Skip Animal Kindgom?

[Chause]

We have four day 1 park per day tickets and are trying to decide how to distribute the days. I originally thought 1 park per day sounded good, but am now reconsidering Animal Kingdom. We are Disneyland regulars with young kids and this will be our first time to WDW. While my family likes animals (going to the zoo, aquarium, etc.), I wouldn’t say its what we are most interested in. It seems like Animal Kindgom has equivalent attractions in California which we have experienced many times. Tough to be a bug, Dinosaur (seems very similar to Indy), FOP (seems very similar to soarin). I do understand that Pandora is amazing, but with very few truly unique attractions (safari and Everest), and very limited entertainment because of the pandemic, would our extra day be better spent at one of the other parks that have many attractions that are completely unique to WDW? And if so, which park? We won’t be back for a very long time (if ever), so it’s an important decision for us.

 

[glocon]

If you plan on never coming back, I wouldn’t skip AK.
From what I hear, Dinosaur and Indy are the same ride with different themes. FoP is a screen ride as is Soarin, but the similarities stop there. I would definitely not skip AK if I was you.
Maybe get hoppers?

 

[Robo]

Skip Animal Kingdom?

Nope.

 

[Brett Wyman]

If you don't plan on coming back to the Orlando area I definitely wouldn't skip AK. Pandora alone is worth the spent day(it's an entire experience like Cars Land not just the FOP ride) and you cant see that in Cali. Everest, All of Pandora, Kilimanjaro Safari and just seeing the park itself are all incredible unique experiences you can't get elsewhere. And Dinosaur is a solid ride too that fans of the Indy version should experience at lest once.

Yes FOP is based on the same ride tech as Soarin', but thats where the similarities end. Theres a reason there were 3 hour waits for that ride prior to the pandemic.

As crazy as it sounds if you were going to skip anything because you can see similar attractions at DL, skip MK. Theres very little at MK that isn't also at DL and in most case DL does it better. The best thing about MK over DL is simply the extra elbow room .But I would try to do one day in each park, or even expand your trip to 5 days. If you HAVE to skip one park and Remy isn't open yet I'd skip Epcot given it current state. Test Track pales in comparison to RSR. There really isn't a must do ride in Epcot right now, until Remy(and GOTG) opens. Frozen Ever After is fun but I wouldn't burn a park day on it.

 

[disneygirlsng]

Never. FOP is really nothing like Soarin. The ride tech is far and away more advanced. AK is more unique from DL than any of the other parks IMO. I couldn't ever imagine skipping it, but it is my favorite park by a long shot. I would absolutely do 1 day at each park, but if you needed to skip a park, I would easily pick any of the other three over AK.

 

[Handykapper]

Definitely would not skip AK.

 

[SaintsManiac]

I could never skip AK, but I understand your dilemma. FoP is nothing like Soarin, though.

Not sure when you are going, but Festival of the Lion King will return in a different format this summer.

 

[Disneylover99]

Why not make Ainmal Kingdom your final park. Then you can decide after day 3 if you still want to go to AK, or if you’d rather switch your park reservation to one of the other parks.

 

[Chause]

Thanks for the info everyone! I had the same idea about skipping MK due to the similarities, but my kids would kill me. The adults want to do Epcot because of world showcase as we are planning to eat/drink our way through the world (sorry kids). Hollywood studios is the crossover park, as is Animal Kingdom. But it sounds like the experiences are more unique than I’m giving them credit for. I wish you could make only one day of the ticket park hopper, that would be the easy answer.

 

[sethschroeder]

Easily could skip it. You would need to really enjoy just sitting and watching the animals on the Gorilla Trail or spending time in Rafikis Planet Watch to stretch it out.

For the most part we divide parks up in to multiple days and finish up by 10/11am where as AK we can do everything in the park during that timeframe. Just did it this morning again. Came 30 mins after park opening and skipped FOP (earlier this week came for rope drop and did do FOP)

FOP is good but poor viewing angles ruin the experience.

