Walt Disney World
Disney's Animal Kingdom
Lake Buena Vista, Florida
January 30 2013
Page One






For our final day in Florida before going back home to winter up in Illinois Bond and I headed to our final park to visit at Walt Disney World...Disney's Animal Kingdom. 

So why do I have a picture of the parking lot you ask?  As we were paying for our parking spot the attendant said: 

"Hey I want you to have a really great day"

He then handed us a card granting us access to the best parking in the lot which was these few spots right in front of the gate.  I guess the parking attendants have only a few of these spots to give out and it was a really nice start to a fun day.



Here's Mr. Bond at the gates to our fourth and newest of the Walt Disney World parks: Disney's Animal Kingdom.

It was just the two of us for this day as Carrie and my parents were feeling under the weather as they all had caught the flu that was going around.  So it was just my boy and me and we had a mission...to take in as much of Disney's Animal Kingdom in half a day before finishing up our January Florida trip by riding our favorites at The Magic Kingdom. 



Like all of the other Disney Parks the Animal Kingdom is an immersive experience with all of the scenery, plants and animals from the part of the world it they trying to simmulate. 



The entrance to Disney's Animal Kingdom is The Oasis that leads you to Discovery Island where the Tree of Life is the visual and physical center to the park.  Just like The Magic Kingdom, Disney's Animal Kingdom is laid out in a circle with a big landmark as the center of it all.  So if you want to get to anywhere in the park from where you are at just head to the Tree of Life and you're half the way there.



The Tree Of Life, like the Swiss Family Robinson Tree House at The Magic Kingdom is no real tree but instead of made up of a steel structure covered with cement and fake leaves.  Disney had a hard time figuring out the structural engineering of a giant tree until one of the Imagineers realized that the base structure for a deep sea oil rig would work perfectly for their needs.

I do find it interesting that Disney chose to call the center of the park "Discovery Island" as there used to be a Discovery Island attraction on one of the islands in Bay Lake between the Contemporary Hotel and Disney's Fort Wilderness Campground.  That Discovery Island like this one at Disney's Animal Kingdom was also full of animals as it was a small zoo.  It closed shortly after Disney's Animal Kingdom opened with all of those animals ending up here.  Since its closing nothing has been done to the old Discovery Island but who knows maybe one of these days Disney will do something else with it. 



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Paul B. Drabek