Animal Kingdom Rope Drop to Wander?

[pixiedust33]

So for our trip next month, AK is listed as opening at 9am with EE at 8:30. We have a 2.5 year old who only sleeps until 7 on a good day, so we're likely to rope drop because we'll be up anyway and eager to get to the park! But, we have no intention of doing any of the rides that are available for early entry. Our number one priority with our animal obsessed kid is simply to see animals, so I would like to be among the first in line to get on Kilimanjaro Safaris when that opens with the park at 9am. I would also like a little bit of time to just let my kid wander and see some cool stuff without being shuffled along. After that, we hope to get on the train to Rafiki's planet watch and pet some animals. The only other thing I want to fit into our day is Festival of the Lion King, some snacks and maybe some time at the Boneyard. This is our chill laidback day for the trip. (Just an FYI before anyone tries to talk me out of this very low key plan - my husband and I have both been before/have ridden all the rides and we'll be back, but this is a trip entirely planned around my toddler and his interests/his schedule! Lucky little guy.)

Anyway, my questions are:
1) is the full park available to wander at EE? (We have done EE at AK, but only when singularly focused on FOP).
2) When do the front gates typically open/when should I arrive to get in with the least hassle? (My hope is to arrive right as they're opening and not stand in a big crowd for a long time, because obviously we don't need to be at the front of the pack for any reason)
3) Can we actually get in the queue for the safari before the park opens? Or do I just mill around that area until they do actually open the queue (and when would that usually be?)

Very grateful for any thoughts or opinions!

 

[mort1331]

So even if EE is 830am, they almost always open up earlier. If I was you I would just casually walk to KSaf and they might actually be loading then too, or you could be one of the 1st cars. The bonus of early am safari is animals usually are more active. I would then check the 1st show time for FOTLK and wander the trails until then.

 

[Disneydawg74]

When we were there for EE in late November, they had a rope up to keep people from crossing the bridge to Harambe before 8:30.

 

[mickeyluv'r]

Anyway, my questions are:
1) is the full park available to wander at EE? (We have done EE at AK, but only when singularly focused on FOP).
2) When do the front gates typically open/when should I arrive to get in with the least hassle? (My hope is to arrive right as they're opening and not stand in a big crowd for a long time, because obviously we don't need to be at the front of the pack for any reason)
3) Can we actually get in the queue for the safari before the park opens? Or do I just mill around that area until they do actually open the queue (and when would that usually be?)

Very grateful for any thoughts or opinions!

1. The park hours are likely to change. I will go so far as to say you should expect AK to open at 8am/7:30am for EE.
3. No, you can not line up for the safari before the park opens, but you can line up for the safari before it opens. Safari hours will be listed in MDE. Today's hours are 8am-5:15pm. (see below for more info) Your son might enjoy Na'vi River and/or exploring Pandora in the early morning. I know both of those are open.
4. I know the Train does not operate early, so the Conservation Station is not open. Attractions that are not part of EE will not be open. The hours of each attraction is listed in MDE. You should be able to explore the animals near the entrance, and that could take up a good deal of time. On my last visit, we got lots of great photos there on our way out of the park.
5. You might also want to try the Wilderness Explorers Program with him. It is free, and might be a great way to structure your exploration!

2- We usually aim to arrive just before EE starts, but it really depends how you plan to get to AK, and where your hotel is. On one end: if you have your own car, and will be driving from Animal Kingdom Lodge, the drive is less than 5 minutes. If you are staying offsite, or using WDW buses, the timing is considerably longer and more variable. Google maps has very useful information. The WDW hotel bus stops now have electronic signs saying how soon the next bus should be, but I did not find them to be very accurate on our 2 most recent WDW stays. YMMV.

At AK, guests stand in lines before the park opens, and the lines are orderly, so it is not just a mob. If you aren't aiming to go on FoP though, you could arrive just after EE starts, and the entrance will be a little less crowded. If you are taking WDW transportation though, you will only have limited control over your timing. During spring, the parks will likely be busy. By 10am, attraction lines will be very long.

IF you are visiting AK in the weeks close to Easter: I was there that week last year, and by 9am the line for the safari was VERY LONG! It stretched back a LONG distance, and I am pretty sure CM's said it was well over an hour long. We had G+. I booked Na'vi at park open, then the safari for 9am. We arrived around the start of EE, and practically walked on both attractions. We had great luck booking back to back attractions until roughly 11am. For us, around 1pm, we started booking evening attractions in another park. I'm guessing that option doesn't appeal to you, but that is how we made good use of G+ that day, (We bought the all-parks G+ option.) and took a nice mid-day break that day.

One last thought is that he might enjoy a toddler camera. They are very durable, and lots of fun! I think they go for about $25ish, take reasonable decent photos/video, and have bonus photo effects features. Probably also easy to find a used one for even less $.

