Wild Africa Trek

[mom2elle]

We are going on the trek in a few weeks - what is standard tipping protocol for the guides? I am trying to plan out what cash we should have on hand. Family of 4.

 

[Boopuff]

We did the trek before Covid. Had two great guides, and they took a ton of great candid photos (some staged as well) We drove into the rhino area, got up close to the group, pulled up near the Giraffe and Anklo cattle. Lunch was fun and relaxing. We were lucky that we had a small group on our trek (about 8) Go with an open mind and have fun.

 

[brightlined]

We are going on the trek in a few weeks - what is standard tipping protocol for the guides? I am trying to plan out what cash we should have on hand. Family of 4.

I did this last month, and I don't recall anyone pulling out their wallets to tip them - not sure when that would have even been appropriate. It's more of an "experience" than a "guided tour" kind of thing. I don't think it's expected at all.

There's a PlanDisney answer (admittedly from 2015) that says that they're not allowed to accept a gratuity:
https://plandisney.disney.go.com/qu...safari-trek-customary-tip-tour-guides-277497/

If you really want to "tip" them - I think the best advice I've got is to engage with the guides as much as possible. My group was fun and goofy, and they kept commenting about how much more fun the experience was for them when the guests were active and engaging.

 

[T.G.I.Friday]

It never occurred to me to tip them, and I can’t say that I noticed anyone else on other tour tip them.

 

[mikalkwin]

Bet way to “tip” might be to send a cast compliment through the app?

I am booking it for end august and I wonder at what time would be the snack for the 8:45 tour? My daughter can get hangry and I want to be prepared

 

[brightlined]

I am booking it for end august and I wonder at what time would be the snack for the 8:45 tour? My daughter can get hangry and I want to be prepared

I did the 10:15am, and our snack was about 12:30pm. Maybe 11am for the 8:45am.

 

[mikalkwin]

I did the 10:15am, and our snack was about 12:30pm. Maybe 11am for the 8:45am.

Thank you!

 

[lelew]

I posted this in the other thread, but thought I’d share here. I’m not sure if a lot of the other reviews were from preCovid or if we just didn’t have the best group, but our Trek was something of a disappointment.

We did the Wild Africa Trek at the end of March. There were 12 of us on the Trek - our party of 3, and then 3 other parties of various sizes. I struggled with whether or not to give my opinion, but, for us, while it was nice, it really wasn’t worth the expense. I was very excited to do it, and I really thought it was going to be a highlight of the trip.

I know a lot of it depends on the animals, but not having animals that were present and/or engaging didn’t help.

It seems like you spend so much time on getting in the safety equipment and hearing all of the rules…but very little time actually doing anything.

To summarize our Trek - We walked and saw some hippos from a cool spot. They tried to feed them, but it wasn’t super successful. Then we went to the rope bridges and walked across them. Very cool, no doubt. But I would say maybe 10 minutes max of being on the bridge. (And the crocodile area was drained and the animals weren’t there, so that was also a disappointment. Seeing the empty structure below wasn’t really thrilling at all. Picture a drained water ride in the winter.).

After the bridge, we took off all of the safety gear and loaded into the safari type truck and rode around the giraffes to the boma. The meal was nice and it was interesting to be in the boma, but it wasn’t really anything? Like you could kind of see the flamingos and giraffes and such in the distance, but, I don’t know, it seemed like being at a pavilion in a park.

Then back on the truck and back to the exit.

So for $200/person, it was a slightly enhanced Safari ride, a walk over the rope bridge and a nice picnic lunch. I can find value in just about all of the Disney extras (Club Level, VIP tours, etc.), but this was a one and done for us.

Here is the view from our boma -

We did the tour precovid a few years ago and it was great. I wanted to go again in August with my nephew who's never been but now I am not sure. BTW walking over the crocs was the highlight for me, sorry you didnt experience that on your tour, I would have been disappointed too

 

[brightlined]

We did the tour precovid a few years ago and it was great. I wanted to go again in August with my nephew who's never been but now I am not sure. BTW walking over the crocs was the highlight for me, sorry you didnt experience that on your tour, I would have been disappointed too

For anyone doing this soon - the crocs were there last month when I did it.

For mine - we got lucky with the hippos, one of them was active and hungry. Crocs were there - we spent a fair bit of time there. I think our tour might have been longer than usual - a young giraffe decided to hang out in the drive path in front of a Safaris vehicle, and we had a front row seat while they struggled to encourage him out of the way, which was a delight.

Our tour group was also a lot of fun, which was a highlight. And our guides were part of the fun, too.

That was the end of my AP (part of the reason I did it), which made the cost seem more reasonable.

I really enjoyed it. I might do it again in the future, but probably not for a long time. It is, honestly, a suped-up version of Kilimanjaro Safaris with food. (I thought the food was great, too - if you actually eat it all, I'd consider it a meal rather than a "snack".)


As an aside - I did the Starlight Safaris at AKL that night (also because of the AP), and, while it was cheaper, I just found the whole thing odd. I enjoyed it, but it was so much less "natural" (for obvious reasons) - it felt more like a weird backstage tour that gently spoiled some of the magic. I was glad I did it, but I probably wouldn't do that one again.