Animal Kingdom Report: Awesome Afternoon
It’s been a while, but we’re back with at Animal Kingdom to check on increased fall attendance. In this Walt Disney World photo report, we’ll look at October’s afternoon crowds, posted v. actual wait times, strategy for Pandora, and share our step-by-step afternoon and early evening at Animal Kingdom.
As is emphasized in our recent 40% Crowd Increase at Walt Disney World analysis, wait times and attendance are up across the board primarily due to an increase in Disney Park Pass distribution (with some other contributing factors). Nowhere is this more apparent than at Animal Kingdom, where wait times were up 45% last month, and 103% since the park reopened.
In large part, this has been due to Animal Kingdom’s rock bottom wait times early on. With an average wait time of under 10 minutes for the first month, it’s easier for big percentage gains. While 100%+ increase sounds pretty bad on its face, I think most people would happily take an average wait time of 20 minutes in a constantly-moving line…
To be honest, our post-reopening experiences with Animal Kingdom haven’t even been that “bad.” Granted, we usually show up later in the day and our emphasis is often on the time-honored tradition of otter-watching, but Animal Kingdom has seemed less busy than Walt Disney World’s other parks.
In digging into Animal Kingdom’s wait times (via Thrill Data), we’ve found that our experiences here comport with general trends:
Above is a look at average daily wait time in September (red line) and October (blue line) for Avatar Flight of Passage.
As you can see, the peak posted wait time occurs at around 9:30 am, with wait times consistently decreasing over the course of the day after that.
This is why, in our recently-overhauled 1-Day Animal Kingdom Itinerary, we advised “sleeping in” on your Animal Kingdom day. Okay, not really sleeping in–but arriving shortly after park opening to avoid that rush for transportation and at the temperature screening, bag check, turnstiles, etc.
Some in the comments and on social media scoffed at our eschewing of conventional Walt Disney World touring wisdom. As we’ve said repeatedly, there’s nothing “normal” about the present circumstances. A lot of time-tested strategy that typically applies needs to be rethought.
With that in mind, we decided to take our itinerary’s advice to its extreme, testing that general approach but pushing it to its limit by starting our plan only 3 hours before park closing on the Friday of the Columbus Day holiday weekend…
Above are the posted wait times when we started. Already not too shabby, with manageable waits for the headliners.
We thus departed our pals at Otter Grotto (they were all ignoring us and playing in the “pee corner” anyways) and headed for Kilimanjaro Safaris…
When we arrived at the entrance, the posted wait time for Kilimanjaro Safaris was 20 minutes; our actual wait was 7 minutes.
Even though this was a tad earlier than we like to ride Kilimanjaro Safaris, animal activity was off the charts! Several giraffes came right up to the vehicle, rhinos crossed in front of us, and the big cats were not all sleeping. To the contrary, we saw two cheetahs wandering around and the lions also on alert. (In totally unrelated big cat news, here’s a heartwarming story of a rescued mountain lion cub who recovered her roar after being rescued from a wildfire.)
After this, we bounced to the complete other side of the park to do DINOSAUR. In hindsight, it probably would’ve been both faster and easier to start with DINOSAUR and circle the park in a logical fashion. Sometimes we forget that others don’t like to backtrack, or can’t do it as efficiently as us.
Posted wait time for DINOSAUR was 10 minutes; in actuality, it was a walk-on.
Hope you get a laugh out of this awful on-ride photo of us. Even having done these attractions tons of times, we consistently have the most awkward facial expressions in these pics. At least we’re consistent!
Speaking of awful, DINOSAUR was in pretty sorry shape. Several Audio Animatronics were “sleeping,” effects not working, and the lighting in a few spots being misaligned. For an attraction that is sparse on show scenes when at 100%, it can’t really afford to lose anything. Hopefully we just got unlucky, but that’s doubtful given this attraction’s longstanding woes.
We got done right around 4 pm, and these were the current wait times.
