**Disney After Hours - Animal Kingdom** FAQ & Discussion Thread

I am a newbie so please forgive me if my question is not posted correctly. Earlier today we bought DAH AK tickets for Tuesday March 5. We will not be in the park otherwise and would like to do the safari ride when we first arrive at 7pm if at all possible. Does anyone know what time is the last safari ride (no FP was available as best I could tell). We are staying at AKL and are doing the safari at the Lodge on Friday so perhaps I do not need to worry about this. If we can't book a FP for the safari, should we still try to get in line or just FP other rides that do not stay open for DAH. Lastly, do you really get to see any animals on the safari at this time of night or is it too dark? I would appreciate your suggestions.
 
I am a newbie so please forgive me if my question is not posted correctly. Earlier today we bought DAH AK tickets for Tuesday March 5. We will not be in the park otherwise and would like to do the safari ride when we first arrive at 7pm if at all possible. Does anyone know what time is the last safari ride (no FP was available as best I could tell). We are staying at AKL and are doing the safari at the Lodge on Friday so perhaps I do not need to worry about this. If we can't book a FP for the safari, should we still try to get in line or just FP other rides that do not stay open for DAH. Lastly, do you really get to see any animals on the safari at this time of night or is it too dark? I would appreciate your suggestions.

Touring Plans shows the safari closing at 7:30pm. Sunset is about 6:30pm, so it will be dark. You can kind of see some stuff. You can definitely hear the animals. If you have done the safari before, doing at night is interesting. However, I wouldn't want this to be my first or only time to do it.
 
Thanks for the reply. I guess I will have to decide whether to try and get in line for the safari (no FP available) or book FP for something else that is not open during DAH? Suggestions for what is not to be missed before regular hours close.
 


Thanks for the reply. I guess I will have to decide whether to try and get in line for the safari (no FP available) or book FP for something else that is not open during DAH? Suggestions for what is not to be missed before regular hours close.

Primeval whirl is not open during the event. It’s not necessarily a must-do but it’s a good one to do before the event since it will be closed. We also did It’s Tough to Be a Bug before park closing simply because it’s a longer attraction and never has a wait so we didn’t want to waste After Hours time on it.
 
Thanks for the reply. I guess I will have to decide whether to try and get in line for the safari (no FP available) or book FP for something else that is not open during DAH? Suggestions for what is not to be missed before regular hours close.

We really like Primeval Whirl, but a lot of people don't. It's a spinning, mousetrap coaster. There's the shows, Festival of the Lion King and Nemo. I don't think Nemo needs an FP anymore, but it can sometimes be handy for Lion King. The shows may have ended before 7pm though.
 


Weird looking at wait times and they don’t seem to be accurate Navi at8:44 was showing 45 min and two minutes later was at 25 min and MDE only showing four rides and two are bug and m&g

9 pm now showing Everest and dinosaur on MDE.

9:15 MDE showing 40-45 min for FoP

9:30 MDE 10 min for FoP site to behold!

10:20 MDE 20 min for FoP
 
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Enjoying the event so far. Started with Dinosaur right at 8:30, had about a 15 minute wait but I think we had the bad luck to arrive right with the rush. Then we rode Triceratops Spin twice while we waited for the popcorn line to die down. Then we got snacks and headed to Everest, rode it once (basically walked on), and now we're having more snacks before we ride again :) probably won't venture to Pandora until later. It doesn't feel crowded here at all.
 
Rode Everest 4 times in a row with no wait! They were letting us pick our row and everything. Some trains were half empty. We got more snacks and now we're heading to Pandora. The snack CM said she heard the wait for FOP is 20 minutes- we'll see if she's right!.
 
Enjoying the event so far. Started with Dinosaur right at 8:30, had about a 15 minute wait but I think we had the bad luck to arrive right with the rush.

I was here Tuesday night, and started at Dinosaur at 8:15. Walked all the way through to where you load, and noticed they weren’t loading. Something was wrong - so they held all of us there in the loading zone while they sent a CM through on a vehicle to test it before they’d allow us to board. I’d say we were stopped for about 15 minutes, which is probably the delay you ran into.
 
My recap of the event on 3/5:

I arrived at AK around 6 pm, and used my AP to go in the park to get my wristband at Guest Services. There was already a significant line of “party” attendees outside the gates, waiting to get in. I am an Annual Passholder, and travel frequently to the parks. This was a solo trip for me - woot woot!

