Animal Kingdom Crowd Report: Peak Season, Fully Booked Day
We’re back at Animal Kingdom, with a midday visit during spring break! This Walt Disney World report checks out crowds, wait times, park and an update on the latest changes. In the process, we share photos, tips & info, our experience with lines, and more.
Let’s start with park hours, which are currently 8 am until 8 pm for Animal Kingdom every single day through at least April 17, 2021. These have been the daily operating hours for over a month now–since March 13–but are probably going to be scaled back at some point in the near future with spring break should be drawing to an end. (Tomorrow should bring another park hours extension for April 18-24, so we’ll know for sure then.)
Walt Disney World still rolling with these hours after having months to observe visitation patterns doesn’t make complete sense to me, but I’m not complaining. This schedule is great for people who plan. Even on crowded days, the strategy for Animal Kingdom is relatively simple, as covered in our 1-Day Animal Kingdom Itinerary.
As with Disney’s Hollywood Studios, we’d recommend visiting Animal Kingdom on a Saturday or Sunday if your Walt Disney World trip encompasses a weekend. (Avoiding Saturdays and Sundays totally is the best strategy, but matters less with the proportion of tourists increasing.) For DHS, that’s because its wait times and crowds don’t vary much day to day.
For Animal Kingdom, it’s because very few guests arrive for that 8 am rope drop, or remain in the park until that 8 pm closing. Without stage shows and atmospheric entertainment, there just isn’t enough to do in Animal Kingdom to justify an entire day there. Unless you’re repeating the headliners, it’s once again a half-day park for the vast majority of guests.
The result is that the middle of the day is significantly worse at Animal Kingdom, with crowds and wait times peaking much earlier and falling at a steeper clip than the other parks. Consequently, we’ve repeatedly shared late afternoon park reports showcasing Animal Kingdom in the late afternoon.
So we’re not rehashing the same thing over and over again, we decided to mix things up a bit and visit Animal Kingdom at noon, right as crowds would be peaking on a day that was fully booked for all categories of Disney Park Pass reservations. Instead of showcasing how good things could be, the goal was to see how bad things could get.
Let’s begin on that note, with a look at crowds and wait times during our midday visit to Animal Kingdom…
The overflow for Expedition Everest extended past the Finding Nemo: the Musical theater and almost to Dinorama on our passes through the park.
Despite that, the posted wait time was never above 25 minutes during our visit. The line was also constantly moving, with such a good flow that guests weren’t even stopping on the markers. Filling every seat definitely has its advantages!
Some of the longest lines we saw in Animal Kingdom were actually for ice cream.
This isn’t due to snack stands being closed (although many still are). There are several spots currently serving ice cream, there’s just a ton of demand for it.
Here’s the end of the line for Dinosaur.
This wait time was 45-50 minutes. It’s still leaving empty seats aboard the time rovers, which explains the discrepancy there. I know many Walt Disney Worlds are hoping for the return of FastPass+, but what I’d really love to see is these attractions running at full efficiency before that happens. I think a lot of fans would change their tune after breezing through the standby line of an attraction firing on all cylinders and filling every seat.
Kali River Rapids has reopened following its refurbishment.
Wait times were actually not too bad for this, especially considering the heat. Expect it to be a walk-on tomorrow with the high temperature being in the mid-60s.
Anyone who has been to Walt Disney World has overheard funny conversations of fellow park guests, some of which is almost unbelievable.
Entering Pandora – World of Avatar, someone in front of me informed their companion that every land at Walt Disney World has its own “special smell.” After pausing a few seconds to take it in: “I don’t know what this one is supposed to be, but it stinks…sorta like paint.”
The pathway to their left was closed because the bioluminescence is being repainted.
Normally, the queue for Na’vi River Journey would spill out into the walled-off area.
Instead, it’s currently being routed back around the restrooms. Overall wait still wasn’t too bad by normal standards, at 40-45 minutes on our two passes through Pandora.
Congestion in Pandora – World of Avatar is all over the place. As you can probably imagine, entering via the narrow pathway was slow-going.
Under the floating mountains, crowds are frequently low, making for great photo ops. This is not random or new, but is a consistent result of the way queues are routed for Avatar Flight of Passage.
Speaking of which, this is the end of the line for Pandora’s headliner.
The posted wait time was 65 minutes at this point. The longest we saw was 70 minutes, at which point the line hit the bridge to Africa.
The other big crowd in Pandora was outside Satu’li Canteen at noon.
