If you’ve ever seen the Disney Pixar movie “Up” then you may just remember an adorable little boy named Russell in the film. As a Wilderness Explorer, Russell, was determined to collect all of his badges and become a senior explorer.
With that theory in mind, Animal Kingdom created an interactive program called the Wilderness Explorers program that is included with admission to the park.
While exploring the park, you and your family set out on an adventure to collect badges at the challenge stations. Each fact-finding challenge is totally different and offers a variety of missions ranging from animal observations to learning nature skills. First, you’ll want to pick up this handy field guide at the beginning of the park so you know where the badges are located. As you can see below, they are spread throughout the entire park. While you may not collect all 30+ badges on your first visit, it’s something to look forward to next time you visit.
The Wilderness Explorers headquarters is located near the entrance/exit of the park. If you do complete all 30+ missions, make sure to stop by there and let them know. You’ll receive the official senior badge, like we did!
The above picture is just one of the Wilderness Explorer missions you can find inside the book.
Since our blogger groups were split into mini explorer groups, we decided to host a challenge. Toni, Enza and myself began our exploration at the Flamingo’s, then moved onto the train station at Rafiki’s Planet Watch, where you can collect 6 badges in 1 location!
We quickly made our way through the different stations around the Animal Kingdom park and won first place with a record-breaking time of 1 hour and 55 minutes! Yippee! Let’s just say, we were a pretty competitive team.
While the Wilderness Explorers program is meant to be a fun, relaxing way to learn, it’s not necessarily recommended to make it a race. 🙂 You and your family (especially the kids) will enjoy this fun-filled program! My boys had an amazing time collecting badges for their own books when we visited last December.
Don’t forget to go see Monkey Kingdom in theaters everywhere! For each ticket purchased during opening week April 17-23, Disneynature will make a donation in your honor to protect monkeys and other endangered species in their natural habitats.
I was invited as media to cover this event. All opinions are mine alone.
MomMaven says
I love doing the Wilderness explorers stuff. My book is almost complete.