Do you think 2 days at AK is too much?

[GinnyEmma]

It is our favorite park. So, i'd say "yes."

 

[Sugardimples]

If you think AK is a one day (or a half day) park, you're not doing it right!

 

[teach22180]

It is personal preference as posts above confirm - everyone is different. Why not leave the day blank and decide when you get to it?

I was going to say what Squidgy said. If I were you, I would leave the day for a return to wherever you want to go and just see how the trip goes. On my first long trip of a week, I spent parts of 3 days at AK. I was hopping, but I just love the shows and the rides and the parade there, plus some good food. However, this next trip, I expect to spend more time at HS since Star Tours is open and back at MK because I shortchanged that park on my little trip last fall and really missed my Fantasyland!

Every trip is different. Just accept you won't see EVERYTHING, but you will have time to enjoy what you see. By the way, we saw every show at Sea World in one long, exhausting day, but the young adult who went with me won't ride coasters. I think you are smart to plan to return to Sea World; I kinda wish we had broken that day in half.

 

[Magpie]

Let me start by saying that I think AK is a beautiful park, but, I cannot for the life of me figure out what you could do for 2 days there.

We talk to the CMs, we look at things, we explore! I take more pictures in Animal Kingdom than in any other park. I think it's strange that people will shove past a CM with a box full of fascinatingly furry spiders, that could keep my family enthralled for half an hour, just to get to a ride that'll be over in five minutes.

We first visited in 2005, and I'd only allotted one day for the park. My entire family agreed we needed two days (my kids were 7 & 9 then). When we went back three years later, I made sure we had two days in the park - and it was perfect!

My favourite moment? My son (10 years old!) was utterly absorbed in a display at the Conversation station, and Rafiki snuck up behind him. He tapped on my son's shoulder. My son didn't notice, because he was checking out different kinds of eggs. Rafiki shook his staff over my son's head and we all started laughing. My son was still oblivious. Finally the CM with the eggs starts asking my son Lion King related questions leading up to my son saying, "A baboon?" "You mean like the one behind you?" asks the CM.

My son turned, nearly jumped out of his skin, then grinned wider than I've ever seen him smile. He's a very serious kid, normally. Rafiki hugged him, and we got a great picture of them together.

We've been to lots of zoos, but for us, Animal Kingdom is different. It's magic. We still haven't managed to get to the Conservation station early enough in the day to see the vets at work, and that's something we all want to do someday.

 

[Cuchman]

It's very much a matter of taste. My family didn't fully enjoy AK until we deliberately slowed down and took it all in. It required a different approach than the other parks to really appreciate its beauty and design.
If you just want to power through all the rides, yes, I think you could be satisfied with one day. But if you do, do so as a choice and realize there is more to experience at AK than just the rides and attractions. And you can see the rest on your next trip!

 

[nkereina]

I didn't read the whole thread, so I apologize if this has already been mentioned. What are the AK hours when you are there? When we go in September it's 9am-5pm. Since it's so hot, we like to take a break in the afternoon but with AK closing at 5pm, there's not enough time to go back. So I've split our AK time up between two mornings, and then we have the afternoon if needed. If you push yourself in the heat of August, it may be a waste because you and your kids could be tired and crabby come 5pm... I know we would be

 

[disneymom0104]

We usually go with 10 day passes. Last Sept. we had no hoppers and had planned 2 days at AK and 2 days at DHS, 3 days at MK and Epcot. After the first full day at AK we were good (when we have hoppers we do 1.5 days there, which I like). My kids wanted more MK. We ended up with 5 MK days, 3 Epcot and 1 each of DHS and AK. Anyway- my kids are ride riders and prefer MK over walking around AK. We do like AK- just not enough to do it twice with no hoppers. We will likely always have hoppers in the future.

 

[Diegosmom]

We have 8 full days at disney so plan is 2MK, 2E, 2DHS and 1AK but then we have 1 day left over to do another park again.

We will arrive late night and our first day we are going to do AK. I plan on doing RD to park close (which will probably be 5pm as we are going in Jan). I figure we will be able to do everything in 1 day but if not I have the bonus day. And I figure since it is our first day we will be in the go go go mode so we should be able to get everything done we want (and still be able to get back to the resort early to get a good night sleep, since we would have went to bed late the night before).

I plan on hitting each park once in my first 4 days so then if we didnt care for 1 or got it finished we can switch around the end of the week.

 

[Mr. Disney 1986]

It is all about personal taste. You can do everything at AK in one day, but if you really enjoy the park than of course you can spend two days there.

 

[live4christp1]

It all depends on your own family. We spent 2 days at AK this year and had a great time (this was trip #8). DS loves animals though and could look down all those trails for half a day or more.

This year we slowed down and really enjoyed the parks. First time we had enough time to let them enjoy playing in the Boneyard - mostly in the fossil dig site. Got some great pictures of DS (who is 13) playing with his little sister (who is 8) that I know I will cherish as I know those days are soon drawing to an end. {sniff, sniff}

We spent lots of time both days wandering around the trails on Discovery Island.

We did the safari both days, specifically planning to do different times (one mid morning and one toward the very end of the day) to see what different animals were moving around at different times and we were pleasantly surprised at how many we encountered on the road and we even saw (gasp) the lion up and moving around - in all our trips we had only ever seen him asleep on the rock.

We did Nemo one day and Lion King the other without feeling rushed to run from one location to another.

We went out to Rafiki's and spent a fair amount of time (not always able to fit that in during our one day - get it all done trips).

We found some wonderful ladies (CMs) at a gazebo in Asia that were sitting and invited the kids in, the kids got to choose a charcter and then write their names on the paper, then each CM wrote the childs name in their native language and gave them some 3 x 5 cards of Asian countries.

We really enjoyed the relaxed pace. Got to see some/do some of our favorite attractions (Dinosaur, EE, Bugs Life) twice. Just enjoyed being together. Didn't feel like grabbing a spot for the parade and hour in advance was killing our schedule as we really didn't have one.

This trip, of course, was DHs R&R and he had to return overseas shortly after the trip and we purposefully planned 2 days in each park to slow down and enjoy it and not feel like we were running full out to get everything done that we wanted to. Looked around in lots of the shops, played with the instruments, etc in Africa.

Animal Kingdom is a beautiful park.