If you’ve ever wanted to venture off the beaten path and farther into the Kilimanjaro Safaris Expedition savannah, you’ll have a chance later this year. Disney’s Animal Kingdom Theme Park will be offering a new, immersive experience that’ll take a small group of Guests on personalized, guided treks along some unexplored areas of the Harambe Reserve.
During the excursions, you’ll be able to spend more time observing the wildlife on the savannah and have a chance to learn about the animals and their behaviors from one of our Disney guides. Adventurers will also trek through an undeveloped forest area of the Harambe Reserve and then board a unique vehicle specially designed for the rest of the quest.
Walt Disney Imagineers are still working on many of the details but we wanted to share the news with you first. Reservations for this specially priced tour won’t begin until later this year, so keep checking back for more details.
Comments
Like this idea!
can’t wait
Love this idea.. Would love to know if you think there will be an age limit on it.. So many of the tours we want to do my 11 year old is too young to participate.
How much?
Hi Peter…still working out the details. We’ll post an update on the Blog with the specifics.
Sounds amazing – we’re already doing a couple tours for our next trip – sounds like we may have to add this to our list as well!
sounds amazing!!
I hope there will be a way to make this tour accessible. My friend Matt, who must use a motorized wheelchair, and I love taking the safari ride and we’ve always wanted to see more behind the scenes.
Did the behind the scenes tour there in October and can’t wait to do this one!
sounds fun…I too would like to know how much this tour will cost. I want to do the Magic Kingdom Utilidor Tour but it is very expensive!
I hope it will be available in November when I go. I can’t wait for more details
When will this begin? We’re going in December.
Sounds great! But will it be available to all guests? The other behind the scenes tour is only available to guests staying at Animal Kingdom Lodge (that is my favorite place to stay, but can not always afford it).
Yes, it’ll be open to all guests.
We are going in November hope it will be open by then!!
We did a backstage tour of the Animal Kingdom Kilaminjaro Safari Expedition in December. It was AWESOME. Not sure if this will be like that….or something a little different. Loved being able to be up close with some of the animals.
Sure, this will be different – and awesome too!
Cool! I want to do this! You guys (the Disney family) keep coming up with such great ideas. I can’t wait to here what other new and exciting idea is next.
Thanks, Teresa. We love posting these stories on the Blog.
I like this idea….but I hope the charge is not much money. A family of 4 could miss out on this wonderful experience if it gets to be too spendy. What about a price break for passholders? That is something to consider as well. We are at Disney World at lease 12 time a year if not more. Sure hope we will be able to include this in one of our visits.
I wanna go!!!
I echo Valerie…This sounds very, very cool, but I hope it will be open to families with youngsters–we’d love to take some of the tours with our 8-year-old, but understand most are for older kids/adults. This would be a wonderful, fascinating educational experience for the whole family without actually going to Africa…
I’ll be there at the end of Aug and hope you are ready to take me on this adventure I am ready to go!
Sounds like an awesome program. My family would love the chance to participate in this adventure, especially my daughter whose goal is to be a National Geographic photographer!
I’ll be there the end of Aug. and ready I’m ready to go on this adventure! Hope you have everything finished by then!
This sounds great. How much later this year? We will be in Disney the last week of September. We did a behind the scenes tour at Animal Kingdom a few years ago…it was fantastic.
This will be awesome! I can’t tell you how happy I am both Captain EO and this new Safari Adventure will be open on our next trip to Disney! Thanks for the new attractions, so fun, can’t wait!
This is a very neat idea. I used to love the safari at Busch Gardens in Tampa. The big question is, though, how much. I know you’ll keep us updated with that info and more. Boy do I miss Florida! Sometimes I think moving to Georgia was a big mistake.
How much construction would be required for walking paths? Would they be intrusive to the Savannah ride at all?
Hi Timothy, you won’t be walking along the roadway with ride vehicles.
Wow! This is as close to Africa as I will ever get! This is something I’ve got to do!
Sounds awesome! Do you know if there will be any age restrictions?
Let us know asap so we can book our trip in advanced.
