Best Animal Kingdom Attractions & Ride Guide
This guide to Animal Kingdom attractions contains reviews and ratings for every ride and show at Walt Disney World’s zoological themed park, including Pandora – World of Avatar. This also offers some strategy and advice so you know what’s a must-do and what you can safely skip! (Updated March 18, 2021.)
We’ve updated these ride guides for 2021 in light of the continued reopening of Walt Disney World. Most stage shows and all nighttime spectaculars are temporarily suspended due to health safety rules and we note that in the review and description of each. This has been a particularly big blow for Animal Kingdom, which leaned heavily on entertainment to round out its lineup. The good news is that we anticipate things will start to return this summer (like Festival of the Lion King!), with most back by October 2021. You can also find temporary closures in our 2021 Walt Disney World Refurbishment Calendar.
This guide for Disney’s Animal Kingdom includes headliners and smaller attractions, plus shows and animal exhibits. It also includes Animal Kingdom FastPass+ recommendations for planning purposes. Despite Animal Kingdom’s “half day park” reputation, there’s a lot to do. Be warned that this list of Animal Kingdom attractions is deceptive: it appears short, but many of these shows and trails take a lot of time to complete. If you go at a slow pace or stop for table service meals, you’ll have a full day in the park.
The “half day park” reputation comes from those who don’t give Animal Kingdom’s trails and exhibits their due. In fairness, it took me a long time to discover the beauty of Animal Kingdom, but I finally admitted being wrong about Animal Kingdom in this blog post. Animal Kingdom now features more nighttime offerings and the bioluminescence of Pandora, which means it’s now a full day park for just about everyone.
Animal Kingdom ranks right up there with World Showcase as an excellent spot to just relax and spend some time. The park has a great sense of place to it, and the thematic execution is top notch, save for some criticism that it has too much real world “grit” and not the same sense of whimsy you might find from other Disney parks. It’s truly an exceptional “ambiance park,” and although it’s now busier due to Pandora, it’s nice to finally see the park receiving the attention it deserves.
This guide assumes that you have a full day to spend in each of the Walt Disney World theme parks. You may have more or less time depending on how many day tickets you purchase and whether you add on the Park Hopper option (read our Walt Disney World Ticket Guide to determine which tickets are best for you). If you want to read our other Walt Disney World park guides, you can find those here:
- Magic Kingdom Park & Attraction Guide
- Epcot Park & Attraction Guide
- Disney’s Hollywood Studios Park & Attraction Guide
- Typhoon Lagoon Water Park Guide
- Blizzard Beach Water Park Guide
If you have children, you should also consult our full list of attractions with height requirements at Walt Disney World. Numerical scores are on a scale of 1 to 10, and only take into consideration overall quality relative to that specific type of attraction. In our ratings, we only consider how well done the attraction is, overall and within its category, when experienced by its target demographic.
Top Disney’s Animal Kingdom Attractions
Kilimanjaro Safaris (10/10) – Animal Kingdom’s flagship safari ride through “natural” environments exposing guests to a wide array of animals. This attraction used to have a bit of a storyline, but it was widely viewed as lazy pretext. Now it doesn’t have any real storyline and it’s viewed as lacking ‘substance.’ It just can’t win. Regardless of the story or lack thereof, Kilimanjaro Safaris is an amazing attraction, exposing guests to a multitude of animals in what appears to be their natural environments.
The ride can be bumpy, but it adds an element of authenticity. Drivers are usually quite knowledgeable about the animals, so definitely ask questions that you may have. Animals are most active first thing in the morning or last thing in the evening. This works well, as these are also the best times to experience the attraction to avoid waits. We recommend using FastPass+ and trying to get on one of the last safaris of the day. Nothing beats a sunset ride on Kilimanjaro Safaris!
Avatar Flight of Passage (10/10) – Walt Disney World’s newest E-Ticket thrill ride, this is like Soarin’ on steroids. Riders climb aboard the back of a banshee and link to an avatar flying through Pandora for a simulator experience that is far more ‘active’ than any past attraction of its nature. You can feel your banshee breathe, the wind and spray of the ocean in your face, and smell plenty of scents along the way.
Even though Avatar Flight of Passage is a screen-based attraction, you are fully immersed in the experience, and can fully suspend disbelief and embrace the action. No prior knowledge or being a fan of Avatar is necessary here. This will make you want to step deeper into the world of Pandora. FastPass+ is an absolute necessity for this, as the queue takes about 10 minutes to walk through when it’s totally empty. When full, that will be more like a 5-7 hour wait!
