‘We’re on a walking safari with toddlers’: Disney guests get stuck in Animal Kingdom lion enclosure

The front wheel of a safari vehicle had broken, causing a logjam and preventing other vehicles from moving

A group of tourists on a safari inside Disney’s Animal Kingdom at Walt Disney World in Florida were stuck in a lion enclosure for over 40 minutes and had to be evacuated.

One of the tourists shared the experience of the guided tour of the Harambe Wildlife Reserve through a series of TikTok videos.

The reserve houses 34 species of animals including crocodiles, lions, elephants, hippopotamuses and black rhinoceroses that roam free on the 110-acre land.

On 12 February, Katelin, who goes by the handle @purely_katelin on TikTok, posted a video on the video sharing platform that showed her family enjoying the safari.

She captioned the video: “We were enjoying it THEN…stuck for 40+ mins… #disneyworld #animalkingdom #nightmareonthesafari”

In the video, which collected more than 270,000 views and 7,000 likes, she narrated that her family and the other tourists had been stuck in the lion enclosure for over 40 minutes.

“30 minutes later … still stuck in the lion enclosure,” she narrated. “Haven’t moved, no one — this lady driving has no idea why.”

“Here’s the deal y’all: They’re evacuating us with a ladder, and we have to walk the rest of the way,” she added.

In another video, Ms Katelin explained the reason behind the hold up.

While the tour usually takes 18 minutes, Ms Katelin and her family were stuck with other tourists and had to be evacuated after one of the vehicles’ front wheel broke and buckled.

This caused a congestion as other vehicles could not move further.

The tourists were then asked to walk out of the enclosure across metal chains and cattle grid, used to keep animals in separate enclosures.

“Now we’re on a walking safari with toddlers,” Ms Katelin said in another follow-up video.

“This is ridiculous.”

She later told Yahoo News that Disney gave guests “ONE lightning lane pass for Animal Kingdom” as compensation. The pass gives access to a separate entrance to attractions and rides with shorter lines.

“What made that so miserable is that there were toddlers with us, it was in the sun and no one was telling us what was going on,” she said.

“Can you imagine that? That’s ridiculous.”

Several TikTok users commented on the video and narrated similar experiences of getting stuck on the safari due to unexpected animal movements.

“We got stuck for 20 minutes because rhinos were in the road,” wrote one user.

“Then a truck came and dropped some food to move them.”