Animal Kingdom Questions

[beckyd13]

I just have a few questions about the Animal Kingdom... We're doing a half day there on a Thursday morning in October. It opens at 9am and we plan to leave somewhere between noon and 1pm. We may go back and spend some more time there on our last day of vacation if we enjoy it.

How much time does it take to walk around the trails? About 20-30 minutes each?

I know that the safari is the go-to ride at RD... do you think a good plan would be to try and ride Everest (which were REALLY excited about) as many times as we can at rope drop and do a Fastpass+ for the safari around 10am instead?

What are the lines like for Dinosaur on an October morning? Do you think I should use my third FP+ for Dinosaur or for priority seating at the FOTLK? Is the ride vehicle/motion comparable to Indiana Jones at Disneyland? I'm really excited for this ride despite its less than favourable reviews.

And last question...

This is what we want to do:
- Walk the trails
- Ride the safari, Dinosaur and Everest (a couple of times hopefully)
- See FOTLK
- Eat at Flame Tree BBQ

Will we have enough time to do this on our half day?

Thanks!

 

[nkereina]

How much time does it take to walk around the trails? About 20-30 minutes each?

It's more like 15-20 for us, but everyone is different.

I know that the safari is the go-to ride at RD... do you think a good plan would be to try and ride Everest (which were REALLY excited about) as many times as we can at rope drop and do a Fastpass+ for the safari around 10am instead?

Sounds like a viable plan to me. If EE is more important to you than the safari, that is what I would do.

What are the lines like for Dinosaur on an October morning? Do you think I should use my third FP+ for Dinosaur or for priority seating at the FOTLK? Is the ride vehicles/motion comparable to Indiana Jones at Disneyland? I'm really excited for this ride despite its less than favourable reviews.

Never done FOTLK, but we did not need a FP for Dinosaur on a November morning last year. As for the ride itself, it's VERY bumpy and jerky. I slide all over the seat and it makes me a little motion sick (I can do EE just fine though). Regardless, it is a fun ride. Can't speak to how it compares to Indy.

And last question...

This is what we want to do:
- Walk the trails
- Ride the safari, Dinosaur and Everest (a couple of times hopefully)
- See FOTLK
- Eat at Flame Tree BBQ

Will we have enough time to do this on our half day?

Thanks!

Last trip, we did all of this except FOTLK, but we did go to Rafiki's Planet Watch. Even ate at Flame Tree. We were done by 1pm. If you have the time, I recommend It's Tough to be a Bug. It's a cute 4D show. We did this as well, and stll finished by 1pm.

 

[beckyd13]

Last trip, we did all of this except FOTLK, but we did go to Rafiki's Planet Watch. Even ate at Flame Tree. We were done by 1pm. If you have the time, I recommend It's Tough to be a Bug. It's a cute 4D show. We did this as well, and stll finished by 1pm.

Thanks! It's really nice to hear someone else confirm that my plans are doable.

I've been avoiding It's Tough to Be a Bug because I'm one of those people who act completely irrational when I see something with more than 4 legs (even if it's on a video screen).

What about Kali River Rapids? Just like every other raft ride out there? I read the theme isn't that great...

 

[PEC]

If you are really looking at doing EE multiple times then yes I would RD it and do the FP+ for the Safari at 10. The safari is great but not really one that you do multiple times on the same trip. EE is a definite one that you would like to do more than one time.
Trails are 15-30 minutes. Depending on how much time you want to spend in them. Technically you could probably walk them in about 5-7 minutes but you would not see anything.

 

[PEC]

Thanks! It's really nice to hear someone else confirm that my plans are doable.

I've been avoiding It's Tough to Be a Bug because I'm one of those people who act completely irrational when I see something with more than 4 legs (even if it's on a video screen).

What about Kali River Rapids? Just like every other raft ride out there? I read the theme isn't that great...

Kali River Rapids is fine. Theming is probably best in the Wait line. IF you go back a second time you can put it on the to do lists.

 

[amym2]

Yes, I think your plan sounds good. Get a FP+ for Kilimanjaro Safari and ride EE at rope drop as many times as you can. I think my kids rode it something like 7 times at rope drop on our last visit. That's probably what we'll do when we are there in Oct as well.

Yes, Dinosaur is very similar to Indiana Jones (I seem to recall reading that the tracks are identical). It's not my favorite, but our kids like it. We haven't been since FP+ started, so I'm no help there. If you want to be in the front for FOTLK, I'd probably FP+ the show. Otherwise I'd probably go ahead and FP+ Dinosaur. But someone else may have better advice.

How long the trails take really is up to you. We only spend maybe 15 min on the trails, but our kids are antsy to get to other things. They are 12 and 10 and we are just this Oct finally planning to see ITTBAB because they've always freaked out so much when we have tried in the past. I think they can finally handle it... maybe.

 

[wareagle57]

Yes, ride Everest at RD. Lines won't build on it for quite some time and you can get 3-4 rides in easily. If you only want to ride Safari once then I would definitely FP it and take advantage of re-rides on Everest. I might not even use a FP on it, you really won't need it that first hour. You can even do single rider and walk on as many times as you want. I'd also use a FP on Dino after the Safari. I've never used one for a show so I really don't know what the advantage is. I know it won't save you much time though.

