Animal Kingdom TR (10/24/02)

We started the day at Disney's Animal Kingdom, a park well... not visited by many enthusiasts, lol.

We started the day on Kilimanjaro Safaris, which is a 20 minutes truck ride through african forests and a savannah. Unbelievable. We even had a white rhino come right to our truck (I mean like one feet away!). A solid contender for best attraction in Orlando.

Then, we visited the Pangani exploration trail (fun), then went to Asia to ride the park's 1999 Intamin/Imagineering river rapids ride "Kali River Rapids". This river rapids got more more theming than the usual, LOTS more. Its starts with the lift (with misters to hide the top...), then, at the top, you go down in the river and the boat pass over a power jet of water! Wetting and soaking half the boat. Quiet rapids (its flaw) lead to the next part, a burning forest, with a stuck logging truck and some very hot flames. A 25-30 feet drop follows. More quiet rapids leads to the station, with on the way some water jet over your head. Now what happens if people in the boat put their hand in the jet? LOL

Nice ride, but between the great parts, the ride need good white water rapid action.

We then went to Dinoland USA. We eated a burger at Restaurantosaurus (not too bad, had worst burgers before). Then walked on Dinosaur. Dinosaur is an EMV (the EMV system is basically a simulator on track, but instead of a screen with a movie, they use the best dark rides animatronic and effects possible. Another example of the EMV system is Indiana Jones Adventures at DL.) That's some dark ride! The movements are perfect, you actually see dinosaurs and you got a legimate sense of danger on the ride. Capacity is also out the roof. One of the best in WDW.

Following our 2 rides on Dinosaur (WDW also has on sale many replicas of the ride vehicles. You can even buy a 2 cars replica of the RnRC trains. The harnesses even works!) ,we went to Primeval Whirl. The park new for 2002 double Reverchon Crazy Mouse. With only a 10 minutes wait, we were quickly on. We got an almost brakeless ride, with intense spinning in the last half. WDW also run this like they should, with the cars moving continuously in the station. With 2 copy of the ride, I estimate capacity in the 1400-1500. Not bad for a Wild Mouse!

Unfortunately, this concludes our TR of Animal Kingdom. After leaving this park with great potential, but with not enough for now, we left for the competition down the road and its Halloween event...

Nice TR

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Quote:

Now what happens if people in the boat put their hand in the jet? LOL

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The others get wet... I know... I've done it. ;)

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Be sure to visit Holiday World. Best park in the world!

*** This post was edited by RCfan13 on 10/26/2002. ***

*** This post was edited by RCfan13 on 10/26/2002. ***

I actually enjoy Walt Disney World alot. I've only been there once, but it was quite nice. I mean, sure, its not the biggest rides, but for what they have, they are great. I spent a week there and had no complaints, except for lines.

Animal Kingdom was one of my favorites. I think Kali River Rapids was the best Rapids I've ever been on. That drop gets you soaked. I think my friend and I rode that 8-10 times in a row due to no line.

Dinosaur was also great, we did that 4 times.

Unforunatly, the Wild Mouse wasn't there when I went like 3-4 years ago.

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I was in Disney for my only trip ever in the first year animal Kingdom was opened(1998?) Anyways, Its not a rollercoaster park by any means obviously, but if you can overlook that, and realise its not IOA either, it really has quite a few fun and enjoyable rides(well maybe not epcot) And why did the switch the name of Countdown to Extinction anyways? Becuase I remember that was my favorite ride out of anything at all the disney parks. Did they switch any of theming also or just the name?

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Kennywood Park, America's finest traditional amusement park.

in 2000, to coincide with the release of the Dinosaur movie and to lower the height restriction (was 46 inches back then, was lowered to 40 inches), they changed the name and toned the vehicle movements somewhat.

Also, they also toned down 2 effects (at one point, the Carnosaurus doesn't charge the Time Rover anymore and a dinosaur doesn't breath on you now).

In my opinion AK is very lacking and isn't nearly worth the $50 you have to pay to get in. It does have some excellent rides and great theming, but spending $50 on a park where you can do everything the park has to offer before lunch is ridiculous. Everyone I have talked to about the park has gotten bored due tot he lack of attractions. To make matters worse they tone down their E-Ticket attration Dinosaur! Disney made a horrible decision to open both AK and DCA not complete, their theory of opening a park partially complete and adding attractions to it after it opens is clearly not working especially because you have to spend the same amount of money DCA nd AK as you do on the complete parks like MK.

