Animal Kingdom hours - Frustrated

[Tia1977]

Is this their way of getting people to purchase hoppers? We always have them, and we try to get FP+ for early in the day, so changing park hours aren't a huge deal for us. But I can totally see how not knowing set park hours (and which days are party days) until a month (or less) before your trip would be incredibly frustrating.

It works on me lol And in Disney defense, I know this is all new and they're trying to navigate AK changes "trial by fire". But, that makes those of us going (especially night owls thrilled with the new AK nighttime activities) their guinea pigs so to speak...

 

[maxiesmom]

I'm going Oct 22 to 29. Problem is it's difficult to make a plan for the week without knowing what's going on. My hang ups are AK at night and when will Star Wars fireworks be shown. Its questionable if there will be a Jungle Book/Rivers of Light show in October. Star Wars may not be every night. Right now it's not a big deal but I want something firm before fastpass day on August 23. I have a couple lunch ADRs that are not dependent on those but that's it.

The Animal Kingdom hours were recently extended to 7:30. I read somewhere else (Easy maybe?) that later on the park wasn't as busy as Disney had hoped. Which is probably why they haven't extended them and farther out.

As far as defending, yeah, when someone is still more than 6 months out I will defend Disney for not having their Holiday show stuff together. In general it is a pain to try and make plans when you are unsure of park hours, but park hours change all of the time. We may not like it, but that is the reality, and it doesn't help to pretend that it isn't. I've had park hours change during my trip, so at no time can you rest and be sure of park hours. I don't feel it is worth my time getting bent out of shape over it.

 

[whiporee]

I just want to point out a couple of things:

1) AK is, for the most part, a zoo that features animals from tropical areas. I don't know of many zoos that are open past sunset during the winter. It's colder, and the animals from tropical climates need to to be inside when it's cold. Now, Florida cold may not be Massachusetts cold, but it's still colder than it is most of the year. The days are shorter, too. AK would be no different than most zoos around the world if they decided against night time activities that time of year. So planning for night activities at at zoo in winter might not be the most judicious use of your time. Weather is the reason that most of WDW attractions are inside, because a roller coaster when it's 45 degrees is not pleasant. But since Ak is about nature, that paradigm doesn't work as well; as a result, the park is a lot more dependent on nature than other WDW parks, and therefore much harder to anticipate and plan.

2) If you need to plan, plan for what you know. If things change later you can change them, but plan for what you know, rather than for what you wish/hope. I've never seen a situation where WDW reduced from previously published hours. For AK in the winter, I imagine the decisions will be made in very short time frames, because they need to be cognizant for cold fronts coming through. I wouldn't be at all surprised if those hours never go past 7 once they get into November, so I think you will be in for a long wait if you want to know when AK winter night hours will be.

 

[maxiesmom]

In addition to roller coasters not being pleasant when it is cold, Expedition Everest simply cannot run if it gets too cold. My dad and I were at WDW in December of 2010, that infamous year it got very cold. We went to the Animal Kingdom one morning and had a nice chat with the CMs while we waited for Expedition Everest to come on line. If it gets below a certain temperature, the wheels and the track don't work together, so the ride cannot run. When the ride came on line they could only run the one train with guests for a bit. And even with a coat on and the sun out, that was one cold ride!

 

[disneyfav4ever]

We booked TS lunches instead of dinner so we at least have our nights open on our AK days, then we don't have anything conflicting with the park schedule once it's updated.

 

[Lesverts]

I just want to point out a couple of things:

1) AK is, for the most part, a zoo that features animals from tropical areas. I don't know of many zoos that are open past sunset during the winter. It's colder, and the animals from tropical climates need to to be inside when it's cold. Now, Florida cold may not be Massachusetts cold, but it's still colder than it is most of the year. The days are shorter, too. AK would be no different than most zoos around the world if they decided against night time activities that time of year. So planning for night activities at at zoo in winter might not be the most judicious use of your time. Weather is the reason that most of the attractions are inside, because a roller coaster when it's 45 degrees is not pleasant. But since Ak is about nature, that paradigm doesn't work as well; as a result, the park is a lot more dependent on nature than other WDW parks, and therefore much harder to anticipate and plan.

2) If you need to plan, plan for what you know. If things change later you can change them, but plan for what you know, rather than for what you wish/hope. I've never seen a situation where WDW reduced from previously published hours. For AK in the winter, I imagine the decisions will be made in very short time frames, because they need to be cognizant for cold fronts coming through. I wouldn't be at all surprised if those hours never go past 7 once they get into November, so I think you will be in for a long wait if you want to know when AK winter night hours will be.

