AK - do you prefer RD or stay til closing? (pre-RoL)

[Ensusieasm]

Rope Drop always for AK. When ROL begins I may start taking a break mid day, then return.

 

[maryj11]

Voice of dissent here. AK (Pre ROL) is a great park to arrive after 2. Especially when the park is open until 7 or later. See all the people above who say they leave by noon, one, three? Yup, they are gone and I am walking on EE, Kali and KS.

ROL and the nighttime activities will put a damper on this.

I remember when AK had Evening EMH. It was awesome to ride EE and Kali in the dark. Even Cheesy Dinoland is cool at night. All those round lightbulbs light up, it really does feel like a carnival (for better or worse)

We would arrive right before everyone was getting ready to leave. The last hour and half was great with a park closing of 7:00. I doubt this will be the case with all the new stuff going on at night.

 

[PeasandCarrots]

Our plan for AK is: Lion King, Everest, Safari, Nemo. Maybe a trail or two. Maybe Dinosaur. Flights of wonder and the boneyard will be closed when we are there next week.
Park hours are 9-6:30pm Since we really only need a 1/2 day, which half do you prefer? It seems like the park will be pretty quiet both at the beginning and end of the day.

We always go at RD and usually finish before lunch. However recently we made a full day of it taking in all of the walking zoo trails, etc and it was really relaxed in the afternoon because I think a lot of people leave. I'm sure that will all change once the park hours are extended, but for now it is rather nice later in the day. Here are our videos from that day. Part 2 is really the second half of the day & when we did the most activities.

Part 1:

Part 2:

 

[Vernie822]

We always rope drop AK. I love it in the morning.. cool, crisp, serene. And by noon it is HOT! We usually are finished by 1-2 PM. We also rarely do anything in Dinoland (I can't ride any of that stuff anymore!) so that cuts out a few attractions.

 

[HM]

I have only done the last hours of AK once..... and it was great! It almost seemed like we had the park to ourselves. My last couple trips we haven't done AK at all, but when we go back, we'll likely do the afternoon this time and skip getting there at RD.

 

[JaimeK]

I think I'm leaning towards RD... mainly for the cooler temps! I made a 2pm lunch at Sanaa so we have the option to returning to AK afterwards if there's more we'd like to do.

 

[katt789]

The AM is a better time!
Pm is nice, but when you get to the park its just more congested and lines are long for main attractions, you really have to do just the last hour of the park if you want potential short lines.
I'd say arrive for rope drop, head straight to safari, use fp for dinosaur & ee, potentially nemo, and then arrive at lion king 30mins prior to get good seats!

 

[DisDadDVC]

I also think that AK loses the "feel" at night. Maybe this will change when there are nighttime activities, but AKV seems like a park best experienced in the AM.