Hiya Everybody!
Tuesday was Animal Kingdom day! We started by having a continental breakfast in the Atrium Club. There was cereal, croissants, danish, Krispy Kreme glazed donuts plus juice and even a fancy schmancy cappuccino machine (see Frank for directions). It was really nice to be able to get up and have breakfast whenever we wanted. I have to admit, it was also nice having the rental car and not having to wait for the buses!
The Wildlife Discovery Tour is a private safari offered exclusively to concierge guests. The tour is offered twice a day, at 10 AM and 1 PM, and is limited to 14 guests. There is a fee, but I don't remember how much.
We headed over to the Animal Kingdom to meet up with our tour group at the Mombasa Marketplace. We met our tour driver, Suzanne, and it wasn't long before we met the other 7 members of our tour group: a family of 5 and another couple (Tinkerbell was a stowaway!). We headed through a gate near the entrance to the safari (b/t/w no pictures backstage!) and met up with our Animal Handler Tour Guide, Angela. We were shown to a small bus, similar to an airport shuttle. Luckily, there were only 9 of us, so we had plenty of room to move around.
While we were heading for the savannah, Angela gave us some background. She pointed out the outer fence which curved outward to keep the local 'freeloader' animals out! She said that had an especially difficult time keeping the local bobcats out. The inside fences curved inward to keep the Animal Kingdom animals in.
Angela also told us that she was one of the original 11 animal handlers hired at the Animal Kingdom. We found out later that she works with the rhinos.
We passed a few animal barns (more on that later) and made our way onto the savannah. We moved to a place where Suzanne could stop the bus so we could get some non-bouncy pictures of the giraffes:
We were just off the path of the regular safari trucks:
After a few minutes we pulled into the regular safari truck path to move to our next viewing spot. Along the way, Angela told us lots of 'secret' information:
Most of the animals sleep in barns at night.
Each type of animal had it's own sound or 'dinner bell' to return to the barn.
The dinner bells can be used in an emergency to call the animals back to the barn.
All of the animals, except the birds, have names.
Most of the animals know to return to the barn when the safari vehicles stop running!
Some animals sleep on the savannah, mostly birds and the Thompson gazelles.
All of the animals get treats - for some it's fruit, others like to have apple juice sprayed in their mouths.
The hippos needed to lose some weight so they were put on a training program: they went into a pond and then a trainer would call them to another pond. When they got to the next pond, a trainer would call them back to the first pond. Hippo aerobics!
Three of the elderly wart hogs are given massages and hot compresses to make their arthritis feel better. Angela said 'we take good care of our little piggies!'
We pulled over near the elephants next and Angela told us about their community:
Angela and Suzanne also had some animal parts for us to pass around: hair from an elephant's tail, horns, antlers even some giraffe poop:
Tink was having a blast!
We moved back onto the savannah and we spotted Angela's rhinos (she was so proud!):
Suzanne stopped the truck again, just past the lions and we saw more animals:
It was just about this time that I noticed that one of the kids had his head at the window and was throwing up! Apparently, he had gotten car sick. His mom was holding him up to the window, because they are not allowed to open the bus door while out on the savannah. Fortunately, Suzanne had a bunch of small towels and they were able to clean him up. Suzanne was on the radio and someone was going to come out to the bus but his parents said he was OK. Needless to say, this cut the safari short (just by 10 minutes or so), since the next part of the trip was supposed to be over some bouncy terrain. His parents felt really bad and kept apologizing and we kept telling then it was OK.
When we got back to the backstage area, Angela gave us all Conservation Hero buttons, since part of the fee for our Safari was donated to the Disney Wildlife Fund. We were also given Fast Passes for the regular safari that could be used anytime that day.
We thanked Angela and said good bye, and she was happy to pose for a picture with Tink:
We really enjoyed our private safari! Now we were headed off to enjoy the rest of the Animal Kingdom!
) I'm sure he will do something worthy of the Dumbotron! (I've heard that Cass and Joanne know how to get pictures displayed up there
It made me feel good. 
Maybe they will come back to you when you last expect it! 
I've always wanted to stay here ever since I was very little and found out how the rooms were built and then inserted 
I just thought that was the coolest thing 
) until he forgot about it! 
