Let’s see a show of hands. How many of you stop back time and time again on “finale day” to see what attraction, restaurant, or resort is in the lead of that week’s particular poll?
If you raised your “paw”, then accept my thanks! Wasn’t yesterday a wild ride befitting a wild animal kingdom?
If you’re one of the family that doesn’t check out our progress throughout the last day of voting, try it next time. Yesterday was a one-on-one war for survival with multiple lead changes and, for the second straight year, a very slim margin of victory.
In 2013, Everest bested Kilimanjaro by a single, solitary vote. It prompted me to say, “Epic! What a battle! Thrill ride versus an attraction that might just as well be the signature of Disney’s Animal Kingdom.”
Don’t get me wrong. I love to streak backwards, in the dark, through mountain passages, while chased by a big, furry beast. Several times, in fact. What a rush!
But, like I said after last year’s tournament, “[f]or me, Kilimanjaro Safaris Expedition was the choice. I love Everest, but, Safaris is the attraction that tells me I’m in the Animal Kingdom.”
From rhinos to lions, elephants to hippos, and my beloved zebras and giraffes, you just don’t know you’re in the Animal Kingdom until you get bounced across the Harambe Wildlife Reserve.
Congratulations, Yeti! By a margin of merely four votes, you have done it again! You are still the All in WDW Readers’ Favorite Disney’s Animal Kingdom Attraction!
For me Kilimanjaro Safaris lost some if it’s essence when they took away the poacher storyline. I know it was cheesy, but it made the ride. Those cheesy lines were oft quoted at my house (still are). Now it is just another way to look at animals. Such a shame since those zebras didn’t even work out!
For me, it’s the animals themselves. Zebras, giraffes, rhinos, lions. They could spruce up the experience with either the old plot or some new storyline, but I still just love those animals!