Backstage Safari

[BelleBeauty]

Just booked the Backstage Safari tour for my DH and i for our trip in November. Now I'm second guessing - so help!

DH secretly wishes that he worked as a vet at the zoo, so I thought that this tour would be perfect for him. We are taking the 8:30am tour on 11/21. However, the cast member on the phone said you really don't see a lot of animals on this tour. The Wild Africa Trek feels like too much for us (this is my first tour ever). Not sure what to do.

I guess I am nervous because this will be the first morning we have slated to be in AK, we have an ADR at Yak & Yeti at 12pm and I'm worried that we won't have enough time to see AK before dinner! Am I worried for nothing? Let me know your experiences.:confused:

[chrim]

Seeing animals is not guaranteed, but could happen. When I took the tour (it was the afternoon version, which might be different) we visited both the giraffe and elephant pens and saw some of those animals somewhat close up. We also saw more of the working side of the park like the food storage and preparation area, farm area (where some feed is grown) and other non-themed and industrial areas (i.e. what real zoo keepers would see on a regular basis).

At the time, the finale of the tour was riding on the Safari attraction with a special narration, although I am not sure that is part of the tour any more. But if it is, you will likely see many animals there.

Of the tours at Animal Kingdom, I think this is the only one that goes backstage to see the working area of the park, which is what it seems your husband might like best. It really is more about the zoo work than thrills (Wild Africa Trek) or architecture and design (Wild By Design).

So do you want to see the animals in their decorated homes (i.e. skip the tour and just visit the park) or take the tour learn about when they are fed and what the cast members are and are not allowed to call a certain popular food? (I won't tell you here about that food here. You will have to take the tour or figure it out. But as a hint, think about famous residents of other parts of Walt Disney World that children would not want to see fed to the animals here.)

[snowflakegirl]

We did the Backstage Safari tour last August and absolutely loved it. Like you we started our day at the Animal Kingdom that way. After meeting up with our guide, she took us into the Oasis for a couple of minutes and showed us some tips on how they encourage animals to be in the public's view. Then we went backstage and went to the night barns for the White Rhinos (getting to see two of them up close and personal) and the Elephants (one of whom was outside in the night barn enclosure so we got to see him from relatively close up. After that we were brought to Rafiki's Planet Watch to check out the veterinary area of that. We were technically "on stage" as we walked through and we got to meet a goat who had just had a procedure done so he was walking around a little drunk from the anesthesia and a goat who was about to go under to get her teeth worked on. We also met a Vet Tech who spent a few minutes telling us about her job (I'm like your husband, I also secretly want to be a Vet at the zoo, so I loved this part). We got to walk through the nutrition center and learn about how they feed the animals and keep track of which type of food is for which animal. When we noticed a Cast Member walking through the park with some of the food later, we were excited to be able to identify what type of animal they had to be feeding. After the nutrition center we took a break and had a snack (and got souvenir travel mugs with the Backstage Safari logo...word to the wise, if you're wearing sunscreen, DO NOT TOUCH that logo....it goes away rather quickly...and then you're left with a white streaky mess on whatever sunscreened part of you happened to touch it. not that i'm speaking from experience or anything). Then our guide brought us to the exit of the Safari ride, loaded the four of us in the group onto the ride, and we took a personal safari, just the four of us with our guide who handled the narration. Instead of the canned script, she told us secrets of how teh Savannah was set up, etc, and we were able to pause for longer than the typical ride to take pictures.

Overall, I would say the experience was great. I absolutely loved it. And would actually consider doing it again, although I think we'll do the Trek first before we do this one again, just so I can say I've done both of them. :-)

[BelleBeauty]

Thanks chrim and snowflakegirl! Your descriptions were exactly what I needed. I think my DH is going to love this tour. I hope the safari ride is still part of it! :cloud9: