Disney Animal Kingdom Up Close with Rhinos Review
Disney Animal Kingdom Up Close with Rhinos Review
Our favorite experience at Disney's Animal Kingdom was Up Close with Rhinos. This rhino tour is a paid experience that needs prior reservations. At first, we checked in with the Curiosity Animal Tours kiosk which is located between Kilimanjaro Safaris, Wild Africa Trek, and Festival of the Lion King (the elephant tour meets here too). Right at 11 am we were greeted by a very friendly cast member who was going to be our tour guide. Everyone was given a name tag and we started on our way backstage. This special experience is one of the behind the scenes tours. While walking and driving to the up-close experience we got to see the backstage areas of Animal Kingdom, which included the back of the building for the Lion King show, the Kilimanjaro Safari vehicles, and where they grew the food to feed all the animals at Animal Kingdom. Learning about the animal care at the parks was incredibly interesting—who would have thought they grew all the animals' food on site?
Once our tour group got to the viewing area, we met some of the Rhino keepers. This portion of the tour was highly informative, they spoke about their care routines, rhino conservation efforts, the rhinos lives at Animal Kingdom and in the wild. Cast Members answered all our questions. However, it was also incredibly heartwarming. The most touching aspect of the Animal Kingdom tours is hearing how deeply the experts care for the animals.
The rhino keepers are animal specialists and were full of knowledge about the endangered rhinos, they took their time to share lots of information and answer any questions we had. Then on to the the best part of this intimate experience.....getting to pet the northern white rhinos. We got to be a teenage rhino named Ranger, who was 12 years of age. It was interesting to learn about how they care for the Rhinos, and that rhinos are trainable and love to be petted. Who would have thought that Rhino’s like to be petted?! The cast members working with the rhinos have a real connection to the animals they care for, like their own pets. We learned about the rhino barn, how they like to come into the barns at night, and that it is their protection against hurricanes and other extreme weather. The cast members went over in detail how they train these gentle giants to come into the rhino house at night. As one of them pointed out, due to their size, you cannot make a rhino move somewhere they do not want to go. The animal barns are also the opportunity for veterinary care for all the animals at Disney World. To be so close and be able to touch such a majestic animal was an amazing experience we will never forget. The Disney cast members were passionate about what they do, you can feel the love they have for the animals. At the end of the tour, there was a photo op once we got back to the Curiosity Animal Tours Kiosk. A word to the wise, it was hot, and the tour was outside. Be sure to bring water, cooling towels, etc.
My son loves animals. During our whole Disney trip, he kept finding animal-related jobs that he wanted to do when he grows up. On our Disney trip, we did several animal-related tours including Starlight Safari and, the Caring for Giants Tour. Out of all the enchanting extras we have done at Disney World and Disney Land, Up Close with the Rhinos was my favorite of the special experiences. If you are an Animal Kingdom fan, I would highly recommend this Rhino experience and the opportunity to pet these magnificent creatures. It was one of the best things about our trip. One caveat, there were no photos allowed on this tour. The Rhinos tour isn't a very long tour, the whole thing takes about an hour. There is an extra cost for this enchanting extra and can be booked on the My Disney Experience App. All funds raised for this tour go to a good cause, the Disney Conservation Fund. If a tour isn't available 60 days prior to your visit when reservations open up, be persistent. I was able to score our reservations using MouseDining alerts. MouseDining alerts were very helpful in getting this reservation as well as the Starlight Safari. Many say that Animal Kingdom isn't a full-day park, but we didn't get to see nearly everything we wanted. Overall we had a magical time at Animal Kingdom and would love to go back to see more animals and ride some of the rides we missed.
To learn more about our magical trip to Disney World, check out "Our Magical Experience on a Disney World Vacation" and our full day at Animal Kingdom "Day 6- Disney World Animal Kingdom Park Review". To read our review of our other enchanting extras check out "Amorette's Patisserie Cake Decorating Experience" and "Starlight Safari at Disney's Animal Kingdom Lodge." Also see our recommendations for cooling towels, water bottles, and other items to bring to Disney check out "Packing for the Magic: 9 Items to Pack for Disney."