Animal Kingdom Help Plz!

Walt Disney World Touring Plans
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Hello!

I am trying to finish my families Animal Kingdom touring plan. We will be there on Wed Feb 26 and the park opens at 9am however we have an early Tusker House reservation at 8am. Our first fast pass is for Flights of Passage at 9:35. We also have fast pass for KS at 10:35 and FoLK at 12:30.

When I Optimize our plan it recommends going from Tusker house to the Tam Tam Drummers then to FOP for our first fastpass. I just can’t imagine that this would make sense!! I was trying to decide if we would rope drop Navi or Everest. I was thinking if we do Everest we can avoid the huge rush of people to Pandora and likely ride Everest several times with minimal wait. I am assuming my kids are going to want to ride it more then once. Then, perhaps we would get lucky and get a Navi Fast Pass on a “day of drop” and if not we could ride it at the end of the day when the wait times are less.

Or perhaps we should do Navi first as I would assume we would have a better chance of getting a FPP for Everest after our first three are complete.

Thanks for any help you can give me!

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I don’t have any experience with how long Tusker House takes to complete, so not sure if you are out before official park opening or not. I’d personally probably lean towards your plan of going to EE after breakfast for a couple of rides, since you want to do it more than once. If it’s raining/EE is down, I’d do NRJ first instead. (If you publish your TP I’d be happy to look at the specifics.). But if someone else has experience with the timing of a PPO Tusker reservation that would be useful to know!

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We were just there on a very crowded day at AK, and I can tell you that NRJ had a long wait after the first hour and stayed that way pretty much all day. EE wasn’t quite walk-on, but it was very low line and even had same day FPPs available later on. Another bonus of starting with NRJ is that you may be able to see all you would like Pandora early and not have to make the long walk back there later in the day, potentially fighting large crowds.

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If you want to stay and meet all the characters as they make the rounds to the tables you’ll need to plan at least 1 hour minimum - probably at closer to 75 minutes.

When you Optimize your plan it is looking for what will have the lowest wait / queue. Since Tam Tam will have only a couple of minutes of waiting, if that, it is telling you to do that first. This is one of those times when TP is 'wonky".

Ideally, when making a TP you’ll use Optimize as your first option / draft. This will give you an idea of the waits you can expect. In your second drafts & going forward arrange the steps manually and press Evaluate. You can shuffle them around to fit your needs - walking / wait times.

Since you are going to be done with your meal at about 9:15am - 9:30am, you should probably head to Pandora. If you get there too early, you have a 5 minute early arrival window for your FPP, you can check out Navi’s wait or enjoy the scenery.

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I don’t know if this is entirely true. We did Tusker House breakfast at 8:15 back in January and we met all characters, went to the buffet three times, used the restrooms, and were out by 9:05. Then again, our kids are 4 and 1 and prone to meltdowns so my husband and I are speed eating champions…

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Yes that was another point I was thinking about… doing Navi first would allow us to get all of Pandora done early so we don’t need to go back.

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@darkmite2 Thank you! This was very helpful. I didn’t realize we would be at Tusker House so long and I figured we would be finished by 9am. No I am wondering if we should do the 3pm reservation that I have instead (I made two because I wasn’t sure what we were going to do!). Getting to Navi at 915-930 would probably be too late to “walk on”.

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Without knowing the number of ppl in their group and how they are using the PPO (as away to get in early vs. a relaxed sit down meal) I can only give an estimate. I’m of the opinion of it’s better to tell someone how long a unhurried meal could take than the absolute minimum if they rush & if all the characters complete their rounds with no issues. :smiley:

You can be out whenever you are ready since it’s a buffet & if you don’t need to meet all the characters. I’m always of the mindset, it’s better to have more time in my plan than start getting behind - especially at the first step.

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@eeeevah we are usually fast as well with the kids. Although I do want to enjoy it and not feel rushed. that is why I was hesitant booking this time as I feared I would feel anxious about getting out for rope drop and not truly enjoy the breakfast. I also have a 3pm reservation and am considering using this one instead…
Where did you go after your breakfast?

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@darkmite2 that makes complete sense. I did book it because we wanted to do it in general but also for the benefit of beating crowds. We are a party of 10 (4 kids and 6 adults) and will definitely want to see all the characters. I am planning on Us showing up a bit early to hopefully get in right away but I will go into it with the expectation that we will not be done at 9. Unless our 3pm reservation would be a better idea? What are your thoughts?

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With this info, I’m going to stick to my original estimate of at least 60 minutes. :grinning:

Since you have a coveted 9:35am… FoP FPP - one of the hardest to get. I’d stick with the original plan. Go eat a good filling breakfast, see Mickey & friends and hop on the most popular ride all within the first hour of park opening.

If you want to publish your plan I’m more than happy to look it over. I’m sure you’ll get a lot of good input that way too.

