Urafiki Village
As you leave the swampy suburb of Little Orleans, you watch as the foliage gradually changes to that of the swampy Southern United States to foliage you'd find in Sub-Saharan Africa. You may also notice the ambient noises that swell throughout the land also change gradually, the frogs, insects, and birds chirping changing just enough to symbolize the transition from one continent to another. As you continue deeper into Africa, the music changes as well as you pass by two stone monoliths that serve as the entrance to the land. One is hand-carved to read "Africa" with a carving of a stylized giraffe and ostrich on it, while the other reads "Welcome to Urafiki Village" on it. The inside of the monoliths are plastered with thematic posters that set the scene of visiting an African town that has fully embraced the wild that they live alongside. The posters depict warnings to potential poachers as well as advertisements for safaris, signs showcasing the fish fisherman may catch in the nearby river, advertisements for music lessons, and more. These posters will be found throughout the land and serve as thematic elements, some damaged by water, some torn in places, and some hanging off the wall slightly.
Once you are finally in Urafiki, the village opens up. The buildings are weathered and aged with hand-painted words labeling what many of them are. Trees grow throughout the town, including a sausage tree, or, at least a model of a sausage tree as the species grows far too large for the purposes of the land. The posters from above also fill the land, plastered on walls nearby the bathrooms. In the center of town is a stage area where the Tam Tam Drummers perform. These traditional African drummers perform routines throughout the day that highlights the culture of drumming that is so prominent throughout the continent.
The drummers are often joined by the dance group Mdundo Mpole (meaning Gentle Rhythm in Swahili), a dance group that performs to the different songs that the drummers play and also teach the crowd the dances they do, inviting guests to perform with them on some of the easier dances to do. Mdundo Mpole also joins Wetu Wetu (which means "Our People" in Swahili), a band that performs alternating with the Tam Tam Drummers. This band performs traditional African songs as well as familiar songs from The Lion King, Tarzan, and even some more contemporary hits every so often like We Are the World, Waka Waka (This Time for Africa), and, of course, Africa by Toto.
The stage is located outside of a large building. While the entrance to the bathroom faces where the stage is, there is another entrance into the building proper. Hanging above the entrance is a wooden sign that creaks as it blows in the breeze. The sign reads Urafiki Village Theater. The entrance hall has a poster that reads "Perils of the African Plains," and is done in a style that is reminiscent of early movie posters (specifically an homage to the John Wayne 1962 film "Hatari!"). However, instead of action-packed images of people wrangling rhinos and launching net rockets to catch monkeys, instead, the images show actual dangers, including a drawn hunter posing with a leopard, an impala trapped in a snare, and a poacher posing with a mound of elephant tusks.
Inside the theater, an old-timey countdown on a projector begins the film which follows a narrator (played by conservation hero and actor Harrison Ford) who dons an old-timey accent and plays into the vibe of an old projector film about the dangers that animals face in the savannah. The film focuses on poachers and their tools, such as snares and other traps, and discusses what people can do to help the animals. It also serves as an educational piece discussing animal behavior and the environment. The film then exits into the Habitat Heroes Urafiki Exhibition Center.
Like the other Habitat Heroes exhibition centers, this one focuses on the major theme of Africa: poaching and trophy hunting. Throughout this center, guests can see artifacts pulled by anti-poaching units in Africa, including snares and traps, pelts, horns, and more. Most of the horns, elephant tusks and pelts are all on loan from the National Wildlife Property Repository in Denver, Colorado, a center where illegally harvested items or items no longer permitted in the wildlife trade (such as elephant tusks or any body parts of bald/golden eagles) go. This allows the exhibit to feature real artifacts giving the location a more grounded appearance. As for the activities here, guests learn how to identify tracks of species like zebras, lions, and elephants using casts made out on the safari.
