Celebrating The Lion King’s 25th Anniversary at Disney’s Animal Kingdom

The main purpose of this visit to Disney’s Animal Kingdom at Walt Disney World was to celebrate The Lion King’s 25th anniversary by seeing Festival of the Lion King, dancing at the Hakuna Matata Time Dance Party, and posing in a special Lion King-themed photo frame. The celebration began before entering the park with a fun Lion King photo frame located just after the security check. We put up our paws and smiled big for the camera! Simba, Scar, Timon, Pumba, Mufasa, and Rafiki are all on the frame, ready for their close ups. Inside Disney’s Animal Kingdom at Disney World, we found another new Lion King photo op with Simba, Timon, and Pumba walking across a log. After just entering the park, we spotted the one and only DiVine inside Disney’s Animal Kingdom.

These days, no visit to Disney’s Animal Kingdom is complete without a visit to Pandora — The World of Avatar. We were able to catch a traditional Na’vi Drum Ceremony at Swotu Wayä, which really brought the crowd together. And, as the name suggests, we saw plenty of animals at Animal Kingdom.

Since this visit was a celebration of The Lion King, we had to see Festival of the Lion King at Disney’s Animal Kingdom. We sat in the warthog section, so Pumba was our mascot. This show is always a crowd pleaser and Timon is a wonderful, if not sometimes impatient, host.

The Hakuna Matata Time Dance Party is a new celebration that Disney’s Animal Kingdom has brought out for the 25th anniversary. We spotted Timon, Rafiki, and, oddly Terk, who is from Tarzan. With live music and singing, there was plenty of dancing going on!