ANIMAL KINGDOM

In many ways we felt that Animal Kingdom was the most impressive of all the Disney Parks. The quality of the attractions, the setting and landscaping is first class and it is also very educational for the kids. Definitely a great day out – if we had had more time we’d have definitely gone again as we felt we only scratched the surface.

The park is divided into various zones around a huge lake with ‘Discovery Island’ in the middle.

Here’s a quick rundown of the things we did at Animal Kingdom and what we thought:

Discovery Island

• Tree of Life - a huge and very impressive tree has been built. It is quite an amazing structure! We didn't walk around it (wish we had) but there seems to be a lot of interesting things to see there
• It's Tough to be a Bug! - a 3D show made by Pixar based on Bugs Life. The 3D glasses makes everything feel like they are flying towards you - a fantastic show which the kids really enjoyed

Africa

• Kilimanjaro Safaris - Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant!! This trip around a mocked-up African savannah is so impressive. The landscaping is so good it makes you feel you really are in Africa in an open top jeep. We got there first thing and it seems this is a good time to be there as the queues are smaller and, more importantly, the animals are out before it gets too hot. We got very close to elephants, lions, giraffes and loads of other wild animals. There is also an anti-poaching theme running through the ride that made the kids thoughtful about animals being in danger. For us, the best attraction in DisneyWorld

Asia

• Kali River Rapids - a ride in an 8-seater raft down some great rapids - absolutely excellent ride. Mary got totally soaked while the rest of us were fine - it seems to just depend which seat you are in!

Dinoland USA

• Tarzan Rocks! - a live stage show with lots of singing and lots of gymnastic action. The cast fly around the arena on roller-blades which is very impressive but overall it was not our kind of thing - although Mary thought that Tarzan (who had a body that looked like it was chiselled out of marble) was nice eye-candy!

• Dinosaur - we were unlucky on this ride - we had our FASTPASS but when we arrived there was a technical hitch and we had to leave before it got going. We heard that it is a great ride though. Never mind!

Camp Minnie-Mickey

• Greeting trails - there are a number of character greeting spots here they always went down well with the kids. However, Minnie, Mickey and the others were dressed in 'safari-gear' that confused our two totally. Didn't stop them going for an autograph and hug anyway.

• Festival of the Lion King - while not quite the same as the Lion King show which we saw in London (now, that is amazing), this 30 minute show was really well done with singing from the Lion King soundtrack, lots of gymnastics and great animals wheeled into the arena.