It’s time to head over to Animal Kingdom to see all the updates that have appeared recently!

Christmas is approaching, and you can definitely tell around Disney World where we’ve seen a bunch of holiday updates.  Follow along with us to check out everything that’s new in food, construction, and merchandise at Animal Kingdom.

Disney’s Animal Kingdom Food Updates

Multiple Locations

Let’s start off with some food updates! We’ve spotted a new cupcake and it has some pretty nostalgic inspiration. Remember that scene from The Lion King where Timon and Pumbaa teach Simba to eat bugs? Well now, you can eat bugs too with the Bugs ‘n Grubs Cupcake at Restaurantosaurus and Creature Comforts.

This chocolate cupcake comes topped with cookie crumble dirt, green tea moss, buttercream grass, a gummy worm, and a white chocolate ladybug.

Read our FULL Bugs ‘n’ Grub Cupcake review here! 

There’s this cute Lion Paw Cookie we found around the park. In some locations, it’s a Tiger Paw too. As a bonus, a Cast Member told us that a Christmas version of this cookie is coming soon. Yay!

Read our Lion Paw Cookie review here! 

The Mickey Elf Popcorn Bucket, Mickey Light-Up Tree Popcorn Bucket, and the Mickey Jingle Bell Sipper all arrived in Animal Kingdom today!

Africa

We also spotted some changes to the menu at Dawa Bar in Africa. The Harambe Iced Tea, which used to be a featured cocktail, has replaced the Tikiti Punch on the regular menu.

And, sure enough, the Cape Gobbler is the new featured cocktail with Snow Leopard Vodka, Cranberry Concentrate. and a Sugar Rim.

Check out our full review of the Cape Gobbler Cocktail here! 

The bakery counter at Zuri’s Sweet Shop is loaded with treats as usual.

And a few Christmas treats are available now! Lookin’ cool Olaf!

Animal Kingdom Construction Updates

Entrance

We love seeing Christmas trees pop up all over Disney and there’s typically a gorgeous one right at the entrance to Animal Kingdom for the holiday season. Well, it’s not up yet, but you can see that they’re prepping to install it. We can’t wait to rock around this Christmas tree!

Discovery Island

You might remember that Animal Kingdom is getting a bit of a holiday overhaul this year. We spotted the first steps of the new decorations! Check out the new animal lanterns on top of Riverside Depot…

…and Island Mercantile. These decorations aren’t being lit up just yet but we’re super excited that we’re starting to see the new celebrations in action.

Read all about these holiday additions at Disney’s Animal Kingdom here! 

Dinoland U. S. A.

For a roarin’ good time, you can head to Dinoland U. S. A. where we’ve spotted some much-loved Christmas decorations. Decorations started going up last week in Dinoland, and today we noticed more! There’s some more lights added to that big Dinoland dino.

We also spotted Chester and Hester’s Santa-saurus back in action!

And some really cute decorations up with little dinosaurs rocking some not-so-ugly Christmas sweaters.

Animal Kingdom Merchandise Updates

Island Mercantile

Deck the halls of your house with this cute light-up Ceramic Christmas Tree from Island Mercantile. Take it home for $44.99!

It looks a lot like the Mickey Light-Up Tree Popcorn Bucket to us!! 

Riverside Depot

There’s a bunch of new merchandise over at Riverside Depot too! Check out the new Animal Kingdom Starbucks Tumbler with its cute Tree of Life design! You can also find this mug at Creature Comforts for $24.99.

Pin collectors should love these new-to-us Magic of Honor pins. They’re a great tribute to some classic attractions like 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea…

…and The Great Movie Ride! These pins are $27.99 each.

For a way to wear your holiday spirit in and out of the parks, you could grab this Jingle Bells Bracelet for $12.99. And, yes, it does really jingle!!

You might’ve seen that we found the new Lilo & Stitch VHS wallet in Epcot yesterday. Well, it’s at Riverside Depot as well! Talk about a throwback!

They also have one for Emperor’s New Groove.

And one for Toy Story. All of these wallets are $24.99 each.

And lastly, we found this new-to-us SUPER cozy Knit Spirit Jersey. This thing looks sooo comfy and you can get it for $74.99.

We love seeing all the new updates in Animal Kingdom and we’ll be sure to keep you updated as we find more!

What do you think of the holiday decorations? Let us know in the comments!