We’ll take a moment to run through Disney’s Animal Kingdom theme park to check out if there are any new walls.

There are relatively new bus wraps – this one advertising Agent Carter is clever.

Disney Infinity 2.0 perhaps a little less so.

Avatar construction continues here with a tall building going vertical. Very little of what’s going on is visible from the ground.

There is really nowhere to hide from the tour groups this year as they infiltrate all levels of Disney resorts. These youngsters are in line for French Quarter/Riverside, a resort that is usually “safe” from large groups, including the cheerleaders and Pop Warner groups who receive discounts at the All-Stars and Caribbean Beach.

While Hub construction at Magic Kingdom receives the majority of our attention, there is a lot going on at Animal Kingdom where walls basically line its own Hub area around the Tree of Life.

Walls have narrowed the walk in as Disney Outfitters expands.

Not a big deal at 4pm in January, but it’s a little narrow in daytime crowds.

Outfitters construction.

The area directly in front of the Tree is much more open now.

It’s kind of hard to take a picture of what’s going on behind the walls, but they looked to be working on adding rock work.

Flame Tree Barbecue is currently closed with an expectation that it will reopen no sooner than April 1st.

Most of Flame Tree’s food offerings are available elsewhere.

Gardens Kiosk up ahead should close an hour before the rest of the Park, but from 11am until then serves:

1/2 Slab of St. Louis Ribs served with Baked Beans and Cornbread – $12.99

Ribs and Chicken Combo served with Baked Beans and Cornbread – $16.19

1/2 Chicken served with Baked Beans and Cornbread – $10.99

Kids meal of Baked Chicken Drumstick served with Grapes, Carrot Sticks and choice of small Lowfat Milk or small Dasani® Water – $5.99

The Gardens kiosk ordinarily serves the allergy menu. If you kept walking past it you’d end up at the Adventurers Outpost Mickey Meet on the right and then Yak & Yeti and Asia ahead.

Trilo-Bites on the walkway into DinoLand from Discovery Island is home to the turkey leg:

There’s an ice cream/beverage cart across from it that serves the Pulled Pork Sandwich with Chips for $9.50.

Never fear hummus lovers and gluten avoiders, the “Allergy Dining Tips” menu has moved to the kiosk just outside the Africa section that ordinarily serves ice cream.

The Chicken Salad Sandwich Meal is a very new addition and one I can’t make much sense out of from the description. Maybe the “spicy mustard vinaigrette” is served on the side along with the potato salad and banana.

The Bugs Sundae and Haagen-Dazs ice cream are temporarily available at Dino-Bite Snacks in DinoLand.

And if you really want to know where everything is:

Assuming you know what the Discovery Island Kiosk is…

Looking back through the walls at the Tree of Life from Flame Tree.

Parts of Flame Tree’s seating areas are currently available to guests, though the expectation is that more roofs/cover will be added to walkways in that area as well as over the ordering area to shield guests from rain and birds. While Flame Tree is my favorite quick service under ordinary circumstances, my preference would probably be to try something else during the refurbishment. You can’t really make fresh pulled pork sandwiches at an ice cream cart.

Isle of Java is the new location of the coffee stand.

It used to be located in a sort of temporary looking kiosk in an awkward position facing toward the Tree of Life next to Disney Outfitters.

This thing. The new location is an improvement.

Its menu is similar to Kusafiri in Africa.

After temporarily being replaced by Tarzan over the holidays, Daisy Duck returns to the “Character Landing.” Lines are nonexistent.

Rivers of Light seating “progress” through the trees.

The same area looking from Asia.

Nothing visible going on at Flame Tree across the water.

It would have been nice to see an expansion or “reimagining” of Dinoland USA during all of this.

I’m a big fan of the area, but nobody really gets it. Joe Rohde (roe-dee), the Imagineer in charge, was offering some insight on his Instagram account last week here and here.

Only the dove is real. This is not asphalt. No car ever drove here, wearing off the painted lines. No cracks were formed by the expansion and contraction of the surface. It’s one thing to create a convincing wall of a crumbling Indian fortress, in a place where almost no one has ever seen real crumbling Indian fortress. But to create a convincing abandoned parking lot for people who see parking lots every day? That’s actually really hard. This surface is so convincing that it is ignored completely. But there is no way this surface could stand up to the traffic it receives on a hot summer day if it were actually asphalt. It is sculpture.

As the website has pointed out countless times, the whole point of the Dino-Rama is that this area “doesn’t belong in a Disney Park” as people like to say.

