need FP for Lion King or Bug?

[bethjones]

Do I need a FP for Lion King or Tough to be a Bug? I'm going last week of January, pretty slow, and AK is the recommended park for that day. There are already 2 Lion king shows out of fastpasses.

 

[JimmyV]

Definitely not Bug. As for FoTLK, it really depends on what else you will use your FPs on. AK is not really a park that requires heavy duty FP usage, especially the week you will be there. If you get to the park early, you can do the Safari and Everest (two or three times) without FPs all in the first hour of park operation. After that, there isn't much to use FPs for. Rapids? Shouldn't be a big demand in January. So unless you have your heart set on some other "must do" attraction, I would get one for Lion King if for no other reason than avoid waiting in a death march line.

 

[Laketravis]

Neither. We did standby at both the week of Thanksgiving and got inside the same time the people in the FP line did.

 

[disnut8]

Definitely not Bug. As for FoTLK, it really depends on what else you will use your FPs on. AK is not really a park that requires heavy duty FP usage, especially the week you will be there. If you get to the park early, you can do the Safari and Everest (two or three times) without FPs all in the first hour of park operation. After that, there isn't much to use FPs for. Rapids? Shouldn't be a big demand in January. So unless you have your heart set on some other "must do" attraction, I would get one for Lion King if for no other reason than avoid waiting in a death march line.

Agree. For the Thanksgiving weekend, we did Safari, Expedition Everest and then had to think about the third one and did Primevil Whirl since Kali River Rapids was a no due to the temps. We did everything else walk on but have to say Festival of the Lion King is not on our list of things to repeat.

 

[bethjones]

That's good to know, thanks everyone. I've never seen Lion King, and want to see it once at least.
Beth

 

[RubySue]

As the others said, you should not need FP for the end of Jan for either. Lion King is one of our favorites. Everyone has different tastes - Definitely go see it and decide for yourself.

 

[kerplop]

We had one for Lion King, but once we got over there and saw the line we decided it was a waste. This was the first week of December. If you really really want to sit up front you might try it, but it seemed like most of the people who sat so close came in at the last minute anyway. We had great seats, right in the center about halfway up the bleachers.

 

[samsteele]

I did both FP and SB for Lion King in early November. The FP line was tedious but worth it in the end as the reserved seating was spectacular and if you have kids, the actors chose a number of children to participate from this area. Later in the week, I stood in the SB line and had a decent seat half way up the bleachers. I also did both FP and SB for Nemo and found the FP worth it for the reserved seating area close to the stage and ramp. I only did SB for Bug and found that was good enough. A bit of warning about both the FP and SB lines for Lion King, this is one of those places where the CMs repeatedly ask you to move forward and encourage families to close the gaps by moving forward through guests in front. It was "cheek to cheek" standing for Lion King in both FP and SB so be prepared to be herded close to others unless attending at a slower time of year.

 

[Texas Barbie]

We were there the week before Thanksgiving, and did not need a fp to get great seats. We thought the show was awesome.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

I don't know how the last week of January compares to the first week of December...

But, the FPs we all had were almost unnecessary. We did use our safari pass since it was for 10am and by then there was a 30 minute line we were happy to skip.

But my family rode EE twice and Kali twice and we did the Maharaja Jungle trek all before our FP window ended. (I think we got to safari at 10:15).

That should give you some idea of how crowds were for us.

Timing (due to constant repeats-family did Kali 4x, dinosaur coaster 2x and EE...again!) let us with the final FOTLK if the day which was right at park closing at 6. Theater was not full. (I was tired and opted out.)

Dinosaur had been down for part of the day making our fP good for it she it repened or anything else. We saved them for it but I am not sure if it was necessary.

 

[Fratthouse]

As others have said, the FP+ is generally unnecessary for both attractions. However, AK is pretty limited on FP+ options, so if I had to choose between ITTBAB and FOTLK, I'd go with FOTLK. It's not common, but shows can fill up early - even in low crowd times (happened to us when we were there the week before Thanksgiving). So it might not be needed, but it doesn't hurt if there's nothing else you want.

However, if you have any interest in any of these other attractions, they would be my priority over FOTLK:

- Expedition Everest
- Kilimanjaro Safari
- DINOSAUR
- Mickey & Minnie M&G
- Possibly Kali River Rapids (although probably not in January)

 

[aprilp]

Festival of the Lion King is amazing. My most favorite show at WDW. I have never used a fastpass on it but we go when crowds are low anyway. But really, I've come upon it at the last minute and sat further up in the bleachers....the view from there is just as good. I honestly dont know of a bad seat in the house. I would use the fastpasses elsewhere.

 

[Networth]

Just did FotLK today actually w/o a FP just get standby 25-30mins early and you will be fine 99% of the time.

 

[bethjones]

I don't want to wait in line 30 min for Lion King so FP might let me get in line later which would be nice.

 

[chelseabun76]

We don't do EE or Dinosaur, so I used a FP for Lion King, and Safari, and Nemo show. If we can get into an earlier show without using them, I'll definately be doing that... I just booked those because there was nothing else for me to use them on. lol We are also going last week of January and we'll be at TH for an 8am adr first.