How would you start your day at AK?

[jacobsmommy]

We have two options for starting our day at Animal Kingdom. Our party will be me, my dh, my 11 yo dd, my 15 yo ds, my parents, my brother, his wife, and his almost 2 yo ds. My dad will be having a minor knee surgery on June 20th and we leave for our trip on July 6th. As of right now we don't know if he will need to use an ECV or not. I originally had our plans to start at the safari, do the gorilla trail, and then some of us would do Everest while the others do the Asia trail.

Now I am trying to take out extra walking for my dad. What if we started at Everest/trail, went to safari, and then did the Gorilla trail? Would the line for the safari be too long after Everest?

 

[rteetz]

Are you rope droping? The vast majority of crowds at rope drop head to Pandora so you should be fine. Rest of the park builds as time goes on.

 

[jacobsmommy]

Yes, we will be there at rope drop. We have our Pandora fast passes for later in the day. So we should be ok with not heading to the safari right away?

 

[Floppy-Dee33]

I'd still do the first option.
The earlier in the day you can get on the safari the better.

 

[OB1]

If you do Everest/trail first, the safari will be at least a 30 minute wait. Even though many folks flood to Pandora, there is still a lot of interest in the safari.

 

[dachsie]

I would do Safari first as well. EE wasn't opened on time last month when I tried to RD it. And go ahead and get the ECV for your dad - it will make it easier for him the rest of the time you are there

 

[jimim]

I'd still do the first option.
The earlier in the day you can get on the safari the better.

We used to do the same but we noticed over pst 5 yrs the types of animals aren’t out yet in larger numbers that early. We have been hitting it 10 ish or so and we have been surprised how many more animals we see. Maybe it’s in our heads but my parents have noticed and my family.

 

[jacobsmommy]

My original plan was safari, gorilla trail, everest (with non riders doing Asia trail instead), and then heading back for the train to Rafikis. The reason I thought about switching was to cut down on the walking.

 

[maryj11]

My original plan was safari, gorilla trail, everest (with non riders doing Asia trail instead), and then heading back for the train to Rafikis. The reason I thought about switching was to cut down on the walking.

Rafikis is closed for refurbishment until August.

 

[jacobsmommy]

Really? The website doesn't show that. Is the train over open? What about affection section?

 

[agavegirl1]

The wildlife train is not open during the refurb. I think affection section may not reopen at all. And if you were there today, Everest is down, Gorilla trail is closed, Primevel Whirl and Tricerotop Spin as well as Kali are also down: Be prepared to be flexible.

 

[yulilin3]

I was just at AK this morning and rope dropped at 8am, I walked slowly through the Oasis areas, walked the Tree of Life trails looking at all the animals and then headed to Safari around 8:25, had a pick of seats as it was a walk on, the truck didn't even go completely full, saw all the animals, full tower of giraffes (around 8 of them) full herd of wildebeest, 5 elephants, the cheetahs were up and walking, the lion and lionesses although sleeping were on the first rocks so easy to see.
After Safari waited 5 min for gorilla falls trail to open at 9am and was able to see the mama gorilla and baby and the full family. It was the most successful animal encounter day I've ever had at ak

 

[Disney Hippie]

If the Pandora part of the park is planned for later in the day, I would start your day with the Safari and that area of the park.

 

[3pixiedust]

Yes, we will be there at rope drop. We have our Pandora fast passes for later in the day. So we should be ok with not heading to the safari right away?

Safari best in the AM before the heat of the day make the animals lazy. A delicious breakfast at Tusker is a good start as well.

 

[jacobsmommy]

I was still planning on doing the safari in the morning. I was just trying to decide between safari first or everest first. Both would be done before 10:00.

 

[maryj11]

I was just at AK this morning and rope dropped at 8am, I walked slowly through the Oasis areas, walked the Tree of Life trails looking at all the animals and then headed to Safari around 8:25, had a pick of seats as it was a walk on, the truck didn't even go completely full, saw all the animals, full tower of giraffes (around 8 of them) full herd of wildebeest, 5 elephants, the cheetahs were up and walking, the lion and lionesses although sleeping were on the first rocks so easy to see.
After Safari waited 5 min for gorilla falls trail to open at 9am and was able to see the mama gorilla and baby and the full family. It was the most successful animal encounter day I've ever had at ak

Sounds so nice! We are rope dropping for an 8:00am opening in a couple weeks.

 

[maryj11]

If the Pandora part of the park is planned for later in the day, I would start your day with the Safari and that area of the park.

What about riding Navi on the way to the Safari? Would that be possible or is Pandora so jammed pack with people wanting to ride FOP that it would make it a pain?

 

[maryj11]

I was still planning on doing the safari in the morning. I was just trying to decide between safari first or everest first. Both would be done before 10:00.

That's what I'm trying to decide too. Right now our plan is to ride Safari and we have a FP for Everest in the evening. I can always change that to something else if we can get Everest in during the morning.

 

[scionchigirl]

In our 2016 trip we did the Safari first thing,then breakfast at Tusker House, gorilla trail and Everest.It was a great day!

 

[jacobsmommy]

We have fast passes for Dinosaur, Kali, and half of our group has FOP/half has Navi FP.