Animal Kingdom needs love

[Aerin75]

I love AK but can understand OP's perspective. Everyone I've ever gone with is so let down by Kali. I like EE and KS and actually really like the dino land (including PW!!! My family are maybe the only ones in the world who love PW!) but coordinating around the shows is a pain. I am underwhelmed with them (except Flights...) and also don't find them very repeatable. I love the animal areas but its very annoying that the park pretty much has only 5 rides. (Including PW but not TS). I wish they had the Bugs land from CA adventure for my daughter, there are even fewer rides for a tiny kid. I don't like park experiences that are so heavily reliant on shows and scheduling around them, which is necessary at AK because you don't want to end up on the wrong side of the park 10m before Showtime. I hope Pandora is just the beginning. That they make Kali better (like Grizzly in CA? Fat chance though) and that they add more rides for everyone, even cheapo kiddie rides like Bugs Land in CA would help. (Great use of Dino Land: add shade, different dino theme overlay to kiddie ride structures, gut those terrible game booths? Even boardwalk style rides like swings or a Viking ship-style ride would be a fun addition.)

We actually enjoy Primeval Whirl as well! It was a fun twist on what we have near home.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

You guys talk about the atmosphere a lot and the theming ... But I went there today and so many places are hidden behind fences that it ruins a lot of it.

Seeing a fence and a worker behind doing his stuff really breaks the immersion in addition to all the closures . I really wouldn't recommend visiting the park for at least a month or two ...

They are building Pandora (and moved FOTLK) and Dinosaur is under going a refurb. What else is making things look so poorly?

Are you sure you've been to DHS to compare? Or really consider all that is closed at Epcot, even if it isn't behind screens? That the doors are just locked? Personally I don't see the comparison.

 

[BoltzNBrew]

I agree. We were there today at RD. Hit Safari, Lion King, Kali, Flights, Everest, PW and the 1pm Nemo show and were pretty much done. All three shows were great and we stayed til 7:30 to see the Tree. Spent all of about 30 min in Dinoland and my boys love dinos. There is just nothing there to suck them in. PW was too jerky for more than one ride. Tough to be a Bug was too short but everything worked . Moved our 5pm ADR at Y&Y to 4 without any problem. If not for the 10 min stand-by wait and abundant FP+ For EE my boys would have been bored to tears. I rode it 4x and they rode it 7. We walked on to Safari at 6:30 to kill some time, there were more animals out then than in the morning. After that we went looking for all the night time activities and the only thing we found was in Africa, between Africa and EE it was a virtual ghost town. Very disappointed, we should have went to the pool this morning and just went in the afternoon/evening.

 

[xipotec]

How dare you bash anything WDW on Disboards!!!!!

That being said AK is my least favorite as well...its beautiful, but if your not into shows....there is not much there.

Restaurants are passable, certainly better than MK, but that about it.

 

[CitrusSwirlGirl]

i love AK and can easily spend an entire day (and more!) exploring and enjoying the park.

But, like the op, I'm not a fan of the carnival game area. At all.

I am looking forward to Pandora despite feeling less than lukewarm towards the idea when first announced.

 

[jon18uk]

No I like shows once in a while but they're not really repeatable though .

For me Hollywood Studios is worse for the shows. Beauty and the Beast has been running for 20 years or similar! At least the Theatre in the Wild (now showing Nemo) is on its third show in 18 years, therefore giving some variety.

It could be said of course for Hollywood Studios that once you've done Toy Story, Tower of Terror and Rock'n'Rollercoaster there is nothing left to do for the rest of the day as most of the rest of the park is shows and characters.

Whereas at DAK you have the animal trails, the live music and acrobatics and several other small things. Of course the park is suffering at the moment without Dinosaur and I also felt that between 6pm and nightfall there was less to do, but we still had a great time. The night safari is fantastic!

 

[Ryansdad0727]

We have two young boys and we can spend hours in the play area alone. We love the safari and can walking through the animal trails. The petting zoo at Rafiki's is great for the young kids also. I can see how if you are a thrillseeker this might not be the place for you but lets face it, if you are a thrillseeker then Disney is probably not your cup of tea.

 

[IrishNYC]

We are also Animal Kingdom fans. It's my favorite, even over MK. We can spend hours watching the antics of the animals on the trails. I could skip the rides and still have a full day at AK. Pandora is just going to take it from a 2 day to a 3 day park for us

ETA - Reading through most of the comments on those that don't care for it and none mention the animals. Do you all ignore them? Animals are never the same, ever. It's always different. I guess if you go to AK and skip the animals then no, there isn't much left and I can see how you wouldn't like it. But it is called Animal Kingdom so yeah, check out the animals and it may well change your views some. And if you aren't in to animals then it probably is worth skipping. AK is not about the rides. They are secondary

And the shows! Has some of the best shows outside of Broadway. Lion King can bring me to tears every time I watch it. The aerial work amazes me. And the bird show is another favorite. DH never wants to skip it. Again, with animals as the feature act it means it's never the same, those darn things are anything but predicable.

I totally agree! There is so much to see and do at AK, even without the rides.

I find on these boards that most of the complaints about there being nothing to do, parks being "half day parks" come from people that don't watch the shows, see the street performers, or just soak it all it. There is way more to all of these parks than the rides. If all one wants is rides, they can go to their local Six Flags or Cedar Fair park for a lot cheaper.

 

[prprincess]

Lots of people I know over the years have indeed complained about AK. I cringe every time I hear that it's a glorified zoo because it is definitely not! I can't think of the last time I left there early and didn't spend a full day--for us, there is plenty to see and do.

I love AK, but then again, I love every park for a different reason. They're all unique in their own ways!

