New Animal Kingdom Park Opening Process Changes Early Entry Checkpoints

Within the last year-plus, Walt Disney World changed the opening procedures at EPCOT, Magic Kingdom, and Hollywood Studios. This was either accomplished by moving the Early Entry checkpoints deeper into the park or eliminating secondary hold locations. Animal Kingdom was the last holdout using the “old” system, but that has now changed as of mid-2026.

As basic background, we enjoy Early Entry in general, including at Animal Kingdom. In part, because it’s the earliest. Animal Kingdom usually opens at 8 am, which means Early Entry at 7:30 am, and most guests simply are not up that early. That’s the upside for early risers.

The downside is that, after the closure of Dinoland USA, there are now only four (4) attractions that participate in Early Entry at Animal Kingdom: Avatar Flight of Passage and Na’vi River Journey in Pandora, along with Expedition Everest and Zootopia: Better Zoogether. So only three (3) attractions that are actually worth doing, with only one very obvious starting point.

I recently headed out to Animal Kingdom to field test the changes to Early Entry, arriving at the way-too-early time of 6:55 am. One thing that often gets asked when it comes to arriving, ahem, early for Early Entry is whether buses are running at that hour. Yes, they absolutely are. I’m usually not even on the first bus of the morning, and still do fine. (I know I wasn’t this day, since I was watching My Disney Experience and missed the first.)

I was actually surprised just how active the bus loops were, and I was pretty far back for the opening of security and bagcheck, which started at approximately 7:00 am. After getting flagged for secondary screening, I was through here shortly after 7:10 am, and waiting in line for the turnstiles to open.

This was actually the farthest back I’ve been in a while, and it was an off-season day after school went back into session (it was also a date with Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party at Magic Kingdom).

Based on when we started moving in a way that wasn’t just people anxiously filling in available space, I’d say that the turnstiles opened around 7:19 am. This varies from day to day, and this was probably on the later end of the spectrum for the norm at DAK.

When the turnstiles open, everyone is allowed to enter Animal Kingdom, which is not a new development. Here’s where the changes begin. If you’re unfamiliar with the now extinct Early Entry approach, we’ll start with a recap of that. Or you can skip down to the heading covering the new approach…

Extinct Early Entry at Animal Kingdom

Under the old system, guests with Early Entry access would tap into the park and take the path to the left, where there would be a checkpoint with a line of Cast Members scanning MagicBands, resort room keys, or whatever to verify you’re eligible for Early Entry. You could access the entire rest of the park after scanning here.

Once Early Entry eligibility was verified, guests would proceed left through the Oasis toward the bridge to Discovery Island and the Tree of Life. From here, people would either head left to Pandora – World of Avatar or right to everything else.

In other words, 99% of guests headed left. If choosing to start your day in another land, you should’ve, uh, slept in another hour or two. The herd of guests proceeding to Pandora would be held again on the bridge to the land. How long this hold lasted really depended upon when the turnstiles opened.

There were mornings when I was in the park before 7 am, and the secondary holds were lengthy. Other times, they were virtually nonexistent because Early Entry was about to begin.

From this point, Cast Members slowly shepherded the herd of guests into Pandora. If you were heading to Na’vi River Journey, you could go left and run, power-walk, moonwalk, or however you choose to move about.

Everyone else was slowly shuffled to Avatar Flight of Passage through a long and winding route. It might sound tedious, but it’s efficient and easy. Most importantly, you didn’t have to fight with fellow guests or jockey for a spot ~17 seconds earlier in line. I actually like this herd approach because it’s less chaotic, competitive and stressful.

Meanwhile, off-site guests without Early Entry were corralled to the right side of the Oasis path at the front of the park after they scanned into the turnstiles. This was a small area, right Discovery Island path would be packed like sardines with off-site guests waiting for regular rope drop.

These holding areas have always reminded me a bit of dunce corners, almost as if Walt Disney World is making guests wear a figurative ‘cone of shame’ for staying off-site. That’s hyperbole, of course, but these concentrated regular rope drop holding zones near the park entrances always pack people like sardines.

New Early Entry at Animal Kingdom

Under the new system, both Early Entry resort guests and the regular rope droppers from off-site can proceed down either path of the Oasis. The guest holding areas have moved onto Discovery Island itself, and there are now two of them. This provides a lot more breathing room for off-site guests.

Off-site guests can now wander Discovery Island itself while they wait, as opposed to being concentrated in the corridor through the Oasis. Unfortunately, nothing on Discovery Island is open until official park opening. The Discovery Trading Company and Island Mercantile gift shops are closed during Early Entry.

From Discovery Island, there are two Early Entry checkpoints. Resort guests get their MagicBands (etc) checked by Cast Members at these locations before proceeding through toward their first destination. Non-resort guests have new holding zones nearby where they can stand until regular rope drop.

As before, the checkpoint where virtually everyone heads is on the left, leading to Pandora.

