AK itinerary questions and help

[kanw]

I feel pretty good about our plans or lack thereof with all the other parks. However I'm not too sure about AK and fastpasses. I have a 6 year old girl that loves interactive exhibits, carousals, plays, and kid rides and she is about 1 inch shy of 48" right now. My 8 year old son like interactive stuff(if it's destructive or funny), birds, and big kid rides, he is 5'2".
My plan is to get there at rope drop.
1)Dinoland first, but I can't figure out how long we may be there.
2)Fastpass for expedition Everest 10-11, but my 6 year old will not do this ride so perhaps we could do child swap instead of fastpass? I guess I don't get how this all works.
3)Finding Nemo 11 am show, this is only a maybe right now
4)Discovery Island or Kilimanjaro Safari next, maybe fastpass Kilimanjaro 12-1
5)Rafiki's planet watch next
6)Maharajah Jungle Trek
7)Kali River Rapids 2-3 fastpass? Not sure if 2-3 gives us enough time to do other things so maybe 3-4
8)Discovery Island if we didn't already do it

 

[Alesia]

1) It depends on what you want to do.
2) You can do rider switch if your son is too short. If he's tall enough, but doesn't want to ride, you can use the single rider line.
3) I can't imagine seeing Nemo and not seeing Festival of the Lion King or Flights of Wonder (both of which are absolute must sees.)
4) Okay
5) Are you sure you want to take 2 hours out of your day to pet some goats?
6) Okay
7) You probably won't get off the train from Rafiki's planet watch until about 3:00
8) Okay.

 

[bc7ate9]

I love the Finding Nemo show. I highly recommend it.

I also think Rafiki's Planet Watch is neat. They do little shows and demos out there and there are interactive exhibits.

 

[kanw]

1) It depends on what you want to do.
2) You can do rider switch if your son is too short. If he's tall enough, but doesn't want to ride, you can use the single rider line.
3) I can't imagine seeing Nemo and not seeing Festival of the Lion King or Flights of Wonder (both of which are absolute must sees.)
4) Okay
5) Are you sure you want to take 2 hours out of your day to pet some goats?
6) Okay
7) You probably won't get off the train from Rafiki's planet watch until about 3:00
8) Okay.

2) my son is tall enough and so is my daughter, but my daughter will not ride it cause it will be too scary. So we could do rider swap and go in the fast pass lane? again I am not sure how any of this works
3)Flight of wonder looks good for us
5)So is Rafiki's not worth it?

I love the Finding Nemo show. I highly recommend it.

I also think Rafiki's Planet Watch is neat. They do little shows and demos out there and there are interactive exhibits.

So is it more than petting goats? see above post

 

[CarolynFH]

Rider swap in and of itself doesn't give access to the FP line for the first people in your group who ride something. Your daughter and the person who will wait with her go to the CM at the entrance to get a rider swap pass. The other members of your party go through the appropriate line - FP if they have FP for that attraction, standby if they don't. After they ride, the rider swap pass allows the person who waited with your daughter and up to 2 more people to enter & ride via the FP line.

Be aware that there have been reports here that a child who is too scared to ride doesn't always get a rider swap pass if the child is tall enough to ride. EE does have a single rider line that would substitute for the FP line for the person who waits with her, so that that person could ride after the first group got off, without going through the standby line.

 

[kanw]

Do people usually stay a couple hours in dinoland, is there enough stuff to do that it would take 2 hours or more?

 

[ZoZo]

IF your son is into birds, make sure you schedule time for Flights of Wonder. It's a "free flight" bird show, and very well done. And get there a few minutes early - usually there's a zookeeper outside the entrance to the theater with a Eurasian Eagle Owl, talking about the bird. Very cool.

(PS - be sure to have a dollar bill handy during the show - they'll ask for a volunteer from the audience to participate, but you have to have a dollar bill! If you're first to jump up and wave your dollar, chances are you'll be selected - that would be cool for your son!)