This photo does not reflect that–the photo above was taken around 2 pm. It was too chaotic over here to snap a photo during the lunch rush. Still a lack of seating, but at least there wasn’t a huge backup of people waiting for Mobile Orders.
Speaking of things I didn’t photograph, the end of line for Kilimanjaro Safaris was actually back here around noon. Still only a 45 minute wait at that point, and dropping dramatically in the afternoon.
Honestly, all of this wasn’t as bad as we expected. The lines were definitely lengthy and some wait times were high, but not peak season, fully-booked high (at least, relative to Thanksgiving and Christmas-time). Filling more seats on attractions has definitely helped with wait times. In turn, many guests leave even earlier in the day, having finished the headliners that matter to them and park hopping around 2 pm. Even when busy, Animal Kingdom is a relatively easy park to experience so long as you don’t fight those morning and midday crowds.
As we’ve mentioned previously, the biggest difficulty you’ll have right now is filling an entire day at Animal Kingdom. Festival of the Lion King will help with that whenever it returns (still no specific date), but more beyond that is needed.
Be sure not to overlook the exhibits like the glorious Otter Grotto, where you can marvel at the sage creatures playing in their latrine. Our favorite trail by far is Maharajah Jungle Trek, which is criminally underrated and beautifully designed.
Speaking of ways to round out your day, Animal Kingdom is still doing stuff to celebrate the release of Raya and the Last Dragon. The Animation Experience at Conservation Station offers guests the chance to learn to draw characters from the movie right now–that’s a good way to kill an hour or so.
At the front of the park on Discovery Island Stage, there’s a 40-ton sand sculpture celebrating featuring Raya, Tuk Tuk, Sisu the last dragon, and the Ongi, all set in the fantasy world of Kumandra. I haven’t seen the movie yet, so all of those names are fairly meaningless to me, but the sculpture is cool. We’re looking forward to (hopefully) seeing Raya and the Last Dragon at the AMC Disney Springs later this month!
Finally, a tangentially-related note since Animal Kingdom is Walt Disney World’s “Earth Month” park. Along with all the snacks in celebration of the holiday that will come to Animal Kingdom in April, the company announced they’ll start selling reusable bamboo utensils for waste-free snacking that will be available at select locations in the spring, while supplies last. This cutlery set comes with a handy travel pouch and clip.
My view with Walt Disney World’s conservation efforts is generally giving them the benefit of the doubt. I’m on board with things like refillable shampoo bottles and reusable bags that cut down on single use plastics, even if I know it’s as much about cutting costs as being environmentally friendly. The end result is a net positive, even if the motivations are suspect.
Along those same lines, I have no problem with this even though I know it’s about selling these rather than doing anything positive. My issue here is that there’s a better, easier solution: silverware. There’s no good reason every counter service restaurant doesn’t use washable silverware and plates; it’s more environmentally friendly and classier. Yet, Disney has gone the exact opposite direction at multiple locations in the domestic parks. Doing that and then shifting the burden to guests earns them no accolades here.
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YOUR THOUGHTS
Thoughts on anything covered in this Walt Disney World park report? Have you visited Animal Kingdom in the last few weeks? Go on any peak season, fully-booked days? What was your experience? If you stayed until late afternoon–or evening–did you notice a steep drop off in crowds and actual wait times? What are your thoughts on current crowds at Walt Disney World? Are you a fan of the bamboo utensils? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
We took our daughter to Disney for her 5th birthday. We were at MK on the 25th, AK on the 26th, and back to MK on the 29th. Our first 2 days were ridiculously hot! Day 1 we didn’t notice it much because of all of the excitement with her birthday and being at Disney but Day 2 in AK was almost too much with the masks (we’re from Minnesota and left 39 degree weather). We had a great time and really didn’t mind waiting in line as most lines are in the shade and are cooled once inside.
We had the same hopping experience as Dale; we were there the week of 3/22-26 and had no problems park hopping after 2. OTOH I had booked us for MK and HS for most of the days back in November, since I figured those might be the hardest to hop to), as well as Epcot for one. We park hopped easily to Epcot on our first HS studiosdays, and were surprised to be able hop to HS later in the day of our full Epcot day – but it was definitely later than 2 pm, and then we park hopped to AK from MK on one day. So we were mostly park hopping from higher-demand parks to lower demand parks, but it really was never an issue to hop in those directions during that week, including to HS later in the afternoon.
