How long is your AK day?

[blf14]

Let me start by saying we LOVE AK. It's second only to MK, for us. We love the food, rides, atmosphere... we've never been at night, so are very much looking forward to that experience this year, too!

Kids will be 9, 8, and almost 4. We're staying off-side for the first time, so that's new... and of course, at the 4yo's age, every trip brings something new to the table, lol! She's very excited, but also easily overwhelmed and overheaded, so fingers crossed

We're typically early-morning park goers... often even open-to-closers!, but with taking the above into consideration I want to be reasonable ... with OUT cutting our AK day short! If we plan to stay through ROL... what time would you arrive, to still fully enjoy it? It's been a while since we've been, and I can't decide!

 

[Alesia]

We typically do at one day from open to close and then another partial day.

 

[blf14]

Oh wow! That’s awesome I feel like so many people think we’re nuts for spending as much time there as we do, lol!

 

[Gehrig1B]

We usually do one half day morning and another half day in the evening. Nothing like Safari in the early morning and Everest after dark. We don't do open to close days. We will park hop with a resort stop in between, usually 9-1 and 5 to close.

 

[SaintsManiac]

2 half days. We do not do open to close ever at any park.

 

[DisLiss]

We like to do two half days at AK. One day, we go in the morning, stay until we get tired & hot, leaving before dinner. Then another day, we go to a water park in the morning, then head over to AK in time for a late lunch/early dinner and we stay until closing. That way we're there for the coolest times of day, as well as the times most likely to see the animals out and about. Plus, it tends to allow you to experience the least crowded times in the park, too.

 

[Babe the Blue Ox]

Early mornings are just too crowded and stressful for us. We generally arrive about 10:30 of 11 am and stay out until the last park closes.

My fondest Disney memory is chasing my then 3 year old daughter back to the entrance of Space Mtn moments before midnight with her screaming “One More Time Daddy” all the way.

Your 4 year may make some late night memories too.

 

[blf14]

Early mornings are just too crowded and stressful for us. We generally arrive about 10:30 of 11 am and stay out until the last park closes.

My fondest Disney memory is chasing my then 3 year old daughter back to the entrance of Space Mtn moments before midnight with her screaming “One More Time Daddy” all the way.

Your 4 year may make some late night memories too.

I love this so much, thank you for sharing!

 

[disneycat321]

We're doing a morning and DAH at AK, which I guess works out to two half days. If we weren't there in the summer, I think we'd probably add more AK time, but for some reason the heat is especially brutal there, so we have to cut the time shorter.

 

[SanderMC]

We always do 2 full days at AK - from rope drop till close. Although this year we are adding on another evening from dinnertime until close.

 

[Mollygirl21]

We'll be spending two days there on our next trip...probably arrive around noon and stay til close both days. We love AK!

 

[Christine]

I love AK also. Like someone above, we can never do a park from open to close. I can't manage it and certainly not with younger kids.

We generally split AK up into two visits (with park hoppers). I do a park opening and stay through lunch and leave after that. It's usually so blazing hot when I go that I need to leave. Midday there, to me, is just hot, crowded and awful. We've then come back after an early dinner and stayed through closing. I loved the evening part.

I've done the safari so many times, but last year was my best time for viewing the animals. It was 100 degrees and around 1:00PM. I couldn't believe how many were out and about. I always heard early morning is best which is why I always tried for that, but that didn't prove to be true for us.

 

[Klayfish]

Yep, we never do open to close either. We either do roughly 10am to 3pm (we don't rope drop), or 4pm until ???. AK is a hot park, more so than the other 3, IMO. So if you wanted to stay until after ROL, I'd suggest showing up after 4pm. That should still give you plenty of time to get a lot done. Plus, lines really start going down as you get close to dinner time, especially for the non-Avatar attractions.

 

[garris3404]

We usually average 1.5 days. This year we're doing 3 half days, covering rope drop to closing.

 

[KenHutch]

We usually follow this schedule. A PPO breakfast at Tusker House and then immediately walk over to Kilimanjaro Safari on Stand By. The line is next to nothing and we save an important fast pass. I try to schedule 3 fast pass's for early as possible after that so we can begin the lottery for that 4th and even 5th fast pass. We do as much of the park as possible during the day. I usually schedule dinner about 1700-1800 hours. This last time we did Boma which allowed the slower and older (well that's what I call them) members to go back to the hotel AKL this last time and me and the girls headed back to AKL. This allowed them to ride FoP a 2nd time ine one day (stand by) and see Pandora at night.

 

[Kamy04]

We went 9-1 and that was enough for us. My kids didn’t really like it (ages 8 and just 5). They kept asking for rides! DS8 loved FOP and DS5 liked NRJ...but that’s about it. They weren’t going to do Dinosaur or EE or Kali. So it was Pandora, Safari, FoTLK, Pandora and OUT. Lol

 

[gharter]

We typically do at one day from open to close and then another partial day.

Similar plan. For us, there is too much to see and do for just one day.

 

[DisneyBelle27]

I'm a solo traveler but AK is my fave park. I just got back from a short trip, 7/4-7/7. I hopped to AK on Fri from MK around 2ish and stayed til close. Did almost the whole day on Sat (I'm not a rope dropper, lol, but was in the park til after close b/c I got in line for FoP 2 min before close), and hopped there in Sun after FP'ing TSMM b/c I just had to go back to AK one more time, and stayed until 3:30, when I had to leave in time to get Magical Express at Pop. Did I mention I LOVE AK? lol

 

[tinkerhon]

We usually do one half day morning and another half day in the evening. Nothing like Safari in the early morning and Everest after dark. We don't do open to close days. We will park hop with a resort stop in between, usually 9-1 and 5 to close.

Exactly our plan for upcoming trip Starting next week !

 

[Disneypro1]

From 10 am...our usual first FP till close.