Na’vi River Journey (8/10) – The other attraction in Pandora – World of Avatar is not nearly as wow-inducing, nor is it thrilling. Instead, guests board a slow-moving boat ride for a short boat ride through a bioluminescent environment, encountering flora and fauna along the way. Although visually interesting, too much of the scenery is static, making it all feel a bit underwhelming.
The finale features the most breathtaking Audio Animatronics figure Imagineering has ever created, making the attraction worth it, but you still get the feeling this attraction could’ve been so much more. If you wait over 45 minutes for this (and you probably will), there’s a decent chance you’ll leave disappointed.
Expedition Everest (10/10) – Everest-themed roller coaster that goes backwards and encounters a yeti. Everest is Disney’s most ambitious roller coaster in terms of theming and detail. Many effects on Expedition Everest now do not work; the most notable of these effects is the large Audio Animatronics “Disco” Yeti. Despite this, Expedition Everest is still an impressively fun coaster, with one of the best queue lines at Walt Disney World. Expedition Everest has a minimum height requirement of 44″. It’s a good use of FastPass+, but know that it has short lines very first thing in the morning, and the wait time through the Single Rider line is typically less than 10 minutes, so if you can’t score a FastPass+ (or choose not to), it’s not the end of the world. Everest is also better at night!
Kali River Rapids (7/10) – Whitewater raft ride spinning freely down a river through rainforest, ruins, and deforested areas with message of conservation. Kali River Rapids has a pretty setting, but there isn’t enough substance to the scenes. You will get wet on Kali River Rapids, and there’s a pretty good chance you’ll get absolutely soaked–it’s all random. There are free (2-hour) lockers nearby, and we strongly recommend using them for a change of clothes (or wear a poncho on the ride). The queue is arguably more interesting than the attraction itself, and is quite gorgeous. Kali River Rapids has a 38″ height requirement. Kali River Rapids is a good use of FastPass+, and we highly recommend booking as late of a slot as possible so you’re soaked for as little of the day as possible.
Up! A Great Bird Adventure (5/10) – Not as strong as Flights of Wonder, which this troubled show replaced, Up! A Great Bird Adventure is just okay. It’s very strong when viewing the avian encounters in isolation, and these constitute the bulk of the show. Things are a bit shakier when it comes to the characters from Up; these segments are cringeworthy and dumb the whole thing down a bit too much. It’s already been rewritten twice, with only negligible improvements each time.
Dinosaur (8/10) – A high-speed, wild drive in a time rover through dark show scenes with Audio Animatronics dinosaurs trying to capture a particular dinosaur before the moment of extinction. Dinosaur has a humorous pre-show video and some memorable scenes and encounters with dinosaurs. It utilizes the same ride technology as Indiana Jones Adventure in Disneyland and is often (negatively) compared to that attraction as a result. We really enjoy Dinosaur, although there is admittedly a lot of dead, black space and it lacks interesting scenes. A letdown in terms of what a dinosaur attraction could be, but still good. Dinosaur has a minimum height requirement of 40″. It offers FastPass+, but is only a good use of FastPass+ if you are skipping Kali River Rapids.
Maharajah Jungle Trek (9/10) – Walk-through animal exhibit with birds, bats, and tigers. Its scenes that bring you up close to various animals, all while traversing through an elaborately themed Asian environment. While the animal encounters are great, as are the Cast Members here sharing information about them, the environments are the real star. At one point it seems as if you’re going through the ruins of a remote temple that has existed for thousands of years, and details abound everywhere. All of this makes it feel like you’re experiencing the actual environments where these animals live, rather than just observing them in their pens. It truly feels like you’re an active participant in some sort of exploration. This is the best animal ‘exhibit’ we’ve ever experienced anywhere.
Gorilla Falls Exploration Trail (7.5/10) – Formerly Pangani Forest, this is a wildlife walking trail, with (you guessed it) gorillas as the highlight. There are also hippos underwater and being close to them and the gorillas is pretty awesome. Space this and Maharajah Jungle Trek out during your day, so you don’t get “trailed out.”
Tree of Life Awakenings (7.5/10) – The Awakenings that occur throughout the night are truly magic moments that are the best element of Animal Kingdom at night right now. You can’t plan for these and they’re not large-scale, but they are well done and moving.
