Caring for Giants

There's a new backstage tour at Animal Kingdom, it's only been operating for one week.  Caring for Giants is all about my favorite animal, elephants!  My husband and I had the opportunity to experience this fantastic new tour the other day.

The check in desk for educational tours at the Animal Kingdom is across from the stand by entrance to Kilimanjaro Safari.  The education staff is energetic, fun, knowledgeable, and you can tell, like most cast members, how much they love their job!  Once everyone has checked in for the tour, you'll be taken backstage to a waiting tour bus.  This is also the area where you'll enter and exit if you are taking advantage of Disney's new Express Transportation option.  Our education guide gave us some behind the scenes information while we make a short walk to our bus.  It's important to note that there is NO photography allowed behind the scenes for anyone, guests or cast members alike.  There is an area of the tour later on that you are allow to take all the photos you want.

During the short drive behind the scenes to the berm we learned all kinds of interesting facts about Animal Kingdom.  One of my favorites is that all three of the other Disney parks, Magic Kingdom, Epcot and Hollywood Studios, would fit inside Animal Kingdom!  It's massive!  You're taken on a short "off road" ride behind the elephants' night barns.  You arrive at the berm where you'll be greeted by an animal specialist.  Shannon was amazing!  She's spent her whole life studying elephants.  We learned so much from her.  Everything from how much each elephant eats and poops every day, to the amount of vegetation that gets digested to my favorite new piece of knowledge, the fact that elephants are actually walking on their tippy toes!  Can you imagine being an elephant's size and always walking en pointe, like a ballerina?!

We were given an opportunity, probably half the tour, to take pictures for the elephants.  They are beautiful!!  From matriarch Rafiki down to sweet little Stella, the new baby.  Animal Kingdom's Kilimanjaro Safari is home to 3.7 elephants, which in zoological terms means they have 3 male elephants and 7 females.  Toward the end of our tour we got to hear from Phophi who is from Africa, she told us a little bit more about elephants in the wild and the conservation efforts they are taking to ensure that these beautiful elephants can thrive in their natural habitats.

Caring for Giants is an hour long tour, packed full of information!!  We never felt rushed though, which goes along with my entire feeling of Animal Kingdom and probably why it's my favorite park! If you're an animal lover of any kind (I kept saying to my husband that we should have brought our youngest giraffe enthusiast.), this is a great experience at Animal Kingdom.  The price, at $30 per person, if definitely worth every penny!