I would however do the following:
Park hopper
Mornings in MK, MK, HS, AK
Evenings in Epcot

Epcot is the easiest park to get shorter waits later in the day and get everything in over a couple evenings.

 

[Robo]

I wish you could make only one day of the ticket park hopper, that would be the easy answer.

Why?
The cost would not be much different.

I've been answering ticket questions for well over a decade.
Hopping (and its cost) is one of the the most misunderstood of all ticket issues.

 

[Dug720]

I could NEVER skip Animal Kingdom!!

Studios? Pretty easy pass for me.

 

[Dug720]

FOP (seems very similar to soarin)

I missed this part. OMG 100% not even close!!!!! FOP is totally amazing!! Soarin' is...meh.

 

[Chause]

I checked and it’s an $85 difference in tickets for June when we are going. If they offered it on a day by day basis, it would be about $20. At 6 tickets for my family, and another 6 tickets for my brother/sister in laws family, $20 would be much more tolerable than $85. But, then again, “tolerable” in the terms of Disney pricing has different meaning. But it does start to add up.

 

[Robo]

I checked and it’s an $85 difference in tickets for June when we are going. If they offered it on a day by day basis, it would be about $20.

That's the incorrect logic of how the Hopper is charged.
You can't just pick a multi-day ticket price and then divide by the number of days
to get "what should be" the cost of a single day's ticket.

Price the cost of a 4-day base vs a 4-day Hopper then, the cost of a 2-day base vs a 2-day Hopper.
Then, price the cost of a 1-day base vs a 1-day Hopper.

 

[disneygirlsng]

I checked and it’s an $85 difference in tickets for June when we are going. If they offered it on a day by day basis, it would be about $20. At 6 tickets for my family, and another 6 tickets for my brother/sister in laws family, $20 would be much more tolerable than $85. But, then again, “tolerable” in the terms of Disney pricing has different meaning. But it does start to add up.

You can't look at it as dividing by the number of days though as that's not how it is done. Adding a hopper to a single day ticket is generally $65. So it's only about $20 more for the hopper for all 4 days.

 

[SammyStamper]

I’m a DL fan (CA resident), and I love AK! We have been to WDW twice in three years. I missed it our first trip as I was attending a work conference so my DH went with our son. I went last Jan and it is my favorite park. So beautiful. FOP is nothing like Soaring. We rode it twice and would have done more if the waits weren’t hours long. We haven’t attend the shows before and rarely watched the performers which I know is changed right now. I’m glad I didn’t miss it as we debated not going.
We skipped Epcot our last trip as my son was bored out of his mind while I drank around the world. So much whining and complaining. Do they still have the Kidcot passport? That helped as he could play with the stickers.

 

[loves to dive]

I wouldn't skip AK but I'm a big advocate of going to all 4 parks if you have either never been or don't plan on being back for awhile. Big misconception that it is "just a zoo". Yes, there are animals and it is a big focus, but it's more than a zoo. It's also more than rides. It's a beautiful park, lots of little hidden trails and things to see if you slow down and look.

 

[Blondie58]

I would not skip Animal Kingdom. Kilimanjaro Safari and seeing the gorillas are two of my favorite things to do. And they are bringing back Lion King. Yeah! (Albeit it not until summer but you do not mention when you are traveling so this might work.) Also I think the kids would like DinoLand. For me I would skip Hollywood if you go to DL and/or Universal from time to time. This is a personal opinion, of course. You know you and your family better than I.

 

[Chause]

Gotcha, that makes more sense now how it’s charged. I think after all of your great input we will forgo park hoppers and do 1 day at all 4 parks. And if we have extra time on the animal kingdom day we will fill it with a resort day or afternoon at Disney Springs. We are really bad about slowing down and doing a resort/pool day, so worse case scenario this will force our hand . Best case scenario, we got to see almost everything and won’t have missed out on much. And we will try to make anything missed during the trip something that’s a clone from Disneyland...Thanks again!