camp minnie-mickey

Camp Minnie-Mickey

Camp Minnie-Mickey has closed to make way for the Avatar expansion land.

When Mickey, Minnie and his pals all want to get away for a vacation, where else would they go but the Walt Disney World Resort? These stars, however, vacation at the Adirondack inspired campgrounds situated here at Disney’s Animal Kingdom. This heavily wooded area provides the right cover for a day spent meeting some of their other guests at Camp Minnie-Mickey.

Home to the vacationing VIPs of Disney, it was also originally conceived as a bridge between Safari Village and the home of mythical beasts; Beastly Kingdom, a land that seems destined never to see the light of day. There is a nice remnant of the original plan, however, as you cross the bridge from Safari Village, you can still see the rocky outcropping of a dragon’s head off the right side of the bridge, although it no longer breathes fire.

Whereas at other parks, landscape design provides some key support: decorative extension, abstract design element or theatrical device, at Disney’s Animal Kingdom the landscape is a primary cast member in the story. It lives and breathes and has to look natural in the setting it creates in all of the lands of the park. At Camp Minnie-Mickey the attention to this key in its storytelling extends all the way to the styling and design of the elements. The forms are more natural in their presentation, being modified only when necessary to give the impression that the nature created this place and not the hands of the Imagineers.