Touring Animal Kingdom About This Page:

[Tiki4]

We are planning our 7 night trip and were wondering if Animal Kingdom is different in the AM than touring it in the afternoon and evening?

We were thinking of doing AK twice with the first day starting at DTD and then the afternoon/evening (Picnic in the Park) at AK and then the 2nd day would be AK in the AM followed by a Water Park in the afternoon....................

Any suggestions would be awesome!!!! Would you go to AK twice???

[GinaButtrfly]

I have only done AK in the morning because I was told as the day gets hotter it is harder to see the animals. They take cover from the heat too.

[Diz]

That would be a good plan if there is a later closing time on the first night. AK closes early a lot of times -- some days as early as 5 pm. But if it's open later, it's very to ride EE at sunset. And there are a lot of other rides that don't focus on the animals that you would be able to do.

And the in the morning you could do things like the safari and the Lion King show if you missed it the day before.

I'd check on the Picnic in the Park time though. I believe you can only order between something like 8:30 am and 1:30 pm with a 2-hour later pick-up time. So you would be looking at 3:30 at the latest for the meal on your afternoon there.

[HollyH]

We often split AK into half day doses!! Many animal exhibits will be closed in the evening but there is still plenty to do.

[Sue M.]

I would as Diz mentioned, make the AK afternoon day on a day AK has evening EMH. We love AK, and plan on 2 days there in August, one of which is evening EMH.

[chezp]

I think the idea you've got is a nice one - it allows you to hit the big rides first thing and then go in the afternoon and hit everything else.

[DVCBird941]

You will see more animals on the safari in the morning. I wish this park would stay open later, as the 5pm close is SOOO early

[jimmymac]

I like your plan. The best time to see the animals is early in the morning. EE at night is very coool

[hockeyguysmom]

We do 2 half days at AK. One to focus on the safari & animal exhibits and the 2nd for shows & rids. I think your plan sounds good, since the animals are more active 1st thing in the morning & while it is cooler out you should plan to see the animals on the earlier day.

[Tiki4]

Originally Posted by hockeyguysmom

We do 2 half days at AK. One to focus on the safari & animal exhibits and the 2nd for shows & rids. I think your plan sounds good, since the animals are more active 1st thing in the morning & while it is cooler out you should plan to see the animals on the earlier day.

That sounds great........Thanks everyone for your input!! I just feel we will really like AK as we all love animals so I suspected we would need two visits. We were orginally thinking of just getting 5 day park tickets but now I am sure we will want to get 6 park day tickets - 2 MK, 2 AK, 1 DS and 1 Epcot. Our kids are 12 and 9 and although we would probably like 2 Epcot days too, we are most interested in the Front part of Epcot and not so much with the Around the World
part of it (at least this time). There is just sooooo much to take in and I know it is impossible to do everything and we want to enjoy ourselves not burn ourselves out!!

Does the EMH change??? We are looking at being there in Feb. and would for sure like to hit AK on the night it stays open late!!!

Any other suggestions about AK is welcome..........like where is your favorite QS place or if the shows are not to miss..........

THANKS for helping out the newbie!!!!

[HOOPDEEDO4ME]

We did AK from opening until 3 p.m. and easily could have gone back for a second day.

[Sue M.]

In Feb the EMH isn't as late as summer hours, but all parks in winter close earlier then summer time. WDW publishes it's hours 90 days ahead, give or take. Some want to get a head start on figuring EMH, and park hours to help make ADR's and look up the historical hours and use that as a guide.

Fav CS at AK is Flame Tree and the Yak & Yeti CS.

I like The Festival of the Lion King the best. Nemo is the other show. It's good, but IMO Lion King is more fun and upbeat.

I love the Safari, EE, Dinosaur, Bugs Life, Kali River Rapids, Primevel Whirl, Pangani Forest Trail, Maharajah Jungle Trek, It's Tough to be a Bug, Wildlife Train to Rafiki Planet Watch, The Jammin' Jungle Parade, looking for DeVine, she is dressed, camoflaged, like a vine-very cool. And basically just love strolling around and taking it all in. Don't be in a rush in this park, the theming and attention to detail is amazing.

[dizprincess27]

Just got back from WDW 2 weeks ago and we hit AK @ 4:00 on an EMH night (park was open until 10:00pm) This was the first time we ever did this park that late as we usually hit it in the am but we had the best time ever. There was plenty of daylight until 8:00 or so and we did everything without it being too hot. We saw lots of animals on the safari too!! The only thing we didn't do was Kali because it broke down but I will do this again with AK. I liked it much better than sweating all day. February though it won't be that hot!!

[LizardCop]

While it's cooler in the morning, and the animals are fairly active (due to the cool and they're being fed) you can also get some good animal viewing in the afternoon. On the suggestion of a CM there, we hit KS just as the parade ends, they said that was when the did the afternoon feeding of the animals and they were all over the place....

[Tiki4]

Originally Posted by dizprincess27

Just got back from WDW 2 weeks ago and we hit AK @ 4:00 on an EMH night (park was open until 10:00pm) This was the first time we ever did this park that late as we usually hit it in the am but we had the best time ever. There was plenty of daylight until 8:00 or so and we did everything without it being too hot. We saw lots of animals on the safari too!! The only thing we didn't do was Kali because it broke down but I will do this again with AK. I liked it much better than sweating all day. February though it won't be that hot!!

On the suggestion of a CM there, we hit KS just as the parade ends, they said that was when the did the afternoon feeding of the animals and they were all over the place....

Thank Julie and Bill for the Afternoon tips...........we won't mind if the weather is a bit cool in Feb as we are from the FRIGED North so it will seem very nice to us. We are all so looking forward to AK and just know it will be one of our favs!!