Advice on AK in the morning...

[LandonDunes]

So I have a PPO at Tusker House at 8:10. My plan was to try and get there early, eat, see characters and then hit Safari right at RD. I figured we’d be one of the first ones since Tusker House is close to it.

Then, head to FOtLK for 10:00am show. If I do that, could we still make it in time for a 10:00am FOP fp+? I think FOtLK is 30 mins so we would have to hightail it to FOP. Am I crazy in thinking I can get this done? Thanks for the help!

 

[pitpat]

there's a direct route from FOTLK to Pandora, so that should be no problem.

 

[Beer Me]

If you want to see all of the characters you might not get out of Tusker House that quickly. That being said if you get a couple plates of food, see whatever characters you see and get out, it should be possible.

 

[gharter]

You should be good. If you are on the Safari truck by 9:15, you should be good. You can go over the bridge by Lion King directly into pandora. That will take you directly to FoP. Takes only a few minutes to walk.

 

[jbhodj]

Following since I too have a PPO at Tusker House and may just follow your lead here

 

[LandonDunes]

Thanks for the responses!

 

[dreamit]

While I can't speak to your question about making it to FOP in time for your FP, I want to comment on your PPO meal at Tusker House. Plan to arrive at AK by 7:40-7:45 and when allowed into the park, head straight to TH. At the beginning of your meal let your server know you want to take care of the bill at that time. If you do this, you should have no problem having an enjoyable breakfast, meeting all the characters, and still arriviving at the safari before the rope drop crowds arrive. I've done this my past three trips with no issues. One time we had to wait about ten minutes to be seated and we still had no issues.

 

[GillianP1301]

Your plan will easily work. The first wave of people to be seated for a character breakfast will cycle through the characters much faster than people seated in subsequent waves and once the restaurant is full and that's because the characters start right away and only have a fraction of the tables to go to for the first little bit. You should easily be done and out of TH by 9:00 (one tip - ask for your bill earl on in the meal to avoid having that 5 - 10 minutes of waiting around after you are ready to leave). You'll get on the safari almost immediately and it takes 20 minutes (assuming no delays, like an animal in the road) which gets gives you tons of time to get to the 10:00 Lion King show. You'll have some buffer time built in there in case either your meal or safari take longer thane expected. And then from the Lion King show end at 10:30, you have loads of time to get to FOP, it is a short walk (less than 5 minutes) between the two.

 

[LandonDunes]

Your plan will easily work. The first wave of people to be seated for a character breakfast will cycle through the characters much faster than people seated in subsequent waves and once the restaurant is full and that's because the characters start right away and only have a fraction of the tables to go to for the first little bit. You should easily be done and out of TH by 9:00 (one tip - ask for your bill earl on in the meal to avoid having that 5 - 10 minutes of waiting around after you are ready to leave). You'll get on the safari almost immediately and it takes 20 minutes (assuming no delays, like an animal in the road) which gets gives you tons of time to get to the 10:00 Lion King show. You'll have some buffer time built in there in case either your meal or safari take longer thane expected. And then from the Lion King show end at 10:30, you have loads of time to get to FOP, it is a short walk (less than 5 minutes) between the two.

While I can't speak to your question about making it to FOP in time for your FP, I want to comment on your PPO meal at Tusker House. Plan to arrive at AK by 7:40-7:45 and when allowed into the park, head straight to TH. At the beginning of your meal let your server know your want to take care of the bill at that time. If you do this, you should have no problem having an enjoyable breakfast, meeting all the characters, and still arriviving at the safari before the rope drop crowds arrive. I've done this my past three trips with no issues. One time we had to wait about ten minutes to be seated and we still had no issues.

Thank you both. Those are great tips!!!. Get there early and ask for bill up front. Got it and very helpful.

 

[cfn10]

So I have a PPO at Tusker House at 8:10. My plan was to try and get there early, eat, see characters and then hit Safari right at RD. I figured we’d be one of the first ones since Tusker House is close to it.

Then, head to FOtLK for 10:00am show. If I do that, could we still make it in time for a 10:00am FOP fp+? I think FOtLK is 30 mins so we would have to hightail it to FOP. Am I crazy in thinking I can get this done? Thanks for the help!

When are you going? In June Ak has extra magic mornings pretty much every day so opening at 8 am. We were at park at 715 with lots of people. By 830 pandora line superlong.

 

[MomOTwins]

When are you going? In June Ak has extra magic mornings pretty much every day so opening at 8 am. We were at park at 715 with lots of people. By 830 pandora line superlong.

This is a good point that with a PPO, you should always check before your trip to make sure park hours have not been extended to open to the general public at 8am. But just FYI, be prepared to leave Tusker a little earlier than park opening, since the way they did the rope drop for the Africa section when we were there, the rope droppers are right there just a 30 seconds walk from Kilimanjaro, and will get in the queue the minute the park opens (which can be as early as 10 minutes before 9am, though this varies). We had a PPO at Tusker and we we existed at 9:04, the standby wait was 35 minutes (luckily, we had a 9-10am FP--we were just at Tusker for the characters). So the line can grow quick.