AK could be so much more worthwhile and better if Disney would have opened it complete. Hopefully they speed up the process and add more to the park so people can get what they paid for. The potential is definetly there.

Yes your right! I really liked AK, the safari trails with all the very unique animals are great! The Tree of Life is defiently a wonder in it self!
I had fun, the mouse is great as well as Dinosaur but it's no Indy. The park has tons of ideas for the future and will probibly get a new e ticket( big ride) after mission space opens at EPCOT next year. Your right on the money about these half done parks, but it's always happend in the past! Look at DL when it opened! It's big attractions were 2 dark rides in Fantasyland! MGM didn't have TOT or Rock N ROller coaster, Disneyland Paris had Big Thunder Mountain rail road, then gradually expanded to what is now an amazing park. So AK and DCA will get theres but the things that boggle my mind are, the both cost around 800 million to build!

I didn't understand why my brother and sister-in-law said Dinosaur wasn't all that scary...until now. I rode it several times in the CTE days, and it scared the holy hell out of me. If they've toned it down for the kids, well, that's a darn shame.

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http://www.rockandrollconfidential.com

I think your 50 bucks is better spent driving an hour down I-4 and going to Busch Gardens instead. I was very anticipointed with all of animal kingdom. I was there before Primeval Whirl and some of the water attractions but I thought the safari would kick but. It didnt even come close. I had to use the zoom on my camera to see almost all of the animals as they stayed away from the tram as far as they could. I have seen animals much closer at the local zoo. For what animal attractions the park has, Busch has them better and with much more to do (rollercoasters!) for the same price or maybe even cheaper. My wife did all we wanted at this park before noon and we ended up spending the rest of the day at Epcot instead.

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Bob Hansen

A proud CoasterBuzz Member

Wanna Ride A Woodie?

Sorry Bob... I guess you didn't have that good of an experience on the Kilimanjaro Safaris... Each time I went on it, we always had lots of animals come right near by the jeep. Its also depends on the time of the day and the time of the year (sorry, these animals are not that stupid: I.E. running around in plain sun when its 100 degrees outside in the shade...).

Actually, I prefer Dinosaur to Spiderman. Yes, last time I checked, they dont release me out of my straight jacket to check internet, lol. Why? Spiderman use too much 3-D effects, not enough dark ride effects (well, that was working when I rode it), the shape of the cars force you to look in only one direction and abused the spinning effects. My feeling was "why spend 200 millions to built a spinning tea cups ride with 3-D effects?". Oh well.

I will concede that the Dinosaur ride was pretty cool and from what I understand it has been toned down since I rode it. I think that Spiderman does it's thing well and the Dinosaur ride does it's thing well and that comparing the two is like comparring apples to oranges.

I think that the Kilimanjaro Safari was what I was looking forward to the most and when I didnt have a good experience there, the day kinda went downhill from there.

I just found that Busch's animal exhibits were better, the safari, even though it was an upcharge was WAY WAY WAY better and the whole park was just overall better. Maybe it was the fact that Busch had since the 60's to make it a great place to visit and AK was only a year old when I visited.

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Bob Hansen

A proud CoasterBuzz Member

Wanna Ride A Woodie?

So the Dinosaur dosent chase your car anymore? And you dont get its hot breath in your face? That is pretty stupid...but I geuss Disney appeals more to the younger crowd anyways. More so than Universal obviously If I remember correctly, that was teh place where they used to take the On-ride photo...but yea you really cant compare the two rides...Spiderman uses more 3d effects obviuosly, and DINOSAUR or whatever they are calling it now uses more real props and things...but I remember that dinosaur chasing you better than anything about that ride(and it was almost 4 years ago) and if that really is what was taken out, that was the best part of the whole ride, very realistic from what I remember...but I for one was very impressed with spiderman...the effects were toatally convinceing, I loved how they combined real dark ride elements with 3d on screen. I think it was money well spent.

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Kennywood Park, America's finest traditional amusement park.