We were at WDW the week of March 22 and had not originally planned to go to AK, but decided to park hop over later in the afternoon (around 4 pm) on 3/25. Even though there wasn’t much open, and it was really *hot* in the sunny areas, we really enjoyed just walking around the park areas and seeing the theming. Did not see super long lines for any rides, and left after a couple of hours because it really was incredibly hot that day. Even without the shows, we were still counting it as a total “WIN!” decision – until we tried to leave, and were standing in line for well over an hour (in the heat) waiting for a bus back to our resort (CBR) while multiple other busses came and went. If we had it to do over, I’d just call Uber. Tom, have you or anyone else noticed the busses getting better (so that this was a one-off) or are they still highly problematic?
I have a trip in May and this makes me feel a bit better – I can handle these sorts of waits. Interesting point about the bamboo cutlery – I will probably buy some because it’s handy for me to have to bring back and forth to work (lighter than toting my silverware which is what I currently do), but for their restaurants it does seem actual silverware would be a better environmental choice :/
Is there anywhere we can find recommended days to book for each park? We are going in august for 14 nights with our 5 year old and want to maximise our time any tips hugely appreciated thank you 🙂
Epcot was quite similar today. After much hemming and hawing, my kids and I decided to visit Epcot and DHS on the way back to NY from our visit to family in the Florida Keys. We hit Epcot from 4-10 today and we’re pleasantly surprised, overall. After a delicious meal at Spice Road Table, we managed to hit every open ride, except Frozen. The posted wait for Soarin’ was 60 minutes, but we waited 38, and Test Track was a 32 minute wait against a posted time of 75. The lines moved well, and guests were mostly respectful of the distancing recommendations. There were a lot of jarring differences, as first-time, “new abnormal” guests, but the pros outweighed the cons. Overall, the cast members are still doing an amazing job, and it felt great to be back in a park.
I can’t be the only one who goes to AK just to walk around the animal viewing trails?(whatever the temp) – well ok I do the safari ride but I count that as animal viewing too!
You’re not. We love it too.
Not alone, we’re big fans of the Disney Zoo too.
MIckey1928: But it’s Natazu. 😉
I am so torn – we are going in May and purchased park hoppers. As of now, the hours on most parks close at 6:00 p.m. If park hopping is from 2:00-6:00 p.m. do you think paying for park hopping is worth the money?
I first enjoyed Otter Grotto last year and ut was amazing! But the last three times I was there we saw virtually NOTHING. What is the best time to go??
Tom, just was checking the reservation dates for June. Most days So no availability, mostly for Hollywood studios, some days for Hollywood studios and Magic Kingdom. Do you anticipate June being a busy month for resorts and park days? Also, Since June is about two months away from now, does Disney ever open more reservations for parks that are Showing no availability?
If Hollywood studios has no park reservation for a day we went to go, Will we be able to go after 2 PM with our park hopper? Like, if we go To Epcot in the morning, at 2 PM can we park hop over to Hollywood studios even though Hollywood studios showed no park reservations for that day?
Andrea: You might or might not be able to hop to DHS. It will depend if the park is full or not when you go. If it is considered full, it will be closed to anyone trying to hop to the park. I don’t think you would be able to try to ride the ROTR since it wasn’t your first reservation for the day. But you could do the other attractions at DHS.
Thank you. We have no interest in rise of the resistance. Unfortunately, Hollywood studios there’s pretty much no park reservations for the month of June. We were going to book Epcot, then hop over to Hollywood studios. We are staying at the Riviera. FHS is full, we probably shouldn’t even bother with the PH Ticket. I’ll just buy regular one day admission to
Epcot. Bum deal:(
Planning to be there Sunday. We’ll be rope dropping, leaving for the middle of the day to head to Blizzard Beach, then back for the last few hours of the day. Feeling like it’s a pretty solid plan for avoiding crowds and minimizing wait times.
You mention going to the AMC at the end of the month for Raya but I know you avoid eating at the indoor restaurants. We mostly ate outside whenever we could and Disney was helpful to us in achieving that but we did do some occasional indoor and felt safe. Especially at the Whispering Canyon Cafe and the Grand Floridian with those high ceilings. The reason I bring this up is I’m struggling with the idea of going back to the movies yet who doesn’t want to see Godzilla vs Kong on an IMAX screen? My son and I still haven’t made a decision. What is your thinking on going back to the movies? Have you changed your policy on indoor dining at WDW? You’re young, you may have been vaccinated and we’re heading toward herd immunity.
We will be totally vaccinated by then!
My view is that, given the incredible efficacy of the vaccines and low likelihood of infection/transmission, “once you’re fully vaccinated, the pandemic is effectively over for you.” Of course, we’ll still wear masks and distance as required by businesses (totally understand they can’t have two sets of rules).
