Animal Kingdom Park Opening & Early Entry Ride Strategy
Early Theme Park Entry is available for on-site resort guests at Walt Disney World, and we’ve taken advantage of the perk several times for each park. This Animal Kingdom photo report offers step-by-step “speedrunning” strategy for accomplishing every ride with minimal waits during the morning hours in the park.
While this Early Entry at Disney’s Animal Kingdom report is based on a single experience, it’s the culmination of several times doing EE at DAK. We’ve taken advantage of the morning Extra Magic Hours replacement several times, following the tips & tricks here, more or less. In essence, this is the refinement of everything we’ve learned, avoiding mistakes & pitfalls, while also getting lucky with zero ride breakdowns.
The first thing you need to know is that Park Hours at Animal Kingdom can vary. In a nutshell, there are some days when the park opens at 8 am, and some days when it opens at 9 am. For this strategy to work, an 8 am opening time is necessary. It’s possible that Animal Kingdom will open at 8 am on every day of your trip. Even if you’re visited during a moderately busy time of year, the park often officially opens at 8 am on Fridays through Sundays. If you want this to work, do DAK on those days!
Moving from a 9 am opening time to 8 am might seem like a big hassle for an insignificant gain. It’s actually huge and that’s precisely because it’s a hassle. That hour earlier in the morning is a big deal because it shrinks the pool of potential guests who are willing and able to get up early on vacation. When park opening is at 8 am, this means that Early Entry is at 7:30 am. For most Walt Disney World guests, that’s simply too early.
When park opening is at 9 am, there are a ton of people partaking in the 8:30 am Early Entry because it’s relatively easy to be out the door and to Animal Kingdom by that time. It’s a different story entirely when moving that forward by an hour–especially for the families with small children.
This isn’t just conjecture or speculation. We’ve tested this repeatedly in multiple parks, and it is always the case that an earlier Early Entry is more fruitful because fewer guests can and will take advantage of it. Suffice to say, the 7:30 am Early Entry at Animal Kingdom is a game changer. Very few guests have the desire and determination to be out their hotel room door by 6:30 am, which is pretty much what’s necessary to arrive at DAK in time for the start of Early Entry.
For this day in DAK, I stayed at All Star Sports Resort and left my room shortly after 6:30 am for the main bus stop. My goal with Early Entry at Animal Kingdom is to catch the bus before 7 am; I’ve found that usually buses begin running from most resorts at around 6:45 am for the 7:30 am Early Entry.
With a wake up call at this ridiculous hour, I’ve found that I’m often the first one at the bus stop and sometimes the only person on the first bus to the park. Neither were the case on this particular day, but it was also the peak of spring break season and my hotel was hosting a couple major youth sporting events. Our bus was fairly full, which is a rarity–and gave me some pause that my plan might not work.
A lot of people like to knock the All Stars, but there’s one undeniable positive that they offer: proximity to Animal Kingdom. Probably not a thing most guests prioritize when ranking resorts, but still. It comes in handy on days like this.
Thanks to that, our bus was among the first dozen or so to be dropped off at Animal Kingdom. I packed light on this particular day so my camera bag wouldn’t flag me for additional screening, and breezed through security as a result.
This was the scene at the park entrance as of 7:07 am.
Inevitably, when people are “this far back” despite getting up at the crack of dawn, they are anxious and annoyed. That plus sleep deprivation and minus caffeine are a dangerous combination. Tensions are often running high. However, I can assure you that this is a very good spot. It may look like a lot of people, but diluted across an entire theme park (or in this case, more realistically, a single land), it’s not much at all.
Cast Members started admitting guests into Animal Kingdom at around 7:20 am.
The specific times vary from day to day, and there are multiple points at which guests are held, so don’t get too discouraged if you enter the park later or earlier. Seriously, there is zero cause for stress. Keep the vibe light and positive–it’s going to be a magnificent morning. And if it’s not, that won’t be because of any variables that you can change.
That first stopping point is pretty close to the park entrance; the next one is on the bridge to Pandora: The World of Avatar.
Of course, that assumes that you’re prioritizing Pandora: The World of Avatar. If you’re choosing to start your day in another land, uh, you should’ve slept in another hour or so.
