A guide to making the most of your day at Disney’s Animal Kingdom.
Animal Kingdom recently celebrated its 21st birthday. It’s changed significantly over the last 2 decades. In years past, it was a half day park at best and not much more than a glorified zoo. That’s definitely no longer the case.
Just to iterate how much the park has changed, among other animals, the logo has a dragon on it. There’s no dragon section of the park – but that was an envisioned corner at some point.
2 years ago, Animal Kingdom introduced Pandora which breathed new life into the park, and theme parks in general. The detailing was inspired, and the Flight of Passage ride was revolutionary.
There’s also Everest, one of the best done, and most expensive mountains. The park has certainly improved since it opened, and Chester and Hester’s dinoland is really the only weak link to the park currently.
As a whole, it’s certainly not without it’s flaws – but Animal Kingdom has quickly become one of our favorites, and a destination in it’s own right.
So – how can we help you?
We’re at the parks a lot. Seriously, it’s probably unhealthy. Animal Kingdom is one of our favorites. It’s a great place to spend a few hours, see some animals, and enjoy some rides and awesome food.
Determining what you want to do.
Animal Kingdom is actually the biggest of the four Disney Orlando Parks. It’s actually the biggest park of them all. Luckily for you – most of that area is occupied by the Kilimanjaro Safari ride, and you won’t have to walk THAT much.
While it’s not gigantic, it’s still big – there’s a lot of tree cover and shade – but as is thematically appropriate, there’s a lot of humidity. It’s basically a swamp jungle.
Due to the nature of the hot Florida weather, it’s important to plan out a Disney Trip with that in mind. Especially at Animal Kingdom.
At Animal Kingdom: Be prepared for sweaty clothes and frizzy hair. It’s inevitable. Arrive early and take your pictures in the morning if you want to look your best.
If you want to ride rides – get a fastpass for Flight of Passage, arrive at rope drop and dart to the ride, or be prepared for a long wait.
After 2 years, the wait time is still regularly over 2 hours.
Flight of passage is the main attraction at Animal Kingdom. It’s a real crowd-pleaser, and even though it seats nearly 200 people at a time, the line is always full. People will literally run there as soon as they’re allowed inside the park.
Take advantage of extra magic hours if you’re staying at a Disney hotel to avoid this insanity. The ride is worth a long wait, but try and avoid it.
Na’Vi river journey on the other hand, isn’t as interesting – but is still neat. The wait is usually less,. Nobody really runs to get on this one. Still though, the line is often over a half an hour, it’s not as valuable of a Fastpass as Flight of Passage, but it’s still a time saver if Flight of Passage is unavailable, or you plan to rope drop Flight of Passage, then fast pass River Journey along the way.
Not going to Pandora first
If you choose to rope drop and don’t go to Pandora first – you can pretty much expect to have the park to yourself. This is a fantastic opportunity for Instagram selfies and portraits with a deserted back drop. Act fast though – it won’t be long before the Flight of Passage line is putting everyone off and they branch out to explore the rest of the park.
Alternatively – Early morning is one of the best times to ride Kilamanjaro Safaris. The handlers rotate the animals feeding times to keep something visible throughout the day, but most animals are up and about bright and early, before settling down for a mid-day nap. When we’ve gone early, we’ve seen hippos out of the water, and giraffe’s wandering about. The lions weren’t visible, but there was enough of everything else to keep us satisfied.
If the line is short, you might want to ride it again once you’re finished. It can take a half hour to go through the entire ride, and that’s enough time for feeding time to change for some things and other animals to wake up.
There’s no way to know what you’ll get, and we’ve had great safaris at all times of day. Our best safaris are typically in the evening – which is also great for lines. If you time it before sunset, there should be quite a bit of activity that’s still visible.
All in all, we love the safari, and it’s probably our second favorite attraction in all of Disney World, after Flight of Passage. It’s so unique and well done, it really is like a real safari.
What should I fast pass?
| Tier 1 |
| Flight of Passage |
| Tier 2 |
| Everest Kilamanjaro Safari Na’Vi River Journey Kali River Rapids |
| Tier 3 |
| Dinosaur |
| Tier 4 |
| Everything else |
| Book later in the day |
| Rivers of Light |