Disney's Animal Kingdom

Disney's Animal Kingdom is one of four theme parks at the Walt Disney World Resort. Built on a theme taking inspiration from the many cultures around the world, circling around a central animal message, the park's icon is the magnificent Tree of Life, into which is carved a massive array of animals, insects and fauna.

Plans for the park were originally released in 1995, and ground-breaking began soon after. The park opened on Earth Day 1998, and is the largest of the four theme parks in the Resort, due to the large expanses of man-made savannah and animal habitats in the north of the park.

Major attractions

 * DINOSAUR - formerly Countdown to Extinction
 * Expedition: Everest - opens August 2006
 * Kali River Rapids
 * Kilimanjaro Safaris
 * It's Tough to Be a Bug
 * The Festival of the Lion King

Future work

 * The are rumours circling the web of expansions of the Walt Disney World Monorail to Disney-MGM Studios, Downtown Disney and eventually Disney's Animal Kingdom. According to various sources, work was believed to have started in 2002 but plans were shelved after the New York City terrorist attacks of 2001 - which occured days after plans were announced by Resort president Al Weiss.

Apparantly the plans for expansions to the other two parks and the shopping district (the monorail currently runs to the Magic Kingdom and Epcot among several Magic Kingdom-area resort hotels) have been seen on display in the monorail shops, sparking interest in completing the plans which were hindered by the tourism collapse following 9/11.


 * The latest addition to the park's attraction roster, Expedition: Everest, is due to open officially in August 2006 having finished soft openings in June and July of that year. The towering coaster, which is housed in a recreation of Mount Everest, was built to encourage Resort guests to the park, which although being the biggest park, is the least popular of the four.


 * The Festival of the Lion King, easily the most popular show at the park, is closing in September 2005 and moving to Adventureland at Hong Kong Disneyland, the most recently built Disney theme park, with the same Disney's Animal Kingdom cast. A show based on the last film Walt Disney worked on personally, The Jungle Book, is expected to fill the Lion King Arena.