It’s Tough To Be A Bug (7/10) – 3D show about touting the benefits of inspects with the cast of A Bug’s Life. This is a prime example of how you use Disney characters to make an educational (at least partially so) film feel like pure entertainment. It’s a lot of fun and there are some great “interactive” moments in the show. FastPass+ is available, but you won’t need it for this.
Rafiki’s Planet Watch (6.5/10) – Board the Wildlife Express Train to Rafiki’s Planet Watch to see a petting zoo and a number of exhibits concerning animal care. The only place the Wildlife Express Train goes is Rafiki’s Planet Watch, and everything (besides the petting zoo) is in the same small-ish area. What you will see in these exhibits varies based upon what’s going on, which is where the true variance in quality exists. The big downside to Rafiki’s Planet Watch is the time commitment: you’re looking at about an hour of your day doing this given the commute, and the payoff is low for the time investment.
Stage Shows (Temporarily Unavailable)
Finding Nemo: The Musical (9/10) – Human performers are paired with creatively-made puppets in a condensed retelling of Finding Nemo. The big draw here is how the entertainers manipulate the puppets. Are the humans the focus or the puppets they’re controlling? (Both are, we think.) It’s an interesting concept, and the presentation and music are excellent. We’re not huge fans of the story simply being a condensed version of the film, but this show brings enough novelty to the table that it just works. The best-done show at Walt Disney World. FastPass+ is available for priority seating, and may not be a bad idea given the large theater in which this is performed. You won’t need FastPass+ to get into a showing, though.
Festival of the Lion King (9/10) – Acrobats, singers, and other performers in tribal attire and vibrant costumes, plus parade floats with Lion King characters and other creatures enact scenes inspired by the Lion King in a very lively theatrical show. There’s a lot of stuff going on, in what basically amounts to a lot of audio-visual stimulation. The show just flat out works, and its almost abstract nature allows the audience to just sit back and enjoy the wow-inducing performers. FastPass+ is available for priority access, but we don’t recommend you use it here unless your seating location really matters.
The Boneyard (7/10) – We have a lot of complaints about Dinoland USA and the subarea of Dinorama, but the Boneyard is not one of those things. This elaborate play area gives kids the chance to play in a dinosaur dig site, excavating fossils and playing on a ropes course and other interactive areas. The paleontology angle makes it moderately educational, which scores it points, too. The only downside is that the heat can be brutal and there’s minimal shade, but how many dig-sites are heavily forested?!
This list of what’s temporarily unavailable might look short, but it leaves out random pieces of entertainment, musicians, character meet & greets, and play areas. Also not included is Rivers of Light, which permanently ended at the start of Animal Kingdom’s reopening. The end result is that most guests once again leave Animal Kingdom before 5 pm. Thankfully, Festival of the Lion King is returning in Summer 2021, but more is needed.
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Your Thoughts…
Which Disney’s Animal Kingdom attractions are your favorites? Which ones do you normally skip? Do you agree or disagree with our ratings? If you haven’t visited Walt Disney World yet, which Animal Kingdom attractions are you most excited about? Hearing from you is half the fun, so please share your questions and thoughts in the comments!
We spent a 5-hour afternoon/evening and an 8-hour morning/afternoon at Animal Kingdom. Of all the parks, and we visited all of them this week, Animal Kingdom was our favorite. Why? First, our 12 year old son loves all creatures large & small. He got the Wilderness Explorer guidebook at the beginning and spent most of the 13 hours at the park collecting all 29 merit patches. At the end, the WE Ranger said she hadn’t handed out a “Senior Wilderness Explorer” patch in a long time.
Second, our 13.5 year old daughter got to ride Expedition Everest 4 times in a row with minimal < 20 minute wait times. For whatever reason, the only real rollercoaster in the park had repeatedly minimal wait times.
Third, Avatar Flight of Passage was the most thrilling ride we experienced at Disney World, and we rode most, if not all, of the primary, popular rides. How they can make you feel like you’re riding a banshee with only a 3 foot rise and 3 foot drop (6 feet of total elevation) is amazing.
And last, but not least, we saw almost as many animals on Disney’s Kilimanjaro Safari in an almost natural environment as I saw on a 5-day actual camera safari in Tanzania. An actual African safari for most is out of reach. We did the Kili Safari ride twice!
We spent more time at Animal Kingdom than any other park and probably the least amount of time in lines. It was the highlight of our week-long Disney vacation! Whoever thinks it’s a half-day park obviously doesn’t have a budding Senior Wilderness Explorer in their family!
Any Hints for Tree of Life Awakening?
are there any weight restrictions on Avatar or Flight of Passage?
