AK touring/FP plan.

[torsie24]

Morning everyone.

I'm sure I'm not the only one who plans WDW stuff whilst drifting off each night...and here's my quandry that I got into last night:

We'll be going to AK in a group of about 8-12, and will be there from rope drop until maybe 1pm.

This is my parents only chance to see AK, so I want them to do the biggies.

It;s going to be a busy time of year, so I know FPs are going to be a must, but the rides are so spread out that I can't see a good way for one of us to slip off and get FPs without missing out on one of the rides.

I'm thinking maybe:

- Rope drop
- straight to KS
- I go and get EE FPs while they do the jungle trek by KS
- then we all ride EE
- get Dinosaur FPs while the group do something else.....


Any better ideas?

 

[2Tiggies]

Torsie, we have done AK in one morning (9 am - 1 pm) and did it again this year. It was not our only AK day, but we packed all the major rides into it, doing EE twice and squeezing in a nature trail, a couple of characters and Dinoland, which you may just want to skip. The only thing we did not do was the Nemo Show, but we did see FOTLK and we left the park at 1 pm on the dot.

It can be done. There was a LOT of running back and forth but not to the extent that it spoilt it and we did stop for icecream late in the morning/noon as well.

Are there any things that some of the party might love and others won't? If that is the case, splitting up may be an option but I think the challenge is then co-ordinating times to meet up.

Trying to remember without my notes, but we definitley always do EE first. We ride it, grab a FP, run over the Kilimanjaro Safari, back to Asia and do Kali River Rapids, run to Camp Minnie Mickey to meet some characters (you could skip this), Dinoland: Primeval Whirl and Triceratop spin, and the times that FOTLK is showing will dictate when we use our FP's for the next EE. You can juggle FP times if need be but won't be able to juggle the show times.

I will have another look when I get home and see if I recall correctly. We did similar last year except we skipped Dinoland altogether (DD wasn't keen) and rode KRR twice and did both of the wildlife nature walks.


EDIT: I will re-check last year's plan as we were there in April (Easter)

 

[torsie24]

Thanks Lee,

The big things I want to make sure they do and see is the Safari, EE and Dinosaur, everything else is a bonus really.

Maybe heading to EE first is the best plan, via Dinosaur for some FPs, then maybe over to KS, via Kali for FPs?

Oh I don't know.....

 

[2Tiggies]

Thanks Lee,

The big things I want to make sure they do and see is the Safari, EE and Dinosaur, everything else is a bonus really.

Maybe heading to EE first is the best plan, via Dinosaur for some FPs, then maybe over to KS, via Kali for FPs?

Oh I don't know.....

If you don't want to ride anything twice (or at least that is not the primary intention for any attractions) then you could grab FP for KRR on your way to EE. They window to ride will open up very soon, but ignore it until it suits you. This means that within the next half hour or so you can get another FP. EE will be walk on for the first 5 - 10 minutes anyway so getting FPs on the way won't make a big difference. IF your FP window is open, grab FPs for Dinosaur before you ride KS. KS is definitely the next place you need to go, but the only thing there is twice we have been stuck waiting for animals to move and on our first (thankfully full) day there this year we were on the safari for 40 minutes. I wouldn't dither around waiting for the FP window to open, but if it does, just collect them while you can.

 

[torsie24]

Ok so how about?

Rope drop

- whole group to EE via Dino for FPs.
- ride EE standby
- whole group to KS via Kali for FPs
- Ride KS
- Do Pagani trail
- Ride Kali
- Do Maharaja trek
- Ride Dinosaur

See ITTBAB or anything else we fancy doing, look at tree etc.

I'm just a worry wart that they wont let us in with expired FPs!

 

[2Tiggies]

I'm just a worry wart that they wont let us in with expired FPs!

We rarely use our FPs within the window. We tend to collect as many as we can en route first thing in the morning so that when it gets really busy we can just walk through the lines

We have never been told no. In fact, we have even picked up FPs at noon, left the park after lunch and come back later in the evening and used them. The only places that can sometimes get iffy with them is Soarin and I have read that TSM can give a bit of stick about it.

Still, even if you are well behaved with your FPs you should be fine.

 

[torsie24]

We rarely use our FPs within the window. We tend to collect as many as we can en route first thing in the morning so that when it gets really busy we can just walk through the lines

We have never been told no. In fact, we have even picked up FPs at noon, left the park after lunch and come back later in the evening and used them. The only places that can sometimes get iffy with them is Soarin and I have read that TSM can give a bit of stick about it.

Still, even if you are well behaved with your FPs you should be fine.

Thank you.

When it's just the two of us I'm fine, but its the fact that 6 first timers will be with us - adds a lot of pressure!!

 

[2Tiggies]

Thank you.

When it's just the two of us I'm fine, but its the fact that 6 first timers will be with us - adds a lot of pressure!!

I can completely understand that.

 

[torsie24]

I can completely understand that.

Perhaps reading your TR will help me......

(hint hint )

 

[2Tiggies]

Perhaps reading your TR will help me......

(hint hint )

Funny, I am busy typing up AK for the next post. The one I am about to post is a full day however from rope drop to the end of evening EMH, but we did lots of things more than once (or twice) and also an hour in the Boneyard playground, which I am fairly certain your party will be happy to skip . It should at least give you an idea. We tend to commando the first part of the day anyway to get in the must-do's and then fill in the gaps after so hopefully it will help a bit.

 

[Dollyrar]

Personally, I would swap the first part around re: fastpasses. I would tell your group to go to Dinosaur first, while one of you runs to Everest and gets everyones fastpasses. You can then ride together once you come back with the passes. Dinosaur always stays walk-on for the first half-hour in my experience, but Everest gets a queue pretty quickly.
I'd then do the trails and other rides/shows until your next fastpass window opens up (should be about 10:30) and get your fastpasses for the safaris. You should have a return window before 1:00 for this, and you can ride EE/do the other trails in the meantime

DECISIONS!

 

[2Tiggies]

Personally, I would swap the first part around re: fastpasses. I would tell your group to go to Dinosaur first, while one of you runs to Everest and gets everyones fastpasses. You can then ride together once you come back with the passes. Dinosaur always stays walk-on for the first half-hour in my experience, but Everest gets a queue pretty quickly.
I'd then do the trails and other rides/shows until your next fastpass window opens up (should be about 10:30) and get your fastpasses for the safaris. You should have a return window before 1:00 for this, and you can ride EE/do the other trails in the meantime

DECISIONS!

That sounds like it could work pretty well too - maybe better to take an adults only perspective. I will add that the one reason why I try and do the safari early is that we have found, not only due to queues, but we have always seen FAR more animals in the early part of the morning. On two occasions we have used FP to ride it (once at noon and once early afternoon) and the time we went midday we hardly saw anything. Animals are unpredictable at best, so there will always be risk involved I suppose.