AK Emh - Everest or Safari 1st?

[shm_helene]

I'm sure there's no perfect answer but we are headed to AK for an EMH morning in June. We will have our 2 little girls with us (3 and 5). Hubs and I love EE but there is no way they are going on that ride! I am planning on doing EE and Safari while there for EMH but wasn't sure which one I should do first (obviously, we will be riding individually on EE) Any thoughts? Not sure what we'll do during the rest of the day - we already have a day there. Thinking Wilderness Explorers.

 

[Anal Annie]

We always do EE first for as many times as we can before regular park hours begin. Then we head right over to the safari at 9:00 and do it then.

 

[Robo]

EE first.

 

[shm_helene]

We always do EE first for as many times as we can before regular park hours begin. Then we head right over to the safari at 9:00 and do it then.

Do you have much of a wait? (at safari?)

 

[Tina1]

I love the safari first, the animals
are more active early. I've noticed since the FP was introduced the lines are longer

 

[Mamaoftwo24]

We just got home and on our AK day we went straight to EE and rode our fast pass, everyone loved it so we got right back on and maybe waited 20 minutes... Then we did the Safari **BUT** we had a fast pass for it as well and had to wait maybe 20 minutes because animals were in the path... So like you said there is probably no right answer...

Side note::: This was my first trip in a few years (been too long IMO) but have they changed Safari for good.. We only rode it once but we didn't do the little 'mission' where we find the little elephant... Unsure if this is new or if it's been that way for a while.

 

[pens4821]

We went in February. We were there about 10 minutes early and they were already letting people in. We walked to ee and rode it twice with no wait. We then walked to the safari and rode it maybe a 5 minute wait tops.

 

[shm_helene]

We went in February. We were there about 10 minutes early and they were already letting people in. We walked to ee and rode it twice with no wait. We then walked to the safari and rode it maybe a 5 minute wait tops.

Awesome Thank you!

 

[Robo]

I love the safari first, the animals
are more active early.

That is one of those "things" that gets repeated so often that it becomes a "fact" almost by osmosis.

We have ridden Safari dozens of times... at all times of day.
We have seen so many different animal situations at each time we ride,
that we no longer worry about trying to see it early in the day.

 

[ciera321]

We always do EE first for as many times as we can before regular park hours begin. Then we head right over to the safari at 9:00 and do it then.

Exactly our routine every time!

 

[Mainemama]

Double check, is the safari open for EMH? I would definitely do EE first. Ask for a rider swap. They may not want to give you one if it is a walk on, (I have been denied one for this reason), but then again, they may give you one, which means you can return later after your Safari. For kids that age, I would plan to visit Rafiki's Planet Watch. My kids love it.

 

[Sam33]

Last November we rode Everest 3 times and dinosaur once and got to the safari with 10 minutes to spare before the park opened and walked on. It was a pretty crowded day that day, too.

 

[shm_helene]

Last November we rode Everest 3 times and dinosaur once and got to the safari with 10 minutes to spare before the park opened and walked on. It was a pretty crowded day that day, too.

Thank you! Great info.

 

[shm_helene]

Double check, is the safari open for EMH? I would definitely do EE first. Ask for a rider swap. They may not want to give you one if it is a walk on, (I have been denied one for this reason), but then again, they may give you one, which means you can return later after your Safari. For kids that age, I would plan to visit Rafiki's Planet Watch. My kids love it.

Yup, Safari is open. We do love Rafiki's and are planning on doing it that day! I will definitely think about the child swap!

 

[mdgineok]

We always do EE first for as many times as we can before regular park hours begin. Then we head right over to the safari at 9:00 and do it then.

This! We rode EE three times in a row during morning EMH and made it to Safari by 9:00 and we only waited for one truck and we made the next one. The waits for EE were posted at less than 10 minutes but went to 20 after our third time. We were there in early May so crowds were not huge. YMMV

Mark in MN

 

[Anal Annie]

Do you have much of a wait? (at safari?)

Not usually very long. As someone else mentioned there could always be an animal or two slowing the trucks down if they're in the road. We rarely use FP's in AK park now with the new FP+. We generally try to do AK park standby and use the FP+ in our afternoon / evening park. I DO miss the old system where you weren't restricted to one park a day....

 

[nilla]

Sounds like you will be using the single-rider line for EE. In that case, I'd ride the Safari first, if it's open. The single-rider line for EE is never really long, even later in the day. We hit it multiple times last June.

 

[JimmyV]

With respect to rider swap and each of you riding EE alone, if the ride is walk on, you won't need rider swap. Just use the regular entrance and sail through the queue. (And there are probably plenty of people here who will say that you are being overprotective parents and that your 5 and 3 year olds can be left alone while you go on the ride.)

 

[RobinEJ]

I was told that the giraffes like to sleep in sometimes so I do EE first to give them extra time to get out there, not sure if there's any validity to it though!

 

[Thing 1]

We had an issue with this in January. EMH included the safari and started at 7:00. It was daylight and cold. We went to the Safari first and were told it did not open until 20 minutes after sunrise. I was not happy. That was like 7:30 and we had wasted our time heading there first when EE is really not close to there. We headed over too EE and then back to Safari and because of the temps it really was still a walk on but still. Should not be an issue in Summer but just be aware.