DAK 'Encanto' and 'Indiana Jones'-themed experiences at Animal Kingdom

[MR.Dis]

I think you are skewing your numbers but choosing not to include things on your list.

Rides (8):
Flight of Passage
Navi River Journey
Kilimanjaro Safari
Wildlife Express
Everest
Kali
Triceratops Spin
Dinosaur

Dedicated Shows (4):
Lion King
Nemo
Tough to be a Bug
Feathered Friends

Major Attractions(4):
Boneyard
Gorilla Falls Trail
Maharaja Jungle Trek
Rafiki's Plant Watch

When I counted I did NOT include your major attractions, just not in my calculation as an attraction. Yes, I have done all four, the trails are ok but the boneyard or Rafiki's really are not attractions. The dedicated shows I did count, but forgot the feathered friends. The thing is even if you count all of them it comes to 16, and as I originally stated all parks should have over 20.

 

[TrainsOfDisney]

I would count the train and Rafikis together as an attraction - I have issues with them but I still think they count.

I’d also add the oasis and tree of life trails together as an attraction- they are very nice to explore although they have a few less animals now I think?

But I think we all agree DAK needs more.

 

[The Leader of the Club]

I hope that, once TAs is done, the next step is adding some attractions to Africa, Asia, or Pandora. Hopefully finally bringing rides themed to Jungle Book or Lion King to this park.

 

[MistaDee]

By definition, a climate in the tropics is a tropical environment.

You seem to be struggling to understand the difference between the two definitions of tropical here, but that's ok it can be kind of tricky:

There are snow capped mountains and sand-duney deserts between the Tropic of Cancer and Tropic of Capricorn.

The high mountain environments of the Andes and deserts found between the two tropics are geographically/astronomically "tropical" according to definition 1

However, they don't meet the criteria for temperature or moisture to be "tropical" climates, even though they are geographically within the tropics. Here's a map of tropical climate zones, inclusive of tropical rainforest, savannah and monsoon zones:

As you can see there are plenty of environments within the tropics that aren't tropical climates, such as the northern Andes where camelids like guanaco, llamas and alpaca evolved to have such thick lovely coats.

A rain forest is not the only "tropical climate." In fact, rain forests can be found outside the tropics.

Did I claim that a rain forest is the only tropical climate? Did I say rain forests are only found between the two tropics?

"Tropical America" is not about rain forests.

Disney is the one who will be applying whichever definition of "tropical" they feel is appropriate - not you or me on these forums so I'll let them make prescriptive statements about what "Tropical Americas" is really about.

Encanto is located in the tropics and it is a mountainous forest and not a rain forest.

Encanto is set within a "cloud forest" that is absolutely a rain forest by pretty much any definition.

 

[MisterPenguin]

You seem to be struggling to understand the difference between the two definitions of tropical here, but that's ok it can be kind of tricky:

View attachment 823452



The high mountain environments of the Andes and deserts found between the two tropics are geographically/astronomically "tropical" according to definition 1

However, they don't meet the criteria for temperature or moisture to be "tropical" climates, even though they are geographically within the tropics. Here's a map of tropical climate zones, inclusive of tropical rainforest, savannah and monsoon zones:

"temperatures high enough to support-year round growth" is not the same thing as a region with actual year round growth.

"given sufficient moisture" is not the same thing as actually having that moisture.

The map you provide shows your narrow scope. The topics goes around the whole earth, not just in the Western Hemisphere.

Part of the Sahara desert is tropical.

Period.

A "cloud forest" could be a rain forest, but not necessarily.

"Rainforests are forests characterized by a closed and continuous tree canopy, moisture-dependent vegetation, the presence of epiphytes and lianas and the absence of wildfire." -Wikipedia

But whether you use "cloud forest" or "rain forest" the movie did not show us a continuous tree canopy shading everything below, nor the regular rolling in and out of the fog/mist of a cloud forest.

 

[Brer Panther]

Well, on the bright side, at least the long lines that the Encanto ride will supposedly have will mean shorter lines for Kilimanjaro Safaris. Hopefully.

 

[Jayspency]

Well, on the bright side, at least the long lines that the Encanto ride will supposedly have will mean shorter lines for Kilimanjaro Safaris. Hopefully.

and FOP!

 

[GoofGoof]

Well, on the bright side, at least the long lines that the Encanto ride will supposedly have will mean shorter lines for Kilimanjaro Safaris. Hopefully.

I think that depends on whether the new land draws additional people in or not and also whether people spend the same amount of time at the park. If the same number of visitors come to AK and stay the same amount of time then in theory the lines for everything else should drop as people skip other stuff to stand in line for Encanto. This may be my personal bias, but I can’t imagine too many people will skip the safari since it’s the highlight of the park. A ride like Navi River would be much more likely to see a decrease in lines since it’s not a must do for a lot of people. I think most people will probably just stay a little longer to make up for the longer waits for new attractions. DAK still lacks enough rides to make it a park where there is not enough time to do everything in a day so you are forced to chose between 1 ride or another and it still won’t be after this project is over.

