Kilimanjaro in the morning or afternoon?

[cesariofamily]

Touring plans.com has you do Safari's in the afternoon but I think the animals are more active in the morning. We are planning on going in early May and the crowds should be low? What do you recommend? We will ride EE and dinosaur but not the wild mouse ride (whirl). We are rope drop people and will stay all day.

 

[Nadjalu]

Not sure why they say afternoon, as you are right the animals are more active in the morning. It is cooler then, when afternoon hits they tend to sleep or lay in the shade.
We always see plenty walking about in the AM, and have heard reports they are active again in the evening, but not in the afternoon.

And give Primevil Whirl a try....I love it, one of my favorite rides!!

 

[hrt2hrtmomdeb]

The animals are definitely more active in the morning. We've done the sunrise safari when staying at concierge at AKL and it's amazing how much difference there is seeing them early in the day as compared to in the afternoon. We are not morning people so we don't do rope drop and usually catch the safari in the afternoon when we don't do the sunrise safari. If you'll be at the park all day it should be no problem doing the safari first and getting everything in (EE, Dinosaur). Have a great trip!

 

[JasonsPrincess]

My best guess is that maybe the site recommends afternoon based on crowd levels alone.

The morning is the best time to see the animals out and about; it is also the busiest time with crowds.

Our last trip to AK, we showed up at early EMH's and rode the safari first - the animals were out and active. We grabbed a FP later on in the day and went to ride a bit before 1:30 and the FP wasn't even necessary, it was pretty much a walk on stand by line. definitely less to see - but our driver drove very very slow so it was a bit more enjoyable.

 

[Suellen]

We did an afternoon Safari in July and we saw everything except the Lions. It was actually the best Safari we have ever done!

I don't know if that is typical or not ~ but it sure was lots of fun!

 

[The Saints]

we have done both morning and afternoon and i would say the morning most definately, the animals are much more active. Have a great trip!!

 

[bluejasmine]

I would defanitely do first thing in the morning..Its cooler and more animals are out and about..

 

[Missytara]

When they say afternoon, they are referring to latest in the day; the animals are all out because they are restless to get back to the barns for feeding time.

 

[kcormier]

We also go straight for the Safari from rope drop. We usually get in the first truck out...we always see all of the animals up and about - except the lion! He is always in view, but never up and about! But even if you don't go straight there from opening, I think the best viewing is in the morning. We then usually go over the EE and Dinosaur afterwards and there are no waits on those either. Love Animal Kingdom!

 

[cesariofamily]

I think the recomendation is based on crowds and back tracking. I think we will do Safari first since you all confirmed that it is more exciting in the AM and then hot foot it over for Dinosaur. If all fails we can fp Dinosaur and EE and do them later in the day.

 

[Ktharee]

Another vote for morning. Last visit my family was chosen to take the first Safari ride (how awesome!) and we saw all the animals, very active, including the Lions. Really great!

 

[twitch]

Depending on your trip, you might be able to do it twice... the great thing about that attraction is that it's slightly different every time you do it!

 

[JenSop]

On our rope drop days at AK, we go STRAIGHT to the safari. On this last trip we even got in the first car of the day. We were right at the front of the crowd, right behind the rope as we were all lead over to the safari.

The animals are awake and alert. We also saw the lions awake! Yes, they were laying down, but at least their heads were up and they were awake!

As for EE - remember that they have single rider line. If you don't mind being separated from your party, you only really have to wait about 10 minutes and you're free to fastpass something else!

 

[TinkBride]

Morning, morning, morning.

Last trip (May 2009) DH and I went straight to the Safari in the morning, we were the second car to leave the loading area and it was the most amazing trip in all my experiences with the Safari. All the animals were out and awake and the most amazing part was the male lion - he was on the top rock and he was actually ROARING at the car. It was so amazing to see his large chest expanding and contracting. It was straight out of The Lion King.

DH and I still talk about that experience on a regular basis.

I have never seen the animals as active as we did that day.

 

[Picota26]

Morning!!!
I've done it three times and is the best, all the animals are there and active! We didn't miss one

 

[Huff]

Morning or late afternoon. So many say morning but I'm wondering if thats because they're comparing to midday. Most animals are active in the mornings, sleep during the day and are again active late afternoon, especially when its close to feeding time.

 

[addiln]

my wife and I went there and that is the first thing we did there. we made a b line right for the safari. we find that the animals are up and around more in the morning then the afternoon. also the line was shorter at that time. when we got there we were able to get right on the ride. i have seen the wait time up near 45 mins to an hour before.

 

[brerdawg]

Touring plans.com has you do Safari's in the afternoon but I think the animals are more active in the morning. We are planning on going in early May and the crowds should be low? What do you recommend? We will ride EE and dinosaur but not the wild mouse ride (whirl). We are rope drop people and will stay all day.

Always felt this this should be done at rope drop.

 

[tlcslp]

Morning! We were there last week and went around 9:30 - we saw tons of animals, though the lions were out on their rock asleep. Still amazing!

-as an aside, we also saw lots of activity in the gorilla area, including the baby gorilla, when we walked thru just after that ( I forget the name of the trail)