Animal Kingdom on a Sunday

[parasail_of_congress]

We have a trip planned in mid-August and plan to spend two days in every park except Animal Kingdom. Due to our timing, it seems best to visit AK on Sunday. Assuming we rope drop, does it seem reasonable that we can manage all of the headliner rides? I'm guessing the crowds will be somewhat lower on a weekday, so I'm curious of others' experiences at AK on a Sunday.

 

[FCDub]

You should be fine to ride everything.

 

[sophy1996]

This last Sunday, we rode Navi, safari, Everest, Dinosaur, and walked the maharajah trek and some of the trails around the Tree of Life by about 10:30, when we got in line for the Nomad Lounge.

 

[ENJDisneyFan]

Just make sure you're at the park at least an hour before the official opening time, as they have been allowing people in the park 45-60 minutes early. You should be able to ride everything in one day no problem if you arrive that early.

 

[parasail_of_congress]

This last Sunday, we rode Navi, safari, Everest, Dinosaur, and walked the maharajah trek and some of the trails around the Tree of Life by about 10:30, when we got in line for the Nomad Lounge.

Nice - that sounds like a good amount in the morning. Did you ride FOP in the evening?

 

[sophy1996]

Nice - that sounds like a good amount in the morning. Did you ride FOP in the evening?

We don’t ride FOP due to motion issues.

 

[kevgraub]

We have a trip planned in mid-August and plan to spend two days in every park except Animal Kingdom. Due to our timing, it seems best to visit AK on Sunday. Assuming we rope drop, does it seem reasonable that we can manage all of the headliner rides? I'm guessing the crowds will be somewhat lower on a weekday, so I'm curious of others' experiences at AK on a Sunday.

If you get there at rope drop, I would guess you could hit all of the headliners by lunchtime, or close to it. You could probably hit all the headliners twice in one day, depending on what else you wanted to do there.

As a quick test, I just plugged every single attraction at AK into TouringPlans (except Lion King, which is not on there yet), including hiking the trails, going on the train out to Rafiki's Planet Watch, watching Tough to be a Bug, etc. With an hour factored in for lunch, TP has you done with everything by 2:30 pm. Now, those plans are certainly not exact, and you would still need to add in time for Lion King, but you are talking about a 4-5 hour cushion.

 

[gharter]

It will be busy by afternoon. If you are there at RD (45 minutes before scheduled opening), you should have no issues riding most of the rides and then do the trails in the afternoon when the lines are longer.

 

[julesann]

Yep, we were also there last Sunday and agree with pp that the key to doing everything in the park is to be there at about 45 to 60 minutes before scheduled opening and head straight to FOP.

 

[MarkS2112]

Yes you can get all of them plus seconds.

 

[Lisa51683]

Any news on Festival of The Lion King? Has it opened? Do you need tickets Or reservations?

 

[Scubadaddy32]

We got to the park for early morning hours and rode FOP first, Navi, safari, Dinosaur, then Everest by 10am. Everest actually has the shorter lines typically throughout the day.
The Lion King isn't open yet. And no you don't need anything. FP's are preferred for it when those comes back and you can get ADR packages which include preferred seating for certain shows as well.

 

[_19disnA]

You never know how crowded a park might be. We went to AK on a weekday (don't recall which one) during our last Disney trip and some places were wall to wall people. Some of the narrow walkways cause people to funnel together and makes walking around a challenge. I would suspect most of the parks get more visitors on weekends when locals with AP's decide to make a visit.