Help me enjoy AK more

[msmama]

Like someone else, said, I've turned it into a relaxing park. Well, I've forced myself, too anyway.

I do love taking the train to Rafiki's planet watch - I don't know why I love it over there, but I do. And they apparently have a new Aardvark that sometimes comes out over there - hoping to see him on my upcoming trip!

I do like walking the trails, they are often some of the emptiest places I've been in all of WDW, especially the trail with the Tigers (I can never remember what they're called).

And yes, you're right about it being HOT!!! We were there last May and we had to leave because I just couldn't take it anymore.

I do like AK because it's not a full day for me (when I go with just my son, when I go with others they usually turn it into a full day which I don't love) which means I know I'm going to get some relaxing time back at the resort.

 

[courtneybeth]

We utilize Animal Kingdom as part of our strategy of "heavy day, light day" for every other day. AK is our light day activity and we love it. We'll book a 930am reservation at Tusker House and enjoy the BEST character breakfast and then head off to the Safari ride at around 1030 when all of the animals have woken up. We'll gently meander through the trails of the animal areas and just enjoy the scenery, then head off to the other areas and enjoy the FP+ we booked.

We'll usually wrap up around 230 and head over to AKL for Sanaa and do the latest seating for lunch. Bread service is a meal all on its own - then we head back to our resort to shower and relax - often doing dinner at either the resort or heading over to one of the parks for an ADR.

It's not currently a full day park for us, but maybe soon it will be. We love it!

 

[showers2flowers]

We love AK for the main reason others have brought out in this thread--it's a chance to put the mad rush on the back burner for a day and just enjoy your surroundings. The detail in the theming is, IMO, the best of any of the 4 parks. I confess, I too have a little trouble with Dino Land, though. During the recent day we spent at AK, it rained almost all morning. Despite that, we could not bring ourselves to leave, and ended up having a great time even with the weather.

And AK will soon have wild African dogs - a mega endangered species, as well as hyenas, on the safari soon. My husband and I go to lots of zoos, and have never seen African dogs. They are really really endangered (they aren't like dog dogs - they are more like a wolf/hyena mix, and you need to see them.).

The wild dogs are there now and they are absolutely not to be missed. So beautiful. (our safari driver said they switch off with the hyenas, but I wasn't quite sure if that meant the hyenas were also already there)

 

[Bluegrrl]

YAY!! I will have to check for hyenas.

 

[Anchored]

I love love love animal kingdom! It has to be only 2nd to MK for me
I love EE, Dinosaur, Primeval Whirl, and Kali.
FotLK is the best show on property
Dole Whip with rum, must I say more?
The drummers and dancers in Africa are amazing.
I get to meet some of my favorite characters - Pocahontas, Tarzan, Baloo and Louie, Rafiki
My kids LOVE It's Tough to Be a Bug
FLAME TREE BBQ! Yum!
Flights of Wonder is GREAT
I really appreciate theming, and AK does an amazing job! I can't wait for Rivers of Light and avatarland!

 

[Gumbo4x4]

AK is #1 for my entire family, but honestly if its not your thing, me telling you why "I" love it seems useless. Like telling a Michael Jackson fanatic why you're such a big Led Zeppelin fan. It's personal taste & that's different for everyone.

 

[FantasiaMagic]

Adding to the things you already said you liked, I totally recommend Kali River Rapids. Especially on a hot day - even if you get soaked you will dry pretty quickley. When I go on that ride with family/friends we always come off hysterically laughing. Just a fun attraction.

You can also meet some great characters while there. Pocahontas & Dug/Russell are some of the highlights for me there.

Also, it's hard to mention it now, but since AK will eventually have Avatar Land to enjoy, that should add some more fun attractions and excitement to the park. The Rivers of Light nighttime water show should also be amazing.

Ak is so unique and a lot of fun, even if you don't spend the whole day there, I still think it is a great park with many fun things to enjoy.

 

[JaimeK]

I definitely enjoy hearing about why some of you love it! I'll make sure we do at least some of the trails and I hope that doing the wilderness explorer badges will get us to see more parts of the park. It's definitely something I appreciated at P&F in Epcot - it draws you into all the nooks and crannies of a country.

 

[jalapeno_pretzel]

Safari Amber and a Jalapeno pretzel.

