Anyone do the Elephant or Rhino experience at AK
Worth it?
Going on 11/19. I’ll report back. 
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Going to AK on 11/20 - deciding to do this or the Rafiki’s Planet watch section with my 9yo DD
Yes we did the elephant one. Fantastic experience. Well worth the inexpensive cost. Doesnt eat up a huge chunk of your day either.
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I agree with @OBNurseNH. We did it in June this year and really enjoyed. It doesn’t cost much, you get to go backstage for a while and you learn a lot about the elephants. Plus there was a keeper who is from Africa and knows a lot about their behavior in the wild.
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Anyone have experience with this tour with young kids? I know it says must be 4 years old, just wondering if it would be a good experience for a 4 year old?
We did Caring for Giants last March. I really enjoyed it. You get to see the elephants from behind the area where the safari trucks go. The guide tells you a lot about the elephants, as well. We got our photos with the elephants behind us (no photopass, just our cameras). Worth the price of the donation.
If I may piggy back off this thread, I am wondering how far in advance everyone books Caring for Giants. My family would love it. We are a party of six. Is it hard to get into (we are past our six month mark)?
I booked a couple of months before, mostly because I wanted it on a different card statement. But it was recommended that if you want your choice of time, it’s better to book earlier than later. I had no trouble getting my choice 2 months before our trip.
Others have said walking up can work for them, but we’re liners. We plan. We don’t do no stinkin’ walk-ups, unless it’s for SDFPs. 
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I have done both and enjoyed them very much. even though I am more partial to elephants, I enjoyed the Rhino Tour a bit more cause you get much closer and are able to pet the Rhino.
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We just booked about a month and a half out without any difficulty getting our choice of time
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4 year old might be bored with all of the information but excited to see the animals. We enjoyed the rhinos more because we got to pet Dugan. Both were worth the money and very informative.
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I did Caring for Giants on November 19th as the educational component of our Traveling Homeschoolers Disney trip. It was “free” as the cost was included in our ticket.
I would never pay out of pocket for this. I wondered if we got a “lesser” version of the tour because it was “free”?
We gathered by the kiosk.
Got our name tags.
Walked to vans.
Drove around to the lesson spot seeing nothing memorable along the way.
Got out of the vans and walked up a hill where a nice young woman from Zambia rattled off factoids about elephants and Africa.
Walked down to another area where another young woman rattled off more factoids about the elephants that live at AK, though she routinely went way off topic.
We got back in vans and drove back to the theme park, reentering at a different spot than we’d exited.
Thankfully it only took an hour out of our touring and we still got to do pretty much everything else we wanted to do that day. But there are many other ways for me to spend $30 per person. We have a lovely zoo in our small city with elephants.
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Did you not get a chance to view the elephants?
Two walked by but at quite a distance. We see them much closer at our zoo at home.
Hmm. We saw several of the elephants. They weren’t close up, but they weren’t really far away, either.
Us too. We even got to see a baby nursing on her mother <3
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I saw baby Stella nursing as well! The elephants were really close, and the CM’s we met were interesting. I enjoyed it a lot and thought it was a great value. Especially in the context of WDW pricing. And knowing they send money from that tour to help wild elephants.
Animal experiences where the animals aren’t treated as performers are always going to be hit and miss. Sometimes you go whale watching and don’t see any whales. That’s how it is.
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Thank you for your honest review! It is very helpful
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