The Wild Animal Trek builds on the Kilimanjaro Safaris also offered in the Wild Animal Kingdom theme park. The Trek will go further into areas that you only saw from afar on the Kilimanjaro safari.
To make the safari experience all the more real, you’ll be suited up in a harness, which will be clipped to various safety rails throughout the tour, as well as a vest for your belongings. You’ll even be weighed to make sure your harness will keep you safe.
Just like you’ve seen in “Indiana Jones” and your favorite adventure movies, you will get to experience your entire body shaking while you grip one of those rope bridges that swing while you walk. And you’ll do this just 10 feet above crocodiles.
The great thing about the safari truck is that the seats line the very outer edges of it, so you’re as close to the sites you’re passing as possible. The truck also stops periodically for you to take photos.
At one point on the trek you’ll stop at Boma, the restaurant at Animal Kingdom Lodge. Here you’ll sit on a large observation deck overlooking the wildlife reserve from which you can see the flamingo pond, elephants and on a good day some lions.
The menu deserves a point of its own, with treats like air-dried beef and prosciutto, fresh fruit marinated in mint and ginger, marinated tandoori shrimp, sun-dried tomato hummus with pita, and chicken curry salad. This is the only place in all of Walt Disney World where you can buy this food.
You’ll get really close to a hippopatimus pool—so close that you’ll be clipped to a rail so you can stand right over a ledge and see the animals. Here, a hippo expert will join your group and talk to you about the hippos behaviors, as well as coax the hippos nearer with lettuce.
Currently one of the giraffes on the safari is pregnant, and the park is expecting a baby giraffe in 2015. So if you go in the current year (2014), you’ll see a pregnant giraffe (which is quite a site) and if you go in 2015, you’ll see an adorable, wobbly-legged baby giraffe.
The tour will take place no matter the weather conditions. Even if a trek in the rain doesn’t sound fun to you, some animals respond best to rain so it could add a new element to the adventure.
Through October 25th of this year (2014) Disney is offering a $50 discount for each ticket for afternoon tours—this applies to any tour that begins after 11:30 am.