 

[epcotty]

Yeah somehow we can't get into AK as much as the other parks so it's typically been the one we've gone to the least. We do like the shows and some of the rides but we aren't into animals all that much

 

[Mikie]

I agree with @Gumbo4x4 . It sounds like you've given it a try and it's not your cup of tea. I felt really bad when I talked up AK to our neighbors, who we were overlapping vacations with at WDW one year. We love the park and I encouraged them to go. Dad hates zoos in general, and is apparently 100% about rides with little care about atmosphere (things I didn't think to ask him about beforehand). They thought their partial day there was a total waste.

My family loves that it's still a "park day" but much slower and more leisurely than the way we do the others. Despite a fabulous zoo near us at home that we visit often, I don't think AK is similar at all - but our love of observing the animals does translate. We enjoy the atmosphere in the Africa section. The details and theming around the tree of life and especially the Maharajah Jungle Trek. I seem to be one of few on the DIS who actually likes Primeval Whirl and our kids love the Boneyard (I understand it will be closed on your trip, OP). I could leave the rest of the carnival area. Expedition Everest is one of my top 3 rides in all of WDW, FotLK is my favorite show in WDW, and some of the family has enjoyed Dinosaur and Tough to be a Bug. Our day was full enough after all that, that we still didn't even get to the wilderness explorer stuff! After arriving there by 10am and doing all listed above, we're done by 5-6:00pm and ready for a short ride to Animal Kingdom Lodge for a great dinner. I know some people consider that a "half day", compared to parks with a 15-hour day, but after all that we've been gone from our resort for a little over 12 hours, which I consider a pretty full and thoroughly enjoyable day!

 

[PurpleKomodo]

I also find Animal Kingdom toward the bottom of my list of favorites. I was also surprised to see DS (3) who loves animals and zoos totally not get into it last trip. I think Safari was the only ride he was genuinely bored on.

That being said, there is enough there to keep us there for most of a day. Last trip it rained most of the day and we were wet and kind of miserable, but we found ourselves saying, "we will leave after this next thing," "okay, one more thing," etc. We ended up staying most of the day, even in the rain. Our favorites there that draw us back over and over again are Everest, which is DH and I's favorite roller coaster on property. We love the Nemo Musical and Festival of the Lion King. I really enjoyed Harambe Market last trip. The whole area was so well themed. The food was delicious and we loved the sweet shop. There are also some characters there that you can't meet anywhere else. We especially liked meeting Dug and Russel from Up and King Louie and Baloo. We have had lunch at Tuskar House in the past and really enjoyed that. I usually like to do the jungle trek train with the bats and tigers, but we did not do that last trip because of the rain. As far as the carnival area, we like Primeval Whirl, but that is about it. I will say the giant dino at the entrance was a great place to take shelter from the rain!

For us, moving at the pace of a 3 year old, it was still close to a full day park. If it was just adults, we usually spend about a half day here. I can't imagine skipping it because I do have favorites, but it does not have as much draw as the other parks for me. I am curious to see how Avartarland and the night time offering will change that though. I did really like Avatar so I am excited to see what they do with it. I imagine I will be happy to spend some time in that area.

 

[RustManFan]

I go for shows and animals and love spending oodles of time on the trails observing. Most of the rides I could care less about.

 

[michelepa]

I totally agree with you about this park as to everything you wrote, especially that it is the hottest of all the parks. We have two wonderful zoos near our home so don't do all the paths etc. as we honestly see all this at home and if you don't want to pass out from the heat you need to edit your itinerary here to the must do's. I am very active and run outside and in the summer it's very humid at home but it just doesn't compare to what's going on in AK!

However, there are changes afoot in AK that will hopefully make a huge difference including Tiffin, Rivers of Light, evening safari and of course evening hours which should all begin this spring and then the opening of Avatar in 2017.

I took DD last year and it is still my least favorite park. DD wasn't wowed and neither was DS when I took him when he was 4 and then 5. The only time I enjoyed this park was when we were allowed to visit for a soft opening and before most of the rides were built. Tree of Life is so beautiful and I really love walking around it and finding all the animals. DD loved that too.

So, I am taking DD again this summer and it will more than a half day park for us.

