Animal Kingdom 7 a.m. EMH - Planning tips?

[ErinAlb]

Hi - I'm going to be in Animal Kingdom on Oct. 14 (Columbus/Indigenous People's Day), when EMH begins at 7 a.m. Because of the holiday (and Star Wars likely a contributing factor resort-wide), crowds are expected to be elevated.

I had planned on doing Na'Vi River first and then going to Kilimanjaro Safari. It looks like Kilimanjaro Safari doesn't open until about 8 a.m., regardless of 7 a.m. EMH.

1. Based on observed wait times on previous high-crowd, 7 a.m. EMH days, it looks like we want to be lining up for Na'vi River by about 7:10 a.m. at the latest. How early do we need to arrive at the park for that to happen?

2. If the Na'vi line IS short when we get there and we end up with 40+ minutes to get to Kilimanjaro Safari — are any restaurants open between 7 and 8 a.m. during EMH? What about viewing animals at Oasis or Discovery Island trails? Is that possible before 8 a.m.?

3. Does anyone know when Wilderness Explorers becomes available on 7 a.m. EHM days? Is it possible to obtain a booklet before arrival? If I manage to get a booklet, are there activities we can do even before the cast members are out?

(It'd be nice to use EMH to do more rides, like the ones at DinoUSA, but I'm traveling with small kids and seniors, and I don't want to wear them out walking Na'vi->Dinosaur->Safari. It might be nice to just get some food and meander Discovery Island and look at birds while crowds are low. But if we're not allowed to go anywhere but the main road and we can't get food, that would be a suboptimal use of EMH.)

Thank you for your help!!

 

[monkyby87]

I don't necessarily have much else advice, but do you have any plans on doing Flight of Passage? If so, that will want to be your priority, not Na'Vi River.

 

[sharonabe]

2. If the Na'vi line IS short when we get there and we end up with 40+ minutes to get to Kilimanjaro Safari — are any restaurants open between 7 and 8 a.m. during EMH? What about viewing animals at Oasis or Discovery Island trails? Is that possible before 8 a.m.?

The Starbucks in AK (Creature Comforts) should be open. Yak n Yeti QS also does breakfast, but you'll probably have to wait until you get there to see if they are open that early. Some of the other kiosks may also be open.

 

[ErinAlb]

I don't necessarily have much else advice, but do you have any plans on doing Flight of Passage? If so, that will want to be your priority, not Na'Vi River.

I'm going to try for a FP+ for Flight of Passage (60+1 day reservation window). If I don't get that, we'll either just skip it, or my side of the family might try to get to the park very early to rope drop FoP and meet the rest of the family after that (my little niece isn't tall enough for FoP). I'll only do FoP at rope drop if we can be out of the ride by 7:40 or so and make it to Kilimanjaro Safari by 7:52 a.m. to rejoin the rest of my family. Doing Kilimanjaro Safari with my whole family is actually a higher priority for me than riding FoP is.

The moment I saw the wait times for FoP, I accepted that it might not be in the cards. My time zone is 2 hours behind Orlando, so to be in line an hour early (6 a.m.) is like 4 a.m. for us — and with all the extra EMHs in the parks, we're going to be hurting for sleep on this vacation. I don't want us to drop dead of fatigue. But FoP might be worth some suffering, especially if the other relatives don't want to bother getting there so early for Na'vi.

Does anyone know how early I'd have to be there to get in and out of FoP by 7:40 a.m. on a busy day?

 

[Mome Rath]

I don't think there is going to be a lot of accurate feedback until we get SW:GE open and people attending the EEMH's. It may make overall attendance go up so much, that FoP is harder at rope drop, or it may make it a lot easier to show up, say 30 min before rope drop and be ok... there are different theories.

 

[soniam]

Navi doesn't usually get very busy first thing, especially for a 7am EMH. If they are checking bags before the park opens, which is what I think they have been doing lately, then you could probably get there at 6:30am, maybe less. Keep in mind that they may open the park before 7am, like 6:45am, and let people ride stuff in Pandora early. They do that a lot too. Nothing else will be open yet though. If they are not checking bags way before park opening, then you really need to be there by 6:30am at the very latest, maybe even earlier.

 

[Smrtalec33]

Yak n Yeti QS also does breakfast, but you'll probably have to wait until you get there to see if they are open that early.

For what it’s worth, May 25 is another Saturday with 7 AM emh and an 8 AM open, and Yak and Yeti local is listed as having a 9 AM open.

 

[yorkieteacher]

I know Touring Plans gets criticized a lot-but they are showing Kilimanjaro Safari opening at 7:15.

