Traveling along Kilimanjaro Safaris’ Harambe Wildlife Reserve

Kilimanjaro Safaris is one of the opening day attractions in Disney’s Animal Kingdom. The name Kilimanjaro is believed to mean The Mountain of Caravans in Swahili, referring to Africa’s highest peak: Mount Kilimanjaro. Here in Disney’s version the name holds up as you ride through the park in a caravan of off-road vehicles.

Queue Details

• The attraction’s standby queue takes you through Harambe’s Safari Booking Office. A sign on the desk of the office lets you know that your safari vehicle is named Simba 1, a name given to the ride vehicle (and mentioned numerous times) in the original version of the attraction which included a storyline involving poachers in the reserve.
  • The name Simba is not only the main character fromThe Lion King, but is an actual swahili word meaning Lion.

Seen along the queue of Kilimanjaro Safaris

• The fictional Harambe Wildlife Reserve’s Warden Wilson is played by actor Abdoulayed N’Gom. This isn’t Abdoulayed’s first role as an African guide: he also played the character of Kip in Disney’s live-action adaptation of George of the Jungle (1997). While the Warden is no longer a part of the ride’s story-line, he can still be found in the video introduction seen along the queue.

Warden Wilson welcomes you to Harambe Wildlife Reserve

Ride Details

• There is a Hidden Mickey along the ride path that can be seen briefly – it’s the island where the flamingos gather towards the end of the savanna area. Take a look at it below on Google Maps and explore more Hidden Mickeys in our blog post: Virtual Hidden Mickey Scavenger Hunt.