Best Way to Tour AK Animal Kingdom Right Now

[Raemama]

Howdy! Noticed there was a thread for “here now and just back,” but not park specific. I’d love to get your strategies and opinions for touring Animal Kingdom from when to arrive at the gate, to best time (and how) to tour each area/land.

I’ve most recently seen that Pandora is kind of a madhouse, and am wondering the best time of day to go there and be able to actually see details. Outside of Pandora, I also want to tour as much of the animals as I can. But would still love your general thoughts about having the most enjoyable time in this park under the current circumstances. Thanks in advance for your help!

 

[chris benton]

You'll surely get some great advice here, but I would defer you to touringplans.com to create your own itinerary once you figure out what the important attractions are for your party. I don't work for them or anything, but I think their software, info guides, and message forums are fantastic for building your own itinerary.

 

[Raemama]

You'll surely get some great advice here, but I would defer you to touringplans.com.

Thanks for this—I have a TP account and will see if they’ve worked to better account for WDW-COVID-style.

 

[WendiDarling]

I did TP plans for our trip starting a week from today. Really hoping they are pretty accurate! Might just have to adjust on the fly depending on where we "should" be vs. where we actually are (skip some attractions etc) . Other than driving and planning ot arrive at the parking lot an hour early, we have 2 ak days so we are planning to hit pandora at r/d one day, the EE at r/d the other day. Our second day is in the thick of thanksgiving week so we're going to steer away from pandora at r/d on that day. Other than that, we really tried to minimize criss crossing the park and expect to have to wait. It'll be a different kind of trip for sure... but I'm excited the parks are open a bit later and hopefully we can do Pandora after dark and EE after dark too!

 

[Delilah1310]

I'm also curious about how early to get to AK.
When we are there in December, the published hours are 7 am to 7 pm.
I can't imagine getting there earlier than 7 am! But what is the recommended "arrive and get in line" time?
thanks!

 

[3DisMunchkins]

I haven't used TP in years...found I didn't need it at DL. Has it been accurate in predicting WDW with the new COVID changes?
Also curious to other replies to OP!

 

[philharmagic fan]

I did TP plans for our trip starting a week from today. Really hoping they are pretty accurate! Might just have to adjust on the fly depending on where we "should" be vs. where we actually are (skip some attractions etc) . Other than driving and planning ot arrive at the parking lot an hour early, we have 2 ak days so we are planning to hit pandora at r/d one day, the EE at r/d the other day. Our second day is in the thick of thanksgiving week so we're going to steer away from pandora at r/d on that day. Other than that, we really tried to minimize criss crossing the park and expect to have to wait. It'll be a different kind of trip for sure... but I'm excited the parks are open a bit later and hopefully we can do Pandora after dark and EE after dark too!

Pandora at rope drop is definitely a good strategy. As far as EE goes - the last Tuesday of October we were at AK and an hour after park opening EE was a walk-on.

 

[goodeats]

If you are not front of the pack at rope drop I would skip Pandora and come back later in the afternoon - especially if you are there mid-week. I didn't get to AK until 9:00 on a 9:00 opening day and FOP was already 90+ minutes (I'm sure not really, but that's what was posted). Most parks opened 45min early that week, and depending on the attraction, started taking riders right away.

Instead of going to Pandora, I went around the rest of the park counter clockwise (Dinosaur, EE, Safari) and never waited more than 20 minutes. I also saw ITTBAB and did the trails. I had lunch at Satulli and then got in line for FOP. It was only 30 minutes, and moved fast and was interesting to look at everything in the queue. Lines were still short later in the afternoon. It was a very easy park to tour.

 

[Raemama]

Has it been accurate in predicting WDW with the new COVID changes?

This is what I’d like to know.

I was really hoping to start some “right now” threads for specific parks, because the information seems to be changing fairly rapidly, and it’s hard to find the info I’m needing from the more general posts. I don’t see how TP can be dependable, but I’d sure like to know from user’s experiences.

 

[Raemama]

Lines were still short later in the afternoon. It was a very easy park to tour.