 

[kanw]

IF your son is into birds, make sure you schedule time for Flights of Wonder. It's a "free flight" bird show, and very well done. And get there a few minutes early - usually there's a zookeeper outside the entrance to the theater with a Eurasian Eagle Owl, talking about the bird. Very cool.

(PS - be sure to have a dollar bill handy during the show - they'll ask for a volunteer from the audience to participate, but you have to have a dollar bill! If you're first to jump up and wave your dollar, chances are you'll be selected - that would be cool for your son!)

Thanks for the tip, he would love that

 

[Alesia]

2) my son is tall enough and so is my daughter, but my daughter will not ride it cause it will be too scary. So we could do rider swap and go in the fast pass lane? again I am not sure how any of this works
3)Flight of wonder looks good for us
5)So is Rafiki's not worth it?


So is it more than petting goats? see above post

Rider Swap is only for children who are not tall enough. It is not for children who are tall enough but don't want to ride.

They do demonstrations at Rafiki's Planet Watch first thing in the morning. There won't be much of anything going on by the time you get there.

 

[tmoo]

2 hours in Dinoland would make me want to gouge my eyes out. There are a couple of good character meets for photos there though. At rope drop I would consider the safari first instead.

For older kids and adults, the flights of wonder is better than Nemo, but smaller children might like Nemo better. The Flights of Wonder is a very well done animal exhibition that features birds. Nemo is a musical with the actors carrying stuffed fish on sticks. It sounds lame and is a bit strange at first, but you quickly become OK with it. The Festival of the Lion King blows both of them out of the water (or air). It has tumble monkeys and is almost sensory overload.

 

[kanw]

Rider Swap is only for children who are not tall enough. It is not for children who are tall enough but don't want to ride.

They do demonstrations at Rafiki's Planet Watch first thing in the morning. There won't be much of anything going on by the time you get there.

Thank you so much...Sounds like we should skip Rafiki, which is fine cause our day seems pretty full already

2 hours in Dinoland would make me want to gouge my eyes out. There are a couple of good character meets for photos there though. At rope drop I would consider the safari first instead.

For older kids and adults, the flights of wonder is better than Nemo, but smaller children might like Nemo better. The Flights of Wonder is a very well done animal exhibition that features birds. Nemo is a musical with the actors carrying stuffed fish on sticks. It sounds lame and is a bit strange at first, but you quickly become OK with it. The Festival of the Lion King blows both of them out of the water (or air). It has tumble monkeys and is almost sensory overload.

Ok, skipping finding nemo is ok by me especially if lion king is better. perhaps we will check out nemo at end of the day if we have time. I like your quote about dinoland
We may do Safari first if its going to be a hot day, but we are going in Feb so we may want to wait til it heats up and animals come out to play.

 

[mgentry210]

Make sure you make time for the Pangini trail too. The Gorillas are so amazing and if you are lucky you will get to see the babies. I could spend an hour at least watching them play.

 

[twinprincesses09]

The Festival of the Lion King blows both of them out of the water (or air).

I agree. Although we didn't have time to watch the Flight of Wonder show, I have to agree that we enjoyed The Festival of the Lion King much more than Finding Nemo. We will do Finding Nemo again if we have time on our next trip, but FotLK is a must see for us. And I've heard such great things about FoW that we will definitely see it on our next trip.

So is it more than petting goats?

It is more than petting goats, but I wouldn't make it a priority. We did a few of the Wilderness Explorer stations, got to meet Chip & Dale and Rafiki with no wait, and explored the Conservation Station (and petted goats). But as we did it early in the morning (after Kilimanjaro Safari at RD), I did feel a bit as though we were wasting time that could have been spent at other attractions. If you have time, it is a nice attraction to visit, but I wouldn't do it early if you have a lot of other attractions you want to visit.