From this point, Cast Members slowly lead the herd of guests into Pandora.
If you’re heading to Na’vi River Journey, you can go left and run, moonwalk, or however you choose to move to that. Everyone else is slowly shuffled to Avatar Flight of Passage through the long route. It might sound tedious, but it’s efficient and easy. Most importantly, you don’t have to fight with fellow guests or jockey for a spot ~17 seconds earlier in line.
At first, it’ll appear that the Avatar Flight of Passage line extends all the way through the queue.
This is very disconcerting for anyone who has ever done this attraction; a walk-on is still a ~10 minute wait because that’s about how long it takes to walk through the lengthy line.
In actuality, it just takes some time for people to make their way through the line.
None of the switchbacks inside Avatar Flight of Passage are in use at this hour, meaning that you, uh, fly through the queue and have a minimal wait.
I was in the first pre-show by 7:44 am.
Delays are common with Avatar Flight of Passage, and I experienced a few during my morning. Nothing major, but they added about 5 minutes to my speedrun. Still much better than Flight of Passage being down, and being denied the opportunity to, uh, fly as part of this amazing rite of passage.
After Flight of Passage, it was on to Na’vi River Journey.
The posted wait time for this was 15 minutes, which was actually lower than expected given that I was arriving ~13 minutes after park opening. No matter what the posted wait time, this should be your second stop. The posted time is usually inflated and wrong, regardless.
My actual wait for Na’vi River Journey was about 5 minutes or so.
Even on busier days, less than 15 minutes is pretty close to par for the course. Almost everyone arriving for regular rope drop does Avatar Flight of Passage first and Genie+ doesn’t sell as well at Animal Kingdom, so Na’vi River Journey’s line takes longer to build.
From there, it was on to Kilimanjaro Safaris.
There are two schools of thought here. One is to cross the entire park and knock out Expedition Everest, Kali River Rapids, and Dinosaur in quick succession. Depending upon the day, you can potentially do several rides on Expedition Everest (if you so desire) as a walk-on. All of these rides combined have a shorter total duration than the safari, so knocking them out first can be savvy.
I opted to go the easy route and do Kilimanjaro Safaris first. It’s closer to Pandora, and I like seeing the wildlife first thing in the morning when they’re most active.
Really, though, either approach will work. If you bounce to the other side of the park, you’re more likely to encounter a longer line upon returning to the safari, but it still should be manageable.
From start to finish, Kilimanjaro Safaris was a nearly 45 minute commitment.
That was despite the posted 35 minute wait time being closer to 10 minutes, and was in large part courtesy of some big bird (not the Big Bird…or Kevin) standing in our vehicle’s path for what felt like an hour.
Following that, it was off to Asia and Dinoland.
The last of these attractions that I did was Dinosaur and, well, I think the on-ride photo speaks for itself in terms of the “wait times” (air quotes) that I encountered for these attractions. In fairness, I only did Expedition Everest once. Had I reversed the order, I’m pretty confident I could’ve done Expedition Everest three times and still arrived at Kilimanjaro Safaris with an actual wait time under 30 minutes.
All in all, I was done with every ride for adults before 10:30 am.
I did skip TriceraTop Spin, which is not as cool as it might sound, both because I’m not a fan and I don’t have the confidence to do kiddie rides by myself as a grown man. However, it was a walk-on after Dinosaur and would’ve put my finish time (still) at around 10:30 am.
At this point, I could have done the Minnie & Mickey Mouse at Adventurers Outpost meet & greet with literally zero wait. I poked my head inside, and there was literally no one there.
Strategy-wise, this is a savvy time for the meet & greet. This ends up having one of the highest average wait times at Animal Kingdom, which is due to a mixture of low capacity, high demand, and overzealous Lightning Lane usage. If meeting the mice matters to you, do it now.
Another solid option is eating. For one thing, if you were up at 6:30 am for Early Entry, there’s a good chance that it’s lunch time for you. For another thing, both Satu’li Canteen and Flame Tree BBQ are incredibly popular and have long lines or crowds during the lunch rush.
