June 1st (Monday) is my last planned Park day, I leave the next morning and to my suprise I see that AK is a 7 CL that day..!! Any idea why? AK & MK are my favourite parks and was planning on doing AK all day till closing (6 pm) and head over to MK till closing. I was kind of counting on a lower CL.. Ideas, thoughts or advice are welcome
Not sure why but with so few rides at AK, wait times are probably up. Losing all of Dino land and the two rides there probably increased wait times at other rides, thus increasing TP crowd levels. Just a guess.
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I think it’s because of the new Bluey & Bingo Meet & Greet.
May 26th is the start of Cool Kids Summer and is also the day Conservation Station at AK reopens after being re-themed to Bluey. There will be a lot of interest in meeting Bluey since the show is wildly popular worldwide.
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Thanks… the previous week it’s all 4 CL’s (all Parks including AK) so that is why I was kind of surprised to see the CL spike up like that.
The 26th opening day of CKS/Bluey in AK is a CL 5… Usually opening days are much busier/crowded right? June1st is not the opening date. Guess I will find out when I get there :}
Would you advise a LL that day at AK? FoP, NRJ & KS are on my to do list for rides. It still bugs me that I cannot figure out that spike in CL that specific day in AK. Before and after are much more moderate CL’s…
I’d really appreciate any help you can give on this, thanks!
@len, do you have any insights on this?
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If you are willing to rope drop at the front of the pack and are able to walk with purpose, you may not need to buy a LL to achieve these with minimal wait (assuming you are on site and have early entry). I’ve ridden those three, in the order listed, at rope drop numerous times at AK (at hugely varying crowd levels) without needing a LL.
Aim to get on the first bus of the day for your resort and arrive at AK around 1hr before early entry (so around 7.30 for AK, if hours stay the same as currently scheduled). Security normally opens around 45 min before early entry, and you’ll be lined up at the taps around 30 min before - look for taps on the far left or far right, as often they’ll open additional taps as you get closer to park opening and then you can get to the front of the tap). After you tap in, have your room card/phone to prove that you are a resort guest ready to show to CM. Walk with purpose towards the Pandora bridge and make sure you’re standing on the far right on the bridge- they will hold you there until around 10 min before the start of early entry, but as the crowd surges behind the CM who will walk you to the queue, those on the far right will naturally move forward (while those on the left merge in). There are 48 seats in the FoP theatre, so if you can see that you’re somewhere within that first group, you’re golden (though don’t stress if not). Normally, as long as you’re on the first or second flight, you can still easily stroll over to NRJ before the crowds arrive from regular park open - which means it’ll be a walk on or very short wait. Once you finish NRJ, you can stroll from Pandora towardds Africa (lovely, quiet walk) and arrive at KS shortly after they open, when queues are still short and animals are more active.
While the initial FoP rope drop is somewhat competitive, everything from there on out is relaxing and a beautiful way to start your day at AK! I like to reward myself with a pastry and coffee from Kusafiri (or Sa’tuli or Yak & Yeti local foods cafe if I want a sit-down breakfast) afterwards before moving on to other rides, shows and nature walks.
If you’re not interested in rope droppping, I believe end-of-day can sometimes achieve the same results - and/or an LLSP for FoP may be more cost-effective than LLMMP for the other rides.
Enjoy!
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The first Monday in June in 2025 was a 5 (as was the Tuesday), so it shouldn’t be slow. That’s also within the first week of a bunch of new stuff opening up in WDW. And Animal Kingdom doesn’t have a ton of ride capacity.
We could be wrong, of course. Right now that doesn’t seem like a terrible estimate. I’ll keep an eye on it.
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thank you! that is really helpful!
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