Animal Kingdom's 5th Birthday
Page 2 of 16
Click here for a much larger version of this picture
(768 X 768, 147,643 bytes)
It was mid-afternoon, the last Saturday before Christmas 1998. Lee and I were on a Twelve Days of ChristMouse tour covering both Disneyland and Walt Disney World. We’d done a sneak peak on what was to become one of my all time favourites, The Maharajah Jungle Trek, still not due for official opening for four months, and seen the empty track of Kali River Rapids. A few days left to go. At the payphone by Chester and Hesters I spoke to my father back in England, he talked about how poor Albion had played in the footy match that afternoon and somewhere before the conversation ended he told me that his mother had passed away. I sat on the bench placed near the entrance of the Dinosaur Jubilee, and wiped away tears behind my sunglasses. I looked at the bizarre bottle horned dinosaur sculpture with a bemused expression and left the park.
Click here for a much larger version of this picture
(1024 X 710, 236,685 bytes)
Four months later Asia opened and there was Clive Kay signing his artwork as he had done just a year earlier, this time for the second signature image: the Tree of Life and Asia. This was an artisans’ park. We said hello, he remembered us. He remembered how covert Lee was in getting the birthday present opening day pocket watch signed under my nose.
I fell for Anandapur - as a true ‘place of delight’. We got our first taste of the then unamed fastpass system, puzzling everyone at Kilimanjaro Safaris. Still perhaps not as puzzling as to why so many things in the park have had name changes.
Click here for a much larger version of this picture
(1024 X 710, 161,818 bytes)
Do I spend that extra dollar when I purchase gifts; do I take a conservation message away with me; do I try not to squash as many bugs as I used to; can I realise that beauty is found in the wonder of hours looking at animals I have only ever seen via a screen; is the Temple of Anandapur the most beautiful of Disney’s deteriorated environments; do I wish they would bring the Discovery River boats back, no story required; can I grow a grin on seeing the wonderfully impudent DinoRama, bringing humour to a small area which will always make me pause. Am I looking forward to future development.
Yes to it all.
This was my first park with only a history of imagineers, dreamers, artists and craftspeople, and a richer beginning I would not have envisioned.
I haven’t captioned many of these photographs, as I feel they represent more of a notion than a literal view, with a presence of admiration that makes this my Disney park of choice. I hope you like them, and to the park: a very, very happy birthday.