How long for trails at AK?

[CeruleanMoon]

My son loves zoos, and we are not the rush around type, so I expect we'll spend a good few minutes at each animal pen we see. Touring plans is giving me 15 mins for Discovery Trails, and 20 for Maharaja Jungle Trek, but I have the feeling that may not be realistic for us. Truthfully though, I just don't know. (Are the Oasis trails the first ones you come to at the entrance?)

What's a realistic time for the trails? When is the best time to see them? What is there to do at Rafiki's Planet Watch? (We've been but not in 5 years...I recall a petting zoo, some kind of museum-like exhibits?)

Some of these things are really hard to plan!

 

[yulilin3]

It really is personal preference
I could spend a good 30 minutes on the Gorilla area alone, they are my favorite animals, some people just walk through the entire trails in 10 minutes.
It also depends on the animals, there is no way of knowing at what time the animals will be more visible but rule of thumb, they are out in the morning and towards the evening, midday they might find a shady spot to rest (gorillas, tigers, meerkats) I prefer the bird section of the Asia trail better than the African trail, but again, gorillas are in the Africa trail. Sorry, probably no help.
Thee Oasis is the first area of the park
Rafiki's is really fun if you and your family love animals and learning about them, they have caretakers coming out every 30 minutes with different animals, snakes, birds, lizards, they also have a great little show "It all started with a mouse" explaining Walts love for animals and they also bring animals out then, that's at 11:30am
In the morning and weekdays are also a great time to visit Rafiki's for animal care procedures

 

[PSUGuy]

Wifey and I usually amble through each in 15 - 20 minutes but if the baby primates behind the glass are throwing feces, as they were last Nov., people tend to linger.

Bill From PA

 

[slpeters]

Wifey and I usually amble through each in 15 - 20 minutes but if the baby primates behind the glass are throwing feces, as they were last Nov., people tend to linger.

Bill From PA

In my experience a solid fecal fight tends to draw crowds in most settings...

 

[Crystal824]

I would schedule 30 min for each especially if you like to linger. As others have said, we probably spend about 15-20 min. per trail but it can differ. It depends on how crowded it is and what the animals are doing. They do have guides along the path that you can talk to about the animals which is sometimes fun.

 

[disneyvoice]

Yay! I love that you want to spend time enjoying the animals. My DH and I LOVE to take time looking at all the animals.

It's really hard to predict how long it will take. We have easily spent well over an hour on each trail. I can spend 30 minutes just watching the bats! And we always spend a LOT of time watching the gorillas. We have found that we enjoy things the most if we spend more than one day at AK. I think it is really hard to enjoy all the animals when you are also racing around trying to do all the rides. And AK is always a time consuming park for us because the layout is so confusing - we are always getting lost and having to back track to go where we wanted to go.

Honestly, my advice is to try not to worry about how much time you spend on the trails. Just find a good time to visit them and let what happens, happen. If you are enjoying it, don't worry about how much time you are spending. There are CMs throughout the trails who share information about the animals - they are especially great at talking to kids about them. There is educational information all along the trails. Many people just race right past all of that but we love it.

 

[Linkura]

I too love animals and usually budget 40-50 minutes for Gorilla Falls, Maharajah, and Planet Watch. That is a little bit of an overstatement of what time I actually spend for the most part, but this ensures I have enough time in case a particular animal or two causes me to linger.

 

[CeruleanMoon]

Thanks everybody! I think I will estimate at least 30 mins for each trail and take it from there. We have 1 day scheduled for each park, so we are trying to fit in as much as possible while not tiring ourselves out too much.

Five years ago when we last went to AK, my son had a list with him of every animal on exhibit in the park. He checked off each one as we saw it and would not leave until we had seen each and every one!

 

[DisneyCowgirl]

When I last used touring plans for AK, I added in a 15 minute break after the trails to accomodate the fact that we would spend longer in there than they said. We ended up spending nearly that much time just talking to the guide about the komodo dragon.

 

[Mome Rath]

When I last used touring plans for AK, I added in a 15 minute break after the trails to accomodate the fact that we would spend longer in there than they said. We ended up spending nearly that much time just talking to the guide about the komodo dragon.

Ha! That's fantastic.

 

[kniquy]

If using touring plans set the time for at least 30-40 minutes for each (you can edit the time allotted), if not more. Sometimes the animals are more active and you want to stand and watch them. If it takes you that long at least you planned for it and if not then you have a little more free time to hit a shop

 

[fhtpdw20]

Don't let the crowds rush you through the Oasis at the opening. About a half hour after park open I spent some time watching the cms come out and hand feed fish to the water fowl. Don't forget the Devine is out after the mad rush to get to the rides as well.

 

[maryj11]

Wifey and I usually amble through each in 15 - 20 minutes but if the baby primates behind the glass are throwing feces, as they were last Nov., people tend to linger.

Bill From PA

When we were there the baby gorilla was so intensely trying to interact with a little lizard that was in there. It was hilarious! He would get down real low trying to look at it without getting to close . Then he or she threw straw at it to see if it would move.

 

[CarolynFH]

Don’t forget there are tiger cubs in Asia! I don’t think they’re out all day though. I hope to spend time watching them next week.

 

[Mama Lo]

If your son gets a hold of that Wilderness Guide (from Up) it could take longer. It's fun and there are so many activities to do. My boys loved this when they were younger. See this to get an idea of what you could be in for:

https://schmirfle.blogspot.com/2016/09/the-wilderness-explorers-handbook.html

 

[CeruleanMoon]

If your son gets a hold of that Wilderness Guide (from Up) it could take longer. It's fun and there are so many activities to do. My boys loved this when they were younger. See this to get an idea of what you could be in for:

https://schmirfle.blogspot.com/2016/09/the-wilderness-explorers-handbook.html

Oh no! Looks like fun but so involved that maybe I'll try to have him just stick with marking off the animals he sees!

 

[Mama Lo]

Oh no! Looks like fun but so involved that maybe I'll try to have him just stick with marking off the animals he sees!

It's very cute, free and fun so I wouldn't skip it totally. We told our boys we couldn't finish but would bring the book back on a subsequent trip.