Feedback on Safari opening time?

[rosie5189]

We're heading to AK for our first day (May 16th) for our trip in two weeks. My almost 3 year old is so into animals and dinosaurs, so we're prioritizing the Safari, Conservation Station, and TTS/walking around Dinoland (while we still can ). It is me, my parents, and husband. We have all done Pandora multiple times so are not prioritizing those rides. Staying at BC and will either bus over or Minnie Van.

We were planning on arriving for early entry, heading to EE and rider swap for the 4 adults, and then head over to the Safari to hopefully get on right at 9. We are spending the AM/early PM at AK until naptime and then may head to Epcot for my daughter to ride Frozen and meet Anna and Elsa in the pm. Me, my husband, sister and BIL will be heading to close out HS that PM, and would like to ride a few rides before our 9PM Oga's reservation.

My question (it has been a few trips since we've been to AK and I cannot for the life of me remember how long the walk is from EE to Africa/Safari). Should I get the 9AM LL for Safari, and then get a PM LL for Frozen when we check-in, or should I start attempting to stack Frozen and rides at HS and forgo any LL for AK? I'm a little worried about rider swap and then booking it over to Africa and their being a long wait for Safari - my parents knees aren't what they used to be and we're moved from ride sprinters to leisure Disney . I figured a 9AMish Safari could give us a little breathing room and then allow us to make our next PM LL right away in the am. I've been checking wait times for Dinosaur since we want to give it one last goodbye ride, darkness and all, since it was a big family memory for us growing up. I do not think I need to waste an LL on that based on what wait times have looked like the past few weeks around 10-11:30am.

From our past two trips last summer and a one day trip this past January, I know Frozen and Remy's go quickly. Crowds (should) be slightly less the 5 days we're there in May, so I feel confident we can get a later afternoon/early evening Frozen reservation before my daughter will go down for the night.

It's a long one! Sorry! Any feedback or recent advice is welcome

 

[dcassetta]

The walk is maybe 400 yards from EE to KS. I do not think I would be concerned about an LL for KS and just plan for what you want at Epcot.

 

[TheSouthernBelle]

Looks like the park opens at 8:30am so barring any issues with EE, you have enough time to ride EE and walk over to safari. It's about a 5-7 min walk but with slower folks and a toddler, could be a little longer from EE to Safari. I'd probably not book a LL for it since it doesn't open for ETPE and you should be a little bit at an advantage over general admission guests. I would save your LL for Epcot. AK is not really a park where G+ is needed other than for FoP, especially this time of year when the parks are not that busy.

 

[rosie5189]

Thanks - that's what I figured since we are planning sans FOP. This way, we can get a prime time for Frozen and I can start stacking for HS at 11.

 

[georgina]

Generally the plan should work fine. We rode safari this morning and there were some issues, one of the trucks ahead of us broke down and we sat in our truck on the Savannah for at least 20 minutes until a tow truck came to get it out of there! Got a great view of the zebras and giraffes, but I wondered about those waiting in line with nothing moving. Nothing you can do about it unfortunately, and having a lightning lane wouldn’t have helped much.

Dinosaur line never went above 10 minutes that I saw.

 

[Mermaidtails1323]

My middle child (now 9) spend her almost 3yo trip riding Triceratops spin on repeat. Literally her favorite part of the day! And the lines are so short she got to ride it a ton. Planning on the same this trip with our youngest (who is now 2)!

 

[Ermise]

I would also vote for not using LL for Kilimanjaro Safari. We did the same thing a few weeks ago, getting in to early entry on the later side, making it over to EE a few minutes before 8am (EE was at 7:30 that day with the park and Safari opening at 8am). We rode 4 times then walked over to the safari. I'd say we got there around 8:20am. The wait time was listed at 35 minutes, but the actual wait was less than 15.

 

[rosie5189]

My middle child (now 9) spend her almost 3yo trip riding Triceratops spin on repeat. Literally her favorite part of the day! And the lines are so short she got to ride it a ton. Planning on the same this trip with our youngest (who is now 2)!

This will definitely be what the rider swap pair is doing with her while the others are on Dinosaur . She is obsessed with Dinosaurs AND rides right now.

 

[rosie5189]

One more question - do the character meet and greets start the beginning of EE, or after park opening? EE is 8:30 on our day. I couldn't get a good sense from the app and I know that it is sometimes not always accurate.

 

[gottalovepluto]

My middle child (now 9) spend her almost 3yo trip riding Triceratops spin on repeat. Literally her favorite part of the day! And the lines are so short she got to ride it a ton. Planning on the same this trip with our youngest (who is now 2)!

Don't let the 2yo fall in love with the idea of Dinoland... OP is safe but I so wouldn't make the bet it's around a year from now

 

[kylenne]

One more question - do the character meet and greets start the beginning of EE, or after park opening? EE is 8:30 on our day. I couldn't get a good sense from the app and I know that it is sometimes not always accurate.

Moana doesn’t start meeting until after park open. Idk about the others

 

[dcassetta]

One more question - do the character meet and greets start the beginning of EE, or after park opening? EE is 8:30 on our day. I couldn't get a good sense from the app and I know that it is sometimes not always accurate.

I looked at character times on the app for today. It looks like Mickey started at 8:00, Moana at 8:30, and Donald and Daisy at either 8:45 or 9:15. Park opening was 8:00 with EE at 7:30.

 

[scrappinginontario]

One more question - do the character meet and greets start the beginning of EE, or after park opening? EE is 8:30 on our day. I couldn't get a good sense from the app and I know that it is sometimes not always accurate.

Character greetings do not happen before official park opening.

 

[rosie5189]

Alright coming back for an update as we checked out today! We ended up switching park days and did an AK am and a MK pm. My family (6 adults plus an almost 3 year old) was *slow* mobilizing for rope drop and we got there after official park opening at 8:20. We ended up just getting genie plus for the full day, and at 7:00 am I got a 9:05 safari.

By 8:30 when we were getting our coffees the safari wait was already at 45 minutes, so I was glad I got the LL. Had an AMAZING safari (saw the baby elephant playing in the mud!!), then was able to get LL in rapid succession for Everest and dinosaur. We are all not huge fans of avatar so we skipped. Once we checked in for Dinosaur I was able to make a 4:30 MK LL and we were able to stack a bunch of rides for MK later in the PM.

Side note: Dino land looking super sad. We road the flying triceratops because my daughter loves dinosaurs but woof. It really bummed my sister and I out who loved it as kids. BUT - all Dinosaur animatronics working for our (probably) last ever dinosaur ride!!! The chip n dale meet and great with them in their Dino costumes is also super cute and I’m sad to see it probably go soon.