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 Disney calls the Animal Kingdom "A New Species of Theme Park" and indeed it is. It is unlike any Disney park you have visited before.
While some critics and Disney fans have panned the park saying "there's not enough to do", we would have to call it a good park only getting better! We enjoyed the relaxed atmosphere and elaborate theming and lush tropical feel.
The Animal Kingdom was scheduled to open in May 1998, however building work was well ahead of schedule, and so Disney's newest park eventually opened on the 22nd of April 1998, with various preview days being scheduled for Disney cast members from March. It features an enormous new theme park with live animals and thrill rides, dominated by the 14-story tree of life in which a short animated presentation is shown in a subterranean cinema.
 Originally WDW was looking at calling it Wild Animal Kingdom, they soon realized that it was in conflict with Wild Kingdom a TV show that's name is copyrighted. So Disney quickly dropped the Wild and it is known as Animal Kingdom. Technically its full name is Disney's Animal Kingdom.
Safari jackets are flattering to all men, but who would have expected Mickey Mouse to look as irresistible as Harrison Ford or Robert Redford in his bush jacket? But he does, and that's only one of the surprises in Disney's Animal Kingdom, the most recent addition to its family of theme parks.
From the moment you step into the park at Disney World Resort in Orlando, Florida, you and your family will feel like you've traveled thousands of miles away to another world, where animals are the first citizens. Five hundred acres of Florida pastures and other land have been transformed into green savannas, where elephants and rhino look for snacks, and glistening primeval forests with hidden waterfalls and grottoes, where you may find a hyacinth blue macaw preening or a flirtatious lemur playing peekaboo.
 Animals and nature are the stars at this park, and its icon is the 14-story Tree of Life carved with images of over 300 different animals. Grown-ups tend to stare at the engineered tree in awe of the work that went into it. Kids automatically try to scramble up to one of the animals or climb around the thick roots at the tree's base.
There are places for kids to play and learn and for adults to be charmed and educated throughout the park--from Africa, where a colonial East African town has been re-created along with an old-fashioned train called Wildlife Express, which looks straight out of Africa, to DinoLand U.S.A., where you can eat smoked turkey legs at the Dino Diner or Chicken McNuggets at the Restaurantosaurus, slither and slide around prehistoric "artifacts" in the Boneyard, or ride 65 million bumpy years back in time on the Time Rover time traveler.
Everything in the Animal Kingdom park has to do with animals: real, extinct or imaginary. Simba, for instance, is doing eight shows a day at the Broadway-caliber stage show FESTIVAL OF THE LION KING in Camp Minnie-Mickey. Nearby, Mickey and his other Disney friends (Pluto's pretty cute in safari garb, too) will sign autographs for their admirers. Rafiki, from THE LION KING, gives lectures on endangered animals at the Conservation Station.
Mickey, Simba, the dinos and the 1,000 animals (acquired mostly from zoos), as well as the 4 million trees, plants and shrubs are all telling the same story at Animal Kingdom we all need each other in order to survive on this planet.
In truth, you may hear the message too often, especially if you've put in a full day and you begin to feel preached at. But the park has more than a message. Like every Disney theme park there are thrills and chills, lots of fun, learning activities and the usual amenities, including great restaurants, clean rest rooms and plenty of shopping.
A thrilling new area Asia has been added to Animal Kingdom. Guests can shoot along the Kali River Rapids ride, view more exotic animals in the Maharajah Jungle Trek and take the "Flights of Wonder" show.
Created with a little help from FamilyFun Magazine, six interactive learning stations are located throughout the 500 acres of the park. Kids can discover and experience nature up-close and hands-on. Engaging activities include:
- Animals in Your Backyard: Kids discover what kind of animals live in their own backyards, and find them on a scavenger hunt.
- Touch the Forest: Reaching inside a log, kids try to identify by touch what they are feeling, such as antlers, a turtle shell, etc.
- Scent Trail: Kids learn how to follow a scent trail through an Asian forest.
- Bug's-eye View: Kids learn to see the world from a bug's-eye view.
- Puzzling Paleontology: Kids try to match the skulls and jaws of four different dinosaurs.
- Animal Clues: Kids try to stay on the trail of an animal that has visited the previous night by looking for footprints, food scraps, droppings, etc.
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