Originally Posted By pitapan16 I recently was at Animal Kingdom from the very beggining(9am) till closing(6pm) and did not get to all that we wanted to visit. 9-6 just did'nt cut it for us. We visited the Discovery Trial's on Discovery Island, Maharajah Jungle Trek in Asia, Pangani Forrest Exploration Trail in Africa, rode Dinosaur twice, rode Expedition Everest twice, saw Festival of the Lion King, Flights of Wonder, and Finding Nemo the Musical, and went on Kilamonjaro Safaris. We would'nt waste our time in that el-cheap-o Dino-rama section for a minute, so we were'nt ever planning on visiting anything in that area, but we did want to see Its tough to be a bug, ride Kali, and take the train to Rafiki's. AK may still be limited in rides, but 9-6 is too short for me. I think the park is warrented for more spectacular new attractions carrying the AK theme and leaving the park open later.
Originally Posted By smeeeko wow..we haven't done the Expedition Everest yet (we plan to though as part of Mouse Fest or something, well SeanYoda will) but I noted you rode all the attractions at least once or twice?? You also did KJS? Depending on what time you went and the weather that ride gets pretty busy! I'm not able to ride as much at AK as I used to but if you go there in the morning and try and do everything once you will defnitely get to see & do more there! If you have been to DLR though, other than the the queue (which I prefer over the one at Disneyland Resort) Tough to be A Bug is the same attraction. I love the Tree of Life though. Also depending ont the time of day the animals are out in the morning and early evening, so you can best do the animal trails when they aren't napping and do the attractions when the sun gets out. I don't enjoy animal shows or stage shows nearly as much (just me though) and Kali gets you soaked overly much compared to Grizzly River Rapids. So if you've done some of the similar attractions in DLR than you could save time and go see Pocahontas & her forest friends! Sometimes they have a animal training session they let a limited number of folks in during the afternoon. Thats obviously my fave along with Festival of the Lion King.. I haven't seen the Finding Nemo Musical.. where is that?? and btw Chester & Hester's Dinorama is defnitely worth it for the kitch alone! We like doing the real wild mouse (unlike the one at DCA) Primevil Whirl and the Triceratops Spin. Sure it's similar to the Magic Carpets of Alladin in MK but it's still fun! If the line isn't long why not try it?? (assuming you don't have joint or back issues like I do TMI) I'm glad you had fun though! I love AK as it's my fave park I guess next to EPCOT. Regarding park hours, I'm glad they close the park early as they need to care for the animals there and also I don't know that it was set up for nightime attractions (anyone know for sure??) There are so many things to consider when they have fireworks and stuff already going off over the animals heads and adding more stress I imagine would be a pain. Plus the animals like to have quiet time at some point or another I would think. I'm just guessing though that it's all for the care of the critters and not anything else. Have you stayed or visited Animal Kingdom Lodge? They have animals there as well and storytime at the Arusha firepit that is really neat and lots of fun & cool things to do when you are staying there. Also if you are staying concierge certain nights I think they have a sunrise safari in Animal Kingdom you can take (you may want to see if they still do that for next time and what mornings). I love AKL as it's its own destination outside the AK park. It looks beautiful during the holidays and the BOMA bacon is my favorite.
Originally Posted By Doobie I was just thinking about something similar to this while at DAK on Sunday. Animal Kingdom now has (in my opinion anyway) the two best daytime shows at WDW (Nemo and Lion King), the best coaster (Everest), the best daytime parade (Jammin Jungle) and the most unique attraction (Kilimanjaro). Not that it couldn't still use some improvements, but I think the park is definitely deserving of a lot more respect than it's traditionally gotten. They seem to be steadily making it better with almost every change being an improvement (DinoRama perhaps being a notable exception). Hopefully the sit-down restaurant that's coming will be a winner as well. Doobie.
