expirencing this!" - Adam O'Malley
As for the Yeti...Disney is in the business of making money--fixing the Yeti is not going to make people book new vacations to WDW. What will bring people in is big new attraction or even more, big new lands with several attractions. Universal has changed the game for theme parks waning to add a big new land--this is probably why Disney added "cars land". Avatar is basically Disney's answer to Potter--a completely imgainary world that could just as visually interesting to look at inaddition to the rides and attactions. The problem is Avatar is not Potter. It might be an interesting template for an immersive enviroment, but there is not the love out there for Avatar as there is for Potter...not even close!
Also, really..... if given the choice of a new E ticket, a new land.... etc. over fixing the Yeti..... I'd rather get a new E-ticket or area..... I can still ride Everest fixed Yeti or not..... and as much as it costs to get into a theme park they need more experiences to offer guests.... and maybe stay open an hour or two later.
Man, these cutbacks at Walt Disney World are BRUTAL!
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