 

[Jeff_G]

We took more like 40 minutes on the trails, slowed down and looked at things.

We rode EE twice at RD then went over to the Safari. We had a FP for Kali, EE and Dino in the afternoon. It rained in the afternoon and for some reason Dino was shutdown so we missed that.

I recommend flights of wonder it was a really good show.

For use AK is a full day park, its one of our favorites due to the extensive theming of the park. If we do another trip we might just do two days in AK.

 

[beckyd13]

I recommend flights of wonder it was a really good show.

Yes! I hope to see that show too, but I think I'll save it for our second day there. We'll most likely go to the Animal Kingdom again the day we have reservations at Boma.

 

[RustManFan]

Last trip we spent 2 full days at AK....I can't imagine a half day

Many people passed us on the trails but they didn't take the time to really look at the habitat and animals imo......we also had very interesting talks with a few cast members each day that were lots of fun!!

That trip was me and my sister so no kids

 

[kaybird]

Dinosaur is the same as Indy, with a different theme. I love them both. Be sure to watch and listen to the pre-show, sets the ride up, and there is a cute post show tag on the monitors just before the gift shop. Many people miss this in their haste to see the ride photo. It is on a loop, and pretty amusing in my mind.

EE is great, try to do the line at least once, the queue is set up as a museum, and nearly all of the props, tents, teapots etc were brought back from Nepal by the imagineers.

 

[ZoZo]

I'd recommend using the Single Rider Line for EE. I've done that for several October trips, and it's always been less than a five-minute wait (often, no one else is in line and you get right on!). You can ride over and over again, if you want!

 

[nkereina]

What about Kali River Rapids? Just like every other raft ride out there? I read the theme isn't that great...

We think Kali is just like every other ride out there, and it's short. Not to mention, you get full on soaked since you go under waterfalls. If we decide we want to do Kali, we always bring a change of clothes and rent a locker to avoid walking around drenched all day.

I also agree with the Flights of Wonder show recommendation. We caught that last trip and it was a cute show as well.

 

[CTDisneyfan816]

Last trip we spent 2 full days at AK....I can't imagine a half day

Many people passed us on the trails but they didn't take the time to really look at the habitat and animals imo......we also had very interesting talks with a few cast members each day that were lots of fun!!

That trip was me and my sister so no kids

For me it's 3 hours and out at AK. I go for the safari, EE, Dinosaur and if I feel like getting wet the River Rapids and then I am out.

 

[kaybird]

For me it's 3 hours and out at AK. I go for the safari, EE, Dinosaur and if I feel like getting wet the River Rapids and then I am out.

This is a great example of how we all do WDW differently! Love the rides you mentioned, but all four parks would get the 1/2 day tag if we only did 3-4 of the attractions!

 

[momto3boysillbe]

This is a great example of how we all do WDW differently! Love the rides you mentioned, but all four parks would get the 1/2 day tag if we only did 3-4 of the attractions!

this is true! Our first family trip my FIL assured us AK was a half day at most. Turned out they hadn't done even half of what was there! There's so much you can miss at AK if you're in a hurry like wonderful attractions/exhibits. OP you have a good plan of going back on a 2nd day if you feel like you missed some things of interest.

 

[Meriweather]

It is a full day park for us......do miss the parade.....and we usually go 2 days on a trip.
We take a lot of time on the trails. DH could spend hours just watching the bats.
We always see Flights of Wonder and really like the Nemo show.
Dino usually doesn't need a fast pass.
EE at open or safari. We did safari at RD and then went to EE. It was a walk on then. Also had FP for safari later. And used one for FOTLK.....it was the first day it was back and the stand by lines were pretty long.
It is a beautiful park and we love just walking around and looking at all the details.

 

[beckyd13]

Thanks everyone! I'm getting really excited for this park now. It's just my boyfriend and I going. While we really love the rides, we also love all the little details Disney parks offer and like to schedule time in our generally structured plan to just look around at our own leisure (...if that makes sense). By the sounds of it, Animal Kingdom imagineers didn't skimp on any of the details!

I should add that we're not making this a half day park because we think that's the only amount of time it deserves... we're just planning to do the MNNSHP that evening. And with the shorter hours in October, and with everything we want to see (since it's our first time to Florida), we want to maximize our time everywhere we go.

I'm really excited for the queue at EE... I watched a YouTube video of it today and it looks so neat! These artifacts are really from Nepal? So cool.

 

[practicallyperfect77]

OP - Not sure if you have kiddos with you and what the ages are but there is also the Wilderness Explorer program at AK now (I believe it started last summer). There are 31 stops in the parks taking a couple minutes each to complete. You earn badges along the way. Very excited to do this with my niece age 5 and nephews 7.

 

[beckyd13]

OP - Not sure if you have kiddos with you and what the ages are but there is also the Wilderness Explorer program at AK now (I believe it started last summer). There are 31 stops in the parks taking a couple minutes each to complete. You earn badges along the way. Very excited to do this with my niece age 5 and nephews 7.

No kids, but still sounds fun for two twenty-somethings