AK without FP+?

[lahobbs4]

I'm planning on a morning at AK with the evening in HS to see the Osborne lights the week before Thanksgiving. I would like to use my FP+ at HS for Toy Story Midway Mania and two others (not sure yet).

My question is, can I have a pretty efficient day at AK with NO Fastpasses? I have small children so really all they want to see is the Safari, Festival of the Lion King, and maybe the Kali River Rapids. If we rope drop on a Crowd Calendar-3 day, could we get those in pretty quickly just using Standby?

Thanks!

 

[ksinniger]

absolutely. AK is probbly one of the best parks to use rope drop and not have to use FP+, especially if you're not looking at trying EE or Dinosaur. Head to the safari first; on a crowd level 3 day, you could probably even put the rapids off until late morning, unless it's a really hot day (unlikely at that time ofyear, but not unheard of).

 

[loutoo]

You shouldn't experience any issues with that plan. with a crowd level 3, Safari wait times shouldn't exceed 20 minutes that morning, and KRR will be close to walk on worst case scenario 10 minutes. depending on the weather, you might be cold getting off KRR. November in soaking clothes isn't fun even in Orlando.

 

[Lucius Best]

Definitely can do AK without FP. Agree with everything previous poster said, Safari at rope drop, then shows and walking trails.

 

[lahobbs4]

You shouldn't experience any issues with that plan. with a crowd level 3, Safari wait times shouldn't exceed 20 minutes that morning, and KRR will be close to walk on worst case scenario 10 minutes. depending on the weather, you might be cold getting off KRR. November in soaking clothes isn't fun even in Orlando.

Thank you! Yes, the weather was FREEZING that time last year so we may not be brave enough to try KRR at all!

 

[PeasandCarrots]

I'm planning on a morning at AK with the evening in HS to see the Osborne lights the week before Thanksgiving. I would like to use my FP+ at HS for Toy Story Midway Mania and two others (not sure yet).

My question is, can I have a pretty efficient day at AK with NO Fastpasses? I have small children so really all they want to see is the Safari, Festival of the Lion King, and maybe the Kali River Rapids. If we rope drop on a Crowd Calendar-3 day, could we get those in pretty quickly just using Standby?

Thanks!

I agree, I think AK is the easiest park to rope drop and skip FP+. I'm actually planning to do that on our next trip and save the FP+ for the second park of the day. We usually only spend 1/2 day at AK anyway, just not a lot for us there that we care to repeat every trip. We can knock out the three we do want (safari, dinosaur, and everest) before the lines pick up.

 

[gwek]

We've been to AK the first week of November the past two years (a week generally more crowded than yours) and we're done by lunchtime both times. We didn't do Kali River Rapids, but did Lion King, Bug's Life, the safari, and a few other things (character signings, etc).

I would recommend safari first, but keep your eye on what times the showtimes are for Lion King. Last year, we would have been done an hour or two earlier, but we missed (I think) two different showings by about 10 minutes because we were in the wrong part of the park at the wrong time.

Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios are both somewhat easier to plan for than Magic Kingdom but what thing they both share is a lot of shows that need to be planned around. Factor that into both halves of your plan.

 

[minnie mum]

There is a cheat sheet for AK at easywdw.com that has a plan for touring AK without FPs, if you want to take a look.