The last time I did this, I actually rope dropped Nomad Lounge. That’s not open quite yet, but arriving 10 minutes or so before it starts seating guests guarantees you a table and great service. (If you ask me, this is the underrated option among all of the choices.)
On an average day, crowds will start arriving in full force at Animal Kingdom at around 10 am…but the vast majority of people, no matter what time they arrive, make a beeline for Pandora: The World of Avatar. As a result of this, you usually have about another hour until the wait times start getting bad anywhere else.
Consequently, this step-by-step strategy for Early Entry also ends up working out pretty well for regular rope drop, too. Simply skip Avatar Flight of Passage and pick up the plan from there, and you’ll have similar results. In fact, you should be able to do slightly better, as I didn’t get to Na’vi River Journey until after official park opening.
The difficulty is going to be resisting the temptation to do Avatar Flight of Passage first. Upon arrival at regular rope drop/park opening, it will have a moderate posted standby time, but keep in mind that the time is increasing and you will be behind “the wave” of crowds for everything else if you do Flight of Passage first. Accordingly, our advice is to return to Flight of Passage during the lunch lull and just deal with the standby wait, bite the bullet and buy an Individual Lightning Lane, or outlast the crowds.
To that last point, Animal Kingdom usually starts clearing out in mid-afternoon. Because there are only 4-6 rides that most people care about doing plus 1-2 stage shows and maybe a bit of wildlife watching, even those who arrive by 10 am have usually had their fill by 4 pm. Meaning that you can follow our Animal Kingdom Afternoon Arrival Strategy for the most efficient itinerary if you’re not a morning person and want to focus on rides. (Spoiler: it’s basically this, but in reverse.)
Ultimately, Early Entry at Animal Kingdom is excellent. I call it speedrunning rides in the title to make me sound super cool (did it work?), but in reality, there was nothing speedy about this on my end. I got distracted by animals on multiple occasions, spent an inordinate amount of time photographing sunbursts rising below the floating mountains of Pandora, and wandered aimlessly for a few minutes trying to track down mac & cheese. I left those diversions out of the core itinerary because I don’t think doing those things offers any strategic advantage.
In reality, my Early Entry run at Animal Kingdom was speedy because it’s speedy. Animal Kingdom is, without a doubt, the easiest park at Walt Disney World from a strategy perspective. The big secret is timing. Arrive early or late and avoid the middle of the day. That’s really about it. This continues to work incredibly well because so few people do it.
Like clockwork, they show up at 10 am, head to Pandora at the busiest time of day in that land, and do the rest of the park inefficiently. Arriving late often results in leaving early out of frustration (or “animal fatigue”), so most guests never experience Animal Kingdom efficiently. Now you know what to do–it’s just a matter of setting that alarm and making it happen. As the Na’vi say, Sivako! Rise to the challenge…literally and figuratively!
For more info and advice on this “Extra Magic Half-Hour” in the morning, see our Strategy Guide to Early Entry at the Walt Disney World Theme Parks. We’ll have several more new run-through reports coming soon, including EPCOT from the front entrance, another stab at the SDMT Shuffle in Magic Kingdom, and a reprise of RotR at DHS. So stay tuned for all of that!
Planning a Walt Disney World trip? Learn about hotels on our Walt Disney World Hotels Reviews page. For where to eat, read our Walt Disney World Restaurant Reviews. To save money on tickets or determine which type to buy, read our Tips for Saving Money on Walt Disney World Tickets post. Our What to Pack for Disney Trips post takes a unique look at clever items to take. For what to do and when to do it, our Walt Disney World Ride Guides will help. For comprehensive advice, the best place to start is our Walt Disney World Trip Planning Guide for everything you need to know!
YOUR THOUGHTS
Thoughts on Early Entry at Animal Kingdom with the 7:30 am start time? Have you experienced this 30 minute jumpstart to the day at DAK? What’s your preferred approach to Early Entry and traditional park opening/rope drop at Animal Kingdom? How would you have done things differently? Any other feedback on arriving early to the Walt Disney World theme parks? Agree or disagree with our advice or approach? 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!
This strategy worked for us! I had printed off an older version of this post for our last trip and it worked. we had a slight hiccup at the safari where we waited 55 mins but I think that was an anomaly. Everest was closed but we were able to ride everything else with low wait times. Thanks for the tips!
