Walt Disney World's Animal Kingdom has traveled a bumpy road on the way to its fifth anniversary Tuesday.
The park stumbled early on over the widely publicized deaths of 31 exotic critters. Even two traditionally tough rhinoceroses were among the species suffering casualties from accidents, poisonings and other causes before Animal Kingdom opened on April 22, 1998.
Since then, attendance at Animal Kingdom has been lower than at any of Disney World's other three theme parks, even though it outpaces both of Universal's parks here and SeaWorld. Some Animal Kingdom guests have complained there aren't enough rides and criticized the park as a half-day experience that charges the same admission price as Disney's other attractions.
All this has befallen a theme park that Disney Imagineers tried so hard to make perfect that they built extra ruts into the Kilimanjaro Safari ride's route so that it would duplicate a remote African path.
But lately Disney decision-makers are trying to smooth things out for Animal Kingdom by putting it in step with the entertainment giant's more successful parks. Among the plans: a major new attraction, which will be announced Tuesday.
In addition, publicity promoting Animal Kingdom's upcoming anniversary notes six big additions have been completed over the years at the park.
Of those, only one, the "Maharajah Jungle Trek," actually involves animals. The rest are from the tried-and-true Disney playbook: a ride featuring animatronic dinosaurs; a raft ride on man-made white-water rapids; a carnival midway-style section of pay-to-play games and off-the-shelf rides called "Dino Rama"; a parade featuring Mickey Mouse; and a musical stage show that offers Tarzan as a rock star.
That variety connects with many guests.
Brad McCollum of Birmingham, Ala., rode the Kilimanjaro Safari last week to find, to his family's delight, a usually lethargic male lion, rising on his back legs to paw a tree with his claws.
"That was a great ride and this is a terrific park, maybe the best one at Disney World," he said.
McCollum's 6-year-old son, Philip, said his favorite Animal Kingdom creatures are, not necessarily in this order, "the elephants and Mickey Mouse."
Such endorsements are exactly what Disney executives love to hear.
"The park has really matured in the last five years, with new experiences for our guests to discover," says Al Weiss, president of Walt Disney World. "It's a balance of thrilling attractions, exotic animals, dazzling entertainment and encounters with Disney characters."
Indeed, more costumed characters than new wild species have been introduced at Animal Kingdom since it opened. Last year, the park deported its decidedly unexciting sloths to zoos. Park officials noticed that the creatures rarely emerged from behind the foliage of their natural habitat to be gawked at by guests.
"Most people never saw the sloth," says Beth Stevens, vice president of Animal Kingdom.
And while Stevens, who holds a doctorate in biology from the University of North Carolina, says she yearns for the park to acquire more species, such as Asian elephants, and perhaps to open a third "continent" in addition to the Africa and Asia sections, the new attraction to be announced on Tuesday will be one of steel, rather than leathery skin.
That will be the forthcoming Mount Everest ride, whose cost is estimated by industry experts at upwards of $100 million -- putting it at the same altitude as such signature Disney World attractions as the Magic Kingdom's Splash Mountain and the soon-to-open Mission: Space at Epcot. The ride, to be built on undeveloped land adjacent to Animal Kingdom's Asia section, is scheduled to open in 2006 after a groundbreaking later this year.
Knowledgeable tourism industry figures say the new ride could give Animal Kingdom a boost.
"The more you spend, the greater the impact on attendance and the bottom line," says John Robinett, a Los Angeles-based consultant who specializes in the economics of attractions. He says it's encouraging for the tourism industry to have the theme park leader unveil a major new entertainment venue while the current travel lull lingers.
"This is a healthy signal to have Disney reinvesting in its theme parks," Robinett says.
Disney World's corporate parent, Walt Disney Co. in Burbank, Calif., has slashed spending across the board by $600 million annually since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. At Disney World that has translated into trimming the schedules of hourly workers, delaying indefinitely the scheduled fall 2001 opening of the 5,700-room
Pop Century resort and -- until Tuesday at Animal Kingdom -- a pause in unveiling plans for major new attractions.
The Mount Everest-themed ride is also an acknowledgement by Disney executives that Animal Kingdom needs a marquee star to market. In disclosing the planned ride at the annual Disney shareholders meeting last month in Denver, company Chief Executive Michael Eisner said his goal is to make Animal Kingdom "equally attractive" in comparison to the entertainment giant's other theme parks.