Back outside and across the way from the Exhibition Center and theater is the Jamii Boma (or Community Home). This serves as the land's premiere table service restaurant, themed to a high-scale African restaurant. The restaurant has an open-concept feel to it with tables spaced throughout a single hall with views out into the river. The section of the river the restaurant overlooks is actually a watering hole for some African species that are rotated into this area when not on the safari. While there is no official list of what you may see, animals that may be seen include impala, ostrich, waterbuck, bongo, zebras, greater kudu, and wildebeest. There is also a chance you may get to see predatory African wild dogs or cheetahs, though they are the only predator that is ever rotated into the paddock. You never know what you may see!
The menu for the restaurant is heavily inspired by the landscape of flavors that are found throughout the African continent, including dishes from Morocco, South Africa, Kenya, Ethiopia, and more. Unlike many of the other African-inspired restaurants presented by Disney, this restaurant is not a buffet, but guests can order samplers as a meal if they want to try a wide variety of different unique dishes that they may not otherwise get to try.
Outside of the Jamii Boma is an open-air bar with covered seating. This is the Mahali pa Kunywa Bar (translating to "Drinking Place" in Swahili) the best place to get your favorite alcoholic beverages and spirits. It is also a great place to grab Disney's famous "jungle juice," both the actual fruit juice and an alcoholic variant. While their alcoholic jungle juice won't be the highlight of your frat party, it will still be a delicious drink to enjoy on a hot summer day.
Continuing on your way down the village street, you'll come across another building right next to the Jamii Boma. A wooden door propped open by a brick welcomes guests into the Mombasa Marketplace, a shop that focuses on African-themed goods. Here, guests can pick up their own drums, masks, and animal plushes, as well as t-shirts celebrating the village of Urafiki and the attractions found within it. This shop also has drums outside that kids and adults alike can bang on all day.
Across the way from the Mombasa Marketplace is the second of two shops, Zawadi Traders. Meaning Gift in Swahili, Zawadi Traders focuses on Disney-related souvenirs, having a large collection of pins as their key offering. However, guests can also purchase Disney's Wild Kingdom labeled merchandise. These two shops serve as the main shopping of the land.
Guests can loop behind Zawadi Traders and find a pathway that leads to the Urafiki Market. Very similar to the Harambe Marketplace at Animal Kingdom, this counter-service restaurant serves as a food court but with an African flavor. Here, featuring both open-air and indoor seating, guests can purchase gyros, ribs, sausages, and more, as well as plenty of vegetarian options depending on what location they choose. Each meal comes with either rice or potatoes and a fresh vegetable. The market is a great and unique place to grab a counter service meal.
Down at the end of the dead-end of the pathway is a large theater that reads Urafiki Playhouse Presents: Anansi the Spider. This is a large stage show that uses puppeteers to tell a musical version of the African Anansi fables. Anansi is a spider found prominently in African folklore and is a trickster but also sometimes considered the god of stories. This show follows a musical version of five different Anansi stories: Anansi and the Moss-colored Rock, Anansi and the Talking Melon, Anansi and the Magic Stick, Anansi Goes Fishing, and Anansi: The Story Thief. These stories are traditional West African fables that teach different lessons all in an original musical fashion featuring puppets, theatrical effects, and live singers.
Outside of the playhouse, a playground called Anansi's Web allows kids to climb, swing, and play all getting their excess energy out. The playground is tucked away into the side of the pathway, allowing a more private space for kids to play and be as loud as they want without worrying about disrupting other guests and their vacations.
On the way back to the main village, on the opposite side of the Urafiki Market (and on the backside of Mombasa Marketplace, is the third and final shop in Urafiki Village; Crocodile Mercantile. This shop focuses on character merchandise, like Mickey Mouse and friends as well as plenty of Merchandise for Anansi and his friends featured in the stage presentation.
Returning back to the main village, surrounding the sausage tree, is a cart selling fresh fruit. The Urafiki Fruit Cart cart sells bananas, oranges, apples, cherries, strawberries, and plenty of other fresh fruit. However, other fruits like papaya, dragonfruit, and jackfruit, that are less commonly eaten can be found here as well for curious guests to get a taste of. All fruits can also be blended into smoothies or juice for guests that want to try.
From here, guests come to the outskirts of the Ulinzi Wildlife Reserve, the second sub-land of the Africa section. I hope you all enjoyed this land and I'm excited to show off the next part!