AK early is amazing. I would like to comment we have a time share close to AK. We go spring break (crowds are nuts) and since we are off site , can’t take advantage of early entry. What we do is actually get there very early anyway, buy a ILL to FOP since we are already behind many guests and start at dinosaur. There have been days we are the only people walking to that side of the park. It almost feels surreal (and cool). Then, we hit Everest (several times), Safari and Kali. It really is wonderful, walk on’s! We try to get a FOP like late afternoon, then take in shows, Nomad lounge and trails. It really works well if you don’t stay on property.
Speedrunning definitely sounds cool. I am using it as part of my strategy to get an intensely morning adverse teenager out the hotel room by 6:30 am a couple of days next week. Wish me luck!!
We are going to DW in December and will need to go to AK during the week. Last year, it looks like they opened up at 9:00 not 8:00, so what would your strategy be then? You mentioned early entry wasn’t as good when the park opened later, but if that is our only option would you still follow this plan? Thank you!
Thanks Tom, this is super helpful. I hope you do the full series on the 2023 early entry experience across the parks.
For AK, do you (or others) think this plan, in terms of required pace as well as ride order, would make for a good day for a first visit?
My kids’ passes expired just pre-COVID and so I’ve not been able to buy new ones. At this point I’m going to just buy a FL resident multi-day because I want my youngest to get to experience Disney when he’s still little (5, but fortunately 44”) We’re a high energy family so we can handle the pace but I don’t want to rush too much and ruin the magic…
My strategy, On the first bus from an AS resort, try to arrive 30 minutes before EE.
FOP, maybe Navi, otherwise straight to Safari, grab a cinnamon roll near the entrance to Safari, ride Everest on loop using single rider if there’s any line, Dinosaur, eat at Satuli or Flame Tree, Lion King, then the drawing classes over at affection section, maybe the bird show, Nemo, ride Everest a few more times and if it’s dark go through Pandora before we leave.
I saw what you, uh, did there.
Always love your writing!
Where is Sarah? You look so lonely on Dinosaur.
We love early entry at DAK! So cool to be the first in line for It’s Tough to be a Bug
Love your articles and advice Tom! We follow pretty much the same itinerary each year we visit and it works.
We always start early on FoP and have never waited more than 20 minutes. Then we hit Na’vi if we’re still within the 30 minute window of Early Morning Entry. If not, we either head to Safari to avoid a line or decide if we’ll accept a slightly longer line if we do Na’vi.
At this point, if we decide to do Na’vi first, we also then decide between Safari or Everest after it for our next ride. Because Safari can take 40 or more minutes from start of line to getting through the ride, it can impact how busy Everest gets. Soooo, it’s a decision point. For my 13 year old son, his preference is go to Expedition first and he rides 5-6 times and then we head to Safari. In this case, Safari will have a line of 40-45 minutes. Or we’ll skip Na’vi and head to Safari and then Everest with neither having long waits….and my son can then ride Everest multiple times.
After that, we head to Dinosaur, then hit all the shows throughout the day (including the bird show) and walk the two animal paths. If we have time, we take the train to the Conservation Station….especially now that they have character drawing.
We find we can breeze through lineups for each ride as long as we’re up and out of the hotel at the crack of dawn. Getting on and off FoP first thing is the key…and everything else is easy. We also finish all rides by about 10:30 am or 11:00am even with multiple rides on Everest and Dinosaur. We’re able to finish before close if desired. We have even completed this itinerary with lunch at Sanaa in the afternoon.
Regarding Lightning Lanes and Genie + for on-site hotel guests with disabilities, are they needed or should getting the DA passes cover the wait times? First timer with disabilities (age 22) and I want to try and make it as carefree for him and his mom. He most likely won’t be able to do most rides.
Tom, big fan of your site and honestly you made my first trip to Disneyland ever the best trip of my life with your rope drop strategy post. Super grateful for all the work you put into this!