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We didn’t do PPO but lunch at TH and it took a long time for the characters to come around. We were there 1h15 minutes. We were done eating just waiting for Daisy. I would be afraid you’d be rushing. If you want breakfast and aren’t on DDP, you can book around 10:30 and pay breakfast price but they will start bringing out lunch as well so you can get that.

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We did Safari, but it’s largely because my kids are too short to do FOP or EE! Our AK day was not what it would’ve been with older kids!!

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Are you staying until close? We jumped in line for Navi about 10 min before close last week. Disney had a posted wait of 30 min, but we only waited 10 min. It’s a quiet sort of ride, so we thought it made a nice end to the day.

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@ma.pa That is the plan! So doing it right before close would be a great idea as well!

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@darkmite2 I will publish soon thank you for the offer!
I have multiple Tusker House reservations for that day as I wasn’t sure what would work the best. I also have one for 10:50am. However I have a Kilaminjaro FPP for 10:35 that I really don’t want to give up and there are no alternative times when I try ti modify.
Is it possible to get the Safari done before a 10:50 reservation? This seems unlikely to me…

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With your group size of 10 I don’t think this is feasible. The ride itself is 20 minutes plus 5 - 7 minutes of queue time.

If anything, you’ll want to arrive a couple minutes early to your ADRs to ensure you are seated on time. Like any restaurant the table set up is to fit as many parties in as possible, so they’ll be pulling tables together to accommodate you. I still like your first plan of Tusker / FoP / KS…

I know this means you’ll be walking from one end of the park to the other, you won’t be rushing and you’ll have time to peek in a shop or pause to see a street performer.

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@darkmite2 Thank you. I didn’t think so but thought I would double check! I am just finishing up two options for touring plans and I will post both for you to have a look if you don’t mind :slight_smile: Should be done shortly! I have the flu today and kids are home from school due to a snow storm so things are slow going today! LOL

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@darkmite2 I have made two touring plans: The first one is with a 3:40pm reservation for Tusker House. We could change this around and rope drop Navi but in this touring plan I have us rope dropping Everest because I think we will want to ride it more than once. I figure we might get lucky to get a day of drop for Navi and if not we could ride it right before park closing. Also, perhaps we can get a day of FPP for Dinosaur. Animal Kingdom w/ Tusker at 3:40pm

In this second touring plan it has our Tusker house at 8am.
https://touringplans.com/plans/print?id=3983457

Thanks for the help!

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My initial thoughts –

Both plans are packed. This generic plan from TP is their “Ultimate Challenge” plan. That’s why they want to congratulate you for actually being able to complete it by putting them in the TP “Hall of Fame”. Both are going to be a very long / hard day for 10 people. You’ll be on a constant march.

Plan A

You are “late” to all your meal / snack breaks. You slotted lunch at 11:00am, but arrive at 11:40am. You arrive at your 3:40pm Tusker reservations at 3:55pm. You last snack break is a bit behind too

Starting at EE and walking to FoP is such a long walk! There’s no direct way to get there and may be cumbersome for a group of 10

Your Steps #6, #7, #8 –These steps require you bouncing around with excessive walking. I know Jungle trek is off by itself. Also, I don’t know where you are coming from and if you have BBQ at home, but Flame Tree is mediocre and IMHO not worth that trek. (I’m biased though as I come from Memphis, TN – and we have good BBQ everywhere.)

You’ve only given yourself 3 minutes to play at Fossil Games. Even one of these carnival games will take longer to play and you have to go to a kiosk to buy a game card – even more time.

My overall opinion of Plan A = A lot of extra walking and you need to figure out a way to get to your break / meal times “on time”.

Plan B

Can you move Navi to later? (final step) You still have an hour after your last step until closing. While it would be a bit of a walk, Pandora at night is beautiful. They are actually finishing up repainting the pathways with luminescent paint this week. Plus, this would probably save you 30+ minutes of queue time.

This plan has no free time at all. You really need to put a 10 minute break in your plan every 1.5 – 2 hours. I’ve had more than one person tell me, “I’m on vacation. I don’t need to schedule when I pee.”

These breaks are a buffer for unexpected Magic / toilet / gift shops / drinks / etc.…

It’s always IMHO better to have the break & not need it than get behind.

Fossil Games has the same issue in this plan

For EE, if not everyone wants to do a repeat ride(s) consider doing Single Rider. As a parent, too, I understand the hesitation to not sit next to your kids. However, neither my daughter / wife / myself have never had a problem with other guests. If it’s just a couple of you getting all you’ll all be put on the same train often is seats in front / back of each other. You can get on the ride in 5 minutes or even walk on using Single Rider.

Overall, I like Plan B better. You may need to decide if what may need to be cut to give yourself more free time, but I’d recommend cuts to both plans to make them more realistic.