Caring for the Giants Tour

By Senior Tink's Vacation Planner, Lynn.

​While planning a recent Walt Disney World family vacation, I wanted to do something different that my family has never done before.  My kids have been going to the parks since their first birthdays and I have been going for over 36 years so we have done a lot on our many visits.  My family loves zoo animals and my daughter has plans to become a zoologist when she gets older. So I decided to surprise them by booking the Caring For The Giants tour at Disney’s Animal Kingdom park.

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Our tour started at 4:00pm.  We headed to check-in about 20 minutes early.  The check-in desk is the “Booking Curiosity Centre Animal Tours” located across from the Kilimanjaro Safaris ride entrance.  Once checked in, we each received a lanyard along with name tags with our names written on them. The tags were paper that was made of 85% elephant poop!  How crazy is that??

Our guide, Melissa, chatted with our group (9 people) about rules and what to expect.  Part of the tour includes backstage area which no pictures/videos are allowed. Just be warned, the backstage area may take away the “Magic” for young kids. Melissa escorted us backstage to an air conditioned bus.  While on the bus, Melissa and our bus driver talked about the animals at Animal Kingdom and of course the elephants. They also answered many questions we had. The ride was about 8 minutes. We got to see the backstage elephant and other animal housing areas.  Right before getting to the elephant viewing area, it started to pour rain. We were offered rain ponchos as we exited the bus.

Upon exiting the bus, we walked up some steps to the Elephant viewing area.  The first elephant we saw was Rafiki then a few others came around. We were only about 80 feet from the elephants.  Melissa was able to tell us about all the elephants they currently have and some facts about them and answering many questions.

After about 20 minutes of chatting with Melissa, she escorted us to the next viewing area just a few yards away where we met Natty from Botswanan.  At this viewing area, we were opposite of where the Kilimanjaro Safaris vehicles are driven and could see them pass by, the elephants were between us and the ride vehicles.  Natty chatted with us about how we can help protect the elephants and how important elephants are to our ecosystem. At this time, most all of the elephants came to our view and the most fun was seeing baby Stella play.

After about a 20 minute chat with Natty, we then headed back to our bus and taken back to the check-in desk where we first started.  We gave our lanyards back to our guide but did get to keep our paper name tags. Unfortunately because of the rain, the ink on our tags got smeared.  

Here is just a little info we learned:

• There are 10 elephants currently in the park
• Elephants are a keystone species (a species on which other species in an ecosystem largely depend, such that it it were removed the ecosystem would change drastically).
• The oldest elephant is Rafiki, she is 39 years old and the matriarch.
• Donna is the mother of the newest baby elephant, Stella.
• Elephants only digest 50% of the food they eat.
• The elephants that live here are African Elephants, you can tell by their Africa shape ears.
• They use their tusks to dig for water.
• Elephants communicate with grumbling sounds, some so low that humans can not hear.

This tour was an amazing experience and I highly recommend it. All proceeds from this tour goes to the Disney Conservation Fund.  It is a 60 minute tour.  There are 10 tours that go out every day.  You can book this tour up to 180 days in advance. The cost is $30 per person.  It is for guests 4 years of age and older.  This tour is wheelchair accessible. The tour goes on rain or shine so be sure to wear appropriate clothing.