Animal Kingdom Strategy Advice

[bubbapuck]

Hello All. I am going to WDW in late January/early February and would like some advice on my plan of attack for AK on 1/29.

I have FP+ for Everest @ 10am, Safari @ 12:40, and FoP @3pm. My plan was to rope drop Na'vi then go counter clock wise around through Dino-Land up through Asia and back around through Africa, ending the day with FoP in the 3PM hour. A friend told me it would be better to rope drop Na'vi and go clock wise up to the Safari, around through Asia to Dino Land. Was curious about your thought on these plans.

Just some info on our group. We are a party of 8 with a 10, 8, and 4 year old. We want to reduce walking since we are going to be in WDW for 10 days. We don't want to bounce back and forth across the park. We also dont want to do single rider. This will probably be my grandkids only trip because of cost so I want them to see everything. We are doing 2 days at AK so can move split things but would like to get as much done in on this day. We are leaving after FoP for an O'hana dinner so 4pm is the latest we can stay,

First timer so appreciate your advice on the best strategy.

 

[instlouis]

I think your counterclockwise plan is best based upon the order of your fast passes. You may have to skip a show or backtrack a little to see some of the attractions but it should be minimal. For instance, if you want to do dinoland and see the Nemo show, you may have to see the show after EE. But that is not a far walk. I think you know if you leave prior to 4:00 there is no way to do all the rides, animal walks and shows in one day, but you can do most. Best of luck.

 

[mgrayar]

We have a similar plan two days before you but clockwise. Our plan is to RD Navi, then hit KS next without fastpass. Hopefully by 9:15-9:30ish. We then have breakfast at TH and fast passes at EE, Dino, and FOP to round out the day. Times are not right after each other to allow for other attractions while in the areas. We are doing two half days. One early, one late.

 

[CAQDaddy]

I think your counterclockwise plan is fine. We've found that if you get to Dinoland fairly close to park opening, most everything is a walk on or close to it for a few hours. I also agree with instlouis. You might have to do an occasional backtrack, but nothing major.

 

[Ds4angels]

If your Ohana ressie is at 4, you might be cutting it close w/ the 3:00 FOP FP. I've read to plan on 20-30 minutes w/ FP for that ride. Just wanted to give you a heads up on that timing

 

[bubbapuck]

Thank you all for your advice. I fully expect to back track a little. I know after Everest, we will be walking back to Nemo, Just didnt want to go from Pandora to Asia, back to Pandora, etc.

Does anyone know the following:
- If I get to AK about 8:15 am, how long of a wait will Na'vi River Journey be?
- How long of a walk is it from Pandora to Dino Land. The map makes it seem close but I know AK is a very large park and may take a bit... especially with a 4 year old.

Ds4angels, thanks for looking out for us. I actually made a mistake in my schedule. This night we are going to Trails end but the reservation is at 7:15 pm and we are staying at Wilderness Lodge. We just wanted to give everyone a chyance to get back to the hotel to clean up and rest before dinner.

 

[sscamarogirl2000]

It's a good walk from Pandora to dino land. It's actually a pretty far walk from the entrance to Pandora. I was surprised it was that far. Our experience at AK was we got there at 8, people were already lined up, and they started letting us in at 8:15 even though the opening time posted was 9. We had fp for navi since i couldn't get one for fop. We went with the masses to fop and went through the whole line and ride and was walking out at 9:03. Navi happened to be down that day but I've seen other people say that there is no wait that early and some people have rode it several times before the line starts to really back up. We got an anytime fp and just held onto it until it opened up around 3. So, we definitely did an across the park hike at that time.

 

[coasternut22]

Your plan is almost exactly like ours was in September with almost identical FASTPASS times. We rope dropped Navi. Went straight to Dinosaur with no wait. Then rode Primeval on the way to Everest for our first FP (we actually didn’t need it). We even had time to do Kali. We then did Majaraja and then headed to the Safari for our second FP. Afterwards we ate lunch at Pizzafari. We planned the 2pm Lion king show and killed time beforehand by going to Planet Watch. Saw Lion King and then went to Pandora for an afternoon FOP FP. It was a super easy plan, we were done by 3, and, like I said, we even had an unplanned ride on Kali.