This time me and my wife don’t have a lot of time and will try our best at Disneyworld with park hopping. Basically my choice is to do AK and than Epcot(fingers crossed that wine and food festival will be happening on July 15th). I was wondering if it’s been possible (even if it’s rare) to get into the virtual line or buying ILL for the guardians ride at Epcot. I might buy it for Avatar flight in AK to make sure we have some time to relax between parks but I wonder where my expectation should be regarding riding Guardians (even if it’s like 5% chance I will still have hope).
I was able to get VQ for Guardians in January (at 1:00) and twice in February (at 7:00). So just be ready to go and it works!
That is super helpful to know! I’m worried about the fact that I’m technically only entering the park at 2pm because of the current park hopping rules (hopefully they will change it soon like Disneyland did). I’ve been tracking the app during this month and I’ve seen the virtual line open until around 3pm at least. But it’s March, I heard July is a bit packed.
It all depends on crowds and on where you are staying. If you are not on site and it is crowded, you may not be able to get an ILL at all when the parks open…but I’m assuming you must be on site since you are replying to this early entry strategy post. If so and you want to shell out for both ILLs, there should be no problem doing that at 7am regardless of crowds – just decide the times you want to ride beforehand, and you book one while your wife books the other. If you want to only shell out for one ILL, I would switch your day to Epcot, both of you aim to snag the 7am virtual queue, and then calmly buy Flight of Passage for after park hopping begins at 2pm. However, the virtual queue may well be gone by July 15 so you might not need much strategy to ride it at all!
When my husband and I were at the Animal Kingdom during Early Entry, we immediately headed to Gorilla Falls Exploration Trail. We were the only guests at that time of the day and we were rewarded with plenty of animals during their morning feeding routine (it can get pretty crowded there during the day). Cast members were friendly and talkative giving us insight about the animals we encountered. We then rode Kilimanjaro Safaris where we saw plenty of animals. We recommend going to these two attractions as soon as you can during Early Entry.
I think any speed trip through Animal Kingdom needs to include more than the few rides you discuss. Lion King is a show that is well worth visiting and Bug’s Life is fun. The bird shows, if they are still happening, also could be part of that mix, adding a sense of magic to AK. Add those in for your next review of AK, and people will have a more realistic view of their day. Personally I’d choose Lion King over the Dinosaur ride for quality.
Those are all included in our full day DAK plan: https://www.disneytouristblog.com/1-day-animal-kingdom-plan/
I don’t recommend skipping any of them–they’re all great–but they also require zero strategy to see. Like the stage shows at DHS, they can be slotted into the middle of the day whenever is convenient.
Your point is good, except Lion King which you can easily outfox yourself and miss if not careful to note the show times.
I have a pretty specific strategy question for animal kingdom early entry, and I wonder if anyone has any advice. I want to do Animal Kingdom for my first park day, on the same day as check-in.
The first day we get to Orlando we’re staying at a regular hotel, then we move into the Disney bubble (AKL) the next day and stay there for the rest of the trip. I didn’t wanna pay for a Disney hotel for arrival night when we’re just settling in/travelling that day.
I wanna do early entry at AK the next morning. The plan is to check our luggage with AKL that morning and to go to the park for early entry, then come properly check in when we take an afternoon break. I’m gonna be waking up at like 5am to accomplish this morning plan, right? And you can still book your first lightning lanes and Genie at 7, so if you’re already on site that early that’s something you’re doing in line I’m guessing.
I can’t give you an answer as to the wake-up time, as that’s dependent upon where you’re starting and how you’re transferring.
I will say that I did Genie+ for Magic Kingdom on this day, and I couldn’t start booking until closer to 8:30 am since the times for PPF and JC hadn’t advanced enough until around then. For DHS or EPCOT, you’ll definitely be booking closer to 7 am, though. All depends on your destination park.
Thanks Tom!
I guess I was more wondering if checking your luggage is an arduous process or if it just takes a second.
Hi Aeryn.
Like all things at Disney World, it depends on the line.
It only takes a few minutes for bell services to tag your bags and give you the claim ticket. Tell them you’re checking in and they will also deliver your bags to your room so you can go straight to the room. At least that’s how it was for me at All Star Sports a few weeks ago. I went to pick up my bags and they said it was already in the room.
I usually see 2-3 cast members working to handle everything. But the length of the line is what determines if it’s going to be an easy or arduous process.
