Let the celebrations for Animal Kingdom’s 25th birthday continue!
Animal Kingdom
Animal Kingdom celebrated Earth Day and the park’s 25th anniversary on April 22nd with new entertainment, snacks, and merchandise. But even if you missed the big event, there are still ways to celebrate in the park! For example, you can still find the adorable Pumbaa popcorn buckets at certain popcorn stands throughout Animal Kingdom. Disney just shared another cool way that they marked the occasion, and it involves something that we bet some of you have NEVER seen in person: floppy discs!
A whole lot has happened in 25 years at Animal Kingdom. We’ve seen new shows and a new land — Pandora: The World of AVATAR — come to life. As part of the birthday celebration, Disney Cast Members opened a time capsule at Animal Kingdom and shared a video revealing its 25-year-old time contents!
@disneyparks Soooo who’s gonna help us access those floppy things? 💾 #Disney #DisneyParks #DisneyWorld #AnimalKingdom #EarthDay #TimeCapsule
The time capsule was filled with “opening-day memories” from the park and was buried in 1998.
©Disney on TikTok
When the video showed a Cast Member pulling out the floppy discs, some of our team members here at DFB said they officially felt OLD. One of the discs was labeled “DAK Base (Maintenance) Opening Team Photos” — we’d love to see the pictures on it!
©Disney on TikTok
There were three VHS tapes that all had orientation videos for the opening day Cast Members. (Does anyone else still have way too many VHS tapes sitting in their basement that they probably won’t ever use again? Just us?)
©Disney on TikTok
Next out of the time capsule was Gino’s first toothbrush! Gino is a silverback gorilla who has been at Animal Kingdom for as long as the park has been open.
©Disney on TikTok
There were also some opening-day merchandise items and the original park maps and guides (which don’t have Pandora on them since that land didn’t exist when the park opened!).
©Disney on TikTok
Rounding out the items in the capsule were physical paper tickets for the park and a t-shirt that was signed by the opening day cast.
©Disney on TikTok
Be sure to stay tuned to DFB for all the latest on Animal Kingdom and all the Disney news!
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Did you go to Animal Kingdom 25 years ago? Let us know in the comments!
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If the floppy has pictures on it some Walmarts still have photo machines that print from different media including a floppy disk.