9/19 Wilderness Explorer Game Testing At Disney’s Animal Kingdom Park

Hi everyone!

Our friend Kevin Yee mentioned yesterday that he'd just missed a test for the Wilderness Explorer Game at Disney's Animal Kingdom, and that today was the last day. I decided to head over and check it out!

The Wilderness Adventure Game has been testing since Thursday, for a total of 5 days. There were 2 "badges" to be earned each day, each different. So had Kevin played yesterday, it still would have been a different experience than the one I had today.

We have a video where we show the game and talk more about it!

This is just a test so far, but Disney has been adding interactive experiences to it's theme parks over the past couple of years – I'd be surprised if we didn't see this fully realized. It would make a fine addition to Kim Possible at Epcot and the upcoming Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom. The theming reminds me most of the Wilderness Explorers Camp at Disney California Adventure, although there wasn't heavy theming from the movie UP during the test. It is based on the movie, but you don't see characters or other major references to the film. During the survey I took at the end, I was asked if I enjoyed characters such as Dug and Carl.

I wasn't sure I'd be able to participate, but they said "yes" when I asked. I was so excited when I saw a "Taste of Africa" sign until I saw it was for July (last July!) That was one of my favorite events at Walt Disney World over the past few years, I hope they do eventually bring it back! I received a sticker to wear, along with my instructions to complete the two badges – the "Tracking" badge and the "Gorilla" badge.

 

 

 

The activities I needed to complete included looking for Okapai and Duiker tracks (the latter is spelled wrong on the sheet), as well as identifying the poop – also known as "scat" – of different animals. 

 

 

 

The map showed the different badge locations – 10 in all, 2 each day. The end survey mentioned that there may be up to 30 different badges if the Wilderness Explorer game is fully implemented.

 

 

I entered the Pangani Forest Exploration Trail:

 

 

 

I checked my directions for earning the badge:

 

 

And then I walked down the path to look for the Okapi and Duiker tracks. Apparently I took video but not photos of the tracks, but they pretty much look like the sign:

 

 

 

The next requirement was to match the poop of a duiker, elephant, and giraffe to the trail marker. There were three illustrations showing the different sizes, and it wasn't hard to figure out once I saw the three samples that were left out. In order of photos, the scat/poop samples are that of the duiker, giraffe and elephant.