Kilimanjaro Safari - lots of no-shows this time

MaidMarian444

Mouseketeer
Joined
Oct 18, 2019
Messages
156
Hi just wanted to pass along my experience at Kilimanjaro Safari on the evening of Sunday, Jan 19.

It was my fourth time on the ride and I’d never seen so few animals. The savanna was almost empty. Our guide was trying to be cheerful about it, but def seemed a little apologetic. We were one of the last trucks of the day, getting on around 5 pm. Weather was cool but not cold. There had been a rainstorm earlier in the day.

Curious if the evening time is typically a bad time to ride Safari or if we were just unlucky. Anyone else have similar experience?
 
The animals tend to be more active and there are likely more out earlier in the day. The safari is a great attraction early in the morning.

With it being the last safari of the day, it could be too that some of the animals had been moved to their nighttime locations.
 
I’ve been on the ride several times, and it wasn’t a big deal to me they weren’t active! Of course I understand animals need space and rest. We had a few first timer kids with us, and we had shelled out for lightening lane. (Something I don’t like about the new lightening lane system is that when a ride is a bust, it feels worse cause money was paid. With the old “free” FP system, a ride being worse than expected is just a shoulder shrug)

Just wanted to pass along the tip to anyone else planning who really wants to see active animals.


In “real life”, animals are often more active in the dusk hours.
 
Yes, weather and time of day matter to the animals. Mornings have been much better in our experience, but even some mornings some of the animals might be slower to come out. They can entice the animals with food to have the safari more active for guests, but the animals do what the animals want to do.
 
Curious if the evening time is typically a bad time to ride Safari or if we were just unlucky. Anyone else have similar experience?
Yes it does tend to be hit or miss this time of year. It is cooler and sometimes also rainy as you experienced on Sunday. The animals tend to have their last feeding around 5 PM and some animals will return to their barns for the night.

Late Spring and in the Summer the animals tend to be more active in the evenings when it has been hot all day.

Dave
 
I've been on one at like 4:45/5 and saw the springbok pronking across the savanna - our guide said it was because they heard their cue to go in for food.

It may have been that one where I saw a lot of the tower of giraffe standing near their gate - clearly even if they hadn't heard their signal they knew from the position of the sun what time it was.
 
I think my best experiences have been close to opening and right after rain during hot weather months. In winter I've seen the most animals a little while after opening, not so early that it's still cold, but not so late that you hit the midday naps, so maybe 10:00 or 11:00ish. The few times that I've gone close to closing I haven't had much luck, regardless of the time of year.
 
When they announced Animal Kingdom I was not happy. WHY live animals? They will do what they want. Disney is all about animatronics that mostly perform as programmed. I love animals and zoos. I'm a member of our zoo most my life. When I travel I find the zoos. Our zoo director was going to help Disney. But I was still a NO, NO LIVE ANIMALS with minds of their own. Skip ahead ... I love AK, the safari being my favorite attraction. I will say since it opened I've maybe 2-3 quiet rides, either extreme heat or cold. Rain seems to be a good thing especially warm weather. Weather is likely the main reason.

AND let us remember when it comes to survival etc animals are so much smarter than humans. They know way in advance when things are happening and given Florida's weather forecast this week ~ they are likely by their indoor suites knocking on the door to get back inside. These are really domesticated animals and they are no fools. They know where the warm straw is.

I feed my deer every night. They didn't come last night and only a young one came through mid morning when it was a bit warmer. They are hunkered down. NOLA has snow on the ground, south Georgia and north FL are predicted to get snow .... they know. Animals were likely out for meals and warmest part of the day.
 
I've had the best luck earlier in the morning. However, my last safari--around 10ish--the elephants had not joined the savanna yet and that was a little disappointing.
 
I have had good and bad safaris at all times of day. But at the end, they know it is almost time to go in and have dinner. I have seen them gathering by gates. But I also watched the male and female lions chuffing at each other, seen cheetahs pacing, and other animals more active too on later day 4-5:30 range. So it is luck of the draw. But based on the weather, I am guessing they all wanted to head in for the night.
 
It was my fourth time on the ride and I’d never seen so few animals. The savanna was almost empty. Our guide was trying to be cheerful about it, but def seemed a little apologetic. We were one of the last trucks of the day, getting on around 5 pm. Weather was cool but not cold. There had been a rainstorm earlier in the day.

Curious if the evening time is typically a bad time to ride Safari or if we were just unlucky. Anyone else have similar experience?
In my experience the evening time in winter is typically a time with fewer animals. It may have only been cool for you but it may have been too cold for the animals especially with rain earlier in the day.
 
That's not too surprising for 5 pm. The best safaris are usually early, right as the park opens. As the day goes on, the animals eat their fill and retreat away from the roads.
 
Ha ha! "Mostly...." 🤣
I made sure I said mostly. ✔️

Ironically it seems the older ones are much more reliable than the newer ones. Kinda like my old Volkswagen that at 54 years old is still the most reliable car.
 




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