Today is the perfect day to go to Animal Kingdom! Let’s do this.

Work is finally underway just outside the park entrance to revamp the parking lot tram. Animal Kingdom is the last of the four parks to get started.

Merchandise

As you enter the park, a new sign has popped up alerting guests to the fact that pins are inside Discovery Trading Company. I mean, they always have been, but I suppose they were noticing that guests didn’t know that.

They’re the same pins that release in all the parks on Thursdays. I personally have had good luck in this shop finding pins that are already sold out in other places. Hey, I suppose management was right. No one knows they’re here.

Animal Kingdom’s 20th anniversary has now entered its 13th month. I don’t mind, I like these banners.

Most of the 20th anniversary merchandise has found its way offsite to the outlets. Not this little coin, though. Maybe they forgot it was in here.

Also found in Discovery Trading Company: this hat. What I love about it is just how generic it is. This is like, basic regional zoo merchandise. I love it.

Have you ever noticed the dragon in the Animal Kingdom logo and said to yourself, “Hey, myself! Why don’t they sell any dragons in this park?” Well, you’re in luck.

This little shop just to the side of Yak and Yeti sells little plastic dragons of all shapes and colors.

Over in Chester and Hester’s Dino-rama, this little kiosk is back to selling land-appropriate merchandise. For a while there it was all Monsters, Inc. stuff, which made no sense.

One side is dinosaur stuff, the other is Donald Duck and friends…

…which makes sense, on account of Donald’s Dino-Bash which I suppose has no plans of ending. Does anyone know if this dinosaur friend of Donald’s has a name?

Construction and Maintenance

Work continues between Africa and Pandora for the upcoming Club 33 location. They’re really ripping into the park berm here.

They were moving some dirt today.

You can see where the old fake rock is being split apart. I often forget that most of the rock work in Animal Kingdom is fake. It’s just so realistic!

The repainting of the ground in Pandora: The World of Avatar is still going. They have a lot of ground to cover (pardon the pun).

If you think about how many guests have trampled all over this land since it opened two years ago, it makes sense that the paint needs replacing.

It kind of looks like a Jackson Pollock painting, though.

Work seems to be going on at the Siamang exhibit in Asia. The moat was mostly drained today, and not an animal in sight.

Hopefully they’ll be back soon.

Apropos of nothing; I found this broken fork stuck in the bridge to Dinoland. I can’t tell if someone was just being lazy, or if this is some sort of elaborate protest against single-use plastics. Either way, it’s definitely a work of art.

That’s it from Animal Kingdom for today.