String of Memories (A Recreational Activity at Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge)

String of Memories is a recreational activity offered at Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge. This activity is available for all guests but is geared more toward children. On a recent visit to the resort with my nephew, we walked through a couple of the activities, made our own string of memories, and I took a few photos so that our readers would know what to expect.

A total of 7 activities are spread out between Jambo House and Kidani Village. We started our adventure at Kidani Village and completed our first activity before lunch. If you don’t see a board with the daily activities in the lobby, you can find one on the activity board, which is located just past the gift shop before you get to the resort’s arcade.

For reference, I took the photo below a few months ago and compared it to our most recent experience. While things could change, all of the times and locations had remained the same since our last visit.

Below, I’ve added the information for each activity. Then, I’ve detailed our experience further down.

Savanna Guide Activities Schedule

Please join us for the following daily complimentary activities and add beads to your String of Memories!

• Animal Tracking 10:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m. Arusha Overlook, Jambo House
• Flamingo Behavior 11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. Flamingo Pond, Jambo House
• Music of the Savanna 12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m. Palace Library, Kidani Village
• Have You Heard? 1:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m. Pembe Overlook, Kidani Village
• BioBlocks 2:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. Kidani Village Lobby, Kidani Village
• Animal Enrichment 3:00 p.m. -4:00 p.m. Uzima Overlook, Jambo House
• African Wonders 4:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m. Jambo House Lobby, Jambo House

All activities offered daily, with location subject to change based on weather. Time and location subject to change. Look for the Mickey totem poles to locate each activity.

Flamingo Activity: Become scientists and observe our flock of Greater Flamingos to assess their behavior and conclude how you can help flamingos and other species of birds in the wild.

Tracking Activity: Learn how researchers locate animals in the wild to study their behavior, and then track various animals who “visited” Arusha Overlook.

Music of the Savanna Activity: Listen to different types of music from Africa and try out instruments from different areas of the continent.

African Wonders Activity: Discover the natural wonders, wildlife, and cultural diversity of the continent of Africa through an interactive matching game.

Enrichment Activity: Discover what enrichment means and help create enrichment items for animals on the savannas at Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge.

BioBlocks Activity: Test your strategy and ecological knowledge as you try to balance the biodiversity blocks that help make up a strong ecosystem.

Have You Heard Activity? Listen to the sounds of African wildlife as you try to match the animal species to their unique vocalizations.

Here is an example of a completed String of Memories. The Mickey Mouse bead on the far left is the completion bead. It’s the only bead that doesn’t represent an actual activity.

During our visit, we did two activities at Kidani Village and one at Jambo House. We were visiting the resorts for lunch at Sanaa and were able to fit in one activity before lunch, and the other two after.

Below, you’ll see the signage for the Have You Heard? activity located at the Pembe Overlook at Kidani Village. For most, this activity will be the most difficult to find. You’ll want to walk out of the lobby’s front doors at Kidani Village and toward the walkway that leads to the resort’s pool. You’ll stay to the far right as you continue down the path that leads to the pool. The Pembe Overlook will be toward the end of the path, past the pool’s quick service.

Here we met two cultural representatives from Africa.

I’ll be honest. This activity was fun, but it was a little challenging, not only for my nephew but also for my sister and me. It’s somewhat hard to distinguish between the sound of a jaguar, hyena, whale, and a zebra. Of course, after we got a few right, it all came together.

Our next activity was BioBlocks, where guests were challenged to answer questions about things that were good for the environment. Each time they got an answer correct, they were allowed to either add or remove a block from the tower, similar to Jenga.

By this time, we had two beads for our String of Memories.

Since we were resort-hopping for the afternoon, we set out on foot to Jambo House. It’s about a 10-minute walk from Kidani Village, or you can take the resort shuttle. We have a separate guide with details for getting between Jambo House and Kidani Village, if you’re unfamiliar with the options.

Once we reached Jambo House, we explored the lobby and then headed downstairs to check out the Uzima Overlook. For reference, Jambo House (the main lodge) has two public overlooks. One is behind the resort’s Uzima Springs Pool, which is why it’s called the Uzima Overlook. The other is directly behind the lobby, and is called the Arusha Overlook. We ran into the Animal Enrichment activity while we were touring and decided to stop for another bead.

This activity was pretty hands-on, asking guests to create straw beds and small feed boxes for some of the animals. By this point, we had other plans for the afternoon, so the cast member was kind enough to provide the activity bead and the completion bead since it was our last stop.

Had we been staying at the resort, we likely would have spread some of the activities throughout our stay so that we did everything. But since we were only visiting for a couple of hours as part of our resort-hopping itinerary, this option worked well for us. It also allowed my nephew to enjoy something educational that was more geared toward his age group.

Final Thoughts

We love that these types of educational activities are available at Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge. I think most kids will enjoy this type of offering, and beads are so popular right now. I really appreciated that these were fun and unique options. As far as my nephew, he was interested at first, but I don’t think he would have enjoyed doing everything in a day, and that’s okay. Of course, he was also looking forward to some of the other resort activities we had planned, including a life-size game of chess on the Polynesian’s lawn. Who knew that was such a popular thing to do? I certainly did not.

In the Comments

What do you think of the String of Memories activity at Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge? Let us know in the comments below.