Originally Posted By a1stav ^^^^ DAK is great and I have yet to see the new Nemo show. I still can't easly see everything in one day there without rushing like crazy (and even then I miss somthing). Much love for DAK.
Originally Posted By DouglasDubh No, no, no. DAK, like DCA, is only a half-day park. Of course, you're only supposed to visit half the attractions when you're there half a day.
Originally Posted By mstaft Animal Kingdom is a good park that needs some help to become great. Yes, Doobie, I agree with your "best" list. However, my recent experience points to DAK's shortcomings: There were six of us visting the park together- 2 families, each consisting of one of our teens and two mid-40 adults. We had been in 1998 to DAK, this was our friends first trip. We had seen the Safari, Everest, Kali, the animal exploration trails, oasis gardens, and done a general tour of the park- all by 11:00am. This is with taking our time! We get to Everest for another ride before lunch- closed due to malfunctioning. No estimated time of recovery (ends up being down until 4pm. We talked the teens (both young men) into going to seeing Legend of the Lion King. Being both gentlemen and open to a variety of experiences, they agree without a fuss. We trek across the park to get to the LOTLK and it is closed due to technical difficulties. Pocahontas and Forest Friends starts in about 15-20 minutes- and the character trails are also of no interest. We decide to go to Dinoland. Dinosaur is a walk on. Same for Spinning coaster. We leave the area within a half an hour after roaming around, since the Triceratops Spin and Carnival games aren't interesting to us, nor is the boneyard playground. Now what? We wanted to save Bug til the end of the day as we ended our eveningtime exploration of the Tree of Life. We have lunch in Africa, then walk around some more, and then we hit the 3 or 330pm LOTLK show- which we all loved. Eventually. Everest opnes back up and we are on by 4:30pm. Of course, we then get to the last Bug's show. If you read between the lines, due to malfunctioning attractions and little else to do, we lost several hours. The park needs some additional attractions that continuously load and are somewhere between kiddie and thrillseeker. Even more animal exhibits. To have to go back and forth - and having no easy way between Africa and Camp Minnie-Mickey to boot- this park unfortunately had very little to offer with only two attractions down. I hope Beastly Kingdom or something else with more options are on the way soon, Our friends loved the park but said they would never do it without a park hopper. I totally agree- and we all love animals...
Originally Posted By smeeeko ^^aww that is just awful! I took my mom around last year on a one day park hopper to try and give her a holiday tour of the parks and the same thing happened as it was the ONE DAY that it rained cats & dogs so she was completely worn out and cranky and since we didn't get started til about 11ish we spent half the time on the buses and monorail and eating. My mom's a trooper but it was very stressful on all of us. I really wanted to do the Christmas tour with her but you have to buy the tickets MONTHS in advance and then arrange for my mom to actually come out to Orlando the day before which isn't always an option. She *loved* KJS though as it was the one attraction in Animal Kingdom we got to take her to (we wanted her to see the Christmas Parade but it like every other holiday thing that day was cancelled due to rain). Sometimes it works like that. All the more reason to go back though! Maybe we need to do a 2day hopper with mom next time... hmmmmmmmm.. ps: Doobie thank you for your post btw, I was wondering what the sit down restaurant you folks were talking about??
Originally Posted By Doobie No argument that the park needs more. But it sounds like the park was pretty quiet on the day you went. With lines it would've been a longer trip (not that you want that, but lines do take time). You also didn't visit Conservation Station. Not my favorite place either, but it is another land. And there's also the bird show, the parade and (now) Nemo The Musical. Other than the fact I'm a Disney geek, I doubt I'd choose either MGM or Animal Kingdom without a hopper. But I do think it's heading in the right direction and doing it pretty quickly. Doobie.
Originally Posted By koobar i will be going to AK for the first time next week. it also happens to be a night EMH. AK is scheduled to close at 7pm to regular guests that day. do you guys know what time the EMH extends closing to? i have ressies at Boma around 7:10pm and would like to return to AK if EMH warrants enough hours otherwise i'm hopping to magic kingdom. thanks.