 

[mshanson3121]

We loved Rafikis Planet Watch. Yes, it's about two hours, but it's worth it. We got to do character meet n greets, watch real vet procedures, watch a live animal demonstration and got to pet the animal after, earning their Wilderness Explorer badges there, lots of interactive things to do, then of course the petting zoo area.

 

[bc7ate9]

5)So is Rafiki's not worth it?


So is it more than petting goats? see above post

Yes! There are a bunch of indoor interactive exhibits and characters to meet. Throughout the day, they give demos with various animals (I am much happier seeing animals doing stuff that being operated on so I don't care to see any of the vet stuff in the morning.) On our last trip, we saw a lamb demo how the animals are trained and watched a talk about owls. We also learned how to build birdhouses. You can pet the goats too, if you like.

 

[bc7ate9]

Do people usually stay a couple hours in dinoland, is there enough stuff to do that it would take 2 hours or more?

Maybe if you want to spend a lot of money playing the carnival games to win cheap prizes? There is a playground area there - I guess that could soak up more of your time.

 

[mshanson3121]

Do people usually stay a couple hours in dinoland, is there enough stuff to do that it would take 2 hours or more?

IMO, no. Also, be warned that Dinosaur is an extremely scary ride. It's dark, extremely loud and scary. I would be sure you think your 6 year old is going to be up to it. There's been many, many parents comment on here that their children (even 8 year olds) were really scared on it. Based on what you've said your kids are interested in, this would be my plan:

Rope Drop Safari
Head over to Conservation Station
12:00 show of Lion King with FP+
Lunch in Africa (either before or after Lion King depending on how long you spend at CS)
Maharajah Jungle Trek
Everett with FP+
2:45 show of Flights of Wonder
Kali Rapids with FP+
Discovery Island
Dinosaur and Dinoland


If you do decide to skip CS (which I wouldn't), then I would spend that time doing the Pangani Forest Trail. Or, you could do the 10:45 am show of Flights of Wonder.

 

[amylevan]

There are varying reports on whether you will be allowed to use rider swap for a child who is tall enough to ride but simply doesn't want to. So be prepared that you might not be able to. But there is a single rider line.

We use personalized touring plans from touringplans.com to get a feel for our days and when to schedule FP+ for, etc. Our plan has us heading to Dinosaur at rope drop, followed by Primeval whirl and Triceratop spin (we have a preschooler) before heading to EE and it estimates us arriving at EE at 9:45.

 

[tink9702]

I agree with a lot of the other posters that say Lion King is much better than Finding Nemo.

My kids can spend a decent amount of time in Dinoland because of the dinosaur themed playground. It's a pretty awesome one with tons of climbing stuff and slides. I'd be surprised if any 6 or 8 year old didn't like it! We spent a good half hour there and about a half hour riding Dinosaur so if you wanted to ride Primeval Whirl or do the PAID games then it could take up to 2 hours I guess.

You might have issues with using Rider Swap on Everest. We visited about a year ago, but they weren't issuing passes to anyone who didn't have a kid under the height limit. Saying the kid was scared wasn't good enough. I'm just guessing here, but because of the FP+ & single rider lines I bet they are more strict than some of the other rides regarding the rider swap policy. I'd personally reserve a FP+ for this ride and ride once with Mom & Son, then once with Dad & Son (where son wears daughter's magic band).

I'd definitely FP+ the Safari unless you switch plans around and go there first.

Your son should really like the Maharajah Jungle Trail - there are a lot of birds on that one. I'd personally be sad to miss the Panjani Trail because of the gorillas. They are just a really cool animal!

Kali River Rapids - beware of this ride in February. If the day is really cold you might want to skip it. You really will get SOAKED! If it's a warm day walking the Maharajah trail afterwards is a good way to dry off. A lot of people who go in the winter/spring/late fall plan for this ride as the last one of the day and then go back to the hotel.

 

[kanw]

Thank you thank you! Willing to listen to any other advice too