Orlando in December, January and February has similar weather to Nairobi, Kenya and is considerably warmer then winter in Johannesburg, South Africa. So no they don't need to be indoors, the animals would be perfectly comfortable with the normal lower temperatures that Orlando experiences in winter, because they are not that far off of what the animals would experience naturally in Sub-Saharan Africa.

AK isn't proving to be that popular at night. Disney probably jumped the gun a bit and should have waited to Pandora opening to initiate the extended hours. Probably needs another section, the long hoped for Australia, to justify a 12 hour day at AK. And this is coming from a person that loves AK.

 

[TXAKDisneyFan]

I just want to point out a couple of things:

1) AK is, for the most part, a zoo that features animals from tropical areas. I don't know of many zoos that are open past sunset during the winter. It's colder, and the animals from tropical climates need to to be inside when it's cold. Now, Florida cold may not be Massachusetts cold, but it's still colder than it is most of the year. The days are shorter, too. AK would be no different than most zoos around the world if they decided against night time activities that time of year. So planning for night activities at at zoo in winter might not be the most judicious use of your time. Weather is the reason that most of the attractions are inside, because a roller coaster when it's 45 degrees is not pleasant. But since Ak is about nature, that paradigm doesn't work as well; as a result, the park is a lot more dependent on nature than other WDW parks, and therefore much harder to anticipate and plan.

2) If you need to plan, plan for what you know. If things change later you can change them, but plan for what you know, rather than for what you wish/hope. I've never seen a situation where WDW reduced from previously published hours. For AK in the winter, I imagine the decisions will be made in very short time frames, because they need to be cognizant for cold fronts coming through. I wouldn't be at all surprised if those hours never go past 7 once they get into November, so I think you will be in for a long wait if you want to know when AK winter night hours will be.

It's nahtazu!

 

[CAS239]

[QUOTE="CAS239, post: 55999606, member: 514562" So really the only people being affected are those looking to make early prepark opening, or close to closing, ADR's.

That's not a true statement. This the first time we've had to deal with ADRs, because we got free dining. We would still be extremely interested in what the park hours are because when we're going there are a lot parties at MK that close that park early, and we're looking for things to do at night. And, even if they extend hours more, we're more interested in the attractions than we are the dining. It's a rare dining experience that changes just because it gets dark out. There are many attractions that do so.[/QUOTE]

So MK will be closed early due to party nights. AK hours will be extended, Epcot will be closing at 9pm, and HS will likely be closing around 10pm. I assume you're mainly referring to AK as the other two parks have posted hours and are the usual. So you can be confident AK hours will definitely be extended.

 

[_auroraborealis_]

Keep in mind the Jungle Book show has largely been panned and I've seen mostly negative reviews of the Sunset Safari. AK crowd levels (and likely, spending) aren't really justifying the current hours right now. Add in that they don't know which show, or if either show, will be running by Christmas?

I think if they had longer hours already set right now, and you planned to those hours, then they said "oh, and no big nighttime show in the theatre, just the usual stuff + safari + tree!" you would also be upset.

I'm going in October, and they've extended the hours to 7, but not the dining hours. I genuinely don't think they know what they're doing in the fall yet.

 

[whiporee]

Orlando in December, January and February has similar weather to Nairobi, Kenya and is considerably warmer then winter in Johannesburg, South Africa. So no they don't need to be indoors, the animals would be perfectly comfortable with the normal lower temperatures that Orlando experiences in winter, because they are not that far off of what the animals would experience naturally in Sub-Saharan Africa.

AK isn't proving to be that popular at night. Disney probably jumped the gun a bit and should have waited to Pandora opening to initiate the extended hours. Probably needs another section, the long hoped for Australia, to justify a 12 hour day at AK. And this is coming from a person that loves AK.

I don't think that's true. Orlando is at 28 degrees latitude; Kenya and Narobi are basically on the equator. The night time temperature almost never goes below 55 -- the average lows in Orlando are below that three months out of the year (it's not a big swing, but 5 degrees is 5 degrees). Plus, since it's close to the equator, it's not exposed to the large variances you get as you get to higher latitudes. Almost all of India, Thailand and Indonesia are at lower latitudes than Orlando. Almost all of Africa is in lower latitudes (Not all, I realize, but the large majority. Even Johannesburg is a lower latitude than Orlando), and nearly half of Australia. So is all of Brazil.