Knowing I needed some dinner, I popped into the Nomad Lounge for a drink and some small plates. My intention was to eat quickly, and then head out for some rides...but I ended up making new friends at the bar, and well...so much for good intentions. I didn’t leave the Lounge until about 7:50 pm.

I left, and meandered over to Dinosaur. No one in line; walked right into the preshow. However, as I mentioned above, once we were let into the room, going down the stairs to the loading area, it became immediately apparent there was a problem. NO ONE was boarding. Cast members were looking at each other, somewhat in confusion, and then sending empty jeeps through the queue. Eventually, a CM hopped into one of the jeeps and said he’d be the guinea pig and go through the attraction. Another CM then announced to us, “If he gets back okay, we’ll start sending you all through.” Welp. So - we all stood there for several minutes, wondering if we’d ever see the Guinea Pig CM again - and to our great delight -and cheers - he eventually re-emerged, surviving unscathed. He did not get eaten by any dinosaurs, so, we were cleared to board.

Leaving there, I wandered over to Expedition Everest. The longest line here was for anyone wanting to ride in the first row; for everyone else, it was a walk-on. I rode it 6-7 times, and when the line for the first row disappeared, I asked for it, as well - and it was awesome. You could see the fireworks off in the distance at Epcot. I love EE, but it’s just an entire different ride in the pitch dark!!

Leaving EE, I then made my way over to Pandora...passing several popcorn/snack areas along the way, with about 10 people deep in each line. (But the lines moved VERY fast!) I don’t see well in the dark, and got a bit lost in Pandora...I thought I was making my way to FOP, but found myself in the line for Navi...oh well. It was a walk-on, so enjoyed that.

I then got off and blindly made my way to FOP. Approaching it around 9:15 pm, I was surprised to see a bunch (8-10?) of guests standing outside the entrance, some of whom where angrily exchanging words with some of the CM’s in front. I wasn’t sure what what was going on, but as I approached, I could see that guests were upset at the 40-minute wait that was currently posted. The CM’s were explaining that the wait was long because they were still trying to clear out some of the day guests, and of course, the DAH guests were NOT happy about this sort of wait for an event that we’ve all paid big $$$ for. Some guests chose not to get in the line and walked away...I decided to go for it, knowing that there were no FP peeps to slow the line down even more.

Surprisingly, I was in the first pre-show within 20 minutes of getting into line, so the 40-minute wait posted was a misnomer. Being a solo guest, it was easy to get pulled out of the long lines in the “tunnel” area and popped to the front to fill in the odd space. I ended up riding FOP a total of 5 times in a row...but yes, each time, BOTH pre-shows were operating, and man, what a long walk out of the attraction and back around.

By now, it was about 10:50 pm, and I was getting tired...and cold. Last night was definitely chilly - for Florida standards. I decided to just walk around and take some photos of Pandora in the dark, and enjoyed the ambiance. It was pretty much a ghost town at this point - I’m not sure where everyone was; maybe they’d gotten cold and left.

I grabbed some popcorn (in a box) and water (in bottles) on my way out of Pandora, and walked over to the Tree of Life, to watch some of the Awakenings. By now, it was about 11:15 pm - and I was ready to call it a night. Walked over to the bus lines, and the buses were coming fast and furious. I had just missed a Caribbean Beach bus when I walked up, but to my delight (because I was now REALLY cold!), another bus pulled up within 2 minutes - woot woot!
 
Are actually tickets mailed out for this event? I purchased 2 tickets but only have order confirmation sheet that shows payment. Is that all I need for admission on the party night?
 
Are actually tickets mailed out for this event? I purchased 2 tickets but only have order confirmation sheet that shows payment. Is that all I need for admission on the party night?
You will get tickets in the mail if you selected that option when you bought the tickets
 
I’ve read that at times AK runs two RoL shows and I’m surprised on 3/27, during busy spring break, there is only ONE show and it is scheduled at 8:30 when park is scheduled to close to regular ticketed guests at 8. Makes no sense to me since one of the aspects of the event is the reduction of crowds and it appears that regular guests will be allowed to linger into event hours to watch RoL .

Since many have posted about the lag time in AK between 8 when park closes and 8:30 when event officially starts I would think RoL would be best scheduled at 8:00 making the transition easier for everyone.

We're going 3/27 and I kind of want to see RoL, but not during the event hours I paid dearly for.
 
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