 

[MR.Dis]

I think that depends on whether the new land draws additional people in or not and also whether people spend the same amount of time at the park. If the same number of visitors come to AK and stay the same amount of time then in theory the lines for everything else should drop as people skip other stuff to stand in line for Encanto. This may be my personal bias, but I can’t imagine too many people will skip the safari since it’s the highlight of the park. A ride like Navi River would be much more likely to see a decrease in lines since it’s not a must do for a lot of people. I think most people will probably just stay a little longer to make up for the longer waits for new attractions. DAK still lacks enough rides to make it a park where there is not enough time to do everything in a day so you are forced to chose between 1 ride or another and it still won’t be after this project is over.

AK has so few attractions that anything added can only help. If you are buying a one day, one park ticket, you sure as heck will want to get your money's worth and stay as long as possible. That is why they need to add several attractions, and not just a net of one.

 

[jannerUK]

I cannot see how AK will continue the way it has already. Unlike Epcot & MK which have retained much of it original feel and developed a hybrid, I personally feel AK will develop and totally change beyond its original conception. Just like DHS. That park originally was about Lost & Current Hollywood celebration. It no longer has any first day attractions or anything that harks back to that outside Indy, ToT and the shows. AK will over time see less animals. As it does cuts will be made to adding more. It will become secondary to the rides and the themed areas that are not directly linked to animals and conservation (Some say we get this with Bugs replacement and Encanto). It will naturally avoid the pathway that Seaworld has and become a theme park with a akward outdated tag on of animals. Instead it wil morph into 'animal themed' rather than about 'physical animals, zoo and conservation'

 

[Mr. Sullivan]

Well, on the bright side, at least the long lines that the Encanto ride will supposedly have will mean shorter lines for Kilimanjaro Safaris. Hopefully.

I don’t know why you say supposedly as if Encanto is not one of the most popular recent Disney IPs. Kids are absolutely obsessed with it. I make it a habit to not spend too much time around kids but for my volunteer hours last year I ended up doing work at 6 different after school cares and day cares and all they wanted was Encanto and Moana all day.

 

[Mr. Sullivan]

I cannot see how AK will continue the way it has already. Unlike Epcot & MK which have retained much of it original feel and developed a hybrid, I personally feel AK will develop and totally change beyond its original conception. Just like DHS. That park originally was about Lost & Current Hollywood celebration. It no longer has any first day attractions or anything that harks back to that outside Indy, ToT and the shows. AK will over time see less animals. As it does cuts will be made to adding more. It will become secondary to the rides and the themed areas that are not directly linked to animals and conservation (Some say we get this with Bugs replacement and Encanto). It will naturally avoid the pathway that Seaworld has and become a theme park with a akward outdated tag on of animals. Instead it wil morph into 'animal themed' rather than about 'physical animals, zoo and conservation'

I don’t necessarily disagree that they will eventually scale back the emphasis on real animals, I also do not foresee this happening any time in the near or even somewhat distant future.

There is a mind boggling amount of infrastructure for animal care in the park and Disney is deeply involved in the conservation and animal rehab world now as a result. If they ever were to move completely away from physical animals, it is not something that would or could be done quickly. They would have to re-home every single animal they’ve got, completely gut all the care facilities, completely rezone and redesign large swaths of the park.

They have their arms deep into the zoological side of Animal Kingdom and that includes relationships with outside zoological entities and organizations. They would not be able to snap Animal Kingdom out of its current theme as quickly as they did Hollywood Studios.

We’ll all be much, much older than we are now before we see that kind of park wide thematic shift in Animal Kingdom.

 

[Jayspency]

I cannot see how AK will continue the way it has already. Unlike Epcot & MK which have retained much of it original feel and developed a hybrid, I personally feel AK will develop and totally change beyond its original conception. Just like DHS. That park originally was about Lost & Current Hollywood celebration. It no longer has any first day attractions or anything that harks back to that outside Indy, ToT and the shows. AK will over time see less animals. As it does cuts will be made to adding more. It will become secondary to the rides and the themed areas that are not directly linked to animals and conservation (Some say we get this with Bugs replacement and Encanto). It will naturally avoid the pathway that Seaworld has and become a theme park with a akward outdated tag on of animals. Instead it wil morph into 'animal themed' rather than about 'physical animals, zoo and conservation'

I don’t think I would put epcot and “maintaining original feel” in the same sentence. Unless you’re referring to world showcase

 

[Mr. Sullivan]

I don’t think I would put epcot and “maintaining original feel” in the same sentence. Unless you’re referring to world showcase

I mean as much as Future World has changed in terms of ride lineup and the spine, I don't know that they've really removed the general feel that EPCOT has always carried with it as much as people like to make out that they have. It looks a little different, but it doesn't feel any different to me than it has my entire life, even if it's gone through a lot of shifting from how I knew it. It's different, but feels familiar at the same time. Walking through the entrance and headed for Spaceship Earth feels the same way it always has. Cutting around SSE to head to the Seas and the Land feels like it always has.