However, we plan on making up for lost time. Looking forward to going to the movies, eating indoors, and TRAVELING again! 🙂
I’ve been watching the park availability chart. If the park is at capacity, does that mean you can’t park hop at 2pm? Or do they let people in if others have left? Or do you just have to stick with the park you booked as your “home” for the day? Thank you!
We were at WDW the week of March 22, and every park was at capacity every weekday, for all three categories. However, every park was open for park hopping each day, and we park hopped 3 out of 5 days. Before you park hop, call this number (407-560-5000) to confirm availability, but so far there does not appear to be any park hopping limitations due to park capacity limits.
Dale,
Thank you for your response!! Since the parks were at capacity, did you follow any type of strategy to select which day to go to each park? For example, avoid Epcot on Saturday and Sunday? Go to Magic Kingdom on Monday? Or did you feel like what does it matter, if every park is at capacity? Thanks again!
Hi, Terri.
You’re welcome! I tend to be a planner, so I plan park reservations and ADRs at 60 days. Each trip is different, but here is the general strategy I’m currently following (weekdays only):
1. HS – Since HS is almost always at capacity, it doesn’t matter which day(s) we visit. Our last few trips I’ve reserved HS on multiple days so we get more tries for RotR (got it both days last week!). For us, HS is not a full day park (especially now with no shows), so on these days we usually park hop early/mid-afternoon.
2. Epcot – Epcot is usually the least crowded park, so like HS (just for the opposite reason), this is a park I can schedule any day of the trip. Epcot is usually the last park to close, so it’s a great park hopping destination. Similarly, it’s also usually the park with the latest rope-drop, so I tend to schedule it around mid/late-week when we might want to sleep-in a bit to recharge. I might not even reserve Epcot on some trips (especially when we reserve HS for two days), and instead just park hop to it on multiple afternoons and evenings. Our most recent trip, however, I did reserve it so we could leisurely take-in the Flower and Garden Festival, and still do everything else.
3. MK – In my experience, MK tends to be the most crowded on Mondays, the least crowded on Tuesdays (not that that’s saying anything), and building each day until it’s very crowded again on Friday. But, then again, this could just be my imagination. So, I tend to reserve MK on Tuesdays when there are no kids in our party (see Special Considerations below). MK is a good park hop destination, as the crowd seems to thin out a bit as the day goes on. I tend to also make MK the last park of our visit, either by reservation or park hopping.
4. AK – AK typically has the earliest opening and closing times of the four parks. So, AK is always a park reservation (rope-drop day), and never a park hop destination. Like HS, AK is not a full day park for us (again, especially now with no shows), and on the day we visit AK we usually park hop to another park in the early/mid-afternoon. If you’re not concerned with RotR, rope-dropping AK, and park hopping to HS isn’t a bad plan.
Special Considerations
– Are there little ones with you on the trip? If so, MK better be the first park of your trip, no exceptions.
– Where you are staying? Some hotels lend themselves to visiting certain parks due to their proximity. For example, if you’re staying at Boardwalk Inn (or the other hotels around Crescent Lake), Epcot is an easy walk-in park, and it might just be a park hop destination. Likewise, if you’re staying at the Contemporary or Grand Floridian, MK is a great park hop destination since you can just walk over. If you’re staying at a WDW resort that’s not one of the monorail hotels, park hopping to MK from the hotel by bus is better than driving, as it cuts out the intermediate transportation from the Ticket & Transportation Center.
– What’s your transportation mode? If you have a car, you have a lot more flexibility when it comes to park hopping, than you do if you’re completely reliant upon WDW transportation (in which case transportation will definitely factor into your park hopping strategy).
– The general strategy listed above is for the current circumstances where there are no Early Morning, or Extra Magic hours. If those are ever reinstated, then I would revert the above strategy back to what it was pre-closure, which picked parks days based on maximizing hours in the park.
I hope this helps. And, I’m sure that you’ll notice that much of this comes directly from Tom’s always helpful insights and advice.
Have a great trip!
Hi Dale,
You and I are clearly twins separated at birth!! I loved your response and thorough thought process – which is so totally me! I am also a planner and seasoned veteran to WDW. But with the pandemic, we cancelled both of our trips for 2020. Our trip this summer will be our first experience with the new procedures – throwing all of our original strategies out the window. I think I have a pretty good game plan, but love to hear advice to confirm my thinking – especially since you have visited often and during a peak time. Our trip is June 26 – July 3 (only dates we could go for many reasons) and I’m watching the weeks prior to ours fill up for the parks. My kids are older (15 and 20), staying at Bay Lake (we are DVC) and renting a car. I’m pretty sure that with the way things are trending and the fact our dates lead up to 4th of July – all parks will be at capacity. I think I have the right combination for us – we also like a rest day midweek (Epcot day) and we always do MK on our last day (best way to end a trip.) Thank you for your responses. I really appreciate your time and great suggestions! Like you, I love Tom’s advice (and Sarah!) and find myself saying things like “Well, Tom says you should…” or “Tom’s favorite dessert at the Flower and Garden Festival was…” – I hope he knows the influence he has on all of his minions! Thanks again!
