A full day at AK?!?!

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Figaro928

Well-Known Member
Hi, beginning to plan our upcoming trip. Every other time we've visited the world, AK has always been a half day park. It was actually only a morning park once we had the kids - only one doable E-ticket. We are going sans park hoppers this trip so a half day in the park is out. We are already cutting HS out of the itinerary :eek:
Keep in mind that more Everest, Dinosaur, Kali, the dino "coaster" and maybe even Tough to be a bug are basically out since we have the youngens. We are going to have a sit-down "brunch" at Tusker, so that will eat up some time though.

Could we realistically, without the big E-tickets make AK a full day park?
 
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Christine in NJ

Christine in NJ

Member
I can't make it a full day park even with all the rides. We don't have kids, so maybe that's part of it and we go in September so the lines are short, etc etc. We fly in, so that's always the park we do the day we arrive and then we never go back. A lot of people love it and find it a bit dull.
 
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Bocko57

Bocko57

Well-Known Member
Well, you might be able to do a full day. 2 shows I highly recommend: Finding Nemo and Festival of the Lion King. Another show I heard was good but have not seen is Flight of Wonders. Do the kids enjoy the Meet and Greets? If so you could do several of those, pictures and autographs. Even with young ones, you can still do the E-ticket rides with baby swap. You can enjoy the Kilimanjaro Sarafis ride with the kids. You can spend some time at the Affection Section (Petting Zoo). And you can walk all the various Trails and Treks. You could finish the day off with a good meal at the Tusker House or Yak & Yeti. After dinner, you can finish the day off with a relaxing time at the pool.
 
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Master Yoda

Master Yoda

Pro Star Wars geek.
Premium Member
If all you do is run from attraction to attraction, show to show, you are going to have a hard time spending an entire day at AK

However, if you slow down a bit, smell the roses, go down paths you have not been down before, relax and watch the animals, you will have no problem spending an entire day at AK without going on a single attraction.
 
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graphite1326

graphite1326

Well-Known Member
We can't seem to do a full day and hitting most of the attractions. We don't do Chester and Hester and it depends on the weather if we do the rapids. But other than that we do pretty much everything and are usually done about 3:00.
 
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Weather_Lady

Weather_Lady

Well-Known Member
It sounds doable to me - rather relaxing, even. We visited on an EMH morning on our last trip. Due to a snafu with the Disney buses, we didn't get inside the park until around 8:30am on a day with a crowd level rated "5" out of 10 by touringplans (in other words, a totally average crowd day).

Between 8:30am and 12:00 noon, we did Kilimanjaro Safaris, Expedition Everest (twice!), Kali River Rapids, (non-daredevils in the group skipped Kali and Expedition Everest and did the Pangani Forest and Maharajah trails during that same time - we all met up at the adjoining exits for Kali/Maharajah), Dinosaur, Triceratop Spin, and the Finding Nemo Show -- all standby. At that point, we stopped, ate a CS lunch, and left the park before 1:00pm, but had we stayed in the park for the rest of the day, several attractions would have remained for us to do: it's tough to be a bug, Flights of Wonder (meh - we watched it online before we visited and decided that was sufficient), the Planet Watch thingy, Festival of the Lion King (down for refurb during our visit, anyway), the Boneyard, the Discovery Island trails, and/or Primeval Whirl.

By arriving a little late (with FP+ in hand for Kilimanjaro Safaris), going at a more relaxing pace and lingering over your brunch and the various nature trails, and stopping to savor the street entertainment, I think you could easily make AK a full day park, even with the attractions you plan to skip.

If you still think you're going to finish too quickly, however, (insert juvenile joke here), you might consider taking a bus over to the Animal Kingdom Lodge for a stroll around there, and/or a dinner at one of the AKL's excellent restaurants.
 
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Redsky89

Redsky89

Well-Known Member
Its definitely possible. Theres never a shortage of things to do regardless of circumstances if you look at the park overall. If I end up in Animal Kingdom its always a half a day though cause it just doesnt give me the same feeling as the other parks. But others swear by that place.
 
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PigletIsMyCat

PigletIsMyCat

Well-Known Member
AK is almost a full day park for us. we don't have kids though; as another mentioned, you can do child swap for like everest and dinosaur if one/both of you really want to ride; the single riders line at everest might help too - get snacks for the kids and ride one at a time. kilimanjaro can eat up a bit of time, as can the two treks - i love taking my time through those. and the shows - i recommend all three shows at AK - finding memo, festival of the lion king, and flights of wonder. if any of you are scared of birds, you may want to skip flights of wonder. don't forget the boneyard and rafiki's planet watch for the kids (or for those adults who love goats and demand an opportunity to brush them while at disney, like me). and if you want to turn it into a full day park, definitely take advantage of meet & greets while you're at AK.
 
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CamiCan

Active Member
The concept of an animal based Disney Theme Park intrigues me: Would you describe it more like a zoo with rides or a theme park with animals? We're definitely planning to dedicate the fourth day to seeing this park but we're wondering why it closes so early (website says 5PM!!!) AND no extra magic hours afterwards. Shouldn't it stay light until around 8 or so in early September? is it because of the reason of this thread (not enough to do for a day) or just logistics of park operations?
 
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Master Yoda

Master Yoda

Pro Star Wars geek.
Premium Member
CamiCan said:
The concept of an animal based Disney Theme Park intrigues me: Would you describe it more like a zoo with rides or a theme park with animals? We're definitely planning to dedicate the fourth day to seeing this park but we're wondering why it closes so early (website says 5PM!!!) AND no extra magic hours afterwards. Shouldn't it stay light until around 8 or so in early September? is it because of the reason of this thread (not enough to do for a day) or just logistics of park operations?
Click to expand...
A little bit of both, but mostly the lack of attractions

Nighttime entertainment is being added and an expansion is currently under construction that should solve the problem.
 
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