Backstage Safari Tour

[Belle_0717]

I just booked the Backstage Safari Tour at AK for DH and I. We love animals and thought this would be a good learning experience about conservation and animals well being. I want to get some feedback on the tour.

I chose the 1 pm slot - figuring it was AK's AM EMH and I could ride E:E A LOT before the tour.


Has anyone been on it? Was it worth the time and money? Will we be happy?

Thanks for your input.

[DizneyRox]

It's one of my favorite backstage tours. Not what I was expecting, but it really was fun. It has been a number of years since we have done it, I can't imagine it has changed much.

[Itchy]

My dear lady friend and I have just booked the tour last week for our trip in Feb. The CM told me that we would be treated to our own tour of the Savannah with our tour group. They said that the group could be as many as 18 or as little as 10. Either way it sound like it should be a neat tour.:thumbsup:

If you have the Disney Visa make sure that they gave you the discount. When I first booked I forgot about it and had to call back and get it changed. It saved me $28.:cool:

[brad192]

I did the tour on my '04 trip, and it was great! You get to see a lot of the "inner workings" of the park - where they house the animals, the food prep area, the OR, etc. You also get your own private safari, without the usual ride spiel, that explains how they built the savannah & how they maintain it. If you're really lucky, you might get up close & personal with an animal or two. On my tour, everyone in the group got to pet a rhino! They also give you a very nice pin as a keepsake at the end of the tour. You'll have a blast!

[GLM]

The wife and I took this tour less than a month ago. It was great. I know each tour can be different, but here is a brief recap:

Tour started in the Oasis, where our guide gave us a brief introduction to the Animal Kingdom. Then we were off to the backstage area. They drove us around in vans - first stop was the Rhino area. We got to meet with one of the caretakers and even got to pet one of the rhinos. Afterwards we met one of the elephant caretakers.

We got to visit the vet area - part of which you can see if you are in the Conservation Station at Rafiki's Planet Watch. We also got to see the food prep area - each animal has their own "recipe". We had a guest speaker who specialized in insects & brought some of the "creepy crawlers" with her. Last, we got to take the Kilimanjaro Safari, but without the spiel.

We have done the Keys to the Kingdom & the Future World tours and this was just as good. A little more money, but a portion is donated to animal conservation. Anyways, you'll love the tour. :thumbsup:

[DDuck66]

It sounds great. We have it scheduled for our Trip in May. I CAN NOT WAIT!!!!

[DakotaDisney]

I really enjoyed the tour! :mickey:

I was somewhat disappointed that we didn't get to see the backstage stuff of the rides, shows or other things other than the animal areas. But it was fun and interesting to see the animals and the areas related to them.

The personal Safari was great. The pin you get is a neat memento.

We also happened to be walking by the Elephant home backstage around the time when they were going to be bringing them back in for the night. So we got to wait and see them up close. There was a baby elephant around at that time as well.