This is located in front of Island Mercantile, just before Pizzafari. It blocks access not just to Avatar, but also Africa. The reason it’s here, I guess, is to give on-site guests an advantage, should they so desire, for Kilimanjaro Safaris at regular rope drop.

It’s sort of like how some on-site guests use Early Entry at Magic Kingdom to prequeue for TRON Lightcycle Run. Except in this case, it’s a complete waste of time since Kilimanjaro Safaris won’t have an appreciable wait even thirty minutes after regular rope drop.

It’s actually surprising to me that this checkpoint is here, as opposed to being in front of Tiffins or Pizzafari. If it were moved up to that location, it would only restrict access to Avatar.

The upside of that is guests would be able to wander deeper into Africa, grab Starbucks or even breakfast. That’s good for guests (caffeine! pastries!) and good for Disney (revenue!).

On this particular morning, I arrived at the Island Mercantile checkpoint at 7:29 am, but I also stopped for a few photos along the way. The first guests through the front entrance would’ve gotten here just before 7:25 am.

The downside of having Africa be open to off-site guests is that Early Entry guests would have one fewer area that’s exclusive to them.

The other downside is that there’s a secondary path from Africa to Pandora, and Disney would also need to create a checkpoint there to prevent intrepid off-site guests from simply taking the long way around to Avatar Flight of Passage.

Still, we’re talking (probably) just one single Cast Member. It seems like the upside of selling more fancy coffee-esque beverages would be greater than the downside, and I’d expect this change to happen eventually.

The second checkpoint is in front of Zootopia: Better Zoogether, to the right of the Tree of Life. It leads to the bridge toward Asia and Expedition Everest, and also encompasses that attraction.

I saw this checkpoint while power/moon-walking to Pandora, but don’t have any photos because I planned on circling back after making a loop of Avatar land.

By the time I returned at ~7:50 am, the checkpoint was already open-access. Here’s a hugely helpful photo of no one in this general area (except a small crowd congregated for the opening of the Adventurers Outpost meet & greet):

I’m not sure whether that’s normal, but regardless, it should say everything that needs to be said about demand, or lack thereof, for that side of the park and where everyone actually heads during Early Entry. (It’s possible the checkpoint moved to the Expedition Everest queue, as Zootopia: Better Zoogether was down, anyway.)

For what it’s worth, the Avatar and Africa checkpoint was still active all the way until 8:00 am and there were off-site guests in the adjacent holding area. It was a busy morning and Early Entry was surprisingly popular given its 7:30 am start time, and the fact that only 4 attractions were supposed to be open.

Pros & Cons of Checkpoint Change to Early Entry

Ultimately, this switch to Early Entry checkpoints on Discovery Island flanking the Tree of Life is a positive change on balance. It gives off-site guests the chance to delve deeper into Disney’s Animal Kingdom, enjoy the atmosphere, pre-queue for regular rope drop, or simply sit in the shade. I never stood in the mass of humanity waiting in the Oasis for regular rope drop, but it looked pretty miserable. The opposite of oasis-like.

Since more guests are coming from off-site than are staying on-site, this is an improvement for the guest experience as a whole. Or more specifically, for off-site guests who now have a bit more breathing room.

On the other hand, the new approach is a slight negative for on-site guests taking advantage of Early Entry. That’s because you lose a few precious minutes to beat the regular rope drop crowd to your next destination before the end of Early Entry.

You used to have until ~8:10 am to beat the rope drop rush in Pandora – World of Avatar. Now, that’s probably closer to ~8:05 am, as they’re only walking from Island Mercantile, as opposed to Oasis.

It’s not a big thing, especially since 99% of those guests will make a beeline for Avatar Flight of Passage. So long as you’re already in line for that, or ideally, exiting and heading towards Na’vi River Journey, the 5 fewer minutes doesn’t really impact you.

With all of that said, my hot take on Early Entry at Animal Kingdom is that you should probably skip it. This is the direction I’m leaning after my most recent experience, but I want to do 1-2 more test runs before committing to the potentially unpopular opinion (at least with my people, the commando tourists) that you’re better off sleeping in on your DAK day.

At least, that’s my advice for the hardcore strategists. I still love Early Entry, even an inefficient one, for the atmosphere. The highlight of this particular morning for me was shooting sunrise around Expedition Everest, and capturing some of my all-time favorite photos of Asia. Photography isn’t really something that’s applicable to park touring strategy, but I love Early Entry for that and the ambiance.

For more info and advice on the “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, a remix of rope drop at DHS, Magic Kingdom on a Party Day, and more. So stay tuned for all of that!

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YOUR THOUGHTS

Have you experienced the new Early Entry protocol at Animal Kingdom? Do you find this system to be better or worse for the average guest? Thoughts on Early Entry at Animal Kingdom with the 7:30 am start time? What’s your preferred approach to regular rope drop at Animal Kingdom? Agree or disagree with our assessment? 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!