Need advice on my AK day/night

[Alice777]

This is mixture of ADR and plannning questions for my night at AK in November.

So excited to see October got extended to 8:30pm. I'm not going until 2nd week of November but hoping it'll be same hours (closing 8:30 pm).

I have Boma ADR at 7:30 pm right now because I want to see AK at night. My dilema is, ASSUMING, AK closing will be either 7:00 pm (right now it's 6:00 pm) or 8:30 pm:

1. Since my ADR at Boma is 7:30 pm, I'm afraid I won't have enough time to enjoy AK night activities such as dusk Safari ride (sunset is around 5:30 pm), EE ride at dark, and Tree Awakening.

a. Should I change my ADR to later at night around 8:30 pm?

b. My dilemma is how to get back to Pop if I change to later ADR at Boma. If the park closes at 8:30 pm or at 7:00 pm, what would be the best way to get back to resort WITHOUT taking taxi or uber. I want to use Disney free transportation.

My original plan was at 7:30 pm ADR, I can go to Epcot after my dinner at Boma since Epcot closes at 9:00 pm that night and take bus from there back to Pop.

If I change my ADR to 8:30 pm, I won't have enough time to get to any of the parks before all the park closes.

c. If I change my ADR to earlier time, I won't able to make it to dusk safari.

What would you guys advise I should do?

Thank you

 

[Robo]

This is mixture of ADR and plannning questions for my night at AK in November.

So excited to see October got extended to 8:30pm. I'm not going until 2nd week of November but hoping it'll be same hours (closing 8:30 pm).

I have Boma ADR at 7:30 pm right now because I want to see AK at night. My dilema is, ASSUMING, AK closing will be either 7:00 pm (right now it's 6:00 pm) or 8:30 pm:

1. Since my ADR at Boma is 7:30 pm, I'm afraid I won't have enough time to enjoy AK night activities such as dusk Safari ride (sunset is around 5:30 pm), EE ride at dark, and Tree Awakening.

a. Should I change my ADR to later at night around 8:30 pm?

b. My dilemma is how to get back to Pop if I change to later ADR at Boma. If the park closes at 8:30 pm or at 7:00 pm, what would be the best way to get back to resort WITHOUT taking taxi or uber. I want to use Disney free transportation.

My original plan was at 7:30 pm ADR, I can go to Epcot after my dinner at Boma since Epcot closes at 9:00 pm that night and take bus from there back to Pop.

1a. Yes.
1b. Bus to Epcot.
(If you have any trouble going to Epcot, tell the bus driver that you need to get to your car at Epcot.)
Then exit at Epcot and bus to Pop.
Epcot exit buses will be running until well after 10pm.

Your other alternative is to bus to DS, then bus to Pop (but, I hate that route.)

 

[Robo]

Another plan:
If there is a theme park with PM EMH that night, take the bus from AKL to that park, then bus to Pop.

 

[Alice777]

1a. Yes.
1b. Bus to Epcot.
(If you have any trouble going to Epcot, tell the bus driver that you need to get to your car at Epcot.)
Then exit at Epcot and bus to Pop.
Epcot exit buses will be running until well after 10pm.

Your other alternative is to bus to DS, then bus to Pop (but, I hate that route.)

Thank you. I don't have car. So if Epcot closes at 9 pm, it'll run well after 10 pm? If I change my ADR to 8:30 or 8:45 pm, I will have enough time to eat, and get back to Epcot to catch bus to Pop?

I think Epcot has the latest closing time for now for that date.

 

[Robo]

Thank you.
1. I don't have car. So if Epcot closes at 9 pm, it'll run well after 10 pm? If I change my ADR to 8:30 or 8:45 pm,
2. I will have enough time to eat, and get back to Epcot to catch bus to Pop?

I think Epcot has the latest closing time for now for that date.

1. I figured that you don't have a car.
My suggestion is that if the bus driver to Epcot hesitates to take you to Epcot after the 9PM closing time,
just TELL him/her that you need to get to Epcot "to get to your car."
(The buses don't tend to take guests to a closed park, except for the
car situation, and similar.)

2. That depends on how quickly you can (or want to) finish your meal.

 

[Accident]

1. Buses run for a couple hours after the park closes. If AK is closing at 8:30 you have until 10pmish to get the bus. If I was at boma finishing with dinner about 9pmish and needed to bus hop to a resort I would head to AK and then over to pop. If hopping isn't an option, there will be no AK buses that show up and it's a smaller bus stop where you can see them all and it has the arrival boards to know if one is coming..

