Disney’s Animal Kingdom



Theme Park:Disney's Animal Kingdom (since 1998)
Part of the Resort
Walt Disney World Resort
Address:Bay Lake
FL 34747
https://disneyworld.disney.go.com
Operated by:Walt Disney Parks and Resorts

Gorilla Falls Exploration TrailDisney’s Animal Kingdom is one of the four major theme parks of the Walt Disney World Resort in Bay Lake, Florida. The animal and theme park mainly focuses on wild life experiences and edutainment. Since 1998, the park has been delighting the public with a solid selection of family-friendly rides, shows and highly immersive themed areas. Especially Pandora – the World of Avatar is a place you should not miss when in Orlando. 

 
 
 

Highlights of the Animal and Theme Park

 




Avatar Flight of Passage

 

Avatar Flight of Passage

A very immersive flight experience

 


Dinosaurs

 

Dinosaur

One of the best dark rides ever created

 


 

Expedition Everest

Beware of the Yeti

 


A Celebration of Festival of the Lion King

 

Festival of the Lion King

I just can’t wait to be king

 


Kilimanjaro Safari

 

Kilimanjaro Safaris

The great safari ride

 


Na'vi River Journey

 

Na’vi River Journey

A very immersive boat ride

 


The Marvel Avengers Campus

A lot has changed since my last visit to Walt Disney Studios Park. The black light show Animagique has been replaced by Mickey the Magician, the Cinémagique theatre has been closed since 2017 and Mushu’s frikandel joke in the Dutch version of The Art of Disney Animation has been replaced by the musical revue Frozen – A musical Invitation and that’s not all.

There is no trace of the stunt show spectacle Moteurs… Action! Stunt Show Spectacular and the fiery hot Armageddon Les Effets Speciaux, the Studio Tram Tour has been massively shortened and instead of a light show on the Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster you now fly through space with Iron Man on Avengers Assemble: Flight Force.  Last but not least, there is Spider-Man W.E.B. Adventure – a smash hit of a dark ride and the biggest novelty of the Marvel Avengers Campus area.

Cars Road-Trip

The Studio Tram Tour was a rather boring stopgap at the Walt Disney Studio Park, although Catastrophe Canyon alone was worth a ride. The irrelevant scenery on the way there, as well as the finale to the rather unknown film Reign of Fire were not really worth mentioning and dragged the attraction down a bit.

Cars Road Trip now focuses mainly on Cars-tastrophe Canyon. A few roadside attractions dot the way, but that’s it. The integration into the Cars universe has definitely been successful, which makes this attraction a pleasure to experience more often, despite its significantly shorter ride.

Avengers Assemble: Flight Force

The roller coaster Avengers Assemble: Flight Force presents itself to its potential passengers much more discreetly than in its previous rocking life. The entrance to the ride is hidden around the corner, while the main building offers interesting information to visitors of the Marvel Avengers Campus. I can imagine that if you didn’t know there was another roller coaster here, you would walk right past it.

The queue now has a changed layout. In general, I like the new orientation of it extremely well. It’s just a bit of a shame that you can now only see the launch area from the normal queue and that you can no longer get past it as a Premier Access guest or single rider. The highlight of this ride is the new Iron Man animatronic, which gives you perfect instructions for the ride.

The ride itself is also outstandingly staged up to the moment of the launch. 3, 2, 1 and wham, you miss the state you experienced on this ride for so long before. Don’t get me wrong, the video projections on the ride are well done and would underline them perfectly, if only they weren’t so dark; however, the synchronised light show spectacle of the Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster was just awesome. As with the other indoor roller coasters at Disneyland Paris, something is missing here in places. A few decorative elements here and there would be enough and the ride would be a guarantee for a good mood.  Apparently, this has already been recognised, which is why the ride has been closed again for further work shortly after its opening.

Spider-Man W.E.B. Adventure

The Spider-Man W.E.B. Adventure interactive dark ride is of a different calibre. The Spider-Bots developed by Peter Parker get a little out of control during Open House Day on the W.E.B. campus and duplicate themselves like crazy. Contact with other substances in turn causes them to partially mutate. Now you have to stop the robots before they devastate the entire campus. To do this, you swing webs like Spider Man and free one location after the other from the little crawlers.