We are heading to Disney World in July. We will be there for 5 days. Based on what is open/closed right now which park should we visit twice? We are trying to decide between Hollywood Studios and Magic Kingdom.
I recommend multiple reservations for DHS (so long as it’s not peak season when other parks are fully booked) for the sake of Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, but I cannot fathom spending two days there.
Magic Kingdom for sure.
I am concerned that you wrote about the line going past the OLD Finding Nemo: the Musical theater. Is it being closed permanently? I would be most distraught as that show is a complete delight. Say it ain’t so,..
Calling it old was a slip-up on my part. Nothing is official yet. It could go either way.
I can’t fathom why they would get rid of it except for money stinginess since the show is so often nicely packed and appreciated whenever I see it (which is often more than once per visit) but if they do let it go (no pun intended) it will be for me the most deeply disappointing decision from Disney this century and like a lovesick Teddi Barra really make me question whether my continuing loyalty is unrequited,..
You mention people leaving at 2 and park hopping. Is park hopping back and I missed it??
Yep, Park Hopping is now back. You can hop after 2PM.
There are a lot of rules regarding park hopping. You must have a park reservation and visit that park before you hop to a second park. If you didn’t enter that park you had the reservation for, you won’t be allowed to enter the second park. And you must have a ticket that permits hopping.
While I’m a proponent of reducing waste and would love to see meaningful moves to fewer disposables in general, I’m not sure the age of covid is the time to advocate for regular silverware in counter-service settings. There would need to be plans in place for the gathering, washing, and redistributing (in a way that tons of hands haven’t just touched the implements going directly in your mouth), that might take more staff than Disney is willing to invest in right now.
As a long term goal, however, absolutely!
We went on the final safari one night when it was nearly dark and saw more animals or at least different ones than we did in the day. The best was that just as the sky was an amazing pink color the male Lion stood up and roared! Then he ran around with the females chasing and playing. The whole vehicle was cheering and the driver said he had never seen them do that before.
That sounds absolutely awesome!
We’re just happy when we see the lions awake.
That sounds SO amazing!
i agree with the silverware, or a move to compostable flatware. it’s a move i’m surprised hasn’t happened yet in some form at disney. at the st louis zoo, all trash areas have recycling, compost, and actual trash. they had signs for how much was actually compostable, so trash was nowhere near full. wish more places would make moves like this.
We will be there April 25th through May 2nd. I’m really hoping for some night time hours to be added for that trip. Pandora at night is one of our favorites….a close second to Tomorrowland of course.
I’ve never understood all this commentary about AK being a “half day” park. We have TRIED and we can’t finish it in a whole day, even when we skipped one of the shows (Nemo) and went with adults so we skipped the playground and had only walk-ons for most rides because it was September.
With our daughter we spent three days there and never saw everything.
The animal trails are incredible and we spend easily an hour on each (two hours each more often). Then the monkeys! How much time are people leaving for watching them, five minutes?!
Of course, the rides are excellent too.
But it’s only a half-day park to people who are not interested in the animals.
I see your point, and we’ve definitely come to appreciate Animal Kingdom more and more over the years. Watching the otters, monkeys, and doing the trails is great.
However, there’s no way on earth I could’ve done that yesterday (or a normal summer day, for that matter). When it’s hot and sunny, Animal Kingdom can be miserable. Add masks to that and few places to chill out in AC…and it’s not quite that easy right now.
If it’s early and the tigers are up and walking around and playing, I can easily spend an hour watching them.
Agreed. Here are my rambling thoughts on Animal Kingdom. We have spent almost two full days in the park when crowded on two separate trips pre-pandemic and still have yet to experience Finding Nemo, Kali River Rapids or Pandora at night! Personal fav is Tiger Trek with its amazing theming. Always like to cap off the night with an outdoor show so hope something is planned to replace Rivers of Light beside the Tree of Life. Would love to see the true to size dinosaur puppet show that had been touring arenas and stadiums added as you can’t go wrong with dinosaurs! Even Primeval Whirl was a nice filler ride!