Can You "Get Through" Animal Kingdom in 1 Day?

[tonybny]

This is my family's 1st visit there. Is it possible to "get through" AK in 1 day, or do you need 2 days to fully enjoy it?

 

[MerMom60_94]

This is my family's 1st visit there. Is it possible to "get through" AK in 1 day, or do you need 2 days to fully enjoy it?

I would venture to say that depends upon your family and what you like to do. It also depends upon crowds. If you want to see and do absolutely everything there, you may not get to it all in one day. You can do most everything though. We love coasters so we always have to go on EE a couple of times. My DD is interested in veterinary medicine so we spend a lot of time at Rafiki's Planet Watch - probably more than most families, actually, because we like talking to the people who work there and we stay for the animal demos. Festival of the Lion King is a great show, but shows can take a lot of time (relatively) due to their nature. Personally, if it were my first time there, I would probably need a day and a half to two days, but that's because this park has a lot of stuff that is "our thing".

 

[ginnymack]

You will probably be able to do most everything on your list in a day unless you want to turn over every stone. We have budgeted a day for AK and we put it mid week, as we are hoping for it to be one of our "lighter" days since it closes early. A good touring plan will help, and if you think you might be cutting it close on time, try stick with quick service meals.

 

[crisi]

We can do it in a day, but we never leave having felt like we did everything we wanted to do. If you are interested, you can spend hours at Planet Watch or on the Trails - but a lot of people skip those. And if you want to do Everest more than once and the Safari more than once (each trip on the Safari is a unique experience - and some of our trips have been SPECTACULAR - once we had a rhino four feet from the truck. Once a baby giraffe you could ALMOST reach out and touch - and some ho hum - when we do a ho hum trip I really want to give it a second chance).....

If you focus on the main attractions and only do each one once, have a good touring plan, and use Fastpasses, it can be a half day park.

 

[Mirb1214]

We devoted 1 day to Animal Kingdom twice now and we still haven't "gotten through" it yet! We have a 15 yo and a 3 yo and so there isn't anything our family can just skip over. We also do the character autographs so that takes up a chunck of your time as well. If you only plan 1 day there, definately pick out the top 3 to 4 "must do's" and do them first. That's what we had to do this last trip and we still didn't get much accomplished it seemed.

 

[labdogs42]

I have never had a problem doing all the things I wanted to do @ AK in one day. Hit the headliners first, use fastpass and you can do it!

 

[EcbLovesMickey]

I agree with everyone, 1 day should be fine, unless the park is just JAM packed. Get a fast pass for the Safari or Everest as soon as you arrive, and get in the line for the other one. They are the longest waits usually. Also, the Nemo show is awesome and can fill up on busy days, so be sure to get there a few minutes earlier than show time to get seats.

We often skip Rafiki's, I know some people LOVE it, but it's so similar to what is at our zoo here I see it as more of a time consumer. We love the walking trails, and save Kali rapids for last unless it's a hot day!

 

[J3nn78]

Ak is not even a full day for us. We like to go to ride Safari, Everest, Rapids, Nemo Show, and the Lion King show. After that, we are done

 

[myhouseofmouse]

have we have always done AK in one day, get there at opening. get a fast pass right away for Everest, then head right for the safari, then the rest is a breeze

 

[ktlm]

We have always done AK in a day. Pre-kid we stayed from opening until after the parade and did pretty much everything in the park. Now, the only problem I have getting things done there is my DD (has been to WDW at age 2 and age 3), doesn't really care for it and only humors me for a few hours before she begs to leave and go back to MK or Epcot. She loves the Lion King, Safari, and meeting characters, but that is about it. Some kids really like AK, mine wants less animals(although she generally loves animals and will spend an entire day at the zoo at home) , more princesses

 

[arcticdisneylovers]

In January we didn't even spend a whole day and we ate 2 TS meals. But we skipped the Nemo and Lion King shows. We had our day mapped out and we did everything we wanted to do but we skipped lots of stuff. My touring plan for next January will be quite different and I expect we'll need a whole day for sure

 

[Keri]

We've always only done one day there & been fine. Yeah, we can't quite do everything we want, but it's enough. 2 full days would be too much for us, and we don't do park hoppers, so 1 it is! We try to get there early and usually stay until close. Definitely get FP for the Safari first, and/or Everest. EE also has a single rider line which seems to move *way* faster. My DH has done that every year & has been able to basically just walk on.

 

[Worfiedoodles]

We can do AK in half a day, but that is probably because we are not really interested in much of what they have to offer -- we do Kilimanjaro Safaris, Dinosaur, a stop at the Tea stand and maybe a walk on the Forest Trail and a ride on Kali Rapids if it's warm enough, and we're done. Back when we hadn't been several times -- I would add in Festival of the Lion King, It's Tough to be a Bug, and depending on the ages of your kids, Camp Minnie Mickey and the other DinoLand rides. We wouldn't do EE, but most people would. I would also eat at Tusker House. So yep, I think a day would do it.

Maria

 

[EKW]

My family can get all the fun we can out of AK in half a day!

 

[holden]

We also do AK in 1/2 day. We hit Kali, EE, and The Lion King show. We also just like to walk around and view the scenery - some of the best theming in WDW!

 

[WAHMto5]

We have always been able to do AK in one day. Just have to have planned out what you for sure want to see/ride

 

[luvsJack]

We absolutely love AK and usually do as much as we can in one day. We are there at rope drop and stay until after dark (November on EMH nights) but we haven't seen the Nemo show or rode Dinosaur yet. We do watch the parade so that is a bit of time that could be used to do other things if you aren't interested in parades.

Next trip we are planning 2 day in each park and am looking forward to AK with plenty of time and being able to take it slow and really enjoying everything there is to look at.

 

[AirGoofy]

While we like AK, it is our least favorite park at WDW. We usually don't do theme parks every day of our trip, so we may only visit AK every few years. We don't do park hoppers, so we get it done in one day. We're able to get all the main attractions, character greets, and Lion King and Nemo show. Somehow, it feels like a larger park or maybe that's because we walk so much to get everything we want done.

 

[ilvdznee]

Ak is not even a full day for us. We like to go to ride Safari, Everest, Rapids, Nemo Show, and the Lion King show. After that, we are done

Us too! We only spend about 3/4 of a day there

 

[Mommytwotwins]

We went to AK for the first time last year and pretty much did everything we wanted in 1 day. There are things we want to do this year last maybe we passed on last year but even with my kids that LOVE animals I would not do 2 days unless we realy had extra time. Just make a plan of the things you MUST do and do those first!