Tom, what do you think of the option of trying to queue up into the Flight of Passage line from Harambe Village? Wondering; a. is that area open in early entry, b. would that bypass the larger crowds where they usually hold the crowd.
Also, have you ever gotten the buffalo chicken chips at Trilo-bites? Oh my gosh! Can’t ever pass it up when I’m in AK.
“Tom, what do you think of the option of trying to queue up into the Flight of Passage line from Harambe Village?”
That wouldn’t be possible, as Cast Members literally guide the crowd to the Flight of Passage queue. It’s a good system–I wouldn’t overthink or try to “beat” it, as you’re just setting yourself up for problems.
I mention this because we saw a couple parties try to go left at Na’vi River Journey and “outrun” the FoP line. They failed.
This is exactly how we did Animal Kingdom 5 years ago. We completely got through Pandora by 8:30am, and could easily do the rest of the park (and this was during Thanksgiving week!!).
It also enabled us to go back to Pandora at night to just take in all of the colors and lights without having to worry about the rides.
Outstanding advice, Tom! Keep up the good work. ❤️
Yeah, this strategy hasn’t really changed much in the last ~5 years. About the biggest difference is that it’s now daily, 30 minutes shorter, and Pandora has gotten slightly less popular with other newer additions around Walt Disney World.
Our next trip to DW ( which won’t be till summer 2024 likely) I was thinking of doing AK on last day – which means we would be leaving probably in early afternoon so this strategy works well for us. We see kipped AK the last two trips so I figure it will be nice to go back by then. On a side note- I am pretty much terrified on soarin- but i think it’s because my long torso makes me feelike I am going to flip out of chair- do you think I should even attempt flighof passage?
I think you’ll be fine on Flight of Passage even though I would consider it to be Soarin on steroids. They are similar in that both make you feel like you’re flying, but they offer each offer much different ride experience.
As you know, on Soarin there are 4 rows of seats and you are lifted about 20-30 feet off of the ground depending on your row, which can cause come some anxiety for anyone with a fear of heights.
On FoP, which is a 3D attraction, the riding stations will tilt in various directions to help simulate that you’re flying on the back of a banshee, but the stations themselves remain in place on the ground. There are also seating restraints that make you feel secure and to ensure that you won’t fall off of the seat since you do tilt to the sides.
@Jack – I like the sound of staying on the ground. I think my fear is definitely the seating of soarin. Im gonna research it a bit more before committing but think what you are saying makes a lot of sense- thanks
Jack is 100% right. You’ll be fine on Flight of Passage. Just don’t stick your head out and look around.
As someone who gets motion sickness and is scared of heights (the Mine Train is the most adventurous I can be and my husband still had to almost carry my jelly-legged nauseated self off it). I managed this one with minimal issues, as you sit on something more like a motorcycle and you aren’t swung up in to the air for the ride. If you can fit in the restraints/seat (my 6 foot husband said it was a little bit tight, but he was fine). You do ‘fly’ towards the screen with breeze, sent and spray blown past you like Soarin, but the vehicle feels much more solid than a swinging wire seat and no-one is connected to your seat (if you close your eyes the actual motion isn’t too much, although if you watch the screen you think you are swinging about wildly). I even managed to keep my eyes open for over half the ride my second time through as the initial launch in to flight was the worst for me (I shut my eyes for it the second time) there are a few ‘dives’ after that, but I didn’t find any of them quite as bad. My family adored it (my son won’t repeat Soarin, but went on this twice). Obviously everyone’s mileage will vary.
Any strategies for people not staying on site that cannot use Early Entry?
I’ve gone back and added this towards the end of the post.
Short version: skip FoP and follow this itinerary from Na’vi River Journey.
Got a chuckle from you “uh, flying” through the line!
I’ll take a chuckle! Better than ‘confused stare’ or ‘awkward groan’ which is what most of this blog’s “jokes” elicit!
Dana beat me to it! “None of the switchbacks inside Avatar Flight of Passage are in use at this hour, meaning that you, uh, fly through the queue and have a minimal wait,” with the perfect photo below. Well done. But they better never change it — it’s now part of our family, uh, lexicon.