If for some reason you need to bus hop to the resort differently, buses normally run a couple hours after the park closes so you can hop any park that closes within 2 hours and again you'll know at the bus stop who still has buses heading to/from it. Mk would be the longest way to go. Hollywood can be a mess with traffic in/out of parking lot so avoid that near closing. Epcot not a bad idea...

Now Disney Springs.. New bus stop, new bus road to get in/out of springs rather quick. Generally opened the latest unless it's a past midnight MK night so generally there is buses until 2-3am there.... A little after dinner stroll might be a nice way to end the night, usually there is a lot of sidewalk entertainment (music acts) happening. But again, it's a rather efficient bus stop now with a road just for the buses to get to/from it... I haven't resort hopped through it, but I've found the bus to/from it to be much better than it once was..


Now about AK at night.. Safari you really need to time to be on it right about dusk.. It's a long ride so you really want to be on it riding about the time the lights come on around the park (if not a little earlier). The rest of AK at night is dinoland, EE and Kali. I would ask this questiong about a week after jungle book closes because right now, most people hang around or in that theater so rides are no wait. Kali hasn't had a line at night at all. EE gets a line when the show lets out as it's right there and people run into it.. The rest of the night it's been 5-10 minute wait in line at the most. I suspect this will change when jungle book ends which is why I say ask again in about a week.

 

[MHSweb79]

I know you said you only want free suggestions, but the Last time we ate at Boma, I decided for the very first time ever just to take a cab back to All Stars. It took all of 10 monutes and $10. On top of the price of Boma, that was nothing. I will never waste 90 minutes to take free transportation again.

 

[Alice777]

1. I figured that you don't have a car.
My suggestion is that if the bus driver to Epcot hesitates to take you

LOL! Thank you. I'm slow....

 

[Alice777]

Now about AK at night.. Safari you really need to time to be on it right about dusk.. It's a long ride so you really want to be on it riding about the time the lights come on around the park (if not a little earlier). The rest of AK at night is dinoland, EE and Kali. I would ask this questiong about a week after jungle book closes because right now, most people hang around or in that theater so rides are no wait. Kali hasn't had a line at night at all. EE gets a line when the show lets out as it's right there and people run into it.. The rest of the night it's been 5-10 minute wait in line at the most. I suspect this will change when jungle book ends which is why I say ask again in about a week.

I'm very impatient person so this is driving me crazy. Coming Monday is my FP day so until I settle my ADR, I don't know what would be the best time to book FP. I think I'll go crazy before more or less final hours for AK comes out in early October for November.

About Safari ride at dusk, if the sunset is around 5:34pm, do you think I should be on the ride by 5:25 pm to enjoy the dusk ride?

 

[Alice777]

I know you said you only want free suggestions, but the Last time we ate at Boma, I decided for the very first time ever just to take a cab back to All Stars. It took all of 10 monutes and $10. On top of the price of Boma, that was nothing. I will never waste 90 minutes to take free transportation again.

Does cab or uber pick you up in front of Boma? I think I read somewhere sometimes uber are not allowed inside the resort to pick up guests? When we used uber at Pop in April, we had no problem uber picking us up right in front next to bus stops. Maybe it depends on resorts?

 

[Accident]

About Safari ride at dusk, if the sunset is around 5:34pm, do you think I should be on the ride by 5:25 pm to enjoy the dusk ride?

I never really paid attention to what time dusk was to figure out when I wanted to be on the ride. When it was getting what I call dark (must have light to see) about 8:50ish I was getting into fastpasses for 8:15. Generally it took about 10 minutes from entering the line to when your truck pulled away in fastpass.

One trip the lions were kind of "waking up" and another one a week later they were rather active. Dusk is a good time to shoot for as animals start to move out from the open from predators and the predactors start to get a little active so there's a bunch of activity happening.

 

[Anonny]

We're a no-car, Disney transportation couple. But, we've recently discovered the glory of Uber for certain occasions. One was to and from Pop and Boma. Cost was reasonable and time saved was significant. Well worthwhile!

 

[dkrauss]

Is there a strong feeling that AK will have evening hours in November? We're at WDW during Jersey week and I've altered my plan with the expectation that AK will NOT have late hours...........I do this given our FP day is 3 days away. Our new plan is to do FANTASMIC at HS.

Doug

 

[siskaren]

I have Boma ADR at 7:30 pm right now because I want to see AK at night.

Boma is at Animal Kingdom Lodge, not Animal Kingdom.