So long "Little Red," hello zebras! Kilimanjaro savanna is expanding

[Greg in TN]

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.

The last time we were there we had a funny rhino encounter too. There was one who was obviously very..um..well hydrated (so to speak), and was releasing a large stream of that hydration as he walked by the truck. Also had some giraffes wander in very close as well. It's a great ride, poacher-story or no-poacher-story.

[carolinakid]

I always seem to catch the ostriches getting "friendly" with each other, if ya get my drift....

[LarryfmScotland]

I'm probably glad to see it go. And they have watered it down for quite a while. Last year, I missed "Miss Jobson" and the line. "Tommies, no one calls them Thompson Gazelles"

[cstephens]

We went on the ride a couple days ago. I get what they were trying for with the poacher storyline and I didn't mind it, but I prefer it without it. And I disagree that it needs a story. Yes, Disney is about theming, but that's the theme here - these are live animals. It's not a zoo so there's no guarantee you'll see any particular animal. Even with the rest of the park, they generally have enclosures, not cages, which isn't as good for the paying guests but much better for the animals, which I prefer.

There is one section where the driver finds a local radio station and the music plays for a bit but that's really the only radio interaction.

The savannah story is that it's land they recently got back from farmers who had pushed the animals out. No animals were there yet, but they said maybe in a few more weeks.

We had pretty good luck with seeing quite a few giraffes and rhinos and elephants. The lions were scarce - we only saw the head of one lionness. I did see 2 cheetahs, so I was happy about that.