As you leave the swampy suburb of Little Orleans, you watch as the foliage gradually changes to that of the swampy Southern United States to foliage you'd find in Sub-Saharan Africa. You may also notice the ambient noises that swell throughout the land also change gradually, the frogs, insects, and birds chirping changing just enough to symbolize the transition from one continent to another. As you continue deeper into Africa, the music changes as well as you pass by two stone monoliths that serve as the entrance to the land. One is hand-carved to read "Africa" with a carving of a stylized giraffe and ostrich on it, while the other reads "Welcome to Urafiki Village" on it. The inside of the monoliths are plastered with thematic posters that set the scene of visiting an African town that has fully embraced the wild that they live alongside. The posters depict warnings to potential poachers as well as advertisements for safaris, signs showcasing the fish fisherman may catch in the nearby river, advertisements for music lessons, and more. These posters will be found throughout the land and serve as thematic elements, some damaged by water, some torn in places, and some hanging off the wall slightly.
Once you are finally in Urafiki, the village opens up. The buildings are weathered and aged with hand-painted words labeling what many of them are. Trees grow throughout the town, including a sausage tree, or, at least a model of a sausage tree as the species grows far too large for the purposes of the land. The posters from above also fill the land, plastered on walls nearby the bathrooms. In the center of town is a stage area where the Tam Tam Drummers perform. These traditional African drummers perform routines throughout the day that highlights the culture of drumming that is so prominent throughout the continent.
The drummers are often joined by the dance group Mdundo Mpole (meaning Gentle Rhythm in Swahili), a dance group that performs to the different songs that the drummers play and also teach the crowd the dances they do, inviting guests to perform with them on some of the easier dances to do. Mdundo Mpole also joins Wetu Wetu (which means "Our People" in Swahili), a band that performs alternating with the Tam Tam Drummers. This band performs traditional African songs as well as familiar songs from The Lion King, Tarzan, and even some more contemporary hits every so often like We Are the World, Waka Waka (This Time for Africa), and, of course, Africa by Toto.
The stage is located outside of a large building. While the entrance to the bathroom faces where the stage is, there is another entrance into the building proper. Hanging above the entrance is a wooden sign that creaks as it blows in the breeze. The sign reads Urafiki Village Theater. The entrance hall has a poster that reads "Perils of the African Plains," and is done in a style that is reminiscent of early movie posters (specifically an homage to the John Wayne 1962 film "Hatari!"). However, instead of action-packed images of people wrangling rhinos and launching net rockets to catch monkeys, instead, the images show actual dangers, including a drawn hunter posing with a leopard, an impala trapped in a snare, and a poacher posing with a mound of elephant tusks.
Inside the theater, an old-timey countdown on a projector begins the film which follows a narrator (played by conservation hero and actor Harrison Ford) who dons an old-timey accent and plays into the vibe of an old projector film about the dangers that animals face in the savannah. The film focuses on poachers and their tools, such as snares and other traps, and discusses what people can do to help the animals. It also serves as an educational piece discussing animal behavior and the environment. The film then exits into the Habitat Heroes Urafiki Exhibition Center.
Like the other Habitat Heroes exhibition centers, this one focuses on the major theme of Africa: poaching and trophy hunting. Throughout this center, guests can see artifacts pulled by anti-poaching units in Africa, including snares and traps, pelts, horns, and more. Most of the horns, elephant tusks and pelts are all on loan from the National Wildlife Property Repository in Denver, Colorado, a center where illegally harvested items or items no longer permitted in the wildlife trade (such as elephant tusks or any body parts of bald/golden eagles) go. This allows the exhibit to feature real artifacts giving the location a more grounded appearance. As for the activities here, guests learn how to identify tracks of species like zebras, lions, and elephants using casts made out on the safari.