Originally Posted By mstaft ^^Usually that means extended hours until 10pm. We went to DAK with extended hours our last night at WDW-just to ride Everest. IT WAS AWESOME at night! We had dinner at he great BBQ place at Discovery Island (name escapes me now) at sat way in the back overlooking the river toward Asia and the mountain. All by ourselves- and very relaxing. Not much else is open at night (LOTLK and Dinosaur plus EE and Bugs)but a stroll around the park at night yeilds beautiful scenery.
Originally Posted By mstaft ^^ BTW Wait for the front seat and you'll get a great view of Epcot and MGM from the top...
Originally Posted By pitapan16 smeeeko Yes I've practically grown up at Disneyland so yeah, I've seen It's tough to be a Bug at DCA, AK's entry is obviously much more spectacular in every way! And I love AK as well, it is right up there with Epcot as my favorite park at WDW. Finding Nemo The Musical was great, it's located in Dinoland in the newly revamped Theater in the Wild. And I would love to have AK open later, but I do think it needs more attractions that can stay open beyond the sunset to accomplish that. And as far as the AKL, that is on my favorites list of top resorts in the world( as well as Disney's "World".) And BOMA Bacon is good you say? I once had a room right above Boma and could smell the Bacon every morning, even my last trip when I just visited the Lodge I could smell it throughout the Lobby, awesome!
Originally Posted By pitapan16 Oh yeah, my day at Animal Kingdom was a day of no waiting as we are expert explorers and timers at Disney. The longest wait we had was maybe 15minutes for Kilamonjaro and that includes all shows which were a walk in immediately without any wait. Everything else was a walk in-through and with Fastpass utilization. So even without a single other person in the park it would take me more than 9-6, but that is going at a reasonable pace and not racing, which is the only way I visit Disney ever. The park is going in a great direction with Everest and Nemo, but it can't stop or wimp out there with resorting back to cheap garbage like Dino-Rama. Of the whole park, even Camp Minnie Mickey, the only place I don't enjoy going into in Dino-Rama. Everything else is atleast good to spectacular. But like Superstar Limo in DCA, AK in my opinion ranks much higher standing alone without everything in DinoRama.
Originally Posted By mstaft ^^ I'd say enough with the shows at DAK. Four, even if two seem excellent, is more than enough. DAK's lands are some of the most immersive environments Disney has ever created- and two of them rank among the worst: Camp Minnie-Mickey and Dinorama...
Originally Posted By kennect Dinorama....My favorite tacky spot on the WDW list of things to do...I am so sorry some people just don't get it....
Originally Posted By bloona I agree that the park hours just arent long enough, we went on an EMH and it was still too short a time to get to Rafikis. We used fastpasses efficiently, so didnt have to queue long, but the park was the busiest I have ever seen a Disney Park (it was the last week in April this year) , I wondered if it was because it was an EMH day, but a CM said every day had been just as busy recently there. I guess since EE opened. It did stay open 3 hours after the normal time by the way. Oh and Boma is one of my all time fav places to eat at.
Originally Posted By mstaft I guess E:E has been upping the crowds. I am interested to see how AK does in attendance this year.
Originally Posted By mstaft BTW- I "get" Dinorama- its just cheap and ugly with very little charm. I do not even think it is much fun, either.
Originally Posted By pitapan16 Lol, I get Dino-Rama too. It's a cheap "dinosaur" carnival. I think CHEAP is the key word. And Camp Minnie-Mickey is'nt much of an area either, housing only Festival of the Lion King and character meet's. I only go in for the Festival, but the land is a nice and pleasant atmosphere. Has nice streams and wooden structures with characters and landscape all around. Dino-Rama is just wrong. That could easily be misteakin for any cheap roadside carnival in Nevada.
Originally Posted By kennect Cheap might be the keyword but there is a lot of detail there that not many would ever notice....