 

[pixiedust33]

No, you can not line up for the safari before the park opens, but you can line up for the safari before it opens.

I think I worded my initial question poorly, but I think you still answered it for me! I meant whether I could line up for safari during early entry when the park is open to me as an on-site guest but not technically fully open and the safari itself is not open. So basically, whether the CMs will start letting EE guests get into the safari queue before it opens with the rest of the park at 9am (or perhaps 8am, if what you're saying about them often moving it up is right!)

2- We usually aim to arrive just before EE starts, but it really depends how you plan to get to AK, and where your hotel is. On one end: if you have your own car, and will be driving from Animal Kingdom Lodge, the drive is less than 5 minutes. If you are staying offsite, or using WDW buses, the timing is considerably longer and more variable. Google maps has very useful information. The WDW hotel bus stops now have electronic signs saying how soon the next bus should be, but I did not find them to be very accurate on our 2 most recent WDW stays. YMMV.

We're staying at the Poly, and will not have a car. We definitely plan to make use of Minnie Vans at least some of the time, and am still on the fence about how we will arrive this day. I was leaning towards the bus on this morning, since I don't think we have to be particularly precise with our timing.

IF you are visiting AK in the weeks close to Easter: I was there that week last year, and by 9am the line for the safari was VERY LONG! It stretched back a LONG distance, and I am pretty sure CM's said it was well over an hour long. We had G+. I booked Na'vi at park open, then the safari for 9am. We arrived around the start of EE, and practically walked on both attractions. We had great luck booking back to back attractions until roughly 11am. For us, around 1pm, we started booking evening attractions in another park. I'm guessing that option doesn't appeal to you, but that is how we made good use of G+ that day, (We bought the all-parks G+ option.) and took a nice mid-day break that day.

We're visiting the first week of March, so theoretically will be a more moderate crowd time before the spring break crowd hits in full force. I am buying Genie + for each of the other 3 parks but wasn't thinking I would need it here because of my very un-ambitious agenda I do think my son would probably like the Navi boat ride just fine, but I was extremely underwhelmed by this ride when I rode it myself and he won't know what he's missing, so I was not planning to trek into Pandora. My plan is to stay pretty focused on the Africa section of the park. But, I guess I should start tracking how quickly the standby line jumps up for Kilimanjaro. I was thinking I would have a jump on most EE people who will be in Pandora or the regular entry people who will have to trek through the rest of the park while we already be ahead of that crowd, but I'm not sure.

 

[mickeyluv'r]

To follow up:

Now that I am looking closer at the timeline, the park official open on the day we went was 8am, w/safari opening at 9am. Looking at today, official open was 8am, but safari opened at 8:30am. Our pass was for Na'vi, and we used just about park opening. We next booked Safari for 9:05am. We arrived about 3min ahead of when the safari opened and found a mob of people already queued for the safari standby.

Google maps allow you to choose you mode of transportation, so you can see both how long it takes via car or using WDW's bus/boat/monorail options.

Mostly, I was just trying to convey the idea that you have multiple options. Our WDW approach is rough plan that we modify based on strategy and conditions on the ground that day. If ever we see a very popular ride like the safari, FoP or EE has a very short wait, for us = we often ride it twice in a row.

On the other hand, if we were visiting with a toddler, and the toddler was having a blast looking at the hippo, then hippo = our top priority, though perhaps within some limits.

If you are looking to avoid waits, then it pays to zig when the crowd zags, we try to avoid the popular QS places noon to 12:30pm most days. Sometimes we break that rule, other days we opt to have a noon snack.

 

[Simba's Mom]

Opinion-I think you have a great idea! I did the same thing last week. EE started at 7:30. But fortunately I was there around 7:05, because they started letting people in by 7:15. Walking and stopping to see animals, I was in line for the safari about 10 minutes before regular opening (8:00). After the safari, I went on the gorilla falls trail, where the animals were very active, especially the gorilla family. Don't miss the baby Opaki! There's plenty to see during EE-have fun!

 

[snowwite]

I think I worded my initial question poorly, but I think you still answered it for me! I meant whether I could line up for safari during early entry when the park is open to me as an on-site guest but not technically fully open and the safari itself is not open. So basically, whether the CMs will start letting EE guests get into the safari queue before it opens with the rest of the park at 9am (or perhaps 8am, if what you're saying about them often moving it up is right!)

We're staying at the Poly, and will not have a car. We definitely plan to make use of Minnie Vans at least some of the time, and am still on the fence about how we will arrive this day. I was leaning towards the bus on this morning, since I don't think we have to be particularly precise with our timing.

