Is there absolutely no storyline now? Just a tour thing talking about the animals we see? Thanks for the answer.
Is there absolutely no storyline now? Just a tour thing talking about the animals we see? Thanks for the answer.
I hated the poacher storyline. After hearing it over 30 times it gets to be a bit much.
My kids liked the poacher storyline and "saving Little Red." I didn't have strong feelings about it either way, but I did think it was a good reminder that these amazing animals are still in danger from poachers and more needs to be done to protect them.
And part of why I thought it was "good" was that it was well integrated into the ride and not too heavy-handed.
The problem I had with the ride was that they would rush us through the animal viewing areas - most of the time not stopping long enough to get a picture or even a good look, and then dwell on the "poacher" story. Quite frankly, most of the people to come to the animal viewing areas come to, well, view the animals (DUH!!). But the last two times we went they made a switch and began to stop for a while at each animal area so we could see, and take pictures of, the animals! What a welcome change! And now this - dropping the story line in favor of more animal viewing. BRAVO!!!!
They could still do a compelling storyline about taking a safari. I just found the action scene with the frantic drive through the poachers' camp to be a jarring change of pace from the rather relaxing live animal portion.
More animal viewing time is a nice change.
It really depends on the driver. On our last visit in March, we queued up right after the park opened hoping to see more animals. We did, but our driver was terrible, and as you say never slowed down enough so that we could take decent pictures.
But, we rode again maybe 90 minutes later and the driver was great, stopping frequently for photos.
Seems like it has always been hit or miss for us over the years.
We look forward to checking out the new story line.
Brian
I do with they kept the music, though. I always loved when they "found" the radio station for a few seconds....
The drivers are also at the mercy of the animals. If the animals are crossing the road - they have to wait (Had that happen with giraffe's more than once). They also have to leave their spacing above the minimums between the vehicles. But they also can't just stop without animal-based reason and cause a back up of vehicles behind them (unless they want to get into trouble with their leads).
I think the key here is that you have to go when there a short bit after opening. When the attraction goes slower due to "congestion," you get a lot more good photo ops.
As for the orig topic, Never really minded the poacher storyline. Looking forward to see what its like later this summer. I would not be surprised if a new storyline gets fitted in later as well so its more than just a ride where you see live animals in a savannah setting.
I can't wait to ride the new version... though the music on the radio station was great, I think a more conservationist theme is the way to go. The old storyline was a bit too contrived and always broke the show for me.
As GusMan suggests, it probably had to do with congestion. I went on the safari in May and we hardly slowed at all. I went again in early December right after a rain storm and it was so light that we actually had to wait for more people to show up to start the tour. Then the drivers stopped constantly to take photos. You know the lion area? We stopped three times going around that rock.
If you want to get a lot of animal time, I would suggest watching the weather for a day with an expected morning or afternoon shower. With so much open area many families will leave the park during a rain storm. Find somewhere to wait out the storm and then just head over to the safari when it dries up.
On my last trip, I tried a tactic read on another board, which was to take a tram as close to possible before closing. The animals know it's dinner time and are all up and about. We had great views of all but three types of the animals on the savanah, including all the major players. Finally, I got to see the male lion and an entire chain of elephants going in for the night (you know, where everyone grabs a tail?).
I did something similar at the tiger exhibit and got to see them do loads of things besides sleep.
As for the poaching storyline, I never experienced the ride enough to get really bored with it but I didn't care for the animatronic elephant.
We went twice in September. The first ride seemed to move quicker (right at park opening) but the driver did slow down in the elephant area because the new baby was out. The second ride we were able to get a lot more pics, but we had more stops due to animals. We had a giraffe too close to the road plus a rhino crossing.
We usually go late morning, before it gets too terribly hot, and we've gotten to see a decent number of animals. The last time, we ended up taking a late tram, maybe 30 or 40 minutes to closing, and you're right, all the animals know it's close to dinner time, so many were waiting at the gate for it to be opened so they could go backstage. It was funny to see all of them, but it wasn't necessarily the ideal setting to see them. We did get to see a family of rhinos, though, and that was cool. They apparently don't have great eyesight, and the teenage boy glared at us for a while, thinking about whether or not he wanted to attack this thing that was invading their territory. And then he realized we were a truck, not another rhino, so he left. This was all being watched by a beautiful cheetah. She was my favorite sighting.
I've never heard that before - but it sure makes sense now that I think about it, sounds like great advise! We've always gone first thing in morning, thinking the animals would still be out and about before the heat of the day. Next time I'll try the end of the day.
I thought the animatronic baby elephant was a bit odd given that it was an area of live animals - boys always loved the jostling of the tram over the bridge area. It will be nice to have a freshened up version of the ride to try next time we are down there.
"Please do not touch the rhino." Heard that on my first time on the safari as everyone was subtly shifting to the other side of the vehicle. Pretty sure that there was no danger of that happening with that particular group.
Also had to stop taking pictures of an ostrich that had crossed in front of the truck when it came right up to me and I suddenly had flashbacks of almost losing a hat at a petting zoo. (The ostrich thankfully wasn't part of the petting portion.) I had no intention of losing my hat or my camera.
I got to see all the cheetahs--like, right there! They were definitely the best.
I felt like I hit the mother load. I got quite good views of everything except possibly the giraffes. They were definitely ready for dinner. The truck in front got a great view of them while they were crossing the road to the gate. We got a really good view of their heads behind some trees.
I hope they come up with at least a little story for it. Having rides with a theme is what Disney is all about!