 

[Orange is the new Red]

I think that depends on whether the new land draws additional people in or not and also whether people spend the same amount of time at the park. If the same number of visitors come to AK and stay the same amount of time then in theory the lines for everything else should drop as people skip other stuff to stand in line for Encanto. This may be my personal bias, but I can’t imagine too many people will skip the safari since it’s the highlight of the park. A ride like Navi River would be much more likely to see a decrease in lines since it’s not a must do for a lot of people. I think most people will probably just stay a little longer to make up for the longer waits for new attractions. DAK still lacks enough rides to make it a park where there is not enough time to do everything in a day so you are forced to chose between 1 ride or another and it still won’t be after this project is over.

I don’t know if that’s true or not. I feel the opposite. If you do this park strictly for the rides I would agree, but Animal Kingdom is much more than its individual rides for me.
If you do the rides, shows and walkthroughs then this park is easily a full day park. It’s also a gorgeous park to walk around. If your only intention is to see how fast you can get through a ride then maybe I guess.

I think this addition just cements Animal Kingdom as a full day park for me and I suspect many others.

I also have a feeling we will hear about another addition down the road. Just a gut feeling though. I also think Lion King would be a perfect addition to this park.

 

[EagleScout610]

How confident are we in Dinosaur being open in late March? My friend is going in the last week-ish and wanted to know if he'll get a last ride?

 

[TrainsOfDisney]

If you do the rides, shows and walkthroughs then this park is easily a full day park. It’s also a gorgeous park to walk around. If your only intention is to see how fast you can get through a ride then maybe I guess.

Yeah, if you just count numbers on a map i get how people can complain, and yes DAK should ideally be expanding and not replacing but still, compared to DHS Animal Kingdom feels like such a complete park and experience to me.

And while ideally Tropical Americas would be an addition, it will blend in with the current park better than dinoland so it does improve the park.

 

[GoofGoof]

I don’t know if that’s true or not. I feel the opposite. If you do this park strictly for the rides I would agree, but Animal Kingdom is much more than its individual rides for me.
If you do the rides, shows and walkthroughs then this park is easily a full day park. It’s also a gorgeous park to walk around. If your only intention is to see how fast you can get through a ride then maybe I guess.

I think this addition just cements Animal Kingdom as a full day park for me and I suspect many others.

I also have a feeling we will hear about another addition down the road. Just a gut feeling though. I also think Lion King would be a perfect addition to this park.

I don’t disagree that AK can be a full day park even before these changes. With multi-day park tickets I still almost always allocate 2 days during any trip and spend more time not on rides than on, but I don’t think I’m a typical visitor and I also don’t usually stay from rope drop to close either. This project will make the former Dinoland area much more popular and will spread crowds around. A lot of people today head to Pandora first but if these 2 rides get longer lines which is certainly very likely it may result in the crowds being spread differently early in the day which is good. There is not a net increase in capacity overall but I think this change maybe results in people staying longer in the park anyway and since the 2 rides won’t rely on live animals it could help if they eventually look to extend hours into the night again some day.

I also agree that a true expansion of the park down the road should be in the works. The Lion King ride in Africa would be great and there’s a large expansion area past Asia that could be a whole different geographic area….Australia or even an Antarctica themed area could be really cool. If/when they do this they could bring back the night show and try again at extended evening hours.

 

[andre85]

I also agree that a true expansion of the park down the road should be in the works. The Lion King ride in Africa would be great and there’s a large expansion area past Asia that could be a whole different geographic area….Australia or even an Antarctica themed area could be really cool. If/when they do this they could bring back the night show and try again at extended evening hours.

i really do hope we get another world region at some point. Antarctica might be a tough sell unless it's entirely indoors haha, but Australia seems like it'd be a great fit! (and we can finally get a Rescuers ride!)

 

[UNCgolf]

I mean as much as Future World has changed in terms of ride lineup and the spine, I don't know that they've really removed the general feel that EPCOT has always carried with it as much as people like to make out that they have. It looks a little different, but it doesn't feel any different to me than it has my entire life, even if it's gone through a lot of shifting from how I knew it. It's different, but feels familiar at the same time. Walking through the entrance and headed for Spaceship Earth feels the same way it always has. Cutting around SSE to head to the Seas and the Land feels like it always has.

You're only 23, though (assuming the age in your profile is correct).

I don't think EPCOT has changed too much feel wise in that time frame, but it has if you go back to the mid-90s and earlier. The former Future World is not much like it was when EPCOT was the best theme park ever, and that's not just because the attractions themselves are different.