Sunrise Safari

[poohbear6103]

Hi all,
I tried to do a search and nothing came up. Have any of you done the Sunrise Safari at Animal Kingdom? We will be in Disney for a few days in May and want to do something special this time around and this seems like a great idea since it is available to us at our hotel. For those of you who have done it, did you think it was worth it? Did you really get to the see the animals up close? Both times I have been on Kilamanjaro Safari I have been dissapointed because we always have bad luck and either get animals that are sleeping or hiding for the most part. I also know that there is a breakfast at Tusker House, but have never been there. How is breakfast there? How long is the safari? Is it over before the park opens?
Sorry so many questions! Thanks :wave:

 

[PatsRule]

Wife and I did the Sunrise Safari in March. It lasted about one hour. The safari is done in the same vehicles the regular safari ride is. You have a CM who is very knowledgable about the animals and their tendencies. You actualy stop for 4-5 minute intervals while they talk about the animals you are seeing. We got lucky and were able to witness two male hippos fighting over dominance in the hippo area. We also got to see the male lion stalking about his area (he wasn't sleeping). The safari got over around the same time the park was opening and we still hadn't had breakfast. The Tusker House breakfast was very good. We got fastpasses for the safari ride but we didn't use them because we had just gotten of the ride. We were done with breakfast around 9:30. The park opened at 9:00 that day. Better pictures and viewing than we've had on any normal safari ride and we've been on that ride at least 25 times.

 

[BigMike]

how do you book thie Sunrise Safari???

Thanks

Mike

 

[PatsRule]

I thought you could only book it if you were staying in Concierge at AKL. I could be wrong on that. In any event, I called AKL directly to book it. I don't have any of the info with me at work.

 

[Peachyyy]

I thought you could only book it if you were staying in Concierge at AKL. I could be wrong on that. In any event, I called AKL directly to book it. I don't have any of the info with me at work.

You are correct, you have to be staying in Concierge at AKL to go on the sunrise safari. You can call or email them and they'll send you a form to fax back to them. Their email address is WDW.AKLodge.Concierge@disney.com

 

[poohbear6103]

Last time I was at the Poly I could have sworn that there was something in my room that stated that because we were in the Poly Concierge that we can do the safari as well. I also called the Poly a week ago to ask if we could and they said yes that we were able to sign up. I didn't bother to make reservations because I was not 100% sure yet that I wanted to do it. I will try again though this week and if they made a mistake and I mis-read the info that was in our room last time, then I will have to wait and see if we stay at AKL in the future.
Thanks for the info so far

 

[ConstanceIrene]

I did a thread on this subject in February. The title was "AKL Sunrise Safari". The responses were positive to the Safari. We haven't booked the Safari, however, because we didn't want to spend $200 for the four of us.

Different strokes for different folks.

I do remember reading that the Safari is open to concierge guests at different resorts.

 

[Peachyyy]

Last time I was at the Poly I could have sworn that there was something in my room that stated that because we were in the Poly Concierge that we can do the safari as well. I also called the Poly a week ago to ask if we could and they said yes that we were able to sign up. I didn't bother to make reservations because I was not 100% sure yet that I wanted to do it. I will try again though this week and if they made a mistake and I mis-read the info that was in our room last time, then I will have to wait and see if we stay at AKL in the future.
Thanks for the info so far

Well, I guess that's a possibility too, but not consistant with the info I have. I requested information from the concierge about it about 2 weeks ago (we're staying at AKL concierge May 9th-15th) and this is what my info says:

Sunrise Safari Information​

​

This Safari is exclusive to our concierge guests staying here at the Animal Kingdom Lodge. Our guests meet between 6:30 and 7:00am in the concierge lounge for safari check-in and then depart by bus and are taken backstage to the Kilimanjaro Safari ride at the Animal Kingdom theme Park.

I would be interested to know however if you are able to get in on the safari from the Poly concierge. From what I had read, that was a huge benefit in staying at the AKL which is one of the reasons we chose it.

Let me know when/if you find out!

 

[Iakona]

The Sunrise Safari is only open to AKL Concierge. There is, I believe, another safari open to other concierge guests. AKL concierge guests are able to book a Sunrise or Sunset Safari. I thought I had heard about a 3rd option open to non-AKL concierge members.