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Disney Tight-Lipped About Animal
Kingdom
As the spring 1998 opening of Disney's Animal Kingdom
gets closer, the company remains characteristically
tight-lipped about what its fourth -- and biggest --
theme park will include.
But even as officials were tossing out "no
comments" to the media, Disney has included a large
detailed model and several framed poster-sized renderings
of the planned park in its 25th Anniversary Welcome
Center just inside the entrance of the Magic Kingdom.
Here are some previously unreported tidbits about the
500-acre, $760 million park, based on a recent visit to
the welcome center, additional information from Disney
sources and some confirmation from company spokesman Bill
Warren.
On opening day, at least, the park will not have any
roller coasters.
 Initial plans called
for two: The Excavator in the dinosaur-themed Dinoland,
USA and The Dragon's Tower in the Beastly Kingdom. But
The Excavator was scrapped before blueprints were ever
drawn up, and there is still no decision on whether to
build the Beastly Kingdom -- a section of the park based
on mythical creatures such as unicorns.
"There will be no roller coasters in the
park," Warren said. But that may not be the case
forever: "None are planned for opening day. Who
knows what the future will hold?"
There will be no full-service restaurants inside the
park. Rainforest Cafe, which recently opened at Disney
Village, will be outside Animal Kingdom but there will be
an entrance for visitors already in the park.
The theater inside the park's centerpiece, the
14-story Tree of Life, will show a 3-D movie about bugs.
Previous reports said the show would feature characters
from The Lion King.
Perhaps the most elaborate theme section of the park
will be Dinoland, USA, intended to spoof the throng of
tourists, fortune hunters and science buffs that would
descend on a town where dinosaur bones are discovered.
A long line of cars is permanently lined up trying to
get into town. Businesses in the area, from an enormous
counter-service restaurant to several roadside souvenir
stands -- some of them staffed by clerks in dinosaur hats
or costumes -- are set up by locals trying to get a piece
of the action.
A large children's play area designed to resemble an
excavation site will let kids climb, romp and dig for
dinosaur bones.
On the edge of Dinoland is the park's major thrill
ride, Countdown to Extinction. Although Warren confirmed
the ride will be part motion simulator -- where riders
sit in a car that moves up and down or side to side -- he
wouldn't comment on reports that those cars also will
move along a track.
 All along the way, riders -- who
have gone back in time -- are threatened by animatronic
dinosaurs, meteors and other dangers.
The park's second major ride will be Kilimanjaro
Safari, for which visitors will ride 32-seat, covered
Jeep-type vehicles.
Along the way, travelers encounter elephant poachers
and all types of African animals. All the animals are
real except for a dead elephant shot by a poacher.
The safari gets up-close to several packs of animals
separated from the vehicle by invisible barriers intended
to create the illusion that nothing separates humans from
beasts.
Some hippos, for example, might come right up to the
group if not for an invisible underwater fence. Gorillas
could poke their heads right into the bus if they could
get through the bamboo, some of which is made from steel.
There are some thrills along the way, too, including a
bridge over an alligator-filled pond that collapses just
as the safari bus passes over.
Other planned rides: a boat trip around Safari Village
and a white-water rapids excursion in the park's Asia
section. Asia will focus on extinction and will feature
many threatened species from that region, including
tigers. Warren said the species of tigers haven't been
determined -- employees said they will be white Bengal
tigers -- and he denied reports that there will be
pandas.
Safari Village, Africa and Dinoland all will open with
the park in the spring of 1998; Asia will open later.
Welcome center employees pegged the date at eight months
later, but Warren said neither that date nor a schedule
for Beastly Kingdom has been set.
Source:
Date: |
By Jill Jorden
Spitz, The Orlando Sentinel
December 9, 1996 |
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