I realize the Gulf and the Gulf stream do a lot of temper Florida's climate, but they are in different latitudes, have different amounts of daylight in the summer and have different temperature variations.

 

[NYUBwayBaby]

I'm going in October, and they've extended the hours to 7, but not the dining hours. I genuinely don't think they know what they're doing in the fall yet.

I'm going in November and it still says 5pm. I'm just keeping my eye on it and going to change plans accordingly. Worst case it closes early and we hop somewhere else for a bit. Then again, we don't go all out on dining so it's not really an issue this far out.

 

[Luckybee]

It is very frustrating and the changing hours can vary the entire trip. We've decided to spend 3 nights in Orlando on our way to Aruba at the end of November. The main purpose was to see the Xmas decorations at MK . We have no interest in going back to HS this trip, and Epcot is only a maybe. On the other hand if the AK evening safari, and entertainment was available then we'd likely add that as one of our days because that would be something new. If we don't spend the 2nd day at Disney we'll likely spend one day at MK and another at Universal. If we're spending both days at Disney then we'll stay at either one of the monorail resorts or AKL instead of the Hyatt Grand Cypress which we've already booked. We wont rent a car. It all has a domino effect...and I haven't even spoken of booking ADR's yet !

 

[Lesverts]

I don't think that's true. Orlando is at 28 degrees latitude; Kenya and Narobi are basically on the equator. The night time temperature almost never goes below 55 -- the average lows in Orlando are below that three months out of the year (it's not a big swing, but 5 degrees is 5 degrees). Plus, since it's close to the equator, it's not exposed to the large variances you get as you get to higher latitudes. Almost all of India, Thailand and Indonesia are at lower latitudes than Orlando. Almost all of Africa is in lower latitudes (Not all, I realize, but the large majority. Even Johannesburg is a lower latitude than Orlando), and nearly half of Australia. So is all of Brazil.

I realize the Gulf and the Gulf stream do a lot of temper Florida's climate, but they are in different latitudes, have different amounts of daylight in the summer and have different temperature variations.

Yearly mean temperature in Nairobi is 64, Orlando is 73. Lowest daily temperature is 48 during July, Orlando's is 49 in December. Don't know where you are getting night time temperatures never go below 55? Every month, but April, Nairobi's average night time temperature is below 55. Being close to the equator is only one part of an areas climate. The presence or absences of water, elevation and general topography play just as important a role. Johannesburg is even colder with a daily mean temperature of 60. Even if you look Gaborone, Botswana has a very similar climate to Orlando temperature-wise, just not similar precipitation-wise. Also if you look at Orlando's Koppen classification, it is in the same group as cities like Rio de Janeiro, Buenes Aires, Brisbane and much of northeast India.

 

[whiporee]

Yearly mean temperature in Nairobi is 64, Orlando is 73. Lowest daily temperature is 48 during July, Orlando's is 49 in December. Don't know where you are getting night time temperatures never go below 55? Every month, but April, Nairobi's average night time temperature is below 55. Being close to the equator is only one part of an areas climate. The presence or absences of water, elevation and general topography play just as important a role. Johannesburg is even colder with a daily mean temperature of 60. Even if you look Gaborone, Botswana has a very similar climate to Orlando temperature-wise, just not similar precipitation-wise. Also if you look at Orlando's Koppen classification, it is in the same group as cities like Rio de Janeiro, Buenes Aires, Brisbane and much of northeast India.

https://weatherspark.com/averages/29277/Nairobi-Kenya

https://weatherspark.com/averages/29027/Port-Elizabeth-Eastern-Cape-South-Africa

https://weatherspark.com/averages/33920/Kolkata-Calcutta-West-Bengal-India

I don't really care, but that's where I got my information. Sorry if I misread the graphs, but I don't think I did. I still think it's slightly colder and stays darker longer in Orlando than it does in most of the places sub tropical animals come from, which could be a reason Disney would be hesitant to schedule post sunset hours in winter.

Or Disney could be money grubbing jerks who like to mess with people who want to plan ADRs and they don't release park hours so they can make customers buy park hoppers and stuffed Anna & Elsa dolls while they wait in standby lines intentionally created by running attractions at reduced capacity. People can go with that if they want, and I imagine many will.