Best route to tour AK

[3kidz4dis]

I have a few touring ideas from books that are both completely different. One is going to Kilimanjaro Safari first then to the Pangani Forest, Festival of the Lion King, Flights of Wonder, Kali River Rafts, Expedion Everest, Tarzan Rocks, Dinasour.

Another plan says to do Kilimanjaro Safari, Kali River Rafts, Expedition Everest, down to Dianosaur, back up to Pangani Forest. This tour says to get all the bigger wait rides out of the way first but has a lot of backtracking.

Which of these are better for our age kids of 4-6 and 8 where backtracking can be tough. Although with the shows of Festival of the Lion King and Flights of Wonder it seems like we would have to backtrack anyway. Any
Suggestions?

 

[forest]

If you plan on doing EE - particularly if the 8 year old is interested...go early and go there first! We went over Easter weekend at park opening, went right to EE, rode 2 and got FP and then walked right onto Safari and then back to EE using FP and then did all of Dinoland. Then we did the shows, F of LK is one of our favorites, and saw Flights of Wonder and loved it. then Tough to be a Bug. You will need to spend time at Camp M & M. We were there for a full week and went to AK 2x, worked out great for us!

most of all - have fun!!

 

[3kidz4dis]

If you plan on doing EE - particularly if the 8 year old is interested...go early and go there first! We went over Easter weekend at park opening, went right to EE, rode 2 and got FP and then walked right onto Safari and then back to EE using FP and then did all of Dinoland. Then we did the shows, F of LK is one of our favorites, and saw Flights of Wonder and loved it. then Tough to be a Bug. You will need to spend time at Camp M & M. We were there for a full week and went to AK 2x, worked out great for us!

most of all - have fun!!

Now, I am unfamiliar with the distance of AK. How long of a walk is it to EE, then to the Safari and back to Dinoland. Is it as far as a walk as it seems with my age kids?

 

[forest]

It is not too far if you look closely to a map. There is a path between Asia and Africa (where Flights of Wonder is). then a path from EE to Dinoland.

Are you bringing/renting a stroller? I would recommend...WDW is always a lot of walking!

 

[3kidz4dis]

It is not too far if you look closely to a map. There is a path between Asia and Africa (where Flights of Wonder is). then a path from EE to Dinoland.

Are you bringing/renting a stroller? I would recommend...WDW is always a lot of walking!

I do see the paths on a Map now. We do have a stoller, I just thought that if we could avoid backtracking we should. Now, how about the shows? Did you look first to see when they were showing and then fit them in if you were in the area or did you need to do a lot of backtracking to those as well?

 

[OttawaWendy]

I think it matters a lot when you are going and the congestion level.

We were in the World in early December, 2005 when the crowds were very sparse. There were extremely minimal lines. We found we could get fastpasses for the premier attractions with 20 minute to 1 hour return times. If you can do that, you can start in Africa or Asia, get a fastpass for EE or KS, and then do the trails (or Flights of Wonder) and then use your fastpass. This makes for fast touring with no backtrcking. On the other hand, if you are going during a busier time, you are best to be on hand for rope drop and get the busiest rides out of the way first. That is what a touring plan from something like the Unofficial Guide is based on.

AK is my favourite park - I hope you have fun.

 

[3kidz4dis]

I think it matters a lot when you are going and the congestion level.

We were in the World in early December, 2005 when the crowds were very sparse. There were extremely minimal lines. We found we could get fastpasses for the premier attractions with 20 minute to 1 hour return times. If you can do that, you can start in Africa or Asia, get a fastpass for EE or KS, and then do the trails (or Flights of Wonder) and then use your fastpass. This makes for fast touring with no backtrcking. On the other hand, if you are going during a busier time, you are best to be on hand for rope drop and get the busiest rides out of the way first. That is what a touring plan from something like the Unofficial Guide is based on.

AK is my favourite park - I hope you have fun.

We are actually going to be in the park on May 8th which is a Thursday.

 

[rlovew]

I would suggest getting there at rope drop. Go straight to Everest and get FP then get in line and ride (you can always give away the FP if you don't want to ride again and the standby queue is really neat if your line will be less than 20 minutes). Do Kali River Rapids and if there is time the Jungle Trek. Head back to use your FP at Everest. Take the path to Africa and get a FP for Safari. Then depending on your schedule either see Flights of Wonder or jump on the train to Rafiki's. If you are going to Flights then have all but one memeber of the partyu stop there and the other member get the FP. If after this there is still time to kill before going on the Safari then take the African Trail. Ride the Safari. Head into Discovery Island and get inline for Tough to Be a Bug. Enjoy the cravings on the tree as you wait and be sure to take note of the poster hanging inside. If it within a half hour of Lion King go to camp Mickey for the show and while there enjoy the character interaction times before leaving. Then head to Dinoland (these 2 are interchangeable) and get FP for Dionosaur if needed and wanted (many times I have almost no wait) and then enjoy the boneyard and other rides while waiting for the FP. If you haven't been to Camp Mickey go now. Before leaving be sure to enjoy the trails in the Oasis and take in the wildlife. Becuase each big ride is in the middle of a land with things to do that have little waiting you can get a FP for that and then enjoy the land while waiting for the FP to come avaiable.