 

[AngiTN]

Lots of people I know over the years have indeed complained about AK. I cringe every time I hear that it's a glorified zoo because it is definitely not! I can't think of the last time I left there early and didn't spend a full day--for us, there is plenty to see and do.

I love AK, but then again, I love every park for a different reason. They're all unique in their own ways!

Right? I feel the same. It's hard for me to imagine there is any park with so little to do in it that someone would skip it. There is something I love in every park and is very important we get to experience on each trip. Most of them aren't even rides. If all I was after was rides I could drive 2 hours to Six Flags, as PP mentioned. Disney is about an experience, not a ride. That is what sets it above all the rest.

 

[buzznina]

If you are just there for thrill rides then yes you can be done in a few hours, but we go there knowing it will most likely be a more relaxing park and DW and I will look at all the details that the majority of people don't even notice. Do you take time to stop and watch the great street performers or pound on the drums in Harambe? We would always notice these white bricks in Harambe and finally decided to ask and found that (according to the story)they mark where the old fort walls in Harambe used to reside. It was once a military stronghold for European settlers. Twice we were lucky enough to see them working on an animal at Rafikis planet area All the detail inside Restaurantosaurus.
We have seen the Nemo show 6-7 times and Lion king about 4, so for us they are a show we like seeing again. All the little caves, tunnels, bridges etc. that they implemented into the park. To us the park makes you feel like an explorer when you are not just running from one ride to the next and take your time to actually look around

 

[thingwithwings]

AK is one of the ones that I can take or leave, at least depending on the weather when I go. For me, that's been the biggest factor in making it my least favorite of the parks--the only times I've visited, the weather was atrociously hot, and AK isn't exactly known for having a lot of places to really cool off. I'd love it if they added a few indoor attractions that were easily accessible no matter where you are in the park. The animals are fantastic, but there's only so much joy you can get from anything when you're literally melting and there's not an Elsa in sight to give you a personal flurry!

But that said, there is a lot to enjoy about it, if you focus on more than the rides (which I tend to; rides aren't really my thing). I love the Maharajah Jungle Trek and the Pangani Forest Exploration Trail--they're really great, at-your-own pace breaks from the more frenetic pace of other parks (particularly, I've found, DHS--my DH would live there if he could, because of Star Tours, but beyond that... well, let's just say that I feel that the Star Wars and Toy Story lands are giving it a much-needed facelift). I don't particularly care to schedule my day around the shows, but when I've chanced upon them in the past, they've been delightful.

Ultimately, not every park is for everybody, though. I think if you're really super focused on thrill rides and rides in general, it's probably not the park for you, and that's okay. Just leaves it a little less crowded for the rest of us

 

[kittyab]

I love the Lion King show. My only real complaint is I wish there was more area where there is A/C. The QS are all out side so you are sitting in the heat more.

 

[MaryKatesMom]

AK is my least favorite park for two reason's. There isn't enough shade or indoor space to escape the heat and the sidewalks. AK is the newest park so why did they do such an awful job with the the people flow here?!

Such beautiful atmosphere yet I can't see any of it because I spend my time dodging people, scooters and strollers. The worst scooter collision I ever saw happened because a family decided to stop and gather mid-sidewalk at a very narrow portion of the walkway forcing everyone around them single file left of right and a scooter hit someone in the back of the ankle. The way the guy went down I think he had his Achilles tendon torn.

If you think of the wide expanse of the walkway in WS and how everyone walks 5 across in both directions what were they thinking making things 5 across total in spots. This is very difficult to navigate with a double stroller.

All that land and still Africa is so crowded at all times. You can't sit and enjoy the atmosphere at all.

 

[DVCcurious]

People seem to complain all the time about Hollywood studios and Epcot but I think Animal Kingdom is the worst offender in WDW.

So what you're saying is 3 of the 4 parks kinda suck.

I agree with you. Let's all hope that Avatarland and Star Wars/Toy Story Land are long term solutions to fix AK and HS.

EPCOT....well it is what it is. There is no help coming its way for a long, long, long time.

 

[BrianL]

Well, I know it's annoying with Dinosaur being down and when effects don't work, but issues aside, I think the park as a whole is great, and will be even better with Pandora and RoL. I will defend the Chester & Hester section. It's classic Americana, like the Paradise Pier section of DCA. It's a sculpture, right down to the faded parking lot stripes on the ground. I will admit, I'm not a big fan of "carny games" in an expensive-enough theme park, and might prefer they put in another small-ish ride, but it doesn't bother me too much.

Granted, AK is small, and I usually found myself leaving by mid-afternoon, but with the additions coming, I'll definitely be staying into the evening.

 

[emonade8]

I like EE and KS and actually really like the dino land (including PW!!! My family are maybe the only ones in the world who love PW!)

My family loves PW too! It's pure fun and I get such hilarious pictures of everyone when we go down the hills!

 

[emonade8]

AK was never meant to be an amusement park that was ride centric, it's all about the animals and learning about them. Like all the parks it has it's highs and lows and it requires one to slow down and actually appreciate the little things. I love stopping in all the nooks and hideaways that have viewing areas. Nomad Lounge has become my favorite place in WDW,, seriously so relaxing. I go to AK 2 or 3 times a trip and just wander around.

We are so looking forward to checking out Nomad Lounge for the first time this trip. It looks amazing!

 

[Dan Murphy]

Welcome to the dis, ice.

 

[Harambe]

This thread is breaking my heart. The first time I walked through Maharajah Jungle Trek, I cried! The bamboo softly swaying and sounding like a beautiful wind chime . . . So peaceful . . .

You AK haters - I have two words for you . . . Dawa Bar!!!!