AK Itinerary- Critique my plans please

[hes122]

Perhaps try to do Navi standby at Park opening
FP 9:55- Kilimanjaro Safaris (arrive early in the FP window)
11:00- Festival of the Lion King
FP 11:00- Flight of Passage (arrive towards the end of the window)

Lunch

1:00- Finding Nemo
FP 1:40- Expedition Everest (arrive towards middle of the window)

Perhaps try to squeeze one more thing in before we leave for MNSSHP.

Is this doable? Recommendations to change?

 

[mamamelody2]

Seems very doable.
If you haven't done NRJ yet, I would do it at rope drop. DH and I did that with a short wait, and really enjoyed it. We did not get there early, we got there a few minutes before 9, after the FoP hordes had already gone in.

 

[AnnMichele]

Totally doable. I suggest Satu'li Canteen for lunch (in Pandora). Check out the Maharajah Jungle Trek (near Everest) and the Gorilla Falls Exploration Trail (next to the Safari exit), if you have extra time.

 

[goodeats]

How long is FOTLK and how far is the walk between the theater and FOP? If you need a snack/bathroom break this might be a stressful transition.

 

[gharter]

Looks very doable. I would rope drop Navi.
Lunch at Satu'Li is very good and you can mobile order.
If you have time and you should, definitely do the 2 walking trails Maharajah (in Asia) and Gorilla Falls (at the end of Safari). Both are really good!

 

[dakotix]

Just some food for thought... we try to make all our FP picks for the morning so that we can enjoy the extra alotted FP later in the day at whatever park we end up in.

 

[wfjny]

I think you will be fine, but you are pushing it in the beginning.

A couple of weeks ago when we were there we encountered two situations you may want to think about.

First the fastpass line for Kilimanjaro Safaris was long. Probably not 30 minutes long, but it sure seemed that way. With the ride being about 25 minutes, and lets face it it takes a few minutes to get off and walk over to Festival of the Lion King, you may be cutting it close. I would suggest arriving at 9:50 for your 9:55 because every minute may count.

Second, the Festival of the Lion King is 30 minutes long. but it takes time to empty and reload the theater. We got caught in a severe downpour waiting a couple of weeks ago. The good side it was very hot and humid, and I think I was actually starting to have some signs of heat stroke. The pouring rain brought down the air and my body temperature, and I was never so happy to be soaked while waiting in line.

However, the point to that story was that our showing had to be delayed because they could not get the previous shows crowd to leave the theater and enter the downpour. So, we were stuck outside for even longer, and the cast members were surprisingly making that exact announcement.

My point being on your morning plan, realize that you are cutting it close with your times, and prepare to be flexible if something goes wrong. You should be fine, just have a Plan B in your head.

 

[mtemm]

If you are there at opening and go right to Navi you shouldn’t have much of a wait if any at all. Then head to the safari and you will likely find you can ride early without waiting for your fastpass time. That is what we did last year. Rope drop was at 8:40 and to be fair we were toward the front of the pack because we didn’t realize we didn’t need to be for Navi. We were on the ride by 8:50, and on the safari ride by 9:10 (had a 10am fp that we skipped). We were able to do Everest and Kali all before the 11am Lion King show, then made our FOP fp and were off it by 12:10. I think our FP time was around 11:15 or 11:30 though which gave us a little more leeway.

Now to be fair we are fast walkers and the kids are teens so we don’t have to deal with strollers. But everything worked perfectly for us. My only regret was we were close enough to the front we should have done it at RD then done Navi. I wish we had known how much we would like FOP!