New AKL tour

I was so excited to read about this, but unfortunately it's way out of my budget. What are your thoughts on this new tour?

"'Sense of Africa' is a 3.5 hour experience that begins with breakfast at Boma. Taking place before the restaurant opens, some exclusive dishes will be on offer, along with the restaurant's regular breakfast buffet. A cast member from Africa will share stories and explain some details of the restaurant.

Next up is a ride on a safari truck to head backstage for some close-up animal encounters, which may include giraffe, ostrich and okapi.

The tour costs $249.99 per person, with a minimum age of 10 years old (a 15% discount is available for Annual Passholders and DVC Members). The tour groups are small, with just 12 guests taking part, and the tour is available on Tuesdays and Saturdays.

Reservations should open next week on April 5."

Thank you for sharing this info. Could be an interesting experience....

I'm interested too but it IS a chunk of change! Even with our AP or DVRC discount it would still be $400 for the two of us!

Prices for these sorts of things are exceeding my pocketbook - not something I am likely to book at the prices quoted - even with discounts!!

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Originally Posted by faline

Prices for these sorts of things are exceeding my pocketbook - not something I am likely to book at the prices quoted - even with discounts!!

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:ditto:

Sounds similar to the Sunset Safari, but with breakfast at Boma instead. Not worth $250 IMHO, and I'm normally of the mind that AKL can do no wrong.

Oh my, that is crazy to think of it being ok to price that so incredibly high to see a few animals and eat breakfast. I love Boma and eat there for breakfast often, however at 250$ per ... come on, how can they justify that price ..... Disney is beginning to price themselves out of my price range on many things ....

I imagine that there is a room somewhere at Disney World's corporate management office where they are playing a game called "Top THIS!" I imagine gales of laughter as they all take turns presenting their ridiculous money grabs. I assume a huge bonus goes to the most ridiculous money grab that actually works!

BIG price tag. I love the activities at AKL, and Boma is my favorite breakfast at WDW, yet too pricey for me. BTW, the Sunset Safari used to be cheaper, but I heard that they did away with dinner at Jiko. Can anyone confirm or deny this?

We just did the Wanyama Tour in December and Jiko was a part of it still then. Disney's site still lists it there too. I kind of hope this tour doesn't succeed in case it effects Wanyama's pricing too. I wonder how different the experiences are

I've never done either tour, but do they allow close animal interactions on Wanyama Tours? It appears that there will be animal feeding experiences on the Sense of Africa Tour. Again, I only get that from reading, not from actually doing it.

And to be honest, there are many zoos that do special VIP type tours for people - some include feeding the animals, some don't. Some include a meal, some don't. But for as expensive as the tour is at AKL, it's not out of line with the cost of other similar (and successful) close encounter tours. There is clearly an interest and a market for intimate events like this.

We did a Sunrise Safari eight or nine years ago. It was only open to concierge guests staying at AKL, and if memory serves me it was about $60 per person. We boarded a bus about 6am and drove through the backstage areas of AK. We then boarded a safari vehicle for a leisurely tour of the savanna. Our driver and guide described everything in great detail, and would stop whenever anyone asked to allow plenty of photography. The tour itself lasted almost an hour, and when we disembarked we were treated to a wonderful buffet breakfast at Tusker House. After that, we were free to stay in the park (which was just opening for the day) without having to use a ticket.

I'm quite sure those days are gone forever !

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Originally Posted by Ed

We did a Sunrise Safari eight or nine years ago. It was only open to concierge guests staying at AKL, and if memory serves me it was about $60 per person. We boarded a bus about 6am and drove through the backstage areas of AK. We then boarded a safari vehicle for a leisurely tour of the savanna. Our driver and guide described everything in great detail, and would stop whenever anyone asked to allow plenty of photography. The tour itself lasted almost an hour, and when we disembarked we were treated to a wonderful buffet breakfast at Tusker House. After that, we were free to stay in the park (which was just opening for the day) without having to use a ticket.

I'm quite sure those days are gone forever !

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I am amazed that $60 afforded you a personal tour, the Tusker House buffet and park admission !! Boy, those were the days ... $60 will not hardly buy one breakfast plus tip now days !! ...but we have our memories of how great Disney used to be ...

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Originally Posted by ThanxForNoticin

I've never done either tour, but do they allow close animal interactions on Wanyama Tours? It appears that there will be animal feeding experiences on the Sense of Africa Tour. Again, I only get that from reading, not from actually doing it.

And to be honest, there are many zoos that do special VIP type tours for people - some include feeding the animals, some don't. Some include a meal, some don't. But for as expensive as the tour is at AKL, it's not out of line with the cost of other similar (and successful) close encounter tours. There is clearly an interest and a market for intimate events like this.

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They've never allowed animal feeding in the Wanyama Safari tour, and if they allow animal feeding, unless I misunderstand, it would mean a change in philosophy at AKL. When I was talking to the head of animal keepers (whatever he was called), I mentioned that I noticed that no one touched or petted the animals. He told me that they feel very strongly that there should be no touching (that includes hand feeding) because it would contribute to taking the "wildness" from the animals and they don't want to "tame" the animals. He proceeded to tell me a story about an animal that was brought in from a zoo, and was very tame. As a result, he said, the other animals sensed that and bullied this new one. At that time, he said, they felt it was a serious disservice to the animals to allow humans to touch, pet, or hand-feed them.

The photos they're showing on the Disney web site seem to show a guest hand-feeding a giraffe. And yes, that would be a big change from the original philosophies around the animals at the Animal Kingdom and at the Lodge. Although feeding giraffes is different from petting giraffes.

Should be interesting to see how they're going to handle this experience.

I know our local zoo has a similar view of not allowing feeding even by keepers. The exception seems to be photo ops for special occasions such as pics with the Giraffe or elephants for the special ZooBoo weekends. This past year they gave the giraffes a leaf they consider candy to keep them in the picture frame. Maybe Disney are considering these tours a special event?