Our Animal Kingdom Plan Needs Help!

[SleepyHollow]

Confession: We've never been to AK. That said, our touring plan needs a serious intervention. Please help.

• Everest - On the fence about this. DH is not a coasters kinda guy and while DD6 has loved every single roller coaster she has been tall enough to ride at every park we've been to, the dark and backward nature of EE makes me think this might not be the time to take things to the next level. We'll play this by ear. I may have to go single rider style.
• Kali Rapids - Getting soaked to the bone and then walking around a theme park is not on our must do list. We'll likely save our drenched family time for the WP if the weather cooperates.
• Safari - A must! Thinking about hitting this at park opening. Also have a FP around sunset if we love it the first time around and want a repeat performance.

We definitely want to do both the Lion King and the Nemo show. Beyond that, I'm at a loss for how to best prioritize our time. We plan to spend a full day and stay through Tree Awakening. So...please tell me what are your must-dos when you visit AK? Thanks!

 

[Klayfish]

If you're going to spend the entire day there and skip both EE and Kali then you'll probably be able to hit nearly everything in the park. The first hour and last few hours of the park are fairly empty so you can get a lot done.

As for must dos, you named our three rides already. Flights of Wonder is a neat show. Lion King is also a wonderful show, you'll love it. The walking trails are fun, but between the layout of the park and the walking trails, have comfy shoes.

 

[Petey134]

EE is definitely more "intense" then some coasters. I absolutely love roller coasters and virtually nothing makes me dizzy or sick (I have a stomach of steel) however, I will say that I often leave EE very dizzy and ask myself why I continue to ride it. May be best for you to do single rider first and decide whether or not DD6 will be okay.

The Safari is definitely a must-do and I recommend riding this first in the morning if you plan to ride twice. This is when the line is shortest and the animals seem to be most active early in the morning.

Festival of the Lion King is by far my favorite show in all of Disney and I highly recommend it. We recently attended Flights of Wonder for the first time and were pleasantly surprised by how entertaining that was as well. My personal opinion is that the Nemo show, while a cool concept, is a pretty large time suck. By the time you wait to for the show to start as well as watch the whole thing, you've killed nearly an hour and a half and the story line is obviously the same as the movie. But, if you have big Nemo fans, I'm sure they will like it!

We also love Its Tough to Be a Bug which never has a wait and kids seem to love. However, if you have younger ones, it is dark and loud and some parts are frightening.

Other than that, the gorilla and tiger trails usually have a decent amount of activity and the guides have a lot of insight to share about the animals.

To the extent that you can, I would try to devise a plan to navigate the park in some sort of order. The park is very large and sometimes difficult to find your way around (and I've been there 15 times!) so it would help to minimize your miles.

Good luck and have fun!

 

[Mousetopia]

Confession: We've never been to AK. That said, our touring plan needs a serious intervention. Please help.

• Everest - On the fence about this. DH is not a coasters kinda guy and while DD6 has loved every single roller coaster she has been tall enough to ride at every park we've been to, the dark and backward nature of EE makes me think this might not be the time to take things to the next level. We'll play this by ear. I may have to go single rider style.
• Kali Rapids - Getting soaked to the bone and then walking around a theme park is not on our must do list. We'll likely save our drenched family time for the WP if the weather cooperates.
• Safari - A must! Thinking about hitting this at park opening. Also have a FP around sunset if we love it the first time around and want a repeat performance.

We definitely want to do both the Lion King and the Nemo show. Beyond that, I'm at a loss for how to best prioritize our time. We plan to spend a full day and stay through Tree Awakening. So...please tell me what are your must-dos when you visit AK? Thanks!

I love ALL of AK!! Take time and see it all! Safari early is good for low crowd. I exploration trails are not to be missed. The Gorillas are right next to the Safari! Hit the trails early for lower crowds. Nemo is great and ranks up there with Lion King in my opinion. Kali is very short and can soak you..if you want to check it out take a disposable rain coat and hide shoes under then just pitch it when you get off. YOu can get them at local sports store for 1 or 2$! Take time to enjoy the small details. This park is amazaing

 

[Crystal824]

I agree with the PP (maybe do EE) and then decide. You can always FP+ it and then change the FP+ if you think it is too intense. It is usually quick and easy to ride EE in the single rider line. As an aside, EE is my 6 year old's fav. ride at WDW. She hates ToT (I think this has more to do with the story than the drop), but she loves rollercoasters. EE was no exception.

We love FOLK. Nemo is a good show too. I think the walking trails are great. Our family also likes Dinosaur and Flights of Wonder. My kids love to play in the playground in Dinoland. Kali is fun, but you will get wet. We usually wear our ponchos. Wilderness Explorers is really fun and takes time. It is a book you get when you walk in that sends you on a scavenger hunt around the park collecting badges. Many many people disagree with me, but I think you really need more time than one day to do all of AK if you do it right. AK is more about discovery and wondering around and viewing the animals and the details of the park. If you do that, it does take more than one day. I think you will find there is more there than you think.

