Well I'm only about 2 weeks late writing this but the tour was super cool. We all met up at the entrance of AK, checked in, got our free ticket and waited until they called us in. Pictures were basically not allowed at all, so not much to share that way. They took us back stage through the employee cut-back behind Rainforest cafe. We got a little introduction from our tour guides (I completely forgot her name), spilt into two groups of roughly 10, jumped into a van and we were on our way.
We got to see a lot of the back stage stuff, which is something I've never really had the opportunity to do. I was amazed how much the infrastructure was a lot like where I work now. One of the coolest things about being back stage was seeing the "funny looking tree". Someone on our tour asked about the funny looking tree that had no other trees around and stood perfectly straight up, we all tried to guess what it was, turned out to be a cell phone tower. We then started driving by employee areas, cafeteria, places where CM's change into costume, etc. After that we started to drive the perimeter of the safari, boy is that big. Also, we got to drive by the imagineering building, and outside you could see all the different textures and wall samples that they use to see how exteriors will hold up to weather. We then pulled up to the back entrance of Rafiki's Animal Watch, and met with the lead vet for Disney. He was a super nice guy, however, I've forgotten his name. He told us about what they do, and an interesting fact I didn't know was they take care of all the animals on Disney property not just the ones on exhibit.
Once we got the outside spiel we went inside the entrance to the hospital, and walked to were they actually bring in the animals. He told us about the room, and that the only limitation they have on bringing in animals was the size of the door! We learned about how they measure and weigh the animals to get their initial vitals. We also go this super cool, super exclusive pin (at least I think it is), he told us only members of the staff get the pins. Here's a pic, sorry its so bad.
AKPin by
RyJHoran, on Flickr
After that we went into the room where they take x-rays, and do most of their imagining work. I have a picture of that room somewhere but I cannot find it. You can actually see the room from the lobby, it's considered on-stage so we were allowed to take pictures. The one real fascinating thing about that room is the two hooks above one of the x-ray machines. Those hooks are used to hold up the big gorillas, when they need to be imaged, its just like when we as humans get a chest x-ray. They basically have people with ropes that hold up the gorillas arms. They also had super small x-ray machines and even an imagining machine for frogs! Really cool stuff.
The next room we went into was the surgery suite that you can clearly see from the lobby where the guests are. It is the only active surgery room they have, and all surgeries are done there. They also told us how there is no hiding anything from the guests, so if an animal has to be put down because of diagnoses or doesn't make it, they can't hide it. The doctor also told us that typically they will go out and talk to the guests about what happened during surgery.
I grabbed this pic just because I thought it was cool that I was on the other side of the glass.
SurgeryRoomAK by
RyJHoran, on Flickr
I never noticed this before until i was in the room and thought it was cool.
MickeyDOc by
RyJHoran, on Flickr
After that we went into a couple other rooms. We saw a turtle that was crossing a road somewhere and got hit by a car. They were able to save the turtle and were helping his shell to heal. They then showed us a video, but in the middle of the video one of the doggy "police" animals came in. They were collaborating with the hospital on how to train the handlers to take care of the dogs in case something happened while the dog was working and couldn't make it to the vet on time. Really cool!!
Now for the final part of my story, and my favorite part. I've ALWAYS loved big cats, like BIG cats, and I got to go nose to nose with a lion. Man was I super happy. Ok ok it wasn't nose to nose, but it was within 10 feet. They are such impressive animals, I couldn't stop staring. So as you've guessed we were behind the stage at the Lion display from the safari and wow was it impressive the lengths they go to make sure the animals and handlers are safe. The handler that talked to us was very interesting and told us lots of great stories. I barely heard him though, I was in love with the lion. I believe if you click this link the picture is of the male lion we saw backstage and his name is escaping my memory (as you can tell I suck at names).
https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/attractions/animal-kingdom/kilimanjaro-safaris/
I must of stood there for 30 minutes just looking at that lion, for some reason lions and elephants impress me! Oh and by the way you can see the lion area from the train that takes you to rafiki's, It behind the giraffe and next to the warthog pens.
After that we just loaded back into the van and went back upfront. The tour was maybe 2-3 hours long, but it was really cool. I never did find out what the other group did, but I know they went to different areas. I was hoping we were going to switch vans and go to the other areas, but they basically took us back into the park and told us to go have fun.
The End.
After that we pretty much were done.
