ak itinerary advice please

[marge]

hi everyone going in may and fp+ Coming up soon so just making a plan. advice for ak welcomed please!

going with nanna & 4yr old. skipping things like fop, Everest and up. priorities are kj safari, nav'i river, jungle trek meet n great Minnie, folk, & boneyard. we will rd and start fp+ early as we plan to break early afternoon back to hotel.

Thinking best fp for us would be nav'i, lion king, & dinosaur?

since kj safari is what we look forward to most, plan is to rope drop it.
-then express train, gorillas (when to fit in tigers?? really want to see so when most active)

• then fp+1 lion king (time 10:30?)
• then nemo or tough to be a bug

OR go to fp+2 dinosaur, followed by vineyard and triceratop spin( not sure if doable before lunch reservation)
** lunch reservation at 12:30 rainforest cafe
-after lunch either dinoland stuff or 2 aforementioned shows
then fp+ nav'i (2p?)
and must do Minnie mouse meet n greet, so not sure where to fit in?

We will leave park afternoon to head to hotel POFQ for a nap or swim. dinner reservations at DS t-rex. so may or may not head back at night afterwards. not fussed. if we do, no plan just be spontaneous. if not that is why want to get a lot in and good plan for 1/2 day early start

not been to an before and this will be only trip, so please suggestions! tia!

 

[nickys]

hi everyone going in may and fp+ Coming up soon so just making a plan. advice for ak welcomed please!

going with nanna & 4yr old. skipping things like fop, Everest and up. priorities are kj safari, nav'i river, jungle trek meet n great Minnie, folk, & boneyard. we will rd and start fp+ early as we plan to break early afternoon back to hotel.

Thinking best fp for us would be nav'i, lion king, & dinosaur?

since kj safari is what we look forward to most, plan is to rope drop it.
-then express train, gorillas (when to fit in tigers?? really want to see so when most active)

• then fp+1 lion king (time 10:30?)
• then nemo or tough to be a bug

OR go to fp+2 dinosaur, followed by vineyard and triceratop spin( not sure if doable before lunch reservation)
** lunch reservation at 12:30 rainforest cafe
-after lunch either dinoland stuff or 2 aforementioned shows
then fp+ nav'i (2p?)
and must do Minnie mouse meet n greet, so not sure where to fit in?

We will leave park afternoon to head to hotel POFQ for a nap or swim. dinner reservations at DS t-rex. so may or may not head back at night afterwards. not fussed. if we do, no plan just be spontaneous. if not that is why want to get a lot in and good plan for 1/2 day early start

not been to an before and this will be only trip, so please suggestions! tia!

Firstly, are you sure about Dinosaur and Tough to be a Bug with a 4 year old? Is she fearless? Dinosaur is fun, but can be scary and the jerky motion may also be a problem if she’s at all nervy. TtbaB scares the living daylights out of a large number of under 6s.

Express train is closed, not sure when it will be open. If it’s open when you go, then you could do it after safari. Allow an hour for that, so you’re not rushing to get back. If not, then why not substitute the Gorilla Falls trail - for me, seeing hippos swimming from an underwater tank is pretty impressive, plus the gorillas. Then do the tiger trek, again allow plenty of time, 45 minutes to an hour is good.

Double back and see if there’s a FotLK show at around 12, or book Navii for 11:30 with an aim to be there around 12 anyway. This is where the timing is an issue. If you could you push Rainforest back a little, you should be able to fit in both FotLK and Navii before lunch. If you can only do one before lunch then I would do FotLK, book an FP for Navii at 1:30, and use any free time before lunch to either meet Mickey or look at the Tree of Life carvings or Oasis animals.

After lunch, and head for Dinoland. Dinosaur and then the Boneyard. You will need to allow an hour for play, but have something to lure her out with! She won’t want to leave. So do the meet and greet afterwards, exit Dinoland the way you came in and it’s on Discovery Island. Plenty of animal trails there too, plus the Tree of Life to explore (there are paths all around the “roots” and lots of different animals carved into them).