 

[DisneyWishes14]

I agree with you on EE and Kali. My DS is 9 and, while he loves BTMRR, Space Mountain, etc., EE looks too daunting for him. We did Kali once and it is pretty ho-hum. I agree that you should save your getting soaked time for a water park where the rides are better and you can just stay soaked all day.

My DS LOVES Primeval Whirl. This may be a good alternative to EE. We also love Dinosaur. I would definitely recommend FOLTK, Nemo and even Flights of Wonder. Take the train and head over to Rafiki's Planet Watch (this is good to do after Safari as the train is right next door). There is a lot to see over there. I would skip It's Tough to Be a Bug. We also love just wandering on the animal trails and seeing the shows that are done outside. I would also suggest picking up a Wilderness Explorer's book on the way in. Your son can collect stickers in different spots and the activity really helps in getting a more in-depth view of the park.

I would try to time your day so that you do the Safari, FOTLK and Rafiki's Planet Watch in one time frame, perhaps head over to Flights of Wonder, do things in Dinoland and then see Nemo.

 

[Accident]

I would recommend EE before Space Moutain if you want the order of what coasters to try on disney property. If someone is willing to try it with her, it's a smooth ride and your not in the dark that long. It's like RnR mixed with BTMRR.

I've never gotten wet on kali but there's multiple people in my raft that always do so don't go by that statement. Some days it's so hot there I wish I was the one that got soaked. It's a great last ride then leave ride so don't count it out.

Since you've never been, one thing to be wary of is weather. This is a park where hot, sunny and humid really slow you down. It's very outside, it's minimal air conditioning spots to take a break. It's a park that in the heat, you'll want to get a break from and pretty early so really plan out the a/c spots well with what order you want to try to do things, even if that means having to walk a little more.

 

[lyssabee]

Last time (also our first time) we went to WDW, my son was 6. I thought about skipping Animal Kingdom entirely and I'm so glad we didn't! Here's what worked for us - accidentally, I have to say, I didn't plan this at all:

We got there pretty early, but not at rope drop. We got the Wilderness Explorers booklet when we walked in (more on that in a second) and then headed all the way back to the Safari, checking out animals on the way and doing a couple of the Wilderness Explorer stations. I don't think we had FP for the Safari, but the wait wasn't bad. This was the only ride we went on.

Since we were all the way in the back corner of the park, we walked through Africa, through Asia, and hit quick services and Wilderness Explorer stations as we went.

The beauty of the Wilderness Explorers is that you find a station, you complete the task, you get a sticker, then you move on. It's not like Agent P where you have to keep going to get the payoff (though we also love Agent P!) And there are LOTS of stations. There's almost no way to do all of them - we saved our book and are bringing it back with us in December.

We walked through Asia, past EE, down to the Boneyard. My kid, who wants to be a paleontologist, spent a good 45 minutes digging, and only left because we had had enough We went to Flame Tree for lunch, which was good enough, and then headed out of the park. We were there till maybe 3:00 or so.

This time, we're going to have lunch at the Yak & Yeti, go on Primeval Whirl, and see Flights of Wonder. We're also hoping to make it through to the evening hours.

Good luck and enjoy!

 

[Mousetopia]

I agree with the PP (maybe do EE) and then decide. You can always FP+ it and then change the FP+ if you think it is too intense. It is usually quick and easy to ride EE in the single rider line. As an aside, EE is my 6 year old's fav. ride at WDW. She hates ToT (I think this has more to do with the story than the drop), but she loves rollercoasters. EE was no exception.

We love FOLK. Nemo is a good show too. I think the walking trails are great. Our family also likes Dinosaur and Flights of Wonder. My kids love to play in the playground in Dinoland. Kali is fun, but you will get wet. We usually wear our ponchos. Wilderness Explorers is really fun and takes time. It is a book you get when you walk in that sends you on a scavenger hunt around the park collecting badges. Many many people disagree with me, but I think you really need more time than one day to do all of AK if you do it right. AK is more about discovery and wondering around and viewing the animals and the details of the park. If you do that, it does take more than one day. I think you will find there is more there than you think.

I agree and it is a huge park! We plan to do one side and its nature trails one 3/4 day and another 3/4 day for the opposite side. More time to explore less exhaustion!

 

[DopeyDame]

It's one of our favorite parks! You'll have a great time. As a PP sad, if she can handle space mountain, she can handle EE. But the single rider line is usually really fast, so it's definitely possible for you to give it a try before your fast pass time, and then just change FP+ if you decide it's too much for her.

In addition to what others have mentioned, I woudl definitely get the Explorer Badge booklet and do some of those. My son spent an entire day doing that when he was 6 and he still says it's his favorite day ever in WDW. It's a great way to explore the park in more depth and really notice things you might have otherwise missed.

 

[eyeblaura]

We also really like AK, the Explorer Badge booklet is always a favorite with my kids and they love collecting all the badges and we've learned some interesting things as well.

