When did Disney actually announce Beastly Kingdom? As far as I know that's one of Jim Hill's. The closest it came to announcement was some surveys asking questions along the line of attending such a park - and even then I think they downgraded and renamed it Jungle Trek - and THAT might still see some life in the nighttime safari ride.
But yes, they did announce various things...I can think of at least three DVC resorts that were announced and never built...which is why the DC project could still get the axe.
You are thinking of Nightly Kingdom...
Beastly kingdom was a land in DAK. It was part of the original design and was supposed to represent fantasy animals... Hence the dragon in the original. It was cut due to overruns and camp Mickey-Minnie was built in it's place. I've always heard that the camp was supposed tobe temp. But obviously that hasn't happened.
There are a few things surrounding Beastly Kingdom. When they did survey testing for Animal Kingdom, it was the land devoted to mythical animals that was most intriguing to guests. When they built the park, a decision had to be made, do we make the land devoted to Dinosaurs, or do we make the land devoted to Mythical Animals. The other would have been left for the Phase 2 expansion. Eisner loved synergy so he opted for Dinoland USA and Countdown to Extinction. This allowed cross promotion for the animated movie "Dinosaur" to appear in both the Discovery River Boats and Countdown to Extinction/Dinosaur.
Originally the Discovery River Boats was going to feature mythical animals, but budgets were cut as Disney felt obligated to have top notch backstage facilities for the animals, and that saw several things get cut.
Part of the plan when Animal Kingdom was to open new attractions at the other 3 parks as well, so vacations would be extended instead of Animal Kingdom just taking attendance away from the other parks. This was doe when MGM opened with Norway, Wonders of Life, and Mickey's Birthdayland opening around the same time. For the '98 Animal Kingdom opening the plan was for Test Track in Epcot, David Copperfield's Magic Underground in MGM, and something else (possibly Fire or Bald Mountain, but I don't think that timeline is correct) in the Magic Kingdom. Of course Test Track was delayed and David Copperfield's Magic Underground didn't happen, so the attendance in the other parks dropped significantly. Disney panicked and canceled/delayed the phase 2 expansion.
Fast forward to the opening of Islands of Adventure. Disney developed an aggressive plan of attack to "respond". Mission: Space was going to come to Epcot, they were going to revamp The Great Movie Ride, an addition was to be made to the Magic Kingdom (this may have actually been where Fire/Bald Mountain fit in), and the Animal Kingdom was going to get Beastly Kingdom. However, Islands of Adventure opened, and it took attendance away from Universal Studios but not Disney. So this aggressive plan wasn't necessary, so they spread it out/canceled aspects of it.
They also sent some top execs (including Eisner I believe) to Islands of Adventure to "scout it out". They were impressed, but they also noticed that Dueling Dragons was somewhat similar to Dragon Challenge, the coaster planned for Beastly Kingdom (which hadn't been canceled up to this point). Several of the Imagineers that worked on Beastly Kingdom found their way over to Universal Creative, and the idea for a Dragon themed roller coaster found it's way over with them. At this point, Beastly Kingdom was more or less canceled. It didn't matter that Disney came up with the idea first, or even that Dragon Challenge was to have more on ride theming than Dueling Dragons. Dueling Dragons opened first, so it would be Disney that would be perceived as copying Universal.
It's a shame, because Beastly Kingdom was fascinating, but it really was the Dragon Challenge roller coaster that would have been the big ride for that area. Couple that with a better Discovery River Boats, and the scope of the park would have been different. Perhaps had it opened with Beastly Kingdom, Dinosaur would never have been built and we would be having this same discussion about Dinosaur/Excavator not being built because of the Jurassic Park land over at Islands of Adventure.
Beastly Kingdom and Epcot were referenced in the book "The making of Disney's Animal Kingdom Theme Park" (by Melody Malmberg) which was available on the opening day of the Animal Kingdom.
As for Night Kingdom, that project definitely existed. Jay Rasulo loved the idea, and it was in the wake of Discovery Cove. While I'm not anticipating this, I wouldn't be shocked if the plans for this get dusted off in a decade. It appeared as rumor on various boards, but Jim Hill was the first to definitively give details on it.
