A Rookies view of EE at Animal Kingdom

[ttfn3]

After many trips to Florida and Disney World, we finally stayed on site for our trip October 16-23rd. I'm an expert on how to handle the parks if you stay off site . So, I thought I would give EE a whirl on this trip - just to see what it's all about. I picked the Animal Kingdom as a good park to test EE. We were staying at the Boardwalk Villas. Before our trip, I asked the experts here. So, I was all prepared to be at the bus stop by 7:15 in order to be at the AK at 8 a.m. for EE on Monday, October 18th. DH was still snoozing away while DS and I got ready. Let's just say we didn't make it to the bus stop by 7:15. Fortunately, they had LOTS of buses that morning going to Animal Kingdom so we probably got on a bus around 7:25. No problem. We had a direct bus from the BWV to the Animal Kingdom. WOW! Where did all the people come from???? I have never seen so many people at a park for an opening EVER. I am now a firm believer that onsite guests flock to the park that has EE. I'm not sure what time we were actually at the gate, but they were letting people through the turnstyles and holding them at the entrance before Discovery Island. The CM were checking resort IDs. The CM outside the turnstyle said one resort ID per family must be shown (which we did). DS and I made our way thru the turnstyle to the massive crowd near the entrance of DI. The crowd was very loosely gathered. DS started to manuever through the crowd (I felt a bit bad but had to smile when DS said follow me Mommy, I'm good a mazes! LOL). I wanted DS to have a view of the opening so we made our way to the front of a rope section. The awakening was cute and I'm glad we caught it one time. We followed the character bus to the safari. And we made it on the first safari bus of the day. Yahoo!!! It was GREAT to see the safari the first thing in the morning. The animals were VERY active. We even had garaffes in the middle of the road. One was so close to our bus when we passed it, you could have touched it. I was pleased that everyone restrained themselves. The sun was a bit harsh at times since it was so low. All the animals were awake!! By the time we got off the safari, the line was HUGE, so I was glad we finished it. We then made our way through the Pangani Trail - one of my favorites since I love gorillas. It was nice to view early in the morning (and quite peaceful). By the time we left Africa, I felt like a salmon going upstream! We hit Tough to Be a Bug (theater was about 1/2 full). Took some time checking out the tree (simply amazing). Then, we caught the first show of FOLK. I wanted to hit Tarzan, but DS had enough walking so we headed back to the BW for a break. It took us a bit of time to find a bus since it was only about 10:30 or so. Luckily, a transportation CM took pity on us and commandered a bus to take us directly back to the BW.

So, IMHO, if you want to do AK on a EE day you must be there before EE and make a beeline for the safari. That said, I'll probably avoid EE parks from now on out since I'm not a fan of large crowds. At least on EE, there were a lot of buses running directly from the BW to AK.

 

[rasnlms]

Thanks for the info!

 

[Gupsmom]

Thanks for the info. We're doing EMH at Animal Kingdom this trip. So far, I have found, that the only park worth EMH for us is Magic Kingdom. The extra quiet hour to tackle Fantasyland, Haunted Mansion and Buzz before rope drop at Toontown is huge for us.

Jess

 

[alicenwonder99]

Thanks for the EE info. We're going in January 2005. I have it planned to do EE for a few of our days since the parks close early. Now I may rethink it. I have 4 children and a dh who is NOT a morning person. Maybe EE isn't for us. I can see us being the family that makes it to EE like 45 minutes already into it, so that would really defeat the whole purpose!

Mary

 

[ttfn3]

Mary - my DH is NOT an early morning person also. That's why I left him sleeping bed the one morning I wanted to experience EE. I only have one child (age 8) so it wasn't difficult for me to get him moving in the morning (he's an early riser - of course he had to leave his gameboy so a bit of pouting!). By the time we got back to the resort around 11, DH was well rested and ready to tackle Epcot that afternoon/evening with us.

Now, I'm not sure that EE at MK wouldn't be crowded also. By the looks of the buses for EE morning to MK, I bet that park was also busy. Now, our best experience EVER for MK was having a 8:05 PS for CRT on a nonEE morning. We had a lovely breakfast and were right in Fantasyland when the park opened.

Just be prepared to bail out of the EE park when the crowd gets too heavy.

 

[CamColt]

Thanks for the report!
We always do EE at AK and MK and find it to be very beneficial. I like it at AK because we usually only stay 1/2 day there and with EE we get about 4-5 hours instead of 3-4 hours.

 

[danny1649]

Good information shared in your post.

 

[bjakmom]

That's exactly the same EMH experience we had at AK at the end of August. Unfortunately, my Dnephs were dragging their feet and we didn't get to the Safari until almost 9 - line was over 20 mins by then, but the animals were very active. By noon Kali River was well over an hours wait, with FP return not until mid-afternoon - the walkways were jammed - we skipped it and headed to BB. In the 'old' days EE was a great bonus if you got there early (especially pre 9/11 when they opened a full 90 minutes early!) - the rides were often walk ons for the first few hours (and we used to go in July) - I think with more large resorts open (POP, All Stars, SSR) and attendance growing every year we'll be skipping the EE park or heading out of it like you did by 11 !

 

[wdwobsessed]

I have done EE at MK and MGM. I found EE at MK to be the most benificial. It was empty. We do plan on getting out of dodge by around Noon.

MGM was good too ... but not as good as MK for fantasyland!

I would think AK would be one of the most crowded at EE as that park always feels crowded to me anyway.

WDWO

 

[SyracuseWolvrine]

As a general rule at AK, our EE days (M and F) are our most crowded days, with Friday usually being busier than Monday.

 

[bjakmom]

Thanks for the official word, Eric !!! Now tell us, which are the least crowded days ??!