Animal Kingdom Hours

[DC7800]

On the WDW website for park hours, if you click on October it lists Animal Kingdom's hours as 9-5 for October 28-31. However, if you click on November Animal Kingdom is open only 9-4 (just seven hours a day) for the same time period (hours are currently posted through November 3). Question is, whethor this is yet another cutback at WDW or a simple mistake. This would be an awfully short "day" in the park. Sure, you can always park hop over to World Showcase, having done about everything AK has to offer in 7 hours, but people on a one-day ticket don't have that option. They would, however, have plenty of time to go spend money off Disney property (I'm guessing many one-day ticket holders are off-site guests?). The times for Mickey's Jammin Jungle Parade are also contradictory (3 or 4 p.m.).

This is the second major mistake over WDW's operating hours in less than a week. Last time World Showcase was listed as 10-9, and on this board I applauded the decision to have all of Epcot keep the same schedule while making other cutbacks (Early Entry, etc). I'm now eating those words.

 

[JeffJewell]

...the early closing really doesn't bother me that much.

I wouldn't be that bothered if they moved the parade back to 2:00 and closed AK at 2:30. At 2:30 in the afternoon, there're still an awful lot of choices for things to do around the parks.

I think that if they have to cut hours, the best way to do that is in a swing shift: open MK and AK at 8:00, open DS and Epcot at 11:30, close AK at 2:30, close two of the other three at 6:00 or 7:00, and have a rotating late park, with Fantasmic, IllumiNations, or Fantasy in the Sky at 9:00.

That saves on staffing hours, while still offering the ability to enjoy the parks thirteen solid hours, to those vacationers who want or need such a thing. Every night has an 9:00 evening ending spectacle somewhere.

Actually, instead of opening both AK and MK at 8:00, make it 9:00, but alternate them as 7:30 EE parks, to maintain that on-site resort advantage (and add a half hour to some families' day in the parks).

I know this would still screw up some individuals plans, but I think it would offer a better chance at rescheduing than the "cut EE" "cut the late shows" "open later" and "close earlier" cuts that effectively devalue both a day in the parks and staying on-site.

Jeff

PS: you mention the one-day, one-park ticket; that needs to bite the dust. Just sell the one-day Hoppers, and use AK for its strengths, starting out the day, rather than using the parade gimmick to try to make people hang around a park that most folks don't think has a full day's worth of attractions, and one that has no in-park, sit-down dinner restaurants (and the RC outside the park is a re-run even at WDW).

 

[Josiah Harper]

During the times I've visited DAK, it seems everyone's heading for the exit by 4:00 anyway.

I would *love* to experience this park after sunset. I'm hoping my trip in late December, when the days are short, will mean I'll be able to.

Joe

 

[ArcticWildMan]

When are they going to reduce the price of our Park Hopper tickets I wonder? The "value factor" of those tickets sure has decreased!

We were actually planning on buying into DVC's Wilderness Lodge Villas when we went down in December. I have pretty much bagged that idea. It just isn't worth it to give Disney $15-20K of our money with all the cuts Disney is making. Oh well. Their loss.

 

[SPAGo 98]

Truthfully, there's nothing to do in AK by 4 pm. All the animals are dozing, and you've ridden all the rides 100 times each. Both times I've gone, I headed out by 3 and went to Epcot.

 

[cboudre1]

We were in the AK when it first opened around 7pm and it was completely empty. We stayed until closing because it was in April and the other parks would be packed. I couldn't believe it was so empty during a school vacation. We stayed until closing and loved it, but I can understand why they don't stay open late. There is no one there.

 

[DisneyFanGuy]

I guess that I understand 4:00 pm. AK needs a few more attractions to be attractive as a full day park. But opening at 9:00 am? A total of 7 hours open? As the other posters mentioned, it kind of limits AK as an option for park hopping. Why can't they open at 8:00 am? The animals would be more active for more time for early risers and folks would have a better shot at hopping to another park like Epcot that will stay open later in the evening. The park would be a bit better value for the one day visitors too. (There is no way that I would pay 50 dollars to go there without park hopping privalages now). With the park hours shrinking daily, it would be a nice gesture to open earlier and Disney could at least point to one decision demonstrating that they are trying to balance financial decisions while being sensitive to the guest experience.

Also, I wonder what the Rainforest Cafe thinks of all of this? If the park closes at 4:00 pm, it just about puts a nail in the coffin of any dinner business for them. Considering that they are the only full service restaurant in the park, I bet Dinner is big there.

Animal Kingdom was my family's least favorite park, but we were considering going back and giving it another shot when we visit in November. We were going to go early and then spend the afternoon/evening at MGM. We may have to rethink our plan.

So now at the AK, we have very limited hours, few attractions to start with, and some of them closed on certain days. Wow.

Animal Kingdom must really really be down in attendance.

All of this gets worse every day. I am almost afraid to turn on my computer. At least I haven't heard of full parks being closed on certain days. I'm afraid that that may be next. YUCK.

 

[ees]

As I look at the cut hours for Animal Kingdom, I wonder how you get to the shows, with limited times offered and the parade. This is what I want to do can it be done, oh ya and im not looking to run thru the park I want to take my time, 4 year old and a 6 year old, do not rush well.
1. Breakfast w/Donald 8am
2. Kilimanjaro safaris
3. Rafikis planet watch
4. Kali River rapids
5. Discovery Island character landing - meet and greet Pooh and gang
6. Character greeting - Charachter greeting
7. Festival of the Lion King (4 show times available?)
8. Lunch
9. Flights of Wonder
10 Parade
11. Tricera Top Spin
12. Bone Yard
13. Tarazan Rocks (limited show times)

Ok can I really do all that at a comfortable pace between 9am and 4pm.

 

[Safari Steve]

The last two years, we had times that DAK closed early on Saturdays and 1-day/1-park tickets were honored for admission to MK after DAK closing. I think that it would be a good idea to make this available again (mind you this wasn't every day, only Sat, I think) rather than re-introducing 1-day hoppers. Also, there seems to be an attitude that the recent cutbacks are malicious attempts to bilk people out of cash and ruin their vacations. While I'm sure that no one honestly believes this, I feel that I must say that it's not true. The motivation behind these cutbacks is to keep from having to lay off CMs (salaried, that is, hourlies can't be laid off). So far, it's worked. And not all cutbacks have affected guest satisfaction. Many don't even have anything to do with guests, and for those that do affect guests, every attempt has been made for service recovery on an individual basis. Hours should be better during our historically busy holiday season, and hopefully we'll continue to recover into the new year. This hasn't all been a result of Sept. 11, but a result of a soft year compounded by Sept. 11. (Think about it, parks were already at unusually low attendance levels, and then we had how many thousand guests stranded on site for upwards of 4 days at no charge... that has to have been tough to manage while still holding onto as many workers as possible.) I'm not belittling (sp) anyone's concerns, as this is not ideal for anyone, but I just wanted to say that no one is doing any sinister giggling over this at Team Disney.

 

[ArcticWildMan]

I don't think anybody thinks WDW is doing this to be malicious.

Most of us just see continued cuts and cuts and cuts while park ticket prices stay unchanged.

I like what the guy that hosts "HARDBALL" said right after the 11th (not exact quote, but close)..... "it's time for American businesses to suck it up and help America get back on track. The American people provided record profits and growth for the past 5-6 years. Now it's time to pay us back and ignore the balance sheet for once."