Poor DAK! Recent Trip Observations

Omnimover

Member
...the [zebra] animals have been given an extended time out on the Northern (non-public) Savanna.

This is just such bad show. I can accept some attractions breaking down, but having to deal with the Zebra herd in B mode is just another case of effects being allowed to degrade over time with no effort put into maintenance. Regardless of whether or not the Zebra had a design flaw from the beginning, allowing the attraction to suffer because you don't want to spend money on repairs is fundamentally against the Disney Way. Please, PLEASE, TDO, invest in the Zebra and remember show comes before profit.



Also: ;)
 

Animaniac93-98

Well-Known Member
I hope Devine was not hurt by the frost:lookaroun
picture.php

He's been dead for awhile hasn't he? :shrug:
 

LudwigVonDrake

Well-Known Member
This is just such bad show. I can accept some attractions breaking down, but having to deal with the Zebra herd in B mode is just another case of effects being allowed to degrade over time with no effort put into maintenance. Regardless of whether or not the Zebra had a design flaw from the beginning, allowing the attraction to suffer because you don't want to spend money on repairs is fundamentally against the Disney Way. Please, PLEASE, TDO, invest in the Zebra and remember show comes before profit.



Also: ;)

VERY good :lol:
 

MUTZIE77

Well-Known Member
I realized on my last trip that I havent seen a Rhino walking around freely in KS either. Not since my first trip in 2001 when I got a picture of one right next to my seat on the truck. I have since seen them in the seperate Rhino area, but not walking freely. I also noticed a lot of burlap fencing around the Safari as well.
 

FigmentJedi

Well-Known Member
Agreed. And it was a very crappy and forced tie-in too. It really has nothing to do with the long forgotten movie other than just two of the dinosaurs in it.

Countdown to Extinction was still always a "Sleeping Beauty Castle" thing in the sense of attraction opening years before the movie came out. Not to mention it's not just the Aladar and the Carnotaur in there, but we did have Styracosaurs, Parasaurophus and Raptors in the movie as well.
It was a subtle tie-in to the movie, but then they had to make so ridiculously blunt
 

WDWExplorer

Banned
wanna talk aobut AK problems? how about the broken water main under the walk-way between discovery island and the main entrance to Dinoland.. to fix it would require closing the ENTIRE path, excavating it, and replacing the water main......


Thank Michael Eisner for that... cost cutting on AK's construction budget caused the contractors to use less-than-desirable materials for the pipes and culverts.....


there is a permanent river flowing on top of this path of the path (near the restrooms & the drum performance area)
 

misterID

Well-Known Member
I caught that Samantha Brown thing on Travel the other night, and I forgot what a great park AK is. Wow. It could be the best park of all wdw if they only invested in it a little more.

Africa should have a "The Land" like pavillion and they need to bring Mystic Manor to Asia. I don't care if people think its too similar to HM. I don't see the similarity. At all. There's no ghost for one. Its a tracklist syestem. And has a Monkey guide. ow cool is that? And it would be a pretty cool addition to AK, which is really in need of a big E dark ride.

Boy I hate HKDL. It's getting all the cool stuff :mad:
 

GizmoDuck

Member
DAK is more or less "falling apart"

-Dinosaur first comes to mind, too many missing effects to count. As of yesterday the Styraco was still down too :brick:

-KS has become so non-linear. Seriously, does the new ending feel right to anybody? The dialogue and ending effects have been removed to the point of making the attraction just rushed and confusing. Plus "Little Red :rolleyes:" rarely moves.

-Everest, psht don't even get me started

-Dead vegetation can be blamed on the cold, its sad, but this has been a freak Florida winter.
 

jeterdog04

New Member
i was wondering about that river across the walkway! I kind of thought it smelled a little bathroom-ish but I assumed it was some sort of intentional sprinkler effect or something! When I went on KS last week the bridge didn't move and it was awkward because the driver made a huge deal about the bridge not looking safe. also plenty of rhinos were definitely walking around and they have been every time i've ever gone on the safari. i remember once one walked into the middle of the "road" and went to the bathroom and our truck had to wait for him to move!

ps. the baby gorilla makes up for any animal kingdom flaws!
 