 

[QueenT]

rlovew I like your plan. If I don't want to go on Kali River Rapids in the early am, do you think it would be a good idea to do Dino stuff instead while waiting for EE fast pass time? If you get an EE FP when hitting the ride 1st thing, what are typical return times? > or < 1hr?

Do AK FPs run out by 1-2pm like they do in MK? (I bet EE does).

We are going in early Oct.

 

[3kidz4dis]

I would suggest getting there at rope drop. Go straight to Everest and get FP then get in line and ride (you can always give away the FP if you don't want to ride again and the standby queue is really neat if your line will be less than 20 minutes). Do Kali River Rapids and if there is time the Jungle Trek. Head back to use your FP at Everest. Take the path to Africa and get a FP for Safari. Then depending on your schedule either see Flights of Wonder or jump on the train to Rafiki's. If you are going to Flights then have all but one memeber of the partyu stop there and the other member get the FP. If after this there is still time to kill before going on the Safari then take the African Trail. Ride the Safari. Head into Discovery Island and get inline for Tough to Be a Bug. Enjoy the cravings on the tree as you wait and be sure to take note of the poster hanging inside. If it within a half hour of Lion King go to camp Mickey for the show and while there enjoy the character interaction times before leaving. Then head to Dinoland (these 2 are interchangeable) and get FP for Dionosaur if needed and wanted (many times I have almost no wait) and then enjoy the boneyard and other rides while waiting for the FP. If you haven't been to Camp Mickey go now. Before leaving be sure to enjoy the trails in the Oasis and take in the wildlife. Becuase each big ride is in the middle of a land with things to do that have little waiting you can get a FP for that and then enjoy the land while waiting for the FP to come avaiable.

I like this plan, although by the time you get to the Kilimanjaro Safari, how is the wait then? It would seem this is the better way to go though because there are quite a few "time killers" in that area if you are waiting for the safaris.

 

[Cannot_Wait_4Disney]

rlovew I like your plan. If I don't want to go on Kali River Rapids in the early am, do you think it would be a good idea to do Dino stuff instead while waiting for EE fast pass time? If you get an EE FP when hitting the ride 1st thing, what are typical return times? > or < 1hr?

Do AK FPs run out by 1-2pm like they do in MK? (I bet EE does).

We are going in early Oct.

The fastpasses in MK in early october when we were there did not run out for any ride by 2. They did run out by 2 on Soarin in Epcot and I expect much the same on EE.

I think it would be good to do the dinoland stuff while waiting. Sure.



I plan to do everest right off (no fastpass needed) then head to the safari, fast pass it, if over 15 minutes and walk the trail before the throngs get off the safai, Othewise, I'll do the safari first, then the trail. Fastpass Kali. Do the bird show and the trail and Kali in what order the show times and fast pass dictate. We plan to skip Rafiki's. It takes a ton of time if you're not careful.
We're then done with the back section (except for Rafiki's) before lunch.
Oh yeah. Lunch at the flame tree. Then over to lion king and Pocahantis (show times determine the order) Over to Dinoland FP Dinosaur. Ride TT spin and primeval hurl. Do the boneyard if time. If Rafiki's is still open, head back and do it If not, it's time to get It's tough to be a bug in and the oasis.

 

[rlovew]

We didn't run itno anything running out in October but I bet FP for EE is gone at least as early as Soarin', the next few months should begin to give the picture.

Queen T- you could go do Dinoland instead of Kali and do Kali later in the day- they may even havbe a Flights show later in the day to catch. When we got FP first thing in the morning the wait was about 1 hour for EE (the first FP started at 1 hour into park time.) When we got there at 11:30 we got FP for 2:30 but that was before it officially opened.

 

[rlovew]

I like this plan, although by the time you get to the Kilimanjaro Safari, how is the wait then? It would seem this is the better way to go though because there are quite a few "time killers" in that area if you are waiting for the safaris.

It depends on how fast you walk and when in the time slot you go back to Everest but if you go back as soon as you can then you would probably have a short wait and could do the African trail and then see flights of wonder. You really need to look at the show schedule and have an idea of which ones you can catch. I couldn't make a plan to really figure out with show times becuase the park is open so much earlier right now then it will be then so the show schedule would be off.

