Disney Tips Your Guide To A Great Disney Vacation
Christy Caby
Disney’s Animal Kingdom is an amazing theme park that is one of the most beautiful parks that you will ever get the opportunity to experience. If you have been curious about some of the history and mystery behind the park, then this list is definitely for you. Here are 6 secrets about Disney’s Animal Kingdom that you may not know:
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6. Animal Kingdom is the largest theme park in the world.
This is a pretty awesome title to hold. It isn’t the most visited theme park in the world, but is the largest in size. The park is around 500 acres. This makes it around 5 times the size of the Magic Kingdom. That is crazy, right? The park isn’t the largest amusement park in the world as Six Flags Great Adventure comes in at 510 acres. Disney’s Animal Kingdom is considered a “theme park” while Six Flags Great Adventure is considered an “amusement park”, so Animal Kingdom still holds the title.
5. There are over 1,000 animals that live in the park!
That is a lot of animals! There are over 60 species that make up these different animal groupings, too. In order to keep all of these animals fed, the cast members that care for the animals have to prepare 4 tons of food per day to serve up to these loveable animals. 4 tons of feed would be the equivalent of enough food to feed an average human for 4.5 years. It is insane to think that 1 days’ worth of the food for the animals is enough to feed just 1 human for that long!
4. Expedition Everest is the most expensive roller coaster in the world.
How much would you think the average roller coaster coast would be? Well Expedition Everest definitely has a strong hold on the title for the most expensive roller coaster in the world. The total cost to build this amazing attraction hit Disney in the pocket books for $100 million. To put it in perspective, its number 2 competition is $52 million! The costs only go down from there, so this makes the amount seem extremely high! The coaster made the Guinness Book of Records for the costs, too!
3. There are over 100 different plant species in the park and none native to the United States.
Next time you are at Animal Kingdom, pay attention to all of the plant life around the park. There are seriously over 100 different plant species around the park that help to make you feel like you are somewhere other than Central Florida and immersed in the theme lands within the park. These 100 different plant species are not native to the United States, so it is a huge part of creating everything about the unique theme and experience that we love!
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2. The Yeti on Expedition Everest used to actually move, and the foundation underneath him is cracked.
The Yeti on the attraction is one of the largest, most complex and most advantageous animatronics that the Disney Imagineers have ever attempted to create. It is massive in size and used to swing his arm toward the guest and have more lifelike movements. The foundation under the Yeti is now cracked and poses issues that could risk additional damage. Due to this the imagineers had to make him immobile and have added strobe lighting effect behind him that make him appear as if he is moving. If you didn’t get to experience the attraction when the Yeti actually moved, you definitely don’t know what you are missing, because it was definitely amazing!
1. “The Beastly Kingdom” was the original concept for Disney’s Animal Kingdom.
The original concept for Animal Kingdom is different than how the final design and creation ended up. The concept was for a park called “The Beastly Kingdom”. The park was planned to be divided up into three lands. The lands would consist of animals that currently exist, animals that used to exist and are now extinct, and animals and lands that never did exist and are of the mythical realm. If you pay attention to the sign for Animal Kingdom, you will notice a dragon in the sign. This is a reminder of the plans for the land as the park ended up with no dragons in it.
