Animal Kingdom the day AFTER Pandora opens

[bluejeansmum]

I planned out my family's vacation and have us going to Animal Kingdom the day AFTER Pandora opens. When they rate it a "10" on the crowd scale is that for the peak hours? Will it be a madhouse from the minute it opens? I have the day planned with us arriving at opening, all our fast passes in the morning, a quick lunch and then explore until we are ready to go back to the pool. I'm hoping it won't be too bad if we are out of there right after lunch?! If it's going to be a madhouse ALL day, I could switch our Animal Kingdom day with the Epcot day but I'm afraid once I cancel my fast passes I won't be able to get the times I have now. Any thoughts?

 

[Robo]

You are asking an unanswerable question.

Nobody knows what will happen, for sure.

It is a safe bet that the park WILL be busy.
Just HOW busy... that's unknown to anyone, including Disney.

 

[bluejeansmum]

You are asking an unanswerable question.

Nobody knows what will happen, for sure.

It is a safe bet that the park WILL be busy.
Just HOW busy... that's unknown to anyone, including Disney.

Hmmmm this makes me nervous! Maybe I need to switch things around!

 

[Robo]

Hmmmm this makes me nervous! Maybe I need to switch things around!

Just know that DAK will feel the increase in crowds for WEEKS (and months) after Pandora opens.

 

[glocon]

Agree- it will probably be a 10+++ kind of day. But you'll have fastpasses and you'll get to see pandora!
It probably will be busy the whole time you're there, so why bother switching.

 

[CAS239]

It'll likely be packed, but switching your days around won't matter. Like Robo said, it'll likely be packed for the next few months at least. With the Pandora rides likely having 60+ min standby waits daily for the next few years

 

[AtlantaDisneyDreamer]

I planned out my family's vacation and have us going to Animal Kingdom the day AFTER Pandora opens. When they rate it a "10" on the crowd scale is that for the peak hours? Will it be a madhouse from the minute it opens? I have the day planned with us arriving at opening, all our fast passes in the morning, a quick lunch and then explore until we are ready to go back to the pool. I'm hoping it won't be too bad if we are out of there right after lunch?! If it's going to be a madhouse ALL day, I could switch our Animal Kingdom day with the Epcot day but I'm afraid once I cancel my fast passes I won't be able to get the times I have now. Any thoughts?

If you already have a fastpass for one of the Pandora rides, I would not switch it. Those seem to be going like hotcakes. I don't think one day after it opens will be much different from five days after it opens.

 

[mshanson3121]

I planned out my family's vacation and have us going to Animal Kingdom the day AFTER Pandora opens. When they rate it a "10" on the crowd scale is that for the peak hours? Will it be a madhouse from the minute it opens? I have the day planned with us arriving at opening, all our fast passes in the morning, a quick lunch and then explore until we are ready to go back to the pool. I'm hoping it won't be too bad if we are out of there right after lunch?! If it's going to be a madhouse ALL day, I could switch our Animal Kingdom day with the Epcot day but I'm afraid once I cancel my fast passes I won't be able to get the times I have now. Any thoughts?

If you have Fastpasses for the Pandora rides, do not switch. I highly doubt you'll get them again. It's also a very safe bet that it's going to be extremely crowded - it's the newest attractions on opening weekend on a long weekend at that.

 

[fla4fun]

I would expect AK and Pandora in particular, to be busy throughout the summer. If it is a hit, it could be busy for the next year or more (at least until Star Wars Land comes on board). Any day you visit that first week or two that it is open is going to be very busy, so I would not change anything.

 

[vicb]

My family (2 working adults and 2 working young adults) are hoping we can all coordinate for an early Dec. trip and really hoping things will have died down a bit at Pandora. We've been waiting for it to open and studying up how to navigate FP and all there, so lurking on all AK threads now. AK was always a half day park at best for us and sometimes we skipped it. So looking forward to this next visit.

 

[LilyWDW]

Don't switch. No matter how busy that day will be, it's not going to be all that much better on another day. Pandora will mess with the attendance at AK for awhile.

 

[SomDayMyPrnceWillCom]

We are arriving the day Pandora opens but not going to AK until 29th, so 3rd day it will be open. I'm expecting the crowds to be 10+ for sure but I have FP made for both rides on different days.

 

[Brave teacher]

We also planned to be there the day after it opened in our original planning. I know that there is not going to be any difference if I change to a day later in the week, so we left it as planned. With the park opening at 8AM, we do plan to be there no later than 7AM..meaning at the tapstyles by 7AM.

We are DVC members and AP holders. We go at this time every single year, so we have no problem leaving AK for the day after we have used our 3FPs for the day. We have discussed that we may be out of there by lunch just to get out of the crowds we expect to see there. We do plan to go back the following night, so we are not hard-pressed to stay all day to see Pandora at night since we'll see it the next evening.

Whatever you do, don't move your FP. You will not get a FP to either ride in Pandora for later in the week.