The Oasis Review at Disney’s Animal Kingdom
The Oasis Opened On: April 22, 1998.
See this page for all of the Disney’s Animal Kingdom attraction reviews.
The Oasis is the name of the area that you’ll walk through after initially entering Disney’s Animal Kingdom.
Unlike the entry into any other Walt Disney World theme park, The Oasis is nearly devoid of shops, restaurants, and loud stimuli.
Or, at least, those things are hidden a little better than at the other Parks. On your right, you’ll find wheelchair, stroller, and ECV rental. There’s also a small shop at the end of the row.
On the opposite side, you’ll find Guest Services, restrooms, and a merchandise stand or two.
Instead of offering a lot of shopping, like you’ll find at Hollywood Studios and Magic Kingdom, or a giant attraction building, in the shape of Spaceship Earth at Epcot, The Oasis works to transition visitors into the lush, tropical, animal-filled surroundings that set the tone for the rest of the park.
Expansive animal habitats display iguanas, anteaters, macaws, ducks, and a variety of other animals amidst rushing waterfalls, dense vegetation, and a burgeoning canopy.
Some of the animals may impress in size. The anteaters are about 6.5 feet long.
Here’s a rhinoceros iguana, if you can believe that.
It’s a lot of birds, otherwise.
Some a little plumper than others.
Guests arriving prior to park opening will want to breeze through the Oasis with plans to return either in the afternoon or on the way out.
Time spent here at open will only result in thousands of people passing you and filling the queues for the major attractions, in turn pushing up wait times. In the picture above, everyone is hurrying up the left path towards the Tree of Life. We’ll then make a left turn towards Pandora.
When you have Flight of Passage FP so you can enjoy the Navi River Journey shuffle to Pandora pic.twitter.com/xeOeDymuhu
— josh (@easywdw) February 15, 2019
In this video, we walk through the Oasis at Park open with a Flight of Passage FastPass+ in hand. I’m in no hurry.
With an afternoon arrival, plan to slowly meander around the winding pathways, taking in the various exhibits for about 15 minutes.
Some of the animals will take a little effort to see.
For example, we have a Babirusa here. He or she blends in well with its surroundings.
Throughout the day, you may luck into seeing wildlife specialists interacting with the animals.
It’s worth taking some time to check in on the various animals. Disney provides a placard at each habitat describing the animals.
It’s hard to tell, but there are about a half dozen baby ducks there to the left of mama duck.
Here’s a zoomed out look. This video provides a nice walk-through of the gorgeous area.
Thanks Josh! This looks so lovely and I really appreciate the wonderful photos. We’ve never been to Animal Kingdom and I hope we’ll see it soon. Take care!