There’s actually an increase in the Pandora – World of Avatar headliners, which is not uncommon. Guests see the low posted waits and jump in line before heading home.
Our focus was that 15 minute posted wait time for Expedition Everest. Unfortunately, about one minute after getting in line, the wait jumped to 30 minutes.
This was unquestionably due to a cleaning cycle–I know that because I could see it happening from this view in the queue. Expedition Everest’s actual wait ended up being 22 minutes.
We had plenty a pretty decent buffer at this point, so we wandered around for a bit, enjoying the floating version of Donald’s Dino Bash and taking photos.
It was a beautiful afternoon, despite the heat and random rain showers.
At this point, the posted wait time for Kali River Rapids was 10 minutes, so we could easily done that. However, we had no desire to get soaked.
Plus, our priorities lied elsewhere…
This is the fantastic Pumpkin Cheesecake Brownie, currently available at Creature Comforts (the park’s Starbucks). We should probably update our List of the Best Halloween Snacks at Walt Disney World.
After that, we popped into Otter Grotto again to see if our pals were in view. No dice, still playing in the pee corner.
At about 4:55 pm, we queued up for Na’vi River Journey.
We had assumed the 55 minute posted wait was wrong, but the line was surprisingly long. It also wasn’t really moving at first.
In popping into My Disney Experience for our 5 pm screenshot, we saw that the reason was that the attraction had just gone down.
This had us a bit worried, as it seemed like our plan to do both Pandora – World of Avatar headliners in the last hour the park was open wouldn’t work out. That probably wouldn’t reflect well on our Animal Kingdom itinerary!
Rolling the dice, we got out of line for Na’vi River Journey and bounced for Avatar Flight of Passage. As you can see, that had a 50 minute posted wait time.
We were in that queue by 5:02 pm, and on the ride by 5:25 pm for an actual wait of 23 minutes. Even with Walt Disney World elevating wait times, we didn’t expect the line to be that short (especially with the other Pandora attraction down).
This gave us plenty of time to finish off at Na’vi River Journey.
At this point, the queue was no longer spilling out past the attraction’s entrance. The posted wait time was 25 minutes (dropping to 20 minutes very shortly after we got in line). Our actual wait was 27 minutes.
Above is one last look at wait times, right as Animal Kingdom closed.
Save for the Pandora – World of Avatar attractions, everything else in the park was probably a walk-on at this point.
When we exited Na’vi River Journey, there weren’t many people around Pandora – World of Avatar and the late afternoon light was giving a warm glow to the floating mountains.
I had wanted to attempt staying for sunset, but the likelihood of that happening seemed really low given how much the park had already cleared out. Plus, Walt Disney World had just added Christmas park hours and extended a ton of other dates, which I needed to write up.
Ultimately, an awesome afternoon at Animal Kingdom. We did every single ride that we wanted to do in a span of 3 hours, had a snack, and did some animal watching as well. Another couple of hours would’ve sufficed had we wanted to do either of the shows or more of the trails, making this a workable post-lunch plan even for those who want to do more.
Of course, that’s just for now. As we’ve repeatedly reiterated, crowds are continuing to grow–so don’t expect the same results come November or December. It’s also worth noting that even though this was a holiday weekend Friday, we would not expect the same success on a Saturday or Sunday. Whereas weekday tourists tend to arrive early, the local weekend warriors sleep in a bit more, and the wait times don’t drop as precipitously in the afternoon. Regardless, a pretty successful visit to Animal Kingdom!
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YOUR THOUGHTS
Have you visited Animal Kingdom in the last couple of months? Did you do rope drop, or a later arrival? Stay until park closing? What was your experience with crowds and actual v. posted wait times? Thoughts on any topic discussed here? Do you have any questions about the current modified Animal Kingdom experience? Will you be attempting to visit Walt Disney World this holiday season, or are you waiting until 2021 or beyond? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
We did the same thing yesterday (Saturday Oct 11th) got to the park around 2:30p we’re local APs. We found getting there in the afternoon for any park we have far better luck.