RSoxNo1

Well-Known Member
Agreed. And it was a very crappy and forced tie-in too. It really has nothing to do with the long forgotten movie other than just two of the dinosaurs in it.

Worst part of all is that during initial construction of the Animal Kingdom the plan was to build either Beastly Kingdom or Countdown to Extinction, with the other being added later. Team synergy won out on this one and CTX/Dinosaur was built. Just think, we could be having the 400th thread of "Dinoland coming to AK!!" Of course, Michael Eisner would have gone over to Islands of Adventure and realized, "uh oh, they have Jurassic Park, we can't build a Dinosaur themed area..."

I realized on my last trip that I havent seen a Rhino walking around freely in KS either. Not since my first trip in 2001 when I got a picture of one right next to my seat on the truck. I have since seen them in the seperate Rhino area, but not walking freely. I also noticed a lot of burlap fencing around the Safari as well.

They're there. I saw both black rhinos and white rhinos in February.

Countdown to Extinction was still always a "Sleeping Beauty Castle" thing in the sense of attraction opening years before the movie came out. Not to mention it's not just the Aladar and the Carnotaur in there, but we did have Styracosaurs, Parasaurophus and Raptors in the movie as well.
It was a subtle tie-in to the movie, but then they had to make so ridiculously blunt

Stupid Synergy...

DAK is more or less "falling apart"

-Dinosaur first comes to mind, too many missing effects to count. As of yesterday the Styraco was still down too :brick:

-KS has become so non-linear. Seriously, does the new ending feel right to anybody? The dialogue and ending effects have been removed to the point of making the attraction just rushed and confusing. Plus "Little Red :rolleyes:" rarely moves.

-Everest, psht don't even get me started

-Dead vegetation can be blamed on the cold, its sad, but this has been a freak Florida winter.

The story line for Kilimanjaro Safaris is pointless. Millions of people have been on that attraction, and how many of those people praise the storyline over seeing animals.

We have a substantial enough backstory. We're in the Harambe wildlife reserve going on a Safari, do we really need a half-a$$ed story with a jeep that doesn't work? I'd rather have another animal enclosure in that arera.
 

docandsix

Active Member
Sadly, I don't think I can count it as my favortie park anymore...

Aside from all that been pointed out already, I'm really (sincerely) disappointed in the way that the merchandising has been homogenized in a way that destroys the theme of the park and its individuals lands. Especially around Discovery Island and in Dinoland, U.S.A., there has been an invasion of vaguely Disney garbage, in no way related to the location.

My wife used to love to shop for non-Disney clothes at Island Mercantile and elsewhere, but now she finds Hannah Montana DVD's and other nonsense.

At Chester and Hester's and in the Dinosaur post-show store, dinosaur stuff has been replaced by Pixar toys and Vinylmation knick knacks. Seriously, those two places ought to be the best places in the universe to find dinosaur toys, but the store in Jurassic Park at IOA makes them both look silly.

Finding a number of half-hearted Disney Stores around Animal Kingdom makes no sense thematically and really disturbs the entire atmosphere.
 

jakeman

Well-Known Member
Kilimanjaro Safaris. Noticed the thatched roof on the KS station roof is literally washing or blowing away. Huge chunks are missing. So much so that a new "under roof" on the inside. Look up and you will see the metal sheeting they have installed (I presume to prevent leaks). Any ideas whats going on and if repairs are planned. Out on the Safari, the Animatronic truck driven by the poachers was missing but the gun fire is still there. Has this element been removed or just left broken like everything else. Little Red trunk wasn't moving. It looked like a still figure. Finally, all the real zebra were completely missing from the savanna. Weird.
The thatch roofing has been through quite a bit (hurricanes are the first thing that comes to mind) and as far as I know never been replaced. I didn't notice anything last October when I was there. Does anyone have any pictures?

The Jeep has been removed. The continuous lightning strikes in the area made that effected unreliable at best. They finally just removed it.

