Update: The drone owner has decided to take down his channel after receiving a lot of blow-back. A YouTube channel called Your Flying Camera has added a drone flyover of the Avatar – World of Pandora expansion at Disney’s Animal Kingdom. In it you can… Read More »Drone provides Aerial Video of Avatar Construction at Disney’s Animal Kingdom
This year Disney’s Animal Kingdom is celebrating a “Festival of All Seasons.” As part of the celebration, musicians around the park are performing seasonal tunes with a twist that comes from their own traditions. Over in the Asia section of the park, Chakranadi performs this… Read More »Carol of the Bells By Chakranadi At Disney’s Animal Kingdom
The keen folks over at WDW Magic have gotten their hands on a piece of concept art for a new expansion coming to Disney’s Animal Kingdom. Africa Marketplace will open in Spring of 2015 in the Harambe area of the park. It will be part… Read More »Harambe to expand with Africa Marketplace at Disney’s Animal Kingdom
I ducked into Disney’s Animal Kingdom for a late October check on the progress the park is making to adding some much needed night time entertainment. As part of the project the area around the Tree of Life on Discovery Island is getting upgrades and a larger performance zone, and so is the river between Asia and DinoLand that will eventually be home to the Rivers of Light water show.
If you can’t view the video, I have an image gallery at the end of this post:
As you can see all the construction makes Disney’s Animal Kingdom a Kingdom of Walls. We were there on a weekend and there was a lot of activity on Discovery Island, around the Tree of Life, but as far as I could tell, no work on the tree itself yet. In fact, they’ve actually let the area around the tree go a little bit. And you could see where horticulture really needed to get in and clean things up.Read More »Disney’s Animal Kingdom Update – Construction Walls Everywhere
“All creatures great and small” is a great motto for the caretakers at a park like Disney’s Animal Kingdom. This last week at the annual Association of Zoos and Aquariums meeting, they received Top Honors at the 2014 Edward H. Bean Award for their efforts… Read More »Disney’s Animal Kingdom wins AZA Award
Harambe Nights “The Lion King Concert in the Wild,” Disney’s new up-charge after-hours event at Disney’s Animal Kingdom, has now had two Saturday performances. It has been getting generally good reviews, with everyone agreeing that the post-show dinner party was the best part. I have… Read More »Celebrity Spotting: Avery Brooks Narrates Harambe Nights
Entrance to the Harambe Village expansion
One of the most fantastic parts of Disney’s Animal Kingdom has always been how nature and the man made interacts throughout the park. Disney’s Imagineers carefully crafted buildings down to the tiniest crack to make it look like there is a battle between construction and nature and that nature has the edge. No where is this more evident than Harambe Village.
In my opinion Harambe Village is Disney’s most fully realized creation in Orlando. Now, with the opening of the Harambe Theatre, it’s almost like the village has doubled in size. In fact, putting aside a few unfinished bits of landscaping, the themeing is so wonderful, the theater looks like it’s always been a part of the village.
Harambe Theatre, of course, is home to the relocated Festival of The Lion King show. It is back with only a few very minor changes. Once you’re inside the theater itself, you have to look close to tell we’re no longer in Camp Minnie Mickey.
There is one change that is worth noting–a much longer Fastpass+ line. The old location did have Fastpass, but it was only a few dozen people a show. The new location fills about 1/3rd the theater with Fastpass+ holders. Therefore, if a seat close to the floor is important to you, make sure you are holding a Fastpass+ for your show. Once the rabble is allowed in, all the remaining seating is in the back.
A gallery with images from the area is below the jump in case you can’t watch the video above:
Read More »Harambe Theatre joins the Circle of Life at Disney’s Animal Kingdom
A new bird show at Disney’s Animal Kingdom called “Winged Encounters – The Kingdom Takes Flight” will debut this summer. It will feature multiple flocks of macaws who will fly over and around Discovery Island. To test and train the birds, the majestic macaws can… Read More »New Bird Show For Disney’s Animal Kingdom Features Kaleidoscope of Macaws