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Kilimanjaro Safaris
Rating: 4 Stars

"So is everyone ready for your two week safari?" Guess I should have asked for more time off. This ride takes you right into the heart of the African Savanna, where you'll get an up-close look at some of the most beautiful animals, culminating with a high-speed chase.

Yes, you can see most these animals in a zoo, but their all behind cages. Here, you don't see the walls keeping the Lions from the Zebra's. Everything appears as it should in the real savanna.




Some of the trees on the savanna are Southern Live Oaks, indigenous to Florida and not Africa, that were transplanted from around the park, then given a crew-cut to make them appear as an African Acacia tree

Disney had to install almost 4 million plants

To create the terrain of the savanna, 60 dump trucks / day came in with dirt for 2 years, dropping 4.4 million cubic yards of dirt (enough to fill Spaceship Earth 19 times)

To induce the animals into viewable areas, imagineers use feeders near the path, heated/cooled rocks for lions to sleep on, shade and water near the path, etc

The trip through the savanna is actually a trip through show scenes, designed so that you don't actually see the barriers. Some barriers are designed to look like mud, others rocks, and still others might be a moat hidden by grass

When building the savanna, 5 million plants were planted

The savanna covers 100 Acres