What time to dine at Boma on AK day?

[Lucky'sMom]

We're planning on spending a day at AK without park-hopping. It closes at 8pm and we will be there at rope drop. I was hoping to take a mid-day break, and wasn't sure what time to schedule dinner at Boma. I had thought of including it with the break time, and making an ADR for around 5, but am wondering if that will give us enough time to do anything at AK after. Would it be better to schedule a later dinner there, at say, 7 or 7:30 pm? Thanks for your thoughts!

 

[Battousai]

I don't know when you are going, since when Boma opens varies depending on the time of year. Typically it is at 4:30 though.

The AK parade starts at 4pm usually, and I recommend seeing that and then leaving after. I personally find AK a park I can not spend the whole day at, usually just half a day. Maybe a 6-7 pm res would be ideal.....?

 

[Lucky'sMom]

We are going mid-June, on a non-EMH day. I am planning on taking the mid-day break, as we have 5 children who will be hot and tired, I'm sure.

 

[disnut8]

I'd actually go for the 7:00 dinner and then after that, heading back to your resort for the rest of the night or doing whatever nighttime activity you have planned. You can get to Animal kingdom Lodge early and tour the resort. The only thing I would caution against with the 5:00 seating is that's when the place opens. And everyone with a 5:00 seating (the whole restaurant more than likely) will be checking in at the same time. It's not a huge check in area and gets really crowded. Even 5:30 would be better. Just not right at opening time.

 

[DonnaL]

I agree with above poster who said 7:00 .....AKL is a beautiful resort to walk about and tour a bit, so ideally you could stay at AK until after the parade at 4:00 and then head over to AKL so you can check out the Lodge before dinner...or if you wish to eat earlier.....have dinner first and then walk around the Lodge.......they have an African storyteller out by the firepit every evening.....not sure what time....I want to say between 7:00 and 7:30 depending on the season and they also used to have a parade of children (all the kids who wish to participate) playing African musical instruments all around the lobby area...I think that's about 8:00 p.m........don't know if they do that every evening or only certain nights....or even if they still do it anymore. Check with the AKL front desk on any activities going on.....Oh, they also used to have a Culinary Tour at AKL....but, I believe that would take place in mid afternoon.......before Boma and Jiko were open for the evening.

 

[momtoBrandon&Jacob]

We have an ADR at Boma on our AK day as well and it's for 5:40pm. We will be there on 5/2/08. We will most likely get to AK at opening and stay till about 1:00, rest for a couple hours and then off to AKL for dinner.

 

[Stacerita]

I would make my ADR for Boma later in the evening. If you take a mid day break, do so and then head back to the park in time for the parade. Then finish touring. Then when the park closes, or right before closing, head to dinner.

 

[disneyfav4ever]

I always make an ADR at Boma for around 5:30 or 5:45, and am able to see the parade and get to the AK Lodge with plenty of time to spare.

 

[PoohsHubby]

I'd say around 6:30 if possible. In September we had a dinner reservation at 7pm thinking that we would spend some extra time at AK with the evening extra magic hours. Only problem with that was alot of the rides and attractions were not open until 8pm. AKL is beautiful and worthy of a walk around.

 

[hematite153]

Something to keep in mind with AK:

Even when they have the longer hours, the animals tend to go in around the same time. So, after the afternoon parade you'll only want to do the animal-less attractions.

As you've probably noticed, most people suggest leaving after the parade--which means that lines will be shorter then.

Midday breaks can be great, but make sure you've figured out your family. We find that we either need to choose to take a looong break away from the park or a shorter break but remain in the park.

I.e. we might choose what an earlier poster suggested and tour the park until 1 or 2 and then take a 4-5 hour break and go straight to dinner.

Or, we might go to the park at rope drop, tour until about 1, then eat a slow, relaxing lunch. (At AK, pizzafari has airconditioning and interesting rooms and sitting in there for an hour can calm me down and get me ready for more.) With this plan, we'd then hit a few more (high capacity) attractions in the afternoon and plan on an earlier dinner ~6ish.

In picking dinner times, I'd also think about your kids in terms of bedtimes and the return trip from AKL to your resort.

How old are your kids? How late do they normally stay up? Will they nap in the middle of the day (if you take a longer break)? Will a midday nap successfully allow them to stay up later than usual without getting cranky? Etc?

If you've never tried these things, you may want to try some of them as a family experiment sometime before you go to wdw. After all, it'll be easier to learn that a system doesn't work when you are at home than when you are in the middle of the MK.