Little Red suffers from the same afflicition as the Jeep only much less frequently. It is possible that a recent strike had disabled the elephant.

Zebras are removed when any animal on the savannah is pregnant. Zebras have a nasty habit of trampling newborns to death because they make too much noise.

If zebras in the wild identify one of their members as being in some way weak, sick or vulnerable, they will kill it so that it doesn't attract predators.

This has apparently happened in the DAK "herd", so the animals have been given an extended time out on the Northern (non-public) Savanna.
Correct!

I believe the Kili Jeep was removed a long time ago, but the sound effects wern`t. The rails are still intact behind the bushes.
Correct!

I notices KJS roof my last trip and I got the impression it wasn't supposed to be perfect by any means and I've never questioned it since. Maybe it was supposed to be, but got damaged. Who knows? It seemed to fit with the rest of the themed town and all flowed for me at least. :) Also, the zebras have been out of the safari for a while now.
It is supposed to be a full roof. I can't really comment more unless I saw a photo.

That's an effect that is all time/crowd level dependent, as far as I know. Sometimes they use it, sometimes they don't.
There are several things that could make the bridge not work that are independent of the truck you are in. If the truck before you went to fast, or E-Stopped the bridge (trucks that have wheelchairs tend to do that quite a bit) that could cause the bridge to cycle for your vehicle and only have sound effects. Or your driver could have E-Stopped the bridge as you wouldn't know, there isn't an alarm or anything. Or your driver was too close to the vehicle in front of them and didn't give the bridge time to reset. As far as I know, it's not an effect that can just be "shut off".

Will the zebras ever return to the savanna?
Depends on the reason for their removal. If it is because of a new birth once whatever was born is a little older they will return.

-KS has become so non-linear. Seriously, does the new ending feel right to anybody? The dialogue and ending effects have been removed to the point of making the attraction just rushed and confusing. Plus "Little Red :rolleyes:" rarely moves.
The script was actually improved in my opinion. The core story is the same, but they moved most of the plot driven dialogue to areas where there are no animals to more engage the guest.

Please see above for the reason the Jeep is no longer available. I will admit I'm not sure why they got rid of the plane, it was the most reliable thing on the safari.

As far as I can tell Little Red has not had any diminished range of motion from when I worked there. In fact, for a while there was no Little Red as his face had melted off from a lightning strike.

The story line for Kilimanjaro Safaris is pointless. Millions of people have been on that attraction, and how many of those people praise the storyline over seeing animals.

We have a substantial enough backstory. We're in the Harambe wildlife reserve going on a Safari, do we really need a half-a$$ed story with a jeep that doesn't work? I'd rather have another animal enclosure in that arera.
With what I said about the script being an improvement, I'll admit the whole story isn't the best in general. Most guest are just confused when it is time to "chase the poachers", but this has been a flaw in attraction since day 1.

It comes from the parks opening and overly serious message of conservation.

There is also nowhere to put an animal enclosure. The finale doesn't take up that much room and also butts up to the train and various backstage facilities.
 

EPCOT Explorer

New Member
DAK is more or less "falling apart"

-Dinosaur first comes to mind, too many missing effects to count. As of yesterday the Styraco was still down too :brick:

-KS has become so non-linear. Seriously, does the new ending feel right to anybody? The dialogue and ending effects have been removed to the point of making the attraction just rushed and confusing. Plus "Little Red :rolleyes:" rarely moves.

-Everest, psht don't even get me started

-Dead vegetation can be blamed on the cold, its sad, but this has been a freak Florida winter.
Perhaps that's because it has the most detail?
No excuse, of course, but I thought it was mentionable. :lol:
 

_Scar

Active Member
DAK is not falling apart > . >


Everyone's entitled to their opinion. Just know yours is dead wrong.










(; only kidding
 

RSoxNo1

Well-Known Member
The Jeep has been removed. The continuous lightning strikes in the area made that effected unreliable at best. They finally just removed it.
Yeah, I don't like how the driver doesn't seem concerned that we're getting shot at.