I love thinking through plans that get me around the parks with the least waiting and walking, I carry a pedometer with me on every trip to see more of the distances and find it very interesting. It takes about 4 good visits to really get down a good schedule to go through the entire park in a day for a first timer. I am from South Florida so I will go as a guide for friends that are going to Disney for the first time. They all say that we see it all and don't run back and forth (of course I know that unless you spend a day leiesyurely walking through a park without worrying about doing more than 2 or 3 rides you can't get to all of the park extras).

 

[3kidz4dis]

It depends on how fast you walk and when in the time slot you go back to Everest but if you go back as soon as you can then you would probably have a short wait and could do the African trail and then see flights of wonder. You really need to look at the show schedule and have an idea of which ones you can catch. I couldn't make a plan to really figure out with show times becuase the park is open so much earlier right now then it will be then so the show schedule would be off.

I love thinking through plans that get me around the parks with the least waiting and walking, I carry a pedometer with me on every trip to see more of the distances and find it very interesting. It takes about 4 good visits to really get down a good schedule to go through the entire park in a day for a first timer. I am from South Florida so I will go as a guide for friends that are going to Disney for the first time. They all say that we see it all and don't run back and forth (of course I know that unless you spend a day leiesyurely walking through a park without worrying about doing more than 2 or 3 rides you can't get to all of the park extras).

Rlove, Thanks so much! I just scrapped my original plan and just typed my cards that I am going to laminate your way. I am nuts, I know. But I do have another question I was going to post on a new thread, but it sounds like you are the person to ask: I had the same dilema with MGM especially since there are so many shows there as well. I was going to take the boat from our resort, Get FP for Indiana Jones or just go, Lights, Motor Action, Honey I Shrunk the Kids playground, Backlot Tour, Little Mermaid, Playhouse Disney, Voyage of the Little Mermain, Great Movie Ride, Beaty and the Beast, Tower of Terror. What is your strategy of dealing with all those shows with the least amount of wasted time backtracking? We are leaving in 2 weeks and will be there on Tues the 9th.

 

[3kidz4dis]

I couldn't make a plan to really figure out with show times becuase the park is open so much earlier right now then it will be then so the show schedule would be off.
QUOTE]

We will be there on Monday May 8th, is there a posted show schedule I could see somewhere now?

 

[Marie2794]

This was our day at AK and it worked out GREAT. (our dd was 5) There was no backtracking and we were able to see everything but Rafiki's.

We were there for the opening ceremony at 8:45 and at rope drop we headed to Camp Minnie-Mickey for the first showing of Festival of the Lion King. We had planned to do the character greeting trails afterwards, but dd wasn't interested so we left that area.
Back at Discovery Island we wandered in and out of the trails on the east side of the Tree of Life, then stopped to see It's Tough to be a Bug.
We then did the 11:30 Flights of Wonder show before heading to Asia.
We weren't interested in getting wet so we skipped Kali and just had lunch there and wandered through the Jungle Trek. Then we headed to Africa. DiVine happened to be on the path between Asia and Africa at that time (1:30), so we stopped and watched her for a bit.
In Africa, we had planned to get fast passes for the Safari but the wait was only 10 minutes, so we didn't bother. We took a little break, letting dd cool off in the misters for awhile and having a snack from the fruit stand. Then we went on the Safari and wandered through the Pangani Forest.
Then it was time to scope out a place to watch the 4:00 parade, so we headed back to Discovery Island, wandered in and out of the trails on the west side of the Tree of Life, and found a spot near the bridge to DinoLand.
We watched the parade, then after the parade we stopped at the character landing to see Pooh, Eeyore and Tigger, then my dh and fil went on Dinosaur while my mil and I ended the day at the Boneyard, watching dd play.

It was a perfect day!

(That was pre-EE though, so if that is a must-do for you then I'm not sure how that would fit in.)

 

[rlovew]

The best place for show schedules is http://pages.prodigy.net/stevesoares/index.htm but they are only put up on Saturday night for the following week. If the times aren't chnging much from week to week there is no problem but when the park is open a lot more hours than when you will come then the schedules aren't necessarily accurate. They are updated on Saturdays because that is when Disney publishes their entertainment schedules for the next week.

 

[rlovew]

Little Mermaid, Voyage of the Little Mermain, .

Are these 2 different things: I think you mean Voage of the Little Mermaid which is called: Little Mermaid for short on the boards. I am looking at the show schedule I can see but not having kids a couple of your things (playhouse Disney and Honey I Shrunk playground I haven't been too. I'll be back on later with my plan- of course I don't have a clue about your eating plans.

 

[mouseplanner]

Thanks for that entertainment schedule link - that was exactly what I just logged on to ask about! I noticed on the MGM Studios schedule they have something called Jedi Training Academy? Does anyone know what exactly that is? Thanks.

 

[3kidz4dis]

The entertainment link was great except I just realized that Extra Magic Hour is the day we were going. Should we not go that day? Does it make a difference how crowded it will be? Getting there by 7:45 is something I would rather not do either, and if we get there later, the lines will be long. Should we change days?