Kilimanjaro Safaris begins with taking guests on a two week safari through the Harambe Wildlife Reserve aboard a safari truck named Simba 1. The reserve is located in Harambe East Africa which is a 800 square mile reserve and includes the Ituri Forest, Safi River valey and the Serengeti Savannah. On the ride you can see many of the wild animals you could on a safari in Africa. The tour guide will point out the animals during the tour along with Reserve Warden Wilson Matua and Miss Catherine Jobson, a wildlife researcher. Both of them are flying over the reserve keeping a watch out for poachers. During the last part of the ride, guests learn that pachers have shot Big Red and captured Little Red. These are the famous elephants on the reserve.
It is also said that Kilimanjaro Safaris takes what Walt wanted the Jungle Cruise to be, having wild animals on a tour with the guests.
Changes
Kilimanjaro Safari originally had a darker ending with guests coming upon a slaughtered Big Red. During the preview stage of the ride and park, many reviews found this to be harsh and removed the element remaking it to where Big Red and Little Red are found alive. The reason for having this was to use Animal Kingdom as an educational tool teaching them the realities of poaching in Africa. Michael Eisner was said to want the scene to remain since he felt it was a powerful educational tool.
At the end of the ride, originally a cast member was at the end of the ride carrying a rifle and letting guests know that Little Red is OK. This was later changed to where they were holding a mobile radio and then finally just removed all together.
During the summer of 2004, a lot of the savanna was dug up to replace drainage pipes that was destroyed due to cheaper drainage being used during construction. The ride was open during the construction with green tarps and tan sack cloth used to keep animals out and hide the construction.
The trail has been changed some during the years to better showcase some of the animals. A lot of this was done during the summer of 2004 during the construction on the drainage fields and were left.
The ride also originally had a cast member at the end of the ride who had captured the poachers and saved Little Red. This was supposed to be a reserve warden who helped capture the poachers. This was taken away in early 2000s.