Zebras are removed when any animal on the savannah is pregnant. Zebras have a nasty habit of trampling newborns to death because they make too much noise.

That's fascinating - I know that they have separated animals in the past, and many zoos have to do this, it's always fascinating to me to see how animals interact with one another.

There are several things that could make the bridge not work that are independent of the truck you are in. If the truck before you went to fast, or E-Stopped the bridge (trucks that have wheelchairs tend to do that quite a bit) that could cause the bridge to cycle for your vehicle and only have sound effects. Or your driver could have E-Stopped the bridge as you wouldn't know, there isn't an alarm or anything. Or your driver was too close to the vehicle in front of them and didn't give the bridge time to reset. As far as I know, it's not an effect that can just be "shut off".

The effect can actually be "shut off". It has a cycle time (I'm not sure the exact number), but on busy days they will try to push through more vehicles, and the dispatch interval of the vehicles is quicker than the cycle time of the bridge. They'll shut off the bridge so that more people can experience the ride.


The script was actually improved in my opinion. The core story is the same, but they moved most of the plot driven dialogue to areas where there are no animals to more engage the guest.
I just think now the script is too piecemeal. There's very little mention of poachers being a problem up until the point where they become a problem. The focus is the animals, and it should always be the animals.

Having said that, I don't mind the poachers story line, but it needs to be built up from the beginning of the attraction to the chase scene.


There is also nowhere to put an animal enclosure. The finale doesn't take up that much room and also butts up to the train and various backstage facilities.

Yeah, that makes sense - would it be possible to expand the area where animals like the Warthog, White Rhino or Scimitar Horned Oryx roam? They typically seem to be in that final area before the chase.
 

MUTZIE77

Well-Known Member
Well I am glad the Rhinos are still roaming around. I have probably been on KS a dozen times since my first trip, I guess I was just unlucky all those times.
 
The story line for Kilimanjaro Safaris is pointless. Millions of people have been on that attraction, and how many of those people praise the storyline over seeing animals.

We have a substantial enough backstory. We're in the Harambe wildlife reserve going on a Safari, do we really need a half-a$$ed story with a jeep that doesn't work? I'd rather have another animal enclosure in that arera.

I couldn't have said it better myself. I always thought that story line was the stupidest thing ever. Just take me on a safari, see the animals, and let that be that. The stupid "story" of hunting down poachers is just dumb.

Judy
 

jakeman

Well-Known Member
Yeah, I don't like how the driver doesn't seem concerned that we're getting shot at.
Well that is a driver problem then. They are supposed to react to the gun shots.

That's fascinating - I know that they have separated animals in the past, and many zoos have to do this, it's always fascinating to me to see how animals interact with one another.
Yeah zebras are not plesant animals.

The effect can actually be "shut off". It has a cycle time (I'm not sure the exact number), but on busy days they will try to push through more vehicles, and the dispatch interval of the vehicles is quicker than the cycle time of the bridge. They'll shut off the bridge so that more people can experience the ride.
This must be a new (within the last 9 years admittedly) policy as even when we had 39 vehicles on the road the bridge was never shut off. Due to the numbers and subsequent closer spacing of te trucks you would experience the bridge less but they never shut it off.

I just think now the script is too piecemeal. There's very little mention of poachers being a problem up until the point where they become a problem. The focus is the animals, and it should always be the animals.

Having said that, I don't mind the poachers story line, but it needs to be built up from the beginning of the attraction to the chase scene.
I agree but having seen both scripts in action I like the second one better. However, neither one of them does a very good job with the poacher scene.

The first brought then up at the wrong time when no one was paying attention and the new one doesn't emphasize it enough.

Yeah, that makes sense - would it be possible to expand the area where animals like the Warthog, White Rhino or Scimitar Horned Oryx roam? They typically seem to be in that final area before the chase.
You could, but then you kill some of the illusion of the attraction. The road has to curve a certain amount otherwise you figure out that you are only going 8-10 mph. Any sort of straight line path to the exit, which is what you would need if you expanded any of that area would make you realize that you were lumbering along in a school bus.
 

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