How long is your AK day?

[bigbabyblues]

We usually do 2 days at each park but we do take afternoon breaks, even staying offsite. I guess it depends on where you are staying, but we don't feel it takes any longer to go to our car (parked fairly close, since we arrive well before rope drop) and drive the 5 or 10 minutes back to our condo (Windsor Palms). MK takes the longest of course, but it was better to take the break than the day we tried not to.

 

[StarSpeckledSky]

AK is our favorite park. Normally we go late morning to close. We never feel the need to join the huge rush to Pandora and never rope drop.

 

[blf14]

AK is our favorite park. Normally we go late morning to close. We never feel the need to join the huge rush to Pandora and never rope drop.

Thank you! Yes, this will be a short trip so we only have 1 day to give it this time. Good to hear you don’t RD and still get it all in

 

[DisneyGirlMI]

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.

This is us as well. We are usually out by 1 or 2. This August we are going back late afternoon/evening for a few hours. Part of it is that this, to us, is the HOTTEST park, so we need the afternoon break.

 

[nkereina]

We get there at opening and stay until about 1:30-2pm. So roughly 5 hours is good for us since we are taking advantage of the early morning lower crowd timeframe. If I were arriving later in the day, I might plan to allot 7ish hours since lines will be longer.

 

[DadofChristaSonofRay]

From Opening to about 4 or 5 PM for us. Usually use this day for a nice dinner and some evening down time.

 

[TheSouthernBelle]

We usually do 2 days at each park but we do take afternoon breaks, even staying offsite. I guess it depends on where you are staying, but we don't feel it takes any longer to go to our car (parked fairly close, since we arrive well before rope drop) and drive the 5 or 10 minutes back to our condo (Windsor Palms). MK takes the longest of course, but it was better to take the break than the day we tried not to.

We really like AK too, we typically get to the park early, sometimes we rope drop it depends but we do midday breaks and head back later in the evening. My kids are little older but we just like to break up the day sometimes.

Our next trip AK falls on our departure day so we'll head there for opening but will RD dino/asia first since we have FOP FP+. We will leave AK around 4pm that day. Even though we are headed to another vacation it won't be disney.

 

[Helvetica]

Animal Kingdom is my second favorite park, so I spend a lot of time there. I've found that doing rope drop and taking a break in the middle of the day works best for me. The morning is the best time to see the animals since that's when they're most active. The park also looks gorgeous at night. The middle of the day is when it's the most crowded and the most hot.

 

[gtitan21]

I think it really depends on when you go. When i went this last January, i did open to close and rode everything and some things numerous times (FOP 3 times). I easily could have done everything in a half day as my longest wait was about an hour. In the summer though you could wait 3 hours for FOP so you may very well need to be there open / close to get it all in.

 

[kiford]

We usually try to go on at least two different days. We'll usually go until we get too tired or hot and then leave. Unless the Nomad Lounge isn't busy, in which case we'll sit and have a drink to relax and cool off. We like to spend a lot of time on the animal trails and on a hot day, we peter our more quickly than other times. It's one of our favourite parks. We'll even go and just spend an hour or two if we have time in between a park in the morning and an early evening dinner.

 

[StarSpeckledSky]

The morning is the best time to see the animals since that's when they're most active.

While it's mostly true, especially for the trails (not just the main two, the other ones as well), I read somewhere that people counted the amount of animals you saw on Kilimanjaro Safaris (daytime version) at different times of the day and found that they were around the same, morning or afternoon. Disney puts cooling stones in the middle of habitats so that animals will be attracted to them in the middle of the day.

 

[gtitan21]

While it's mostly true, especially for the trails (not just the main two, the other ones as well), I read somewhere that people counted the amount of animals you saw on Kilimanjaro Safaris (daytime version) at different times of the day and found that they were around the same, morning or afternoon. Disney puts cooling stones in the middle of habitats so that animals will be attracted to them in the middle of the day.

I've seen several vlogs with the timing of the safari being the focal point and it was pretty much determined that the morning and the late evening can feel like two separate experiences as different animals are out and others may be more active. Same goes for after it rains on a warm day.

 

[Kimpossible1]

If you need a cooling off break, Finding Nemo the Musical inside an air conditioned theater and the show is 40 minutes long. It is on par with any broadway show and has live singing and puppetry. It's great to get to sit, cool off, and be very entertained.

 

[gtitan21]

If you need a cooling off break, Finding Nemo the Musical inside an air conditioned theater and the show is 40 minutes long. It is on par with any broadway show and has live singing and puppetry. It's great to get to sit, cool off, and be very entertained.

I agree. Nemo was great and a perfect break from the crowds and weather

 

[skuttle]

We usually spend 1.5-2 days at AK, and that was BEFORE Pandora. We love it!

 

[Rach3975]

Not long enough! For some reason, AK is always the park that gets the short end of the stick in our plan making. AK ends up being either our arrival afternoon or our rest day, when we sleep in and hit the park around lunchtime. It hasn't been enough time to do everything we want in AK, but we can't go for longer without giving up MK or EP, which we aren't willing to do.

 

[a11ie]

As a kid we never spent more than a half day at AK. I haven't been since Pandora opened so our Sept trip we have two evenings 4/5pm-close planned.

 

[Delphinidae]

We love AK and it is definitely an all day park for us. We also do EVERY park open to close and have never seen the need to leave in the middle of the day. Our trip next month is the first time we've been since Pandora opened and I'm concerned one full day won't be enough, so we may split our last park day between AK and another park depending on what we want to do more of. Of course our AK day also has an After Hours event which I'm considering even though I hate to throw more money their way LOL.

 

[OB1]

With the 4 yr old, you may still need an afternoon break. AK is not really close to any Disney resorts except AKL and All Stars. Staying off site may not be that different than traveling back to Old Key West or Port Orleans. With that in mind, you could do arrive fairly early, take your break and miss the heat of the day, then finish with the fun early evening stuff.

 

[Forevermarypoppins]

I have to visit Animal Kingdom at least twice a trip. I love the park!! Now w/ Pandora, I'm more likely to stay longer at least one of those days. I was there this last NOV at night, with everything lit up around the FOW and it was so beautiful. Can't wait for the next time.