Unlike other interactive themed rides, everything here works contact-free, you just use your hands and shoot your nets through space with amazing precision.  No wild flailing to score points – it’s more about purposeful movements, which can be quite a challenge. The team concept is just as motivating: you play together, which in turn positively enriches the ride.

Spider-Man W.E.B. Adventure is definitely a blast of a ride and the current main attraction at the Marvel Avengers Campus. Everything has been done right here. The video quality is outstanding, the interactivity during the ride works really well and last but not least, the ride is incredibly fun.    

Pictures Walt Disney Studios Park

Conclusion Walt Disney Studios Park

The Walt Disney Studios Park is well on the way to overtaking its sister park right next door. During my visit, the park was always better attended, even though the park is still a large construction site and not every show was currently being performed. With the Marvel Avengers Campus, visitors were introduced to the first stage of the park’s major expansion offensive, which will feature the next highlight with the Arendelle themed area around Disney’s Frozen. So things remain exciting at Walt Disney Studios Park.

 

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Raging through Hyperspace Mountain

Disneyland Resort Paris is celebrating its 30th birthday and continues to be at its very consistent best. While the resort has been undergoing some changes lately and can look to the future with high expectations, changes in the main park are few and far between.

Apart from the ever-changing entertainment line-up, just three attractions have been upgraded to a new level since my last visit eight years ago – yet there have been no real novelties. All these new attractions are to be found in the Discoveryland theme area.

Star Tours: L‘Aventure Continue

The large-scale simulator Star Tours: L’Aventure Continue made the start in 2017. The fast-paced space journey in the Star Wars universe now shines with a variety of films, a generally very sharp image and great 3D effects. At the same time, C-3PO now welcomes us as the unwilling captain of our space flight.

Mickey’s Philharmagic

After Captain EO was sent into his well-deserved retirement at the end of 2015, the Discovery Theatre was only used irregularly; in addition to previews of new films, it also showed the Pixar Short Film Festival known from the Epcot theme park. In 2018, Mickey Mouse moved into the theatre and has been presenting Mickey’s Philharmagic there ever since, although he himself hardly appears in the story. In fact, Donald Duck accompanies us in a slightly clumsy manner on a musical journey through the worlds of numerous Disney classics. 

Interestingly, Mickey’s Philarmagic is by no means new. The film itself originated in 2003, but due to the quality of the animation and the possibility of keeping it up-to-date with new sequences, it seems timeless compared to the two previous films Honey, I Shrunk the Audience! and Captain EO, which is a very welcome change.

Hyperspace Mountain

Hyperspace Mountain is the third incarnation of Dutch Space Flight, but instead of being shot into the Jules Vernean future on the Columbiad, the Baltimore Gun Club has been focusing on a trip back in time to a galaxy far, far away as of 2017. In the process, Star Wars Hyperspace Mountain shines with new trains and new video projections, while the old scenery has mostly disappeared from the ride.

The ride itself is still an extremely intense journey, which is now much more pleasant thanks to the soft waistcoats of the new trains. After the jump through hyperspace, the music in particular is reminiscent of Star Wars, while you occasionally speed past video projections that are a little too dark. At the same time, the media integration during the second inversion of the ride is extremely successful, staging the very surprising moment of the ride perfectly and putting a big grin on your face, while the grand finale with the destruction of the star destroyer is nowhere near as memorable as the eponymous supernova from Space Mountain Mission 2.

As a temporary solution or event overlay, as in other Disneyland parks around the world, Hyperspace Mountain is an exceedingly coherent overall package. As a permanent installation, Hyperspace Mountain lacks a bit of thematic richness; too much of the focus is on Baltimore Gun Club and its Columbiad. Apart from the music and the video projections, hardly anything is reminiscent of Star Wars.

Pictures Disneyland Park

Closing words

I was surprised to find that Disneyland Park had the far lower waiting times over my entire visit than the Walt Disney Studios Park right next door. It seems as if the novelties of the last few years are pointing in a clear direction. The solid overall concept continues to be convincing all along the line, but one or two new additions would also do the main park good.

 


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