Edit: Saturday Oct 10th
We just got back and found we were able to do many dining locations we wanted by joining the new “wait list” option. Most waits were 30 mins or less. If it says wait list is full, just check again 5 mins later.
What is your advice for EPCOT on the weekend? Should we rope drop, or show up later in the day?
Definitely rope drop. Here’s our full step by step plan: https://www.disneytouristblog.com/1-day-epcot-plan/
We just got back today. We went the opposite and rope dropped AK on this last Monday. We were up early and on the first bus to leave POP. The park opened at 9 and we were able to ride FOP before before 9 and get back in line for it again where we waited 20mins. By 930 we rode FOP 2x and NRJ.
Your advice to drive over to HS was spot on. We rope dropped MMRR and were off the ride 20 mins before official park opening and we’re able to get in line for ToT and scored a ROTR boarding group.
You definitely have to “want too”, but getting up early and being in line for the first bus (630a getting in line) paid off. Within an hour of park opening we checked off the favorites easily allowing the rest of the day to be fully relaxing even in line. Yesterday (Friday) we rode 7D 2x, Space, and Buzz by 9 the park open. Tuesday we rode Splash and Thunder 2x and were in line for Pirates by official opening.
Thanks for sharing how your days went–always good to hear the experiences and perspective of others, especially those who did things differently. Sounds like a productive and fun trip! 🙂
David, when did the bus pick you up and when did you get dropped off at AK?
We were at Epcot last Saturday and the audio for The Land was messed up. You could not tell what the speaker was saying over the other sounds.
We visited Animal Kingdom on Monday, October 7. Wait times were great. We stayed open to close. No wait to get in or for the temperature check. We went straight to the Safari which was walk on. The animals were up and active so that was great. We ended up doing Everest 4 times that day with the longest wait about 30 minutes and after that about 5-10. We waited 45 minutes for Pandora and my daughter rode it later in the day with a 35 minute wait while I relaxed with a margarita. Great day overall!
We were there the same day and had same experience. Opposite strategy but we actually left 30 mins before park close because we’d already done FOP3x, Everest 5x’s. It was the most delightful day. We did miss seeing Pandora at night but also loved getting back to the resort for a swim early before Skyline-ing over to the Boardwalk for dinner.
Hi Tom like Deb I am in the UK and love your reports.
Booked to travel with the rest of the family and grand kids next April – fingers crossed. We re -sheduled from April this year. Lots of tears when we couldnt go.
Your reports help to keep us going and keep the dream alive. Thank you.
Dinosaur needs to be rethemed to Indiana Jones like Disneyland, It’s ten x better!
Do you think on a Friday with an 8a open it’d be worth it to arrive early and do the more “traditional” rope drop Pandora?
Thank you!
Yes. Those 8 am openings are the exception to the current rule of Pandora wait times peaking ~30 minutes after park opening.
Thank you so much.
These trip reports are so valuable in trying to plan from afar during these uncertain times.
Your writing has been killing it lately.
I’m like you Tom on Dinosaur: asleep. Huge missed opportunity for a great attraction. That and Mission Space. Everest on the other hand….
We also went for a few hrs mid morning on Friday, Oct 9. Kali said 15 min, but walked right on once we got up there. And by the way , hope everyone is aware that since it reopened, I have yet to get more than a few drops of water splashed on me. The ride experience has changed, saw no one getting soaked. It has slowed down considerably, and I have been on it multiple times. Safari said 20 min, but walked right on by the time we walked up to it.
Question: Do you know if there’s a glitch in Dining Reservations or is everything REALLY booked? We go the 2nd week in December and they only had ONE lunch spot at Le Cellier and they had ZERO availability at Tiffins. What’s the word?
It is probably not a glitch. I arrive tomorrow and there is very little availability next week. With many restaurants closed and the required less capacity, the res availability is much lower. I only booked about a month ago but was able to get several reservations by using the Touring Plans dining finder. I also stalked the availability as often as possible. Good luck!