 

[ErinAlb]

I know Touring Plans gets criticized a lot-but they are showing Kilimanjaro Safari opening at 7:15.

Huh! Well, that would change things. I'm surprised -- I used Touring Plan's historic data for about 8 dates in the past year when there was 7 a.m. EMH, and Kilimanjaro Safari opened at 7:52 a.m. each day but one (when the first time was posted at 7:38 a.m.). I haven't seen a 7:15 a.m. open. Maybe TP has some intel we don't?

 

[yorkieteacher]

Huh! Well, that would change things. I'm surprised -- I used Touring Plan's historic data for about 8 dates in the past year when there was 7 a.m. EMH, and Kilimanjaro Safari opened at 7:52 a.m. each day but one (when the first time was posted at 7:38 a.m.). I haven't seen a 7:15 a.m. open. Maybe TP has some intel we don't?

I was making a personalized touring plan using TP for this September 10-but I have also read on AllEars website that Kilimanjaro Safaris is one of the attractions open during EMH at AK, so I think it will be open fairly early.

 

[traveler000mkl]

I had these exact same questions for my upcoming trip in June! Our AK day (6/22) hours just extended to 8am-10pm with EMH open at 7am. We are not really morning people and we usually try to avoid AM EMH and we were going to brave the 8am EMH this time! Now with 7AM I am really concerned . And at this point since I have all my FP+/ADR set up, it is difficult to switch days.

I am glad to hear that Starbucks would be open. That would make it easier if we don't have to eat breakfast before we leave... We were not planning to take a resort break, but we might with 7am EMH and come back.

We have FP for EE at 9:15am, Safari 10:20 and FOP at 11:40. We were hoping to RD Navi, then do Dinosaur, TriceraTop before going to EE. To cover Navi, Dinosaurs and Triceratops before 9:15am without too much wait (we do want to use FP at the beginning of window), what time do we want to be at the gate?

 

[ashleyr409]

We have a park day plan for June 3 AK 7am EMH. I want to RD FOP what time should I get there? Our FP for Nav'i River is for 9am. Its a two hour window, could I just arrive for 7-7:30

 

[ErinAlb]

We are not really morning people and we usually try to avoid AM EMH and we were going to brave the 8am EMH this time! Now with 7AM I am really concerned . And at this point since I have all my FP+/ADR set up, it is difficult to switch days.

YUP. This is our situation. We have some hard-to-get ADRs, and nearly every park is on daily Extra-EMH while we're there anyway — so switching days isn't really an option. We're flying from Mountain Time Zone, so getting to Animal Kingdom or Magic Kingdom the recommended half-hour before EMH (6:30 a.m. Eastern) is like getting there at 4:30 a.m. for us. And we're going to have to be awake at the equivalent of 3:30 a.m.

I work night shifts, so re-training my sleep hours isn't an option, though I'm planning to try that with my 6-year-old daughter.

This is always a thing when we go east, but given the anticipated crowds and the purported disadvantage of missing EMH when they exist — we're going to have to start most of our park days that early. And after Disney, we're off to Universal, where our Early Park Admission also is likely to be bumped to 7 a.m. due to nightly Halloween events there.

If it were just me, sure, I can drink a lot of coffee and power through on some well-timed Adderall. But I'm trying to figure out how to balance this for my child. I don't want us to only see the parks when they're so crowded that you can't enjoy anything. But I don't know if we can handle a whole vacation on these hours. Theme parks are pretty tiring even when you're well-rested. We do have a couple of off-days built in. We'll just have to see how it goes!

 

[traveler000mkl]

YUP. This is our situation. We have some hard-to-get ADRs, and nearly every park is on daily Extra-EMH while we're there anyway — so switching days isn't really an option. We're flying from Mountain Time Zone, so getting to Animal Kingdom or Magic Kingdom the recommended half-hour before EMH (6:30 a.m. Eastern) is like getting there at 4:30 a.m. for us. And we're going to have to be awake at the equivalent of 3:30 a.m.

I feel you! We are coming from the same time zone and still worried. I can't imagine having to deal with the time change in addition to it! I am really hoping we can arrive at 7:30am and still be able to get on Navi without too much wait. Our EE FP+ is 9:15am and we were only planning for Dinosaur and Triceratops before then. When I put those hours in Touringplans, it is giving me a reasonable expected wait time but I am not sure how accurate TP is.. If we really need to be there earlier at opening (6:45 or 7), we will probably come back to the resort for a break before heading back for nighttime visit.