I am planning on reserving the 8:45 Wild African Trek that will last three hours. We will then stop at Tamu Tamu for dole whips (mine will include coconut rum) on the way to the bus.

We will then head back to the hotel because AK will still be the hottest of all 4 parks and unbearable in late August so we will need a pool and air conditioning for a couple hours. (I do like the Nemo and Lion King shows but they are probably two of the best for the most part because it's cold and dark you can sit and regroup!)

Then (if all goes as Disney expects) we will return in the late afternoon for
Evening safari (new)
Everest
Kali
Dinosaur
Primevil Whirl (closed for refurb last year)
Tiffin for dinner (new)
Rivers of Light (new)

Hoping AK does not disappoint this year again. I'll let you all know.

 

[Bullseye]

Since two of the things I most love at AK are the gorillas and Dinosaur, I probably can't be of assistance here. It sounds like AK is, at best, a half day park for you.

Omg that totally reminds me of when King Kong was taking Ann Darrow back to his cave and he encounters a T-Rex and he battles it and then he breaks it's jaw bone....that was awesome !!!


OP, there are free drink refills at Restaurantosaurus. Thats our lunch spot every year. It's nice and dark in there so you can chill. Plus there's a lot of miscellaneous knick knacky stuff on the walls to look at !

 

[SnowChaser]

We did the Wilderness Explorers scavenger hunt as a group of 4 adults and loved it. I always assumed it was only for young kids. It really helped us enjoy the details of the park and interactions with the CMs, who were excited to share what they knew about the animals.

I recommend it if you're looking to get more out of an AK day!

 

[hoffman1]

We haven't been to this park in several years, even though we were annual pass holders. When we do go, we usually only do a half day at AK.
We do a Tusker House breakfast, the safari, and expedition Everest. Sometimes we see Festival of the Lion King. Then we are out.
And this park is always so hot when we go! We once had a CM tell us that AK averages 10 degrees hotter on any given day than the other parks (not sure if that was just his experience or if there is any kind of research to back it up).
When the Avatar stuff opens, I am sure we will check it out. But I am not very excited about it either.
I would like to see more animals and more interactive animal attractions in the park.

 

[nilla]

Omg that totally reminds me of when King Kong was taking Ann Darrow back to his cave and he encounters a T-Rex and he battles it and then he breaks it's jaw bone....that was awesome !!!

That would be the best job in the world, IMO. "Hey, we need you to put this gorilla suit on, then beat the crap out of that guy in the dinosaur suit. Can you do that?"

 

[Dreamin192]

We're in the same boat. We went on our disneymoon years ago and rode the rides but once that was done we got bored. We took our kids for the first time last year and again, we ran out of things to do. We did the Safari but with little kids trying to point out animals is akin to hitting your head against the wall, at least for us it was. We would try and point out an animal to our 3 year old and she would just get mad because she didn't know what we were talking about. She liked the dig site and the carnival area but DH worked carnivals growing up and is adamant we're not going to Disney to ride fair rides and play in a sandbox. We have two DHS days planned and now with all the closures there I'm thinking we can do it in one, so maybe we'll give AK another chance. We did see the Nemo show and liked it and I want to see the Lion King one but I'm having a hard time justifying the park unless we are doing hoppers.

 

[samsteele]

I usually ride Kili Safaris x2 first thing in the morning. Once at rope drop and then the 2nd time immediately after with my FP+. The early morning rides tend to yield more animals because of cooler temps and their breakfast/food is out tempting them to be in the open and available for viewing. I also hit both FOTLK and Nemo. I consider these superb, mini-broadway caliber shows. If I had to fly to NY to see them, I would easily drop $2K & more for a long weekend with hotel room, cabs, food and return flight. I usually catch Nemo once (I use a FP+ here because the reserved seating area is incredible in terms of being close to the stage and interaction with the cast running along the paths near that seating) and then see FOTLK x2 with regular walk-up. You have a decent view regardless of seating w/o FP+. I add in Dinosaur with a FP+ and maybe Everest with single rider line, make an ADR for a fun & tasty Yak & Yeti lunch, and my day is pretty much complete. I always spend some time on the trails hoping to catch a glimpse of a baby gorilla or a tiger. AK is one of my fav parks. Only Epcot ranks higher for me.