Animal Kingdom open late - your experience

[summermac]

On the Saturday of our trip, AK is open until 8:00. The latest it's ever been open on any of our trips is 6:00. Because of this I am considering changing our plans a little to hit AK later (1:00ish?) rather than at rope drop. For reference our planned AK day is Saturday Feb 15 (President's Day weekend) so I am a little apprehensive in general.

Experience?
Thoughts?

Thanks!

 

[baler31]

In general if you need a late arrival day AK is your best park. Crowds tend to seriously leave after the parade and waits are very minimal in the last hour. The weekend you have planned will be crowded but if you need a day to sleep in and relax AK will be your best bet to have success with this.

If you can pre book your FP+ even better as you can make your rides close to arrival and then ride again stand by right before park close.

 

[Michigan]

The shows and safari all end at the same time they do when the park closes earlier so if you want to stay late for that don't.

 

[summermac]

The shows and safari all end at the same time they do when the park closes earlier so if you want to stay late for that don't.

Which is what time?
Thanks.

 

[kaybird]

Animal Kingdom is enchanting after dark. Nothing beats riding Everest at night, and all the lights and paths around the park let you see details you may have never noticed. Lion King will be closed then, so the only shows that would really be of concern are Nemo and Flights of wonder. Last Safari is usually around 5. The Uplighting of the Tree of Life is pretty amazing, and fun to walk down to Tough to be a Bug in the dark. Love love love the lights in dinoland, good time to get a view from the dinowhirl.

 

[SharonS]

Last safari will be between 4:45 and 5:00. There will probably be a Nemo about 5:30 or 6:00. FOLK is closes through probably June

 

[bjakmom]

Another vote for riding EE at night
It's even more awesome in the dark!

 

[CarrieR]

AK late arrival is our standard plan. Unless you want to do EVERYTHING the park offers, seven hours will be too much. The last hour or two will be dead - EE is generally dead to the point they send everyone through the FP line and you can re-ride over and over with just a train or two to wait. Dino would be the same if you could skip the darned pre show!

You could probably arrive at 4, do Safari and Nemo, then catch the rest of the rides at your leisure. Late AK evenings are rivaled only by 3am EMH in desertedness

 

[ReluctantDisaholic]

We love AK at night - we walked on pretty much everything over and over, and it looks really pretty with all the lights.

 

[Colleen27]

I love AK late in the evening. Sure, the safari is closed but that's a once-and-done for us... Everest, on the other hand, is one we'll gladly repeat and by 6ish it is usually a walk-on or nearly so and it is REALLY cool in the dark. My girls rode 10+ times in a row in the last hour of the day with an 8pm close on our March trip!

A lot of people view AK as a half-day/three quarters-day park. After the parade it really clears out. I'm not sure how that traffic pattern will change without the parade; it may start emptying earlier without that draw to keep people there to mid-afternoon. You could likely arrive early/mid afternoon (by 3ish would be my recommendation) and see the shows and animal exhibits first, then enjoy the rides in the low crowd evening hours.

 

[DemonLlama]

We decided to try AK at night for this past trip (just back a week ago) when AK was open until 8:00 and we'd never stayed late.

What we didn't know was that all of the trails close down at dark (around 5:00). Last safari available 60 days out showed 4-5, but then I got an email that it had been changed. Last safari option was moved to 3-4. Pretty much by 5, even getting there at noon, we could've stayed to ride Everest (30 minute standbys around 6:00) and that's about it. We tried just roaming, but this park isn't nearly as lit and nighttime friendly, as least compared to MK and MGM, where we typically spend our evenings.

For us, we'll go back to morning AK and cut out mid-afternoon.

 

[FamilyGuy]

Between 7:20-8PM our party re-rode Everest 7 times! And this was on Saturday Jan 4th (8-9 on most crowd calendars).

 

[summermac]

Everest 7 times? Sign me up!

I figure we will arrive by noon and have FP+ for Safari, Dinosaur and Everest. We don't ride Kali and Finding Nemo was bizarre to us. We should be able to tour the rest of the park effectively in those 8 hours.

 

[FamilyGuy]

Everest 7 times? Sign me up!

I figure we will arrive by noon and have FP+ for Safari, Dinosaur and Everest. We don't ride Kali and Finding Nemo was bizarre to us. We should be able to tour the rest of the park effectively in those 8 hours.

That sounds like a great plan at AK to me!