Animal Kingdom, Disney World, Orlando

 Animal Kingdom was the park I enjoyed the most and I was pretty impressed by the quality of the animal exhibits and the animals themselves. The park is a mix of animal exhibits, themed rides including roller coasters, Disney Shows and Disneyfied replicas of African villages. One of the experiences is to take a safari vehicle into a very large series of paddocks supposedly simulating African savannah. It was fun, the guide was very good and well it was not a bad experience.

 The simulations went so far as tyre imprints into the 'track'

 There were a range of animals inhabiting the 'savanna' including elephant, giraffe, lion, cheetah, various antelope etc.  This is a wart hog.

 Once disembarked from the safari vehicle, you wandered into the gorilla exhibits.  These were far and away the best I have ever seen...there was a series of very large paddocks which were landscaped and planted up to resemble the rainforest habitats of the lowland gorillas. One compound was for a group of adolescent males who would normally band together until old enough to challenge a big silverback, while the other paddock was for a family group of a big silverback and a number of females. One of the females had given birth a few days prior to our visit.

 As you walk around the park you go through replicas of African villages, marketplaces etc, full of places to eat and buy souvenirs of course. There's also a number of shows such as the Lion King show which was based on the musical, but an abridged version of half an hour - but truly spectacular and we actually saw it twice :-)  There was also a Finding Nemo musical which we enjoyed and this

 bird show which was quite interesting and informative.

 We decided to go on safari again in the late afternoon - who would know you were in Orlando, Florida?

We screamed like girls on a number of rides including Dinosaur, Primeval Whirl and Expedition Everest - you can see Everest peaking up behind us. They were all lots of fun and who would know I would enjoy roller coaster rides so much!  Greater self-awareness through travel, I hear you muttering. It poured wit rain for the best part of an hour around lunchtime but luckily we were under reasonable cover. I wouldn't mind coming back here to do some research.