I suggest watching Magic of Disney’s Animal Kingdom (and Secrets of the Zoo) series on Disney plus prior to visiting Animal Kingdom. It gives an appreciation of just how much goes on behind the scenes and the level of effort that goes into the care of the animals. Also shows how awesome the people that work with the animals are.
On our last few visits to Animal Kingdom we have spent more time in both of the trails and have done the safari several times during the day as each time is a different experience. We also have talked with a few of the cast members who are a wealth of information about all of the animals. Watching Grace (the baby gorilla) grow over the past 2 years has been amazing. We first saw her a day after she was born in May 2019 and each time we visit she is more grown up.
I think we have figured out how to enjoy the park as it is different from the others, we slow down and take our time to just enjoy scenery and the animals.
Finally got to experience Flight of Passage and it was our favorite Disney ride ever. We could never score a fast pass and the lines were always 2+ hours. With FP out of the picture, we quickly got in line Wednesday morning, at about 8:45. The wait was 35 minutes, 10 minutes less than Disney Experience indicated. The line looked formidably long with the spacing but it moved quickly and Pandora is a fun backdrop. The waits increased rapidly during the day so Toms strategy of late afternoon probably works if you have the whole day to work with…we didn’t but an early arrival did work well for us!
We are planning to go to Animal Kingdom on February 24 this year. We booked a character dining at Tusker House for 8:50am. The park hours right now show it opening for extra magic hours, which we are eligible for, at 8am. Do you think it is feasible that we would be able to ride Kilimanjaro Safaris first thing and still be able to make it for our character dining? Thanks!
Personally I wouldn’t risk it. The actual ride takes about 20-25 so if you’re on the first one of the day with no lines and get there right at 8 with no delays you should be fine. But if there are any delays you’ll miss your ADR. Last time we went we did Kilimanjaro right before our ADR for dinner at Tiffins and while we thought we’d left enough time for us to get there after the ride some giraffes decided to come visit the vehicle we were in and it delayed us by about 20 min so we ended up being a couple min late to the reservation.
I read lots of guides and used this one as my baseline. We just finished our Disney trip and this was definitely the most useful guide for three reasons:
1. It presented a score for each ride
2. It provided commentary
3. It separated the rides into basically three categories which was nice (main attractions, the rest, and things not really needing to be considered)
That being said, there’s really just one important way this guide could be improved:
1. Rescore attractions… there are way too many 10s and the other high scores are too high frankly. Even based on your descriptions, a cou-le 10s don’t deserve to be so.
Personally, I think Everest should be a 10 without a single doubt — on the first ride. Once you expect everything, the allure drops substantially and makes the roller coaster closer to your score of an 8.
Avatar flight of passage is the only other 10 according to me and even according to your description. It is worth every second of a 1.5 hour wait. I would not wait longer than that for anything, but it was head and shoulders above everything else. It’s the only true 10 that will sustain that score on multiple runs.
Kilimanjaro was very cool with the actual diesel powered truck and free roaming animals. Definitely cooler than an average zoo, but not that much more. It gets an 8. Because the gorilla and maharajah trek are basically just your standard zoo with better environments, I can’t give them better than a 6.
Once you make those changes, most of your others need to go down at least 1 and some of them 2 points. I think by and large, your scores are good, but the whole scale needs to go down a bit to separate the tippy top tier a little more.
Tom,
Going to first DW visit Dec 2019. Many time DL visitor.
So looking forward to AK and the wildlife, a big, BIG Cat fan. Also seeing the Star Wars portion of HS. Appreciate all the tips. Aloha
When we queued for FOP, I could see my 13 yr old son getting extremely nervous (suffers terribly from vertigo) . I tried to calm him by talking to others around us about the ride. Some of who were riding for 2nd & 3rd time. We got as far as getting strapped in and he started having a panic attack! He screamed the place down. The cast members & other riders where fantastic & jumped to his aid, immediately releasing him (and me as he ran sobbing from the room). Again the cast member at the exit was incredible, she sat him down, talked to him and calmed him right down, even getting him a glass of water. They went above & beyond.
We are visiting again next summer and are only planning on half a day at AK.
If he suffers from vertigo those are the type of rides he should avoid. (As someone who has vertigo)
Hi
With the Everest ride -the backwards drop can make you feel that you go upside down
To lessen this effect is it better to sit at the front or the back of the ride
Front is much better and more smooth! Just recently rode it both front and back last week.