I’m sticking to this plan from now on. Everyone has the theory that they need to do the safari in the morning because that’s when the animals are out. But this plan takes advantage of several rides with minimal waits in the morning.

If you get to the park at 8:15, plan on being on Navi no later than 9am.

Walk from Navi to Dinosaur is about 10 minutes at a relaxed pace.

 

[Sara_H]

When we went in Janaury, we got to the park about an hour to 45 minutes early and they just started letting people into Pandora. We had a fastpass for FOP for later in the day so we did Na'vi and literally walked right on it because the masses all went to FoP. After Na'vi and a few pictures in Pandora, we walked right onto Dinosaur. My son wanted to do it again so he and my husband walked right onto Dinosaur again and my daughter and I did the Dumbo-like ride in the Dinoarea. We then rode it again with my son and husband. We then rode Primeval Whirl twice...and we did all of this in about an hour and 15 minutes or so. From there I think we went on Everest with our fastpass and then again without one. We walked around a bit, had lunch at Satu'li then had a fastpass for the Safari (we did some backtracking). Then walked a bit more and then hit up our FoP fastpass...then we left for the day. I believe we left by 4:00. Next time I think we will stay longer (January 2020!).

 

[bubbapuck]

Thank you all for the great tips and things to think about!

 

[shocker]

Just know that if you want different FP times you will likely get them. Try modifying & refreshing constantly the night before (6-10pm ish) and/or the morning of your visit (starting around 7am). There is a massive shuffle of FP among many parties changing their plans or realizing they're not going to make it to the park that morning.

If you first modify the Safari FP to between 10:30 & 11:40, you will create a much larger window to modify FOP into. After you secure an FOP FP for before 10:30, then you can remodify the safari FP and move it up to as close to your FOP FP as possible.

Then RD Navi, use your FP for FOP, then leave Pandora for the rest of the day (no back tracking). Hear me now, believe me later (if you're from the right era), this can be done if your willing to modify & refresh FP times over & over to get what you want.

 

[bubbapuck]

Just know that if you want different FP times you will likely get them. Try modifying & refreshing constantly the night before (6-10pm ish) and/or the morning of your visit (starting around 7am). There is a massive shuffle of FP among many parties changing their plans or realizing they're not going to make it to the park that morning.

If you first modify the Safari FP to between 10:30 & 11:40, you will create a much larger window to modify FOP into. After you secure an FOP FP for before 10:30, then you can remodify the safari FP and move it up to as close to your FOP FP as possible.

Then RD Navi, use your FP for FOP, then leave Pandora for the rest of the day (no back tracking). Hear me now, believe me later (if you're from the right era), this can be done if your willing to modify & refresh FP times over & over to get what you want.

Totally understand what you are saying. The main issue I have is we are a group of 8. The fast pass refreshing is a lot tougher with such a large group.

 

[NickDubs34]

Honestly, if you’re going to RD at AK, I would suggest doing it for FoP. I know others might disagree but Navi is just not worth the time investment of a rope drop and when FoP is right there, it makes more sense to me. If you time it right, you can be in and out of FOP and on to Navi before that even has much of a wait. Then, you’d have your FP for FoP later if you want to do it again (I suspect you will) and if you don’t, you’re free to move on to something else. Just my opinion.

 

[shocker]

Totally understand what you are saying. The main issue I have is we are a group of 8. The fast pass refreshing is a lot tougher with such a large group.

Yep, many are reporting much success with splitting into 2 groups of 4 or 3 groups of 3/4, whatever works for your group. Try for overlapping FP times, so maybe one group ends up 9-10 and another group ends up 9:15-10:15 & so on. Group your bunch so that if you don't end up overlapping everyone has someone in the group to make their ride enjoyable. I'm telling you there are a LOT of FP reshuffling the night before & morning of your visit. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised how well this works. You'll see as much movement in times as you do on 60 day out & 30 day out mornings.

 

[shocker]

I just tonight got on my mde app & snagged an FOP FP for tomorrow at 3:05pm, took me 12 min. of refreshing (while I was doing other things) to get a 9:20am. This is totally doable. YMMV. I think you'll be surprised if you give it a go.