The issue is that AK is huge, and walking distances are long. And you don’t want to be constantly rushing or dragging DD around. Which is why I’ve said to allow an hour for everything, it also gives breathing room for walking to the next thing. And the Boneyard gives DD the chance to play and unwind. And also you and Nana!

 

[marge]

thank you for replying!
yes, my daughter is fearless! Halloween is her fav! she loves monsters, vampires, ghosts, werewolves etc. her fav movie when she was 2 was nightmare before Christmas

so I think this might be the way to go:
rd safari
gorilla falls (skip the exp train)
fp+1 lion king 10:30
tigers
fp+2 nav'i 1130 (try to squeeze in m&greet)
l@ rd Cafe 12:30
fp+3 dinosaur 130
boneyard, lure to triceratop spin
meet n greet outpost if not done yet
maybe nemo? (and will prob have to skip tough to be a bug
I want to head back to hotel between 2-3, so that is prob all we'll have time for
does this sound better?

 

[nickys]

Hmmm, that looks way too tight to me, with a 4 year old, whether she’s walking or in a stroller (if the latter the less time walking is offset by parking and then finding your stroller before and after every attraction). As I said, the distances are big, AK is the largest park.

You’re going from the gorilla trail back to Lion King and then back past the gorillas to the tigers, and back again past FotLK to Navii. You’ll get to know that route well ........ that’s a lot of extra walking, probably three times the amount than if you did Safari, gorillas, tigers and then back to Harambe for the LK.

And there’s not enough time allowed there for walking between the attractions.

I looked up random show times for LK in May. Seems like the show time is 11am. So you want to be there for 10:45 even with an FP, otherwise you will just get in with all the stand-by people and no special seating. And I think the FP will be for either 10:30 or 10:45.

Since the Safari takes about 20 minutes, assuming you are at Discovery Island at the time of rope drop (they will let people in early to the park and hold them there), you could be out at 9:30. That’s with no delays either waiting for Safari to open and no delays on the ride itself, both of which are possible due to the unpredictability of the animals.

I would skip the gorillas. As a guide, it would take 10 minutes at a decent pace to walk through to the end of each trail, then back again. That’s with no distractions, like stopping for the hippos or the aviary, or the museum, or actually stopping at the end to watch the animals.

So I would go straight to the tigers. 10 minutes to get there, 20 minutes to get back to LK. 45 minutes through the trail should be enough.

If LK finishes at 11:30, you could then go straight to Pandora. Ride Navii, look around the land and then lunch.

You need to allow 45-60 minutes for a TS meal (without characters).

Then either head to Dinoland, ride Dinosaur with FP at 1:30, then go to either the Triceratops Spin or the Boneyard, and lure her out with Mickey.

One suggestion I have is to look at Touring Plans. For a small subscription, you can create a touring plan of the attractions you want to do, plus meals etc. And it comes up with a plan with timings. You can set the walking speed to very slow, to allow for toilet breaks and just stopping to notice the themeing (AK is actually the most intricate of all the parks IMO). Although they also underestimate time to do the trails too!

 

[marge]

thanks so much for your response! we will be busing fro POFQ, so hopefully that will save time with parking. and bringing a stroller. I will have to alter again because I'm sure we will want to stop and see hippos and we will not be swiftly walking from ride to ride

 

[nickys]

thanks so much for your response! we will be busing fro POFQ, so hopefully that will save time with parking. and bringing a stroller. I will have to alter again because I'm sure we will want to stop and see hippos and we will not be swiftly walking from ride to ride

Well although there is a lot of walking in AK, it is beautiful with lots to look at. Except Dinoland ..... which is kinda well themed, only it’s an out of place Linda tacky theme IMO. Anyway the point is, because of all the themeing, you don’t necessarily feel really tired even if you’re there for longer. The Boneyard, plus a TS lunch will give you some respite.

I’m glad that you don’t intend to rush from one ride to another. Think of it as a cross between a day at a zoo and a day at an adventure park. You could always go back to the resort and swim in the evening to unwind, then crash early!