Looking for impressions on new free backstage tours at Rafiki's Planet Watch: TOURS ENDED MAY 19th!

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Linkura

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May 13, 2017
Starting tomorrow, Rafiki's Planet Watch is going to have free 30 minute tours of backstage areas. I'm very interested in this for my trip in a few weeks and wanted to make people aware and also post impressions here if they do it. I'd love to know if it's worth the time. Thanks! :)

EDIT: See post #3 for more detailed info. 3 week trial period to start!

https://wdwnt.com/2018/02/free-30-minute-tour-offered-rafikis-planet-watch-disneys-animal-kingdom/

Beginning February 13th, Disney’s Animal Kingdom will offer Guests an opportunity to go behind the scenes and get a peek at some of the backstage areas at Rafiki’s Planet Watch that support the park’s animal care operations. As part of a test, these complimentary 30-minute experiences will be offered throughout the day. Specific backstage locations will alternate so that each experience will visit two of the following four areas: Veterinary Hospital, Science Center, Animal Nutrition Center or Invertebrate Building.

Guests interested in participating in these backstage experience should register at the biofacts table at Rafiki’s Planet Watch. Sign-ups are available daily on a first come, first-served basis, and each tour can accommodate as many as 16 Guests. All ages are welcome.
 
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Starting tomorrow, Rafiki's Planet Watch is going to have free 30 minute tours of backstage areas. I'm very interested in this for my trip in a few weeks and wanted to make people aware and also post impressions here if they do it. I'd love to know if it's worth the time. Thanks! :)

https://wdwnt.com/2018/02/free-30-minute-tour-offered-rafikis-planet-watch-disneys-animal-kingdom/

Beginning February 13th, Disney’s Animal Kingdom will offer Guests an opportunity to go behind the scenes and get a peek at some of the backstage areas at Rafiki’s Planet Watch that support the park’s animal care operations. As part of a test, these complimentary 30-minute experiences will be offered throughout the day. Specific backstage locations will alternate so that each experience will visit two of the following four areas: Veterinary Hospital, Science Center, Animal Nutrition Center or Invertebrate Building.

Guests interested in participating in these backstage experience should register at the biofacts table at Rafiki’s Planet Watch. Sign-ups are available daily on a first come, first-served basis, and each tour can accommodate as many as 16 Guests. All ages are welcome.
Sounds awesome. I'd be interested in attending with my family in June!

But, I'm assuming Disney is offering this free as a test run, and if it looks like the demand is there to make it popular, they will then offer it for a fee. Probably starting the weekend before we arrive.
 
As of May 19th, the free backstage tours have ended.



As of May 7th, tours are offered at:
12:45
1:45
2:45
3:45


Sign-up at RPW early in the day and return for your afternoon tour. With limited tours, slots are filling up.


Beginning tomorrow, Tuesday, free backstage tours will be offered daily at Rafiki’s Planet Watch, in AK, for the next 3 weeks. This trial program is unadvertised and this soft open began today with tours provided for RPW CMs.

* Tours will be offered @ 45 minutes past the hour beginning at 10:45am with the last tour at 4:45pm
* Sign-up for the tour at the Wilderness Explorers’ counter inside RPW.
* Each 30-45 minute tour is limited to 14 guests: first come, first served - no age restrictions/all ages welcome!

The backstage areas will be determined at the time of the tour by the Animal Specialist and guests will tour 2 of the following 4 areas:

* Veterinary Hospital
* Animal Nutrition - view backstage food prep for AK, AKL, and Living Seas
* Animal Behavioral Studies
* Invertebrates - Snakes

No photography or videography allowed during the tours.

As with any program at WDW, the free trial tours are subject to cancellation and may end before the 3-week trial concludes.

For more info, stop by Rafiki’s Planet Watch in AK.
 
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That’s very cool! I hope they’re still offering it in May. My DS loves to meet Rafiki and ride the train but there isn’t really much else there to do. This would make it more worth it to head out there. Thanks for posting.
 


Beginning tomorrow, Tuesday, free backstage tours will be offered daily at Rafiki’s Planet Watch, in AK, for the next 3 weeks. This trial program is unadvertised and this soft open began today with tours provided for RPW CMs.

* 1 tour will be offered every 30 minutes beginning at 10:45am with the last tour at 4:45pm
* Sign-up for the tour at the Wilderness Explorers’ counter inside RPW.
* Each 30-minute tour is limited to 16 guests: first come, first served - no age restrictions/all ages welcome!

The backstage area will be determined at the time of the tour by the Animal Specialist and guests will tour 1 of the following 4 areas:

* Veterinary Hospital
* Animal Nutrition - view backstage food prep for AK, AKL, and Living Seas
* Animal Behavioral Studies
* Invertebrates - Snakes

As with any program at WDW, the free trial tours are subject to cancellation and may end before the 3-week trial concludes.

For more info, stop by Rafiki’s Planet Watch in AK.
Thanks, I'd not seen it posted on the DIS or on the Official Parks Blog, so I just copied from another news site. I hope that is kosher.

3 week trial period means it might still be running during my trip. Fingers crossed! I'm very interested in the vet hospital, food prep, and behavioral studies. Invertebrates... not so much.

If anyone sees any reviews on other sites starting tomorrow, please post here! Thanks! :)
 
Thanks, I'd not seen it posted on the DIS or on the Official Parks Blog, so I just copied from another news site. I hope that is kosher.

3 week trial period means it might still be running during my trip. Fingers crossed!
That’s perfectly fine! :) My source called to give me the info and kept talking for almost an hour! RPW CMs are trying to get the word out because it’s unadvertised but all who went on tours today said they were great!

Yes, if there is enough interest, Disney will make decisions as to how it may continue. The Tour Guides are the Animal Specialists who are interning at AK.
 


That's great information. Thank you for sharing. We'll definitely check this out on our mid-March trip, it it's still a thing by then.
 
Sounds cool. We might be interested if they extend it to April and it continues to be all ages.
 
We have a family member that works at the nutrition center so we got a backstage tour a couple weeks ago. I’m glad it was free. The kitchen looks like any industrial kitchen, but the freezers have the plants the animals eat. The outside looks like any other institutional type building. Took a grand total of 15 minutes for the tour. I suppose if you have lots of questions to ask, it would be more interesting.
 
Does anyone know if everyone has to be there to sign up? Could I wander over in the morning and sign my family up for an afternoon tour while they are doing a ride I am not interested in?
 
Finally a reason to go to Planet Watch, haven’t been in last couple of trips because it’s not worth the trip out there
 
Yippee. 12 days until our trip with 2.5 days at AK, so definitely going to try signing up for this! Thanks!
 
This is one thing that we have never done while at AK. We were going to try it this year, so I'm hoping that they will have it this August when we go. My 11 year old DD wants to be a vet when she grows up (and wants to work at Disney) so I'd love it be able for her to see the Vet Hospital area.
 
This is one thing that we have never done while at AK. We were going to try it this year, so I'm hoping that they will have it this August when we go. My 11 year old DD wants to be a vet when she grows up (and wants to work at Disney) so I'd love it be able for her to see the Vet Hospital area.
Because the tours are random, you can watch vet procedures from the main meet and greet area. There’s a wide expanse of viewing windows right near where Doc McStuffins meets.

This was taken from that area:
54945ECF-4E2C-440F-B4F8-5B6EE8E859F7.jpeg
 
This sounds really cool and I'll definitely give it a try in 2 weeks!

Do the trains to Rafiki start at park open or 10am? And do you think it's important to get there ASAP to sign up for a later tour? Just trying to figure it into my schedule!
 
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