I’m having some difficulty toI and our trip is planned for 12/5-12/10 I’m not sure if we will be rescheduling again I don’t think it will be possible for us to go next year.
My daughter won’t wear a face mask she is 1.5 years old and I can’t even put a hair clip in her hair! Going back to the restaurants we shortened our original trip from 10 days to 5 and I only was able to book one of the original restaurants I’m so sad we had free dining and got all of the reservations we had wanted before. I’m not sure if it’s worth making the trip.
Sarah, don’t quote me but go check out the Disney website…I think children under 3 are not required to wear masks. I have a friend there right now with a two year old and he is mask free.
I’ve also heard that the mobile walk up dining is running pretty smooth.
We originally had Free Dining, as well, and wound up modifying to December to beat the heat!!
Everyone I know who’s gone since Covid has said they had a wonderful trip! I’m waiting for my friend to go on Wednesday to really hear back, but everyone says it’s great!! I can’t wait to be back in the Mouse…even with a mask!
The rule is two and older. Under two, no mask Two or older, wear a mask.
Thanks, Tom! Great report. I skipped Animal Kingdom during my September trip (a mistake), but plan on spending time there on a Tuesday, first week of November. Really appreciate your reports. They are extremely helpful. Your photos are incredible as well!
Hi Tom! Thanks so much for your informative posts. We’ll be arriving in 16 days with park days at Epcot (Wed), AK (Thurs) and HS (Fri). However, they just extended AK hours on that Friday from 9-5 to 8-6. Do you think it’d be worth switching and visiting AK on Friday and HS on Thursday to take advantage of those extra 2 hours?
Hi, what are the 2 shows open that you referenced at the end?
Some free husbanding advice Tom, from someone married 27 years. By definition, no picture with Sarah in it can be awful. 🙂
We spent Friday 10/2 there and had a wonderful day! Got there at 8:15 am and no wait to get in. Pandora busy in the morning but cleared out by afternoon. We waited about 15 minutes to be seated right when Nomads opened up at 11:00. Got a great seat where we could watch the character calvacades on the boats and had tasty snacks and beverages. This worked really well for us because the park seemed to be surging about that time. Rode everything again that afternoon – ran right on to FOP to finish the day. Our morning safari was also so active with animals! If you haven’t watched The Magic of Disney Animal Kingdom yet on Disney +, highly recommend! Binged them all last night. Got choked up and made me want to be right back there.
@Keri Thanks for the tip to watch The Magic of Disney Animal Kingdom on Disney + will definitely check it out!
@ Docmarmo I hope you will enjoy! Everything makes me so emotional now – especially after just being there. Popcorn the fizzle chicken is everything!
Great atmospheric shots of AK, Tom. Reminds me I need to make the time to return.
Hi tom
I wish I could try out your ideas but unfortunately I live in uk so will have to wait , heavens knows how long .
I love reading your post and seeing your pictures they keep me going until I can get there myself
Thanks Tom and Sara
You’re welcome–hopefully international travel is able to resume at some point in the not-too-distant future! 🙂
I’d bet my husband would like Flight of Passage (not me, though, motion sickness). So I might try to convince him to try it next week.
Sarah has pretty bad motion sickness, and she’s fine on Flight of Passage. The smoother video and more fluid movements make it a less jarring and jerky experience.
Obviously, everyone is different–just thought it was worth sharing.
I have horrible motion sickness I can’t ride rockin roller coaster, space mountain, and DEF not mission space. flight of passage doesn’t bother me at all, it’s my favorite ride and I categorize it as life altering! Good luck!
Try putting an ear plug in one ear, it helps quite a bit with motion sickness.
My husband gets motion sickness (he won’t even consider doing Star Tours at this point), he LOVED Flight of Passage and wanted to get in line right away to do it again. You know yourself best but it might be worth you both giving it a try if you’ve never done it before. Enjoy the trip!