Sure will. We’ll post details as soon as we can. Thanks.
This really sounds great! I’m in!
Excellent idea! I just hope it will be affordable…
Oh man, this looks so cool! I’ll be working there on the College Program, so I will be there for the rest of the year, but my boyfriend is the real Animal Kingdom fan – I hope I can book this for him when he comes to visit!
I’ll be watching for an update!
This sounds great and I would love to do this
Do you know if the tour will operate every day of the week?
Sounds really cool, any target date for opening?
Later this year – we’ll post more details as soon as we can.
How much of the tour will be walking and how many hours is it being planned for? Any idea what the participation item will be …. a pin maybe?
This tour sounds wonderful! My husband and I love the Animal Kingdom for its different approach and incredible beauty – thank you Disney creative team for bringing us something new to experience in our favorite park! This will definitely be on our list for our October 2011 trip.
This would be great as a year or 2 ago, while visiting Animal Kingdom we decided to go on the safari. Our family of 3 were the only ones on it and the great guide asked us whether we wanted the usual spiel or more personal, we of course choose the later. He went into great detail about everything that he did and about the animals and their habitat and how disney managed it all, it was amazing!!! I will never forget it!!
This is going to be fantastic! Are you able to say if this will be a seasonal tour or one taking place year round?
Would definately do this tour-suspense is killing us!
This sounds fantastic! I can’t wait to do it!
You know what I’d LOVE to see?.. a Photography Safari. Maybe go with a Disney photographer that gives tips and allow those of us with Digital SLR cameras and zoom lenses and chance to REALLY get in there and get some great sunrise shots. Maybe even with a “no flash, zoom needed” requirement. Maybe even have DSLR rentals for those with none, and give basic instructions… and they can keep the photos they take! How exciting that would be for a first time photographer, young photo buffs and even for us “know it all” pro’s! I would definately pay a premium to have a guide that knows all the sweet spots to catch those sunset and/or sunrise shots, all without a jumpy-bumpy safari ride.
Just a thought… 😉 Thanks for the great blog!
Dan B
CA
Like Valerie, Lynne and others, I would like to be able to take my 10 and 12 year olds on this tour. By the time they reach 16, I’m not so sure that they will “want” to go 🙂 It’s a shame that WDW limits most of its tours with such a high age limit. My children are well-behaved and certainly would not spoil the fun for the adults-only people on the tour.
I think this sounds fantastic. We’re planning a big trip for early 2012 & will definitely do this if it’s available. We’ve always enjoyed our visits to Animal Kingdom & this would definitely enhance the experience.
I think that this is so cool – did the Backstage Safari at the Animal Kingdom – loved it. So this tour will be completely different from the Backstage Safari?
How photographer friendly will this be? Will we have stop time built into the tour? I’m looking forward to Animal Kingdom when we visit in December, this would be a great addition to a day of shooting in AK!
Oh! I would love to do this! I did the Backstag eSafari last time and thought it was really wonderful.
I hope it’s open for October. I have a 16 year old & 40 year old birthdays with me on Animal Kingdom day. I could make this a BIG surprise!!
Sounds like a great adventure! Wish I could’ve planned this for my August 60th birthday trip.
We are going on november to Disney.Did you have some guide or group to speak in spanish for this new adventure
Wow! I was only going to spend one day at AK, but now I want to add another day, so that we could potentially do this tour! I imagine that it will require a general admission park ticket to do this tour? I am thinking I’d love to do it as a finale big ‘HURRAH’ moment right before we leave Disney to return home (Sigh… )
Brenda
Can you tell us if this tour will be wheelchair accessible?
My boyfriend uses a power wheelchair and would love to do this. Walt Disney World is so wonderful with accessiblity that is why we keep going back every year. I hope this tour is accessible too.
I absolutely love the idea of more up-close-and-personal tours highlighting the animals of DAK. The Savannah is wonderful, and I would absolutely LOVE to go on a walking tour through there.
A backstage tour highlighting the animals of the Maharajah Jungle Trek would also be welcome.
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