Animal Kingdom's Africa Expansion: Harambe Market to Open 5/23/15

[Figment!]

5/20/15

Disney's Animal Kingdom has internally announced that the Harambe Market area will open on May 23, 2015.

5/3/15

The Walt Disney World resort has announced further details for the second expansion of the Africa section at Disney's Animal Kingdom:

Fun New Tastes at Harambe Market at Disney’s Animal Kingdom

by Pam Brandon, Disney Parks Food Writer
The Official Disney Parks Blog
April 30th, 2015

The much-anticipated Harambe Market opens late May at Disney’s Animal Kingdom, where food plays a starring role with African-inspired street food at four walk-up windows and plenty of shaded seating – 200+ seats.

Built around a Colonial-era train depot design complete with a 1960s water tower, the marketplace re-creates a bustling center of commerce where guests are welcomed from around the world who have come to visit the little seaside town and venture out to the reserve to observe Africa’s animals.

Chef Lenny DeGeorge led the Food and Beverage concept development team, and tells us it’s the sort of food you’d find in a street market in Africa. “The menus reflect the unique personalities of the establishments’ owners,” says Chef Lenny.

“Kitamu Grill” offers skewered chicken and a kabob flatbread sandwich. “Famous Sausages” features a corn dog, inspired by a South African sausage called a boerewors, dipped in curry-infused corn batter. “Chef Mwanga’s” serves a spice-rubbed karubi rib with green papaya-carrot slaw.

“With three meaty ribs, the karubi rib is our version of the giant turkey legs served in the Disney theme parks,” says DeGeorge. We give two thumbs up to the curry corn dog, made with a special spiced sausage inspired by the traditional boerewors.

A fourth window, called Wanjohi Refreshments (“wanjohi” means “brewer” in Swahili) offers beverages including six South African wines by the glass; Safari Amber Lager and Orlando Brewing I-4 IPA on draft; red sangria with Van der Hum tangerine liqueur from South Africa; The Starr of Harambe, a frozen drink with Starr African rum with mango puree in a souvenir mug; non-alcoholic tangerine lemonade, and fountain beverages including Sparberry from Zimbabwe and Bibo from South Africa.

With shaded tables and merchandise shops, the new market, together with the recently opened Harambe Theatre (home to “Festival of the Lion King”) doubles the size of the original Harambe Village.

Sparberry and Bibo are currently available in sample size at Club Cool in Epcot.

11/20/14

It has been internally announced that a second expansion to the Africa section in Disney's Animal Kingdom will open in Spring 2015. The reclaimed backstage area will reportedly feature retail locations and a new counter service restaurant.

The below diagram has been updated to show the approximate location of the second expansion area.

10/19/13

It has been internally announced that Festival of the Lion King will close in its current Camp Minnie-Mickey location on January 5th, 2014. It was previosuly announced that Camp Minnie-Mickey would close "January 2014".

It was also announced that the Festival of the Lion King location in the newly expanded Africa section will open in "Summer 2014".

7/29/13

With construction visibly underway, the Animal Kingdom Park has officially announced that the Africa section of the park is being expanded and will become the new home to the Festival of the Lion King show.

4/10/13

Construction walls are now up around the proposed site in the Africa section of the park.


1/5/13

Cast Members have confirmed that leaked blueprints of an expansion to the Africa section of Disney's Animal Kingdom are the same plans that were internally announced in Late 2012. Construction dates have not been reportedly set, so these plans should only be considered "proposed" until further developments.

The proposal calls for a hardscape expansion to the Africa section of the park and reclaiming backstage areas located near the Discovery Village section. The expansion would be used to relocate the Festival of the Lion King show to a more permanent facility and allow for future expansion in the former location (presumably the Pandora project).

According to the plans and reports from Cast, Guests would find a new covered Standby and Fastpass Queues near Creature Comforts in Discovery Village. The new theater for Festival of the Lion King will be the same size, but the exterior will be similar to the theater at Hong Kong Disneyland (much more ornate and themed than the current exterior). Guests will reportedly exit near the Dawa bar.

Below is an approximate depiction of the the proposed expansion's effect for Guests:

[Buttercup]

I like this placement. Having the theater actually IN the Africa section makes a lot of sense, considering it's the Lion King! It looks like it tucks in that corner nicely. It looks like there will be another path you can take over the water into Africa from the Tree of Life as well, which is great!

[Lacy]

I like it - it is always such a long walk to Camp Minnie & Mickey for Lion King and not a whole lot else to do down there....although I can't say I'm excited about Avatar if that is where it is proposed....

[Goofy4TheWorld]

I like it - it is always such a long walk to Camp Minnie & Mickey for Lion King and not a whole lot else to do down there....although I can't say I'm excited about Avatar if that is where it is proposed....

My first thought when looking at the above map was that it STILL looks like a long walk!

[Ian]

Looks like early phase prep for Avatarland.

[kbean]

Avatar? Oh u mean that movie from 09 that ppl forgot about already. *yawn*.

[Dracula766]

Avatar? Oh u mean that movie from 09 that ppl forgot about already. *yawn*.

Agreed!

I wasn't a fan.

[1DisneyNut]

Me neither. I gave it the best shot I could, tried to watch it 4 times.....never could make it past the first 15 minutes. I am still bewildered at how well that movie did in the box office.

Don't get me wrong, I will take any new rides and experiences we can get but it would suit me just fine if they choose a theme other than avatar.

[Goofster]

Avatar? Oh u mean that movie from 09 that ppl forgot about already. *yawn*.

I haven't even watched the movie!

[pdrlkr]

Thanks Jason!

[Patricia]

I'm going to have to make a point of seeing the movie before the area is completed.

[1DisneyNut]

I'm going to have to make a point of seeing the movie before the area is completed.

Good luck.....if you make it past the first 15 minutes you will have me beat. I will never be able to make it all the way through.

[MOJoe]

I'm going to have to make a point of seeing the movie before the area is completed.

It's an interesting movie. Visually stunning. But pure science fiction, with an ecological message.
How Avatar even remotely fits in Disney's Animal Kingdom, you know, the park that has real animals, is perplexing to me. Epcot? Maybe. The Studios? Better. But Animal Kingdom? I don't get it.

[Dulcee]

It's an interesting movie. Visually stunning. But pure science fiction, with an ecological message.
How Avatar even remotely fits in Disney's Animal Kingdom, you know, the park that has real animals, is perplexing to me. Epcot? Maybe. The Studios? Better. But Animal Kingdom? I don't get it.

When AK was originally planned it was suppose to be home to all animals, real and imaginary. The imaginary aspect never really happened. I think Avatar is a way to pull that back in while targeting an older and different demographic then is usually attracted to parks like AK.

I'm not a big sci-fi fan but I enjoyed the movie and like the environmental conservatism message it portrayed.

[waymickey]

Avatar? Oh u mean that movie from 09 that ppl forgot about already. *yawn*.

my thoughts too. Do something newer with more staying power.

[Butters]

As long as its done right I wouldn't care if it was my little pony being added....

[DizneyFreak2002]

It's an interesting movie. Visually stunning. But pure science fiction, with an ecological message.
How Avatar even remotely fits in Disney's Animal Kingdom, you know, the park that has real animals, is perplexing to me. Epcot? Maybe. The Studios? Better. But Animal Kingdom? I don't get it.

The Yeti?

Avatar has a conservation message, which is part of the theme of DAK...

Everyone wanted Beastly Kingdomme, but unicorns and dragons are not real animals either... Dulcee is right, when DAK was built, the park was meant to show case animals, real or imaginary... I think the animals in Avatar fit imaginary...

[Quadstriker]

Just skip the movie and watch the Red Letter Media analysis of Avatar. It analyses why Avatar was just a boxoffice smash despite having so little creative merit (recycled plot, characters with zero dimensions, etc). No it is not safe for work. If you can't find it, type the words red letter media and avatar into google.

[MOJoe]

Epcot has a conservation message too. And an empty building.
And the science fiction nature of Avatar seems much more akin to Star Wars than A Bugs Life or The Lion King. So what i am saying is that anything Avatar related would, at least in my mind, fit better in either DHS or Epcot.

As far as AK being the home to imaginary animals. Well, i can accept that. Mickey, Donald, and dozens of other Disney creations require it. But i would like to ask a question. When you enter AK, what is the first thing you find? Not fantasy. No castle, no futuristic hardscape, no magic wand or hat. The entrance is for all practical purposes, a zoo. A place for real animals. In fact, by square footage, nearly the entire park is a zoo.
That is what makes AK a substantially different park from the other 3.
And in my opinion, Avatar doesn't belong there.

[darthmacho]

While the move makes sense theme-wise and frees up space to build near the front of the park, but I would NOT want to be in Harambe at the time when the show gets out!