Back outside and across the way from the Exhibition Center and theater is the Jamii Boma (or Community Home). This serves as the land's premiere table service restaurant, themed to a high-scale African restaurant. The restaurant has an open-concept feel to it with tables spaced throughout a single hall with views out into the river. The section of the river the restaurant overlooks is actually a watering hole for some African species that are rotated into this area when not on the safari. While there is no official list of what you may see, animals that may be seen include impala, ostrich, waterbuck, bongo, zebras, greater kudu, and wildebeest. There is also a chance you may get to see predatory African wild dogs or cheetahs, though they are the only predator that is ever rotated into the paddock. You never know what you may see!
The menu for the restaurant is heavily inspired by the landscape of flavors that are found throughout the African continent, including dishes from Morocco, South Africa, Kenya, Ethiopia, and more. Unlike many of the other African-inspired restaurants presented by Disney, this restaurant is not a buffet, but guests can order samplers as a meal if they want to try a wide variety of different unique dishes that they may not otherwise get to try.
Outside of the Jamii Boma is an open-air bar with covered seating. This is the Mahali pa Kunywa Bar (translating to "Drinking Place" in Swahili) the best place to get your favorite alcoholic beverages and spirits. It is also a great place to grab Disney's famous "jungle juice," both the actual fruit juice and an alcoholic variant. While their alcoholic jungle juice won't be the highlight of your frat party, it will still be a delicious drink to enjoy on a hot summer day.
Continuing on your way down the village street, you'll come across another building right next to the Jamii Boma. A wooden door propped open by a brick welcomes guests into the Mombasa Marketplace, a shop that focuses on African-themed goods. Here, guests can pick up their own drums, masks, and animal plushes, as well as t-shirts celebrating the village of Urafiki and the attractions found within it. This shop also has drums outside that kids and adults alike can bang on all day.
Across the way from the Mombasa Marketplace is the second of two shops, Zawadi Traders. Meaning Gift in Swahili, Zawadi Traders focuses on Disney-related souvenirs, having a large collection of pins as their key offering. However, guests can also purchase Disney's Wild Kingdom labeled merchandise. These two shops serve as the main shopping of the land.
Guests can loop behind Zawadi Traders and find a pathway that leads to the Urafiki Market. Very similar to the Harambe Marketplace at Animal Kingdom, this counter-service restaurant serves as a food court but with an African flavor. Here, featuring both open-air and indoor seating, guests can purchase gyros, ribs, sausages, and more, as well as plenty of vegetarian options depending on what location they choose. Each meal comes with either rice or potatoes and a fresh vegetable. The market is a great and unique place to grab a counter service meal.
Down at the end of the dead-end of the pathway is a large theater that reads Urafiki Playhouse Presents: Anansi the Spider. This is a large stage show that uses puppeteers to tell a musical version of the African Anansi fables. Anansi is a spider found prominently in African folklore and is a trickster but also sometimes considered the god of stories. This show follows a musical version of five different Anansi stories: Anansi and the Moss-colored Rock, Anansi and the Talking Melon, Anansi and the Magic Stick, Anansi Goes Fishing, and Anansi: The Story Thief. These stories are traditional West African fables that teach different lessons all in an original musical fashion featuring puppets, theatrical effects, and live singers.
Outside of the playhouse, a playground called Anansi's Web allows kids to climb, swing, and play all getting their excess energy out. The playground is tucked away into the side of the pathway, allowing a more private space for kids to play and be as loud as they want without worrying about disrupting other guests and their vacations.
On the way back to the main village, on the opposite side of the Urafiki Market (and on the backside of Mombasa Marketplace, is the third and final shop in Urafiki Village; Crocodile Mercantile. This shop focuses on character merchandise, like Mickey Mouse and friends as well as plenty of Merchandise for Anansi and his friends featured in the stage presentation.
Returning back to the main village, surrounding the sausage tree, is a cart selling fresh fruit. The Urafiki Fruit Cart cart sells bananas, oranges, apples, cherries, strawberries, and plenty of other fresh fruit. However, other fruits like papaya, dragonfruit, and jackfruit, that are less commonly eaten can be found here as well for curious guests to get a taste of. All fruits can also be blended into smoothies or juice for guests that want to try.
From here, guests come to the outskirts of the Ulinzi Wildlife Reserve, the second sub-land of the Africa section. I hope you all enjoyed this land and I'm excited to show off the next part!
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