To be sure, Eisner hastened to describe Animal Kingdom as "unique," but attendance figures show it has fewer guests than the older Disney World parks.
In 1999, its first full year of operation, Animal Kingdom welcomed 8.6 million guests, according to figures researched by Amusement Business, a weekly trade magazine based in Nashville, Tenn.
Disney does not disclose attendance figures at any of its parks or comment on outside estimates. But in the past some Disney publicists have referred to the Amusement Business data as the best available.
The magazine estimates that Animal Kingdom attendance fell by 4 percent in 2000, when the three other Disney World parks were enjoying increases. Animal Kingdom's attendance fell 7 percent in 2001 to 7.8 million and 6 percent in 2002 to 7.3 million, also down years for the other Disney World parks.
Animal Kingdom has never matched the attendance of the second-lowest performing Disney World park, MGM Studios, although it lagged by only 100,000 in 1999.
But in 2002, Animal Kingdom was 700,000 behind MGM's annual attendance, equal to about the number of guests during one month at the Studios. And Disney World's most popular park, the 32-year-old Magic Kingdom, roughly doubled Animal Kingdom's attendance in 2002 at 14 million, according to Amusement Business.
Yet Animal Kingdom is a success when measured against non-Disney theme parks. It ranked fifth among all U.S. attractions in 2002, ahead of No. 6 Universal Studios, No. 7 Islands of Adventure and No. 9 SeaWorld Orlando.
"It's the favorite park for a lot of people. That's something Disney can build on," says Bob Rogers, chairman of BRC Entertainment Arts, an attractions creation firm in Burbank, Calif.
And Animal Kingdom has plenty of room on which to build. It's the largest Disney theme park in the world at 500 acres. Although the park's boss, Stevens, would not estimate how much of Animal Kingdom is still undeveloped, she says there is enough space for more animal habitat.
Two likely possibilities, theme park experts say, are natural exhibits for South America, which would cater to Disney World's sizable Latin market, and Australia, whose distant outback has been popularized in the United States on television's The Crocodile Hunter. If Stevens has a favorite continent to feature in an expansion, she isn't saying for now.
At the moment though, it's a fictitious creature who seems likely to be added to Animal Kingdom's menagerie. Part of the Mount Everest ride's theming will be an adventure involving the fabled Himalayan yeti, also known as the "Abominable Snowman." The story line will likely consist of either an escape from the yeti, or an adventure in which riders help save him.
The latter would be consistent with the park's conservation theme and similar to the Kilimanjaro Safari ride, where guests supposedly help rescue a baby elephant from poachers. The baby elephant turns out to be an animatron.
But make no mistake about Disney's aim for the Mount Everest attraction; it won't be on the mild side. Although Disney officials won't disclose details, Eisner said at the shareholders meeting that the new attraction will be a "testosterone-driven ride for the boy in the family."
He vowed the coaster will be "the biggest, and the best, and the most amazing ride through the Himalayas," yet consistent with the topography and "spirit" of Animal Kingdom.
One drawback to adding such a ride is that under Animal Kingdom's current operating procedures, it won't be open after dark. The existing rides aren't either. Unlike Disney's other theme parks, Animal Kingdom closes at dusk so the beasts can get some rest.
Some attractions experts say locating rides toward the front of the park, where they would be separated from the sleeping animals by a buffer of foliage, would allow Animal Kingdom to stay open later -- potentially increasing profit because guests have more time to spend money on everything from "Dino Bites" snacks to fake leopard skin Mickey Mouse caps.
For now, the closest dinner to be had is a mile away at
Animal Kingdom Lodge, a luxury 1,200-room hotel where the Jiko restaurant offers the likes of "Pomegranate Glazed Quail" for $23.50 a plate and desserts that include "Warm Chocolate Banana Bread Pudding" topped with banana ice cream for $7. Herd animals are visible from the rooms, and there isn't an animatron in sight.
Orlando Sentinel
Disney Community
Theme Parks
Magic
Kingdom
Discussion Boards
Acronym Decoder
Arcade
Casino
Member Photos
WDW
Maps
Priority Seating
Disney
Trivia
Dining
Menus
Orlando
Weather
= 0 For This Post / 14 Total