We're visiting the first week of March, so theoretically will be a more moderate crowd time before the spring break crowd hits in full force. I am buying Genie + for each of the other 3 parks but wasn't thinking I would need it here because of my very un-ambitious agenda I do think my son would probably like the Navi boat ride just fine, but I was extremely underwhelmed by this ride when I rode it myself and he won't know what he's missing, so I was not planning to trek into Pandora. My plan is to stay pretty focused on the Africa section of the park. But, I guess I should start tracking how quickly the standby line jumps up for Kilimanjaro. I was thinking I would have a jump on most EE people who will be in Pandora or the regular entry people who will have to trek through the rest of the park while we already be ahead of that crowd, but I'm not sure.

You can also check out the tigers in Asia, the turtles near the entrance and the flying foxes which I think were also in Asia. I love the Gorillas too. If you are up early you may want to go to AKL before the park for Boma and go see the animals there too. I made a 7:30am ADR for my AK day.

 

[loves to dive]

It sounds like you have a pretty solid plan. You could head back toward Safari and maybe stop at one of the little coffee shops in Africa and grab some breakfast. Then you could start the line for Safari if it's not already started, and eat your breakfast while standing in line. The good thing about the Safari line is, if you are using a stroller they allow you to keep it pretty far into the line. We were there in Dec. with my 2 1/2 year old grand daughter and keeping her in that stroller for as long as possible was great.

Depending on when the Safari gets running and the weather situation, you may or may not have good luck walking the trails. Some of the animals don't like getting up early if it's raining or a tad cooler, some do. They don't make them go out if they aren't interested. I know lots of early mornings the gorillas have not been out when I've been there, evidently the families take a little longer. Usually the big guys are out though. Funny thing, my grand daughter was more interested in the little fish ponds along the trail then the bigger animals.

I think my son and his SO ended up going to AK on two separate days (they had PHs) just because little one got tired and grumpy and they had to go back to the resort to rest the first day. She loved the BBATB show at HS but wasn't as thrilled with FOTLK at AK, could be because she had just woken up from a stroller nap and was still a little sleepy.

 

[mickeyluv'r]

One more thing to know is that most WDW QS do not open until 7am, including Capt Cook's (just checked today's hours).

So 7am is a potentially a busy time at WDW: G+, VQ, ILL's, getting ready, getting breakfast, and on your AK day trying to get to AK for EE on days when EE starts at 7:30am.

Another poster suggested getting breakfast in AK, and that can be a great option, so long as you know many other people will likely have the same plan. The line for the in-park Starbucks always looks rather long to us, so we try to avoid it.

The line for the Joffrey's coffee stand outside the front gates of AK usually has a much shorter wait.

A perennial challenge of WDW is to quickly get a quality cup of coffee in the early morning. The best solution we've found is to make it ourselves in the hotel room. Part of the challenge is how to procure/keep milk. One option is to make mochas using hot chocolate packets.

Another breakfast workaround for an early AK day is to procure breakfast foods ahead of time. On AK days we sometimes make a light breakfast of muffins, granola bars, oranges, etc. Anything that is easy to eat on our way out the door, or shortly after we arrive at AK. On our last trip, our breakfast snack was treats from Amorette's.

 

[pixiedust33]

One more thing to know is that most WDW QS do not open until 7am, including Capt Cook's (just checked today's hours).

So 7am is a potentially a busy time at WDW: G+, VQ, ILL's, getting ready, getting breakfast, and on your AK day trying to get to AK for EE on days when EE starts at 7:30am.

Another poster suggested getting breakfast in AK, and that can be a great option, so long as you know many other people will likely have the same plan. The line for the in-park Starbucks always looks rather long to us, so we try to avoid it.

The line for the Joffrey's coffee stand outside the front gates of AK usually has a much shorter wait.

A perennial challenge of WDW is to quickly get a quality cup of coffee in the early morning. The best solution we've found is to make it ourselves in the hotel room. Part of the challenge is how to procure/keep milk. One option is to make mochas using hot chocolate packets.

Another breakfast workaround for an early AK day is to procure breakfast foods ahead of time. On AK days we sometimes make a light breakfast of muffins, granola bars, oranges, etc. Anything that is easy to eat on our way out the door, or shortly after we arrive at AK. On our last trip, our breakfast snack was treats from Amorette's.

Definitely a lot to consider! AK is still actually showing a 9am regular entry, 8:30 early entry for our dates in less than 3 weeks but I keep checking to see if it moves up.

On our AK day, we won't be doing G+, VQs or ILLs at least though, so we'll just have to figure out getting ourselves out the door! We are staying in a DVC studio so it comes with a mini fridge and an actual coffee machine, so I think we'll do a grocery delivery on arrival day for early breakfast options if we need them. I'm hoping to grab something light in the room and then I have my eye on a "colossal mickey cinnamon roll" at Kusafiri, but I can't seem to find if that will be open for EE or if I will need to wait until 9am. Luckily we don't have a very ambitious AK agenda so we can take our time a bit.