We love the Lion King show and my kids like Tough to be a Bug but found flights of wonder just OK. My 9 year old rode EE at 6 and hasn't tried it again, she love space mountain, BTMRR, 7DMT she isn't a big fan of the big drops and EE has one for sure.

 

[Night Huntress]

Confession: We've never been to AK. That said, our touring plan needs a serious intervention. Please help.

• Everest - On the fence about this. DH is not a coasters kinda guy and while DD6 has loved every single roller coaster she has been tall enough to ride at every park we've been to, the dark and backward nature of EE makes me think this might not be the time to take things to the next level. We'll play this by ear. I may have to go single rider style.
• Kali Rapids - Getting soaked to the bone and then walking around a theme park is not on our must do list. We'll likely save our drenched family time for the WP if the weather cooperates.
• Safari - A must! Thinking about hitting this at park opening. Also have a FP around sunset if we love it the first time around and want a repeat performance.

We definitely want to do both the Lion King and the Nemo show. Beyond that, I'm at a loss for how to best prioritize our time. We plan to spend a full day and stay through Tree Awakening. So...please tell me what are your must-dos when you visit AK? Thanks!

Lol- this was the order we did ours today! Park arrival was 7:40. By 8:20 we'd already done Everest twice. Then we went on Kali where...yes...DD and I got pretty wet. We went to a bathroom after and dried off some with paper towels and the dryer. Then we hit the safari. Saw so many of the animals being active and walking around. Then throughout the day we've knocked out meeting Minnie, Mickey, Pocahontas, Meeko, Chip and Dale and Rafiki. Lunch, Primeval Whirl( I hated this with a passion..:longest wait of the day for us and the ride was extremely jerky and hurts...JMO). Now we are waiting for Nemo to start. We did not have time for the lion king but plan to do that on Saturday since we have HDDR at 6:15 tonight

 

[erinch]

We were there 4 times this summer!

On Kali I proudly wear my stylish dollar store ponch.

On Ee, which we got to ride 8 times in the dark, there is one sequence going backwards where the stomach goes in loops. Our DD loved RnR at age 5, and loves EE. AK is a park where you can go with the flow and be immersive ly happy.

 

[mickeyfanachey1999]

We love AK. Everest is a must do for DS14, DW and I. In return we ride Dinosaur 4 times in a row for DS5. We all enjoy Nemo (although I'm pretty sure DS14 likes it for the air conditioning). We love the Safari and we love It's Tough To Be a Bug. DS5 loves the walking trails and thinks the animals are really cool. Lunch is always at Yak and Yeti quick service. If we are going to ride Kali we always try to bring extra clothes...someone will get drenched. DS14 and I like to hit Primeval Whirl and DS5 loves the silly carnival games. We haven't been with evening hours open but I am really looking forward to the Tree of Life show. Truth be told we typically hit AK 1.5 days in a week, DHS 2 days, EC .5 days, and MK 3 days.

 

[erinch]

In our family known as Primeval Hurl. Once was enough for all time.

 

[lustergirl]

I break up AK into two days.

 

[IrishNYC]

I'm not a huge fan of coasters but I do like EE. My then 5 year old daredevil LOVED EE. It's a must do for her for all future visits.

 

[SleepyHollow]

Thank you so much everyone!!! It sounds like we'll be able to fill a full day easily and EE might not be out of the question for DD6.

I think I'm hearing it's less important to have a solid "minimize wait time" type touring plan than it is to just have a strategy for moving through the various sections of the park because of the distance and layout of lands.

Great feedback on wilderness explorers. I really wasn't thinking that was a must do but you've changed my mind on that!

Also appreciate those of you who mentioned where you got food. I made an ADR for lunch at Tusker House but as we get closer I'm thinking we're going to pass on that. The only reason I'm hesitating now is because it might be a much needed air conditioned midday break. I still may just pack our lunch and then get some CS for dinner instead. I thought I saw a few options where I could get a salad or smaller entree. I need to revisit the menus once I get a better plan together.

Everyone has been so much help already. Thank you!!

 

[eyeblaura]

Tusker House is air conditioned. But it is also a time suck IMO. We've done it and enjoy the food and characters but it always seems to run behind in seating times and then as with any character meal it takes a while for the characters to make the rounds.

 

[WithASmile&ASong]

When we were there in February my two boys were in a "mood". It was pouring rain, ds7 was mad b/c all he wanted to do was ride Everest all day and ds6 was mad at his brother for "shaming" him into riding EE (and telling him that a real yeti would jump on the tracks and would start tearing them up - I didn't find that out till later) and he was irritated with me for asking him 30 times if he was sure he wanted to ride it.

Well, we were on the gorilla trail and the WIlderness Explorer CM saw that my boys were being grumpy and he completely engaged them, got them excited about earning the badges and learning things. It turned our whole day around. We only got to a few of the stations because of the rain, but just the other day my DS got his book out and told me he couldn't wait to get back and finish his book.

I highly recommend getting the book first as there are stations around all the major attractions so it's helpful to do them while you are there instead of backtracking later.

Ps my ds6 did fine on EE but I'm not sure if he wants to ride it again.