Backstage Safari at Disney's Animal Kingdom

Hey Disney Devoted Fans!!! It's Dulcie again and I just recently had a client that went to Disney's Animal Kingdom and took her daughter on the Backstage Safari tour for her 19th Birthday!
(It's good to see my family isn't the only one that likes to make these tours extra Birthday surprises)

I asked her a few questions that I thought everyone would like to know about the tour and she sent me some photos to use in this post too.

I just want to say THANK YOU Brianne for sharing your experience with us all.

How many guests were in your tour group?

There were 8 guest total, including Cheyenne and me. This gave us all the opportunity to get to know each other just a bit and so felt a bit more relaxing versus a huge group.

In your opinion were there too many people or was it perfect for the type of tour you were doing?
Eight people was the perfect amount of guests. I personally think that anything over 12 guests on this particular tour would be too many.The reason why is that once you are on the Safari Truck, the less crowded the seats are the better opportunity to take pictures without having someone in your way. From the size of the van they provided for the first part of the tour, my guess would be that 12 might be the maximum per group, but I could be wrong

Did you find the Backstage Animal Safari physically challenging or was it a pretty easy tour? 

Backstage Safari was an easy tour.  It started out at the meeting place by the front of the park. We then walked at an easy pace through a small portion of the park in order to get to the transportation van.  When in the van, we drove over to the animal holding area for the rhinos and elephants. After that tour, we rode in the van to the nutrition building, then walked across the parking lot to the veterinary hospital.  We did our tour and were able to sit for about 15 minutes in the classroom, get some water and use the restrooms. Back into the van and off to the area where we would catch the Safari bus. The road the Safari bus drives on is bumpy, but not to the point of discomfort. (I had injured my back just days before this trip and the road didn't make it any more uncomfortable).  We started our tour at 8:30am and so it was nice weather and the animals were out and visible throughout the ride.

Do you think that this tour was informational and did you learn a lot of new things about the care of the animals in the park?

The tour was very informational and it shows how humane and secure their holding areas are.  In the nutrition portion of the tour, we saw the staff preparing the meals for the next day and it was very interesting as to how the measure out everything, what goes into the meals and the freshness of the food. I think for the older kids, it gives them the opportunity to see what types of opportunities there are for careers within the park.

Did you get to touch or hold any of the animals?

Unfortunately we did not get to touch or pet any animals. I was going to ask if we could touch the Rhino mom and baby, but then then decided not to.  Simply because I assumed it could be harmful to them if anyone on their multiple tours had something that they could transmit to the animals without knowingly doing so.

What were the highlights of the tour for you personally?

#1- I would say the Safari Ride out to see the animals.

#2 The nutrition area and holding pens, especially since the happened to have a mom & baby Rhino there.

#3. Vet hospital was good because the tour guide was very knowledgeable about some of the lab tests and procedures being implemented on the animals and one of the lab techs was there and gave us quite a bit of

interesting info and even shared a couple pictures. 
However, we (especially Cheyenne since she wants to be a veterinarian) were very disappointed that there wasn't more to the vet hospital tour, for example - we thought we would have the opportunity to have a question

answer session with one of the vets there on duty, or a more in-depth tour of the facility, but it was only the lab that we got to see.

#4- The short, yet informational walking tour as we started out.   I was a bit disappointed that the elephants were already out of their holding pens by the time we got to that part of the tour, but looking back I don't think that there was anything saying there would.

Do you think that you would do it again in the future or was one time enough to say you had the experience?

We would do it again, especially if we had someone with us that had never been.  My reason for going again would be the Safari Ride with such a small group was more relaxing than trying to squeeze into the safari bus with a load full of strangers. 

What are 3 tips you have for someone going on this tour?

The weather didn't really affect us since we were riding in an air conditioned van and the safari ride in the bus was mostly shaded. Definitely bring a camera, but you have to be quick with taking the pictures as our bus only paused for seconds before moving on. Sunglasses helped because we would go from inside a bldg. and back out into the bright sun, but not needed in general for the riding around.

Do you think that the tour was too short or too long time wise?

We felt it was the perfect length of time.  We started at about 8:30am and were done by 11:30 am.  And that was even with folks asking questions and several park staff giving us lots of fun side stories about a variety of things.

The Backstage Safari Tour is not to be confused with the Wild Africa Trek.
Cost per person $72.00 +tax and is for ages 16 + *no exceptions will be made and you must provide a photo ID when checking in*.
They do offer discounted tickets to AP holders, DVC members and Disney Visa card holders.
A portion of the proceeds from the tours are donated to the Disney Worldwide Conservation Fund.

                     All information is current at the time of this blog post.
*Photos and personal interview courtesy of Brianne Hoover.These photos are not to be used or shared without permission.

 

A little about Dulcie...

I am a native Floridian who has been traveling to Disney World since 1976! I am Submariners wife,Mommy to a 9 yr old "Princess" Imagineer in Training and Travel Agent Extraordinaire with Snapshot Getaways. I earned my ears 4 years ago with Disney College of Knowledge and have enjoyed every Magical booking since.

Feel free to contact me for your FREE quote today and let's start Makin' Memories the Disney way.
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