Maharajah Jungle Trek Search

I made it a game to look for the animal identifiers inside of the Maharajah Jungle Trek.  As you can see, I was unsuccessful in finding all of the animals to match them to the map.  Whether this was my inability to find things, the posts have been moved, or they never existed in the first place is beyond me.

The Circle of Life: Maharajah Jungle Trek

Take a stroll through Disney’s Animal Kingdom’s Maharajah Jungle Trek.  This area was instituted to preserve the wildlife inside by the past Maharajah.  The weathered walls within the area tell stories of past rulers, but also offers a tale with a moral very rooted in the creation of Disney’s Animal Kingdom.

In this story, animals and plants strive until humans begin appearing on Earth.  As the human race gains strength, they begin taking natural resources and land from the native animals.  The gods try to punish the humans for their disregard for the balance of nature.   After a lesson learned, the human plants a new tree to replace the one that he once cut down.  In the final carved image, both animal and human kneel before the tree in respect.

Skipping the Marshmallows and Campfires

It sometimes amazes me the things I never noticed in the parks despite the amount of time I spend in them.  And needless to say, I don’t spend a ton of time in Camp Minnie-Mickey.

But here are the signs for the meet and greets with some big names without the big lines.  This is a great place to meet some of your favorite characters if you are waiting for the next Festival of the Lion King show.

Having a Magical Time- Primeval Whirl

Different than most Having a Magical Time entries, Primeval Whirl is essentially all about time.  Chester and Hester designed the roller coaster in jest.  They intend to tease the stereotypical personalities of the paleontologists over at The Dino Institute.  They are obsessed with time travel and getting that next dinosaur.

Watch out for this ride.  Being an outside rollercoaster, it tends to have a lot more weather restrictions.

Retro Reminders- The Boneyard

The Boneyard Fossil Fun Site

Est. 1947

According to the Dinoland USA back story, dinosaur bones were first found in 1947.  In this Retro Reminder, 1947 was significant because of a lot of cartoon releases, but one of its largest was Fun and Fancy Free. Some of the shorts are sold separately now, such as Mickey and the Beanstalk, but in the original Fun and Fancy Free, Jiminy Cricket hosts numerous shorts that include Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, and Goofy.

Opening Night

In this series, the posters from It’s Tough to Be a Bug featuring Flik, will be compared to their real-life inspirations.  The first poster is The Dung and I based on The King and I.  The King and I had four runs on Broadway in New York, NY.

The Dung and I

The King and I

Sue the Dinosaur

Sue the T. rex

On your travels to the Dino Institute in Dinoland USA.  Try not to miss Sue the dinosaur on your right.  Although this is just a cast of the original bones found in South Dakota, the replica still stands the impressive 13 feet tall at the hip, and is 42 feet long.  This dinosaur is believed to be from the late Cretaceous period over 67 million years ago.

Sue is the largest, most complete, T. rex fossil yet found and its her discovery that brought about her name.  In 1990, Sue Hendrickson was working with her team in South Dakota, and after searching for bones with no success, the team decided to leave.  As they were about to leave, they discovered that their car had a flat tire.  While the rest of the team went to get help, Sue stayed around and began examining some intriguing hills.  After a while she noticed very large bones and told her team that they needed to stay to excavate the fossils.  In honor of her discovery, the newly found T. rex was named Sue.

The original cast can be found in The Field Museum in Chicago.

Sanaa

Kidani Village over at the Animal Kingdom Lodge opens May 1, 2009 with its Phase 1 rooms. Kidani Village includes a new shop, restaurant, feature pool, and savanna.

The new restaurant Sanaa, with almost 200 seats, means artwork in Swahili. Inside pillars symbolize beads while you sit beneath a forest campy.

Some of the items you might find on the menu include Dum Biryani, New York Strip, Spice-crusted Cornish Game Hen, and Banana Leaf-wrapped Sustainable Fish. The items on the menu are meant to reflect a combination of Indian and African flavors.

Earth Day ’09

In remembrance of passed Earth Days celebrated within the Disney Parks, I will showcase a few of the buttons I have acquired.

Earth Day Buttons

Unfortunately when I visited Animal Kingdom today on its eleventh anniversary, they were not handing out commemorative buttons.

An Ant’s Story

According to the locals on Discovery Island in Disney’s Animal Kingdom, the Tree of Life is a great symbol of perseverance and courage.

The legend reads that there was once a very lonely ant. There were no other animals around for the ant to interact with so it tried to busy its time with scavenging. One day, the ant found a single seed, and with that seed it began its long journey to Discovery Island.   The ant planted the seed into the ground and the Tree of Life began to bloom. The tree encouraged other animals to migrate to Discovery Island and the ant was no longer alone.

When the ant died, its spirit was the first to be carved into the trunk of the Tree of Life.  As the animals began to pass away, their images also appeared to be carved within the trunk and roots of the tree.  This was meant to thank the ant for his brave journey and the life he brought to Discovery Island.

Tree of Life-Manatee

The Ant is in the Center of the Trunk

It is unknown how old the Tree of Life is, but if the story is true, a T-Rex skulls appears within the roots of the tree, making it over 65 million years old.