Dino Diner is located in the back of the carnival section.

Props to anybody stupid brave enough to order the new “Nachos Supreme.”

Walls line the water around DinoLand and the Theater in the Wild that houses Finding Nemo the Musical.

And all around Asia.

Across from Everest.

Heading toward Africa.

And continuing on.

Animal Kingdom was the most recommended Park on this particular Tuesday with a 5pm close. Wait times over the course of the day:

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This isn’t quite as short as wait times get at AK with Safaris hitting 30+ minutes for about two hours in the afternoon, but it’s certainly more than doable.

Kali River Rapids is currently closed, which means you will have to pour your own bottle of water on your head while you turn around in circles slowly instead of Disney doing it for you. It’s expected to reopen on February 12th with the entrance going through the old FASTPASS machine distribution area instead of off to the side. Basically where you see those orange walls will be the entrance.

Significantly less popular than squirrels and ducks.

Kali’s exit walled off.

Another change at Yak & Yeti Local Foods Cafe quick service, where “Korean Stir-Fry Barbecue Chicken” replaces Sweet and Sour Chicken. You may remember that they replaced the Beef Lo Mein with a Teriyaki Beef Bowl back in August. It remains a shame that there isn’t a smaller portion of one or two of the adult entrees for kids. It would be pretty easy to hook them up with an egg roll and a side of rice.

Yak & Yeti restaurant also sports a new menu:

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There are quite a few changes and additions, so you’ll want to take a look if you have your heart set on something specific.

For example, the previously popular Shaoxing Steak and Shrimp – Skirt steak, tempura-battered shrimp, jasmine rice, stir-fried vegetables, chili plum dipping sauce (pictured above) is now Kalbi Steak and Coconut Shrimp – Grilled marinated flat iron steak, pineapple salsa, coconut shrimp, chili plum sauce, wasabi mashed potatoes, stir-fried vegetables for $28.99.

Kids. Lucky Buddha and Golden Monkey beers are also new.

This walkway closer to Africa is one of the few wall-free areas.

Disney continues to confuse people with these high drink prices that automatically include the souvenir cup that seems neat until you realize you have to lug it around for the rest of the day.

All drinks are available without the souvenir cup for a discount around $6 here and at Dawa Bar.

A pretty dramatic looking Tree of Life.

Work continues on the new African Marketplace addition to Harambe. The walls ahead should lead to that area when it opens this spring.

There isn’t a whole lot to see over the walls.

It certainly does not appear that they are only a couple of months from opening.

Tamu Tamu Refreshments has reverted back to this menu featuring curry.

The curry is actually really good with distinct African spices and a heaping pile of chicken over freshly made rice.

The Roasted Chicken Salad enjoys a prettier presentation than this picture seems to insinuate. Despite having a similar description, the mild African spices were so mild that they were nearly nonexistent. It tasted like a pretty standard chicken salad, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It was filling without being heavy and paired nicely with the fresh pita bread.

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New Harambe looking majestic. A previous update covers the area in more depth in case you missed it: https://www.easywdw.com/uncategorized/rainforest-cafe-dinner-review-samosa-lion-king-fp-rafikis-planet-watch-vegetable-couscous-wrap-walls-animal-kingdom-101614/.

The cotton-top tamarins have arrived next to the Discovery Island Trail that leads to Pocahontas on the walk to Africa.

The old Creature Comforts building, which used to serve as the MyMagic+ service center, has new paint in front of what is expected to be its transofrmation into the Park’s Starbucks. This is on the left on the walk up to Africa from the main entrance. There’s actually no dedicated operating MyMagic+ service center at Animal Kingdom at the moment. Guests should head to Guest Relations at the front of the Park. FastPass+ locations remain the same. There’s one ahead next to Tusker House restaurant and one in the opposite direction next to the store.

A theme park in Florida.

Things are kind of in flux at Pizzafari, where few details are known about the addition of a new table service restaurant that may or may not end up sharing space with the quick service.

Some unexpected changes to the menu, where the Heart of Romaine Salad replaces the usual Caesar Salad with Chicken and the Baked Pasta Bolognese replaces the Hot Italian Sandwich.

The tiramisu is also a new addition, replacing the “cheesecake in a glass” at a higher price point.

With some of the Pizzafari patio seating behind walls, tables have moved outside.

The menu was so new that they hadn’t gotten around to updating it on the wall that blocks us from checking out Avatar construction.

One wonders if we’ll see educational posters about aliens instead of animals once Avatar nears.

That’s what’s going on.