One in first grade, but she is very energetic and walked around Disneyland when she went without strollers.
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Congrats on the trip and the times of the year are perfect- not crowded for sure. My only suggestion might be to only spend a half day at AK - there really isn’t enough to do unless you want to see all of the shows and take the treks to see all of the animals. If you were staying at the Port Orleans resort, you could take a nice boat ride over to Disney Springs for a nice dinner/shopping/dessert in the evening.
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Does that mean it will only take around half a day to ride each ride once?
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If your kids (or any of the adults) don’t want to do any of the atmosphere/walk-through experiences, then yes you can tick off all the rides in a half day. For me, Animal Kingdom without doing at least some of these things, is a shell of the full experience. If you ask my husband, he’d happily trade it for more time literally any other park, Disney springs and probably even swimming at the pool.
Besides rides AK has:
- Maharajah Trek (beautiful trail with many animal exhibits to pass through by, including tigers)
- Gorilla Trail (another trail themed to the area with animal exhibits including hippos, gorillas and an aviary with birds)
- Discovery Island Trails (pathways around the Tree of Life with more animals including flamingos, lemurs, otters and birds)
- Oasis Exhibits (pathways with animals again at the very front of the park including babirusas, anteaters and more birds)
- Rafiki’s Planet Watch technically to ride all the rides you do take a train up to this and there is a petting zoo area and inside the building- The Conservation Station you may get to see up close a veterinary procedure or other things that are going on to support care for the animals (the app explains there’s also a Nutrition Center to see how they prepare meals for the park resident animals or Science Center where you can see what their scientists are currently working on). Also in this building is the Animation Experience where you learn to draw a character from a Disney Animator.
There’s also several great shows including
- Festival of the Lion King re-telling the story of the Lion King with the beautiful music, some animatronics on floats, audience participiation and some fun acobatic performances.
- Finding Nemo the Big Blue and Beyond which is a condensed stage show musical adaptation of Finding Nemo with puppetry.
- Feather Friends in Flight which from what I hear a moving show that features some of the many bird species in the park.
- And there are times when they have some of the birds take flight around the tree of life at a show called Winged Encounters.
So there’s many opportunities to do more than the rides.
Oh, and I almost forgot, the play area Pandora and all throughout the park there are also Wilderness Explorer stations where kids can stop and complete an activity and earn a badge (you can pick up a book at the Wilderness Explorer stand at the front of the park) and when they’ve earned all their badges return to the stand and be made a Sr. Wilderness Explorer.
It’s a fun park with so much if you love a good immersive atmosphere and are at all interested in conservation and animals and their stewardship.
And like I said, for me, I love it and could spend 3 of 8 days in WDW just at AK. For my husband, he’s good once we’ve done a few rides and eaten some snacks and then is ready to move on.
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If you get there at rope drop and ride Flights of Passage right away & Navi right after, that should hopefully be no more than hour & a half for both - head right over to the Safari & that should be 30 mins or less. Kali River could be more than 30 if a very hot day, but honestly, imo, a very overrated ride, and do you want to possibly get soaked?. Then Dinosaur which is usually 20 mins. Then you can do a show (Lion King is best) and be out of there at lunch time.
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I agree you can easily spend a day at AK if you do all that you have mentioned, but those treks and trails are something I can experience at the local zoo. Again, depends on what you prioritize or need to see & do.
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Honestly it would take less than that. They do have shows, the animals and the Rafikis Planet Watch. But you could get AK “done” in around 5 or 6 hours, with watching the shows and seeing some animals, especially with LLs.
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Really? Some of us would highly disagree with this. I only ride two rides at AK, and I like to go at least two days to get everything in…
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I could personally spend all day there. But I can see how people that don’t want to observe all the things could get bored. Some kids will not appreciate all the AK has to offer and some will soak it all in. My kids love animals but won’t spend 20 mins looking at the gorillas. They want to pass by the animals with a quick stop and move on. We have an excellent zoo here. So it’s kinda a similar experience for them.