This is easing my anxiety a bit. Would you mind shearing the date you toured AK?

 

[DCLPrincess]

My first day I got there right at 9, there was no line for temp and security checks. I went over to Pandora and FoP was already over and hour so I did navi which was only 5 minutes. I was able to come back and do FoP with about a 20/25 minute wait. I was also able to do EE twice back to back with just a walk on. My second day I got there at 8, again no lines for temp or security. I did the safari first which was a walk on and then EE which was also a walk on. I then went back and did kali. I rode that 3 times in a row without having to get off. My strategy was get there for park open and keep an eye on wait times.

 

[goodeats]

This is easing my anxiety a bit. Would you mind shearing the date you toured AK?

I was there Wednesday November 4th.

 

[mitsugirly]

Is there an app that tells you the wait times from AK in real time when you are there?

 

[disneygirlsng]

Is there an app that tells you the wait times from AK in real time when you are there?

MDE

 

[Disneyboy24]

What animals are in the animal kingdom?

 

[Dave006]

What animals are in the animal kingdom?

Please start here:

https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/attractions/animal-kingdom/disney-animals/
Dave

 

[Raemama]

I did TP plans for our trip starting a week from today. Really hoping they are pretty accurate!

@WendiDarling, how did the TP go?? And, how was your trip?

 

[WendiDarling]

Thanks for asking! It was really good. Our AK days did not go as expected - we missed r/d the first morning due to my dd being sick (she fainted the night before so I let her sleep in and we did an afternoon arrival). The second r/d day at AK, crowds built soooo fast (day before Thanksgiving). I was expecting it but still we were not able to get as much done as we'd like.

I found the Lines app on the day-of to be very accurate with wait times, but the estimates in advance were a bit off. However, if you were on your game, I feel like doing TPs in advance is a great way to plan your trip and minimize back-and-forth walking. But...unexpected things do happen and plans get off track. My dd was *very* upset we didn't get to do Animation Academy at AK. So, my advice for anyone is: find out what one thing each person wants to do more than anything else, the thing that if they missed it they would really regret it. Then make that a priority during the day just in case the day goes sideways. I will do that next time.

However... good news... on our MK day, we planned to do 24 attracation from open to close. Did a touring plan on the Lines app - and we were able to get to 21 of them! The only things we missed were Regal Carousel, Carousel of Progress, and IASW. very successful day for a Monday of Thanksgiving week.

 

[Cynt]

No touring plan needed for AK. You can tour the whole park with little to no wait. Most of the waiting time is just walking thru the 20 minute long queues.

Option 1 - As mentioned above, get there an hour early for rope drop and head straight to FOP. Tour at your leisure and waits will be less than 20 minutes. Even EE will be posted at 55+ minutes and wind around to the Nemo theater. But we waited 30 minutes with that posted 55+ minute sign.

Option 2 - start your tour heading to Dinosaur first. You will end up at FOP late afternoon and the wait will be around 30 minutes. The line will be long but it moves constantly.

Side bar: On our 2nd AK day, October 2020 we arrived to AK after rope drop and the FOP line was passed the bridge like your heading to the Safari and then curled back around towards Tiffins. LLLOONNGG LLIINNEE. We got in line just to see how long it would take because we were a part of the crazies when it first opened that waited 3 hours when it was to the bridge. We waited ONE HOUR. We couldn't believe it. No fast passes cut the wait time TWO HOURS and the line was soo much longer in October 2020.

 

[boop0524]

We went to AK today (12.3) with a 9 am opening. Got there at 8:05 and waited in the car line. They let us through at 8:20 but we waited in another car line to park until 8:30. We headed straight to Pandora to do FOP and then Navi, and I would highly recommend this strategy if you want to do these rides. They stayed long all day. Once we finished, the Safari had a long wait, so we held off until closer to lunch time when it slowed down. We rode then, again at 2 and right at the end of the day at 4:30 (with 5 pm closing). In between we were able to do Gorilla Falls and the jungle trek, so lots of animals.