Would anyone ever chose to go to DTD over AK when short on time?

[Childs1stTime2Disney]

Would you ever choose to go to DTD over AK if you were short on time? Anyone just not interested in AK that much?

 

[abcangie87]

If I was on the Disney Dining Plan, I would probably choose DTD over AK just to make sure I got to go eat at Wolfgang Puck Express Plus I love the shopping. And animal kingdom is hot and hard to navigate with munchkins, I think!

 

[jennine]

I think that AK really gets a bum rap! I found it to be one of my favourite parks and I was going in a little wary with all the posts about it being a "skip-able" park. EE is now my absolute favourite ride! The character trails are cool, Lion King and Nemo are amazing shows. The Kiliminjaro Safari is really awesome(kids wanted to go on it over and over). There are a lot of hidden gems there if you ask me, not to mention the amazing detail in the park that only Disney can provide! I would definitely pick AK over DTD unless you were really intent on shopping and eating all day.....while DTD was definitley neat to see, we preffered being in the park.

 

[missoverexcited]

We will do AK until about 2-3pm then go to DTD for the rest of the day, I don't think we would skip it entirely.

 

[mel&me]

We love AK, Would do the over DTD and stores any day.

 

[Buffalo2Disney]

No chance that we would choose DTD over AK. AK is the best park, people just don't realize it.

 

[GaSleepingBeautyFan]

The day I go to AK is usually the evening I go to DTD.

I will go to AK during the day and usually I'm done with AK by 4pm so I take a break at the resort, clean up and then go to DTD for the evening.

Some trips I skip DTD and choose to spend the evening at another park or just hanging out at the resort.

 

[kohlby]

We've done AK the last 4 with-kids Disney trips, and have finally come to realize that we need to skip it on our next trip. We always have one off-day, which is our DTD and pool day. Last time, my kids spent over two hours at the Lego store at DTD working on their cars alone! We had becomes smarter about our AK plan last time and realized to only do a few key attactractions and then get out of there. My oldest did well with this. My middle child was ready to leave immediately. (My third didn't care one way or another). I did AK before I had kids and we enjoyed it. It certainly wasn't our favorite park, but we did like it. But my kids aren't into it, though they love DTD. Our next trip will have 5 disney park days - and one sea world - and we will be skipping AK, but still have our off day which is DTD/pool.

If someone has never been to disney, I'd tell them to go to AK if they have the days. It is definately worth it the first time. And since some people love the park, they're not going to figure out if they love it until they go. Doing both - AK and then DTD in one day - is a good plan for someone short on time who doesn't have young kids or doesn't need the down day.

 

[DisneyFive]

Would choose AK over DTD EVERY time!

I was pretty dissappointed with DTD the last two trips. However, Wolfgang Puck Express is the best QS location in WDW if you're on the meal plan, IMO. I agree with others on that one.

Dan

 

[Mrsjvb]

AK, hands down. we are one of the few people who can spend Open to close there and not be bored at all. DTD just doesn't do it for me. with the exception of the Lego creations, there's just not that much worth seeing there unless you are doing Cirque.

sure we'll do a dinner there once, maybe twice, but we rarely if ever schedule a day to do nothing but shop. I have no desire to spend money on non Disney souvenirs. which means 3/4 of the stores there do not interest me at all.

 

[DisneyAbsolutely]

I love Animal Kingdom. I like certain attractions at every park but I had the best overall experience at Animal Kingdom. The theming alone is purely amazing!!! I'm a visual person so I'd go to AK just for that reason alone! If you don't like it then feel free to skip it. Who am I to tell you what you like? I personally wouldn't miss it for the world!

 

[DisneyFive]

No chance that we would NOT choose AK over DTD. AK is the best park, people just don't realize it.

Fixed that for you (in bold). I think that's what you meant.

Dan

 

[prisjoyce]

We were just discussing this with our kids last night....our next trip will likely be less than a week and I asked our kids what they would be willing to skip, or spend less time seeing. The 1st thing they said was AK. They could only come up with 1 ride that they would really miss (KS). I asked them about DTD and they said they'd go there over AK. (I agree with them!)

AK has been a 1/2 day park for us the past 2 visits. We've gone in the morning, then done pool/DTD/fireworks at another park in the evening.

Whatever you decide, enjoy your trip!

 

[MrsDuck]

I'd definitely choose AK (or any other park) over DTD!!

You could do AK during the day and DTD at night...

 

[taraplus2]

We chose to skip AK this time (3/12)....we always make it to DTD tho!

 

[Tarffri]

I guess it depends if you are a shopper or not. We are not shoppers, so DTD was too mall-ish for our liking. We did enjoy the Disney store and made our souvenir purchases there. Then, we ate at Planet Hollywood. I liked it better than DD, but she is 9 y.o. and has not seen many movies (other than Disney) so the memorabilia meant nothing to her. We had to buy tickets to DisneyQuest to keep us entertained at DTD. Pricey, but tons of fun!

I would prefer AK, make it an early afternoon day and then go back to the resort and swim. YMMV.

Kilimanjaro Safari was one of the best things we did in all of WDW parks, and FOTLK was one of the best shows. We only spent half a day there and missed so much because it was DD's birthday and she felt that her birthday wouldn't be complete without spending a good portion of it in the MK. We had park hoppers, so it was no problem to grant her wish. It wasn't that she didn't love AK (she really did), but she loved MK even more. But if it was up to me, I would have spent more time in AK.

 

[wundermommy76]

While I like DTD a lot (I love to window shop), I think my kids would enjoy their time at AK more. We always make sure to spend one night in DTD so we can eat at T-Rex and hit up the Lego store - this is the night we let the kids spend their alloted $$ on whatever they want in DTD. But AK definitely provides them with more fun & thrills. My kids esp loved Dinoland USA - one part of it looks like a carnival with lots of smaller thrill rides for them and then the dino dig area is always a big hit too. So this trip we are spending our last day (actually only until 1pm) there so they can spend as much time as they want in those areas since we will only get in a half day at AK on the very 1st day of our visit to WDW. The 1st trip there will be to hit up all the major attractions/rides and then our last day will be for them to just run around and play freely. They enjoy that more than DTD - except for the being able to buy toys aspect!

 

[MyMagicKingdom]

I honestly can't imagine a scenario where I would skip AK. Last time we went, we did that park twice. We always stay open to close. Its my favorite park and both DH and DS3 love it! We usually do DTD the day we get to WDW (we usually get there early afternoon at the latest)...spend some time at the resort and then go to DTD around 5 until maybe 10 and that's sufficient for us.

 

[PrincessSophiasMom]

That is what we are doing on our trip in June. We are only there for four days and we are going for my friends wedding. So on top of only going for 4 days we have wedding events 3 out of the 4 days which is eating up our time. We really like to do our shopping at DTD instead of the parks so skipping AK this trip just makes sense. I like AK but being short on time it is the thing we decided to skip so we could still do DTD.

 

[MichiganKris]

We had to choose on our trip last December. We picked Animal Kingdom, I can't imagine not going there. I think it is one of my favorite parks, and I can't even imagine skipping it.