Kilimanjaro Safari FastPass Line 5-8-16 - LONG LINE!

[wdwjmp239]

This morning, my family and I had Fastpasses for both Expedition Everest and Kilimanjaro Safari at Animal Kingdom. EE, we had no problem - 10am FastPass - got on - rode EE (it was our first time and my new favorite ride!) - had a great time - off the ride. Then, we walked over to KS for our 11am FastPass time. By the time we got over to KS, we saw the FastPass line was longer than the Stand-By entrance. I asked a person who was standing in line (probably about 100 feet from the FastPass entrance how long they were standing in the FastPass line and they said about 35 minutes (might've been an exaggeration on their part). But, as we proceeded to find the end of the line (and seeing how there was no end in sight), we abandoned the idea of going on KS and headed elsewhere.

Was anyone else at Animal Kingdom this morning and saw this? What was going on? Were the KS vehicles having issues? Now, let's say we stood in the FastPass line - by the time we got to the FastPass entrance, our time would've long since passed. Would the FastPass CM honor our passes and let us in? Or, would we have to get new FastPasses and try it again later?

 

[SyracuseDisneyFan]

Yikes.

 

[BackOTheLine]

We were there in mid-April and the fastpass line was down through the middle of Harambe. Turns out 2 of the 3 handheld fastpass readers were not working and it caused the line to back up. It was a little slow moving but once we got through the fastpass check it went fast. I don't know how long we waited but it wasn't nearly as bad as it looked that day...

 

[MrNonacho]

When I rode yesterday, the FP line was backed up all the way to the entrance and looked pretty bad, but it only took about 10-15 minutes to board.

 

[Mickey5150]

The good and bad of fastpass is that when the line gets really long they usually send more fastpass thru, that's when you standby line goes from 30 to 45 minutes, lol.

 

[danitaytay]

I had the same thing happen to us at TSMM!
We had a FP for around 2 in the afternoon and when we went over to scan our Magicbands, we noticed the line was all the way down to the Pixar Place sign. When we asked how long the FP line was, they said it was probably a 45 minute wait in comparison to the standby line's 100 minute wait. We ended up just abandoning our FP for another one.
Kilimanjaro does have difficulties with the vehicles sometimes. I know last week when we were there we had to wait in our car for like ten minutes because one of the trucks got stuck and needed a little extra help getting out.

 

[disney4life2008]

I was there as well. My return time was noon to 1pm. It was a 75 minute standby wait and the fp line I waited about 15 minutes. There was an internal issue though because once we returned to the drop off area, we sat there for about 20 minutes. I do not know what the issue was. But remember, if there are animals in the road, the vehicles do not move. Granted, that has nothing to do with the fp line.

 

[jimbo mack]

Went to AK this afternoon and joined FP queue at 1.35 - we got on in less than 5 minutes. We must have been lucky!

 

[WondersOfLife]

This happened to me and my friend on Test Track... But fooooooor a different reason? I guess?

Test Track had been down aaaaallllll day and only reopened at like 7:00 PM. The line exceeded VEEEEEEEERRRYYYYY long past the actual entrance to the building while the standby had about 30 people in it. Cast members were making announcements saying that they would have to wait up to an hour if they go in standby.

This also happened way back when we had paper fastpasses for Peter Pan's flight for some reason.. Not a long line, but the little fastpass line was full and only 2 people were waiting to ride in Standby... And those two people had to wait an hour according to the cast members outside the entrance.

 

[lemon meringue]

The Fastpass line at the Safari often looks worse then it is, and often looks worse than the stand by line. We've gotten in line several times when the line was snaking out way before the actual managed queue expecting an extended wait but that's never happened. It's usually a 10-15 minute wait even when it looks much longer. At least that's been the case when we've been there, most recently February this year, December last year.

As to the OP's question about if you arrive at the FP check point and your time has expired simply because you were waiting in an extended line- Just explain it to the CM. They seem to usually have some override power and they are understanding of legitimate situations.

 

[WDW Guru]

This happens to me all the time on KS. I eventually stopped getting Fastpasses for it and now just do it first thing in the morning.

 

[DManRightHere]

This seems about our experience as well. I think last time was about 20 minutes we spent in the FP line. Standby was much longer.

 

[EvilQueen-T]

It happens all the time since they went to the fp+ because the times are broken down in even increments. Most people hit the fast pass lines at the beginning of their fast pass time. Back when you'd get the paper fast passes you might get one for 232pm not just 230 or 240 like they are now so more people hit the line at the same time but also remember while the line looks longer at the two entrance points the standby line zigzags alot and the fastpass line doesn't. People freak out at space mountain and thunder mountain for the same reason until they get further in and realize how the standby lines zigzag and the fastpass lines skip all that.

 

[BigRedDad]

Not that there is much to FP at AK, but we have never had an issue. The one thing about KS is that the trek can stop and back everything up due to animals. We were on it once when a giraffe decided it wanted to investigate the truck. We were there for about 15 minutes just waiting for it to finally move along.

 

[wdwjmp239]

This happens to me all the time on KS. I eventually stopped getting Fastpasses for it and now just do it first thing in the morning.

Yeah, that's what we were thinking. AK isn't a park we frequent so considering that we're "veterans" (we frequent Disney World quite often) so we haven't figured out what's popular and what's not. The next time we have AK planned - we'll just hit Kilimanjaro Safari, Kali River Rapids, and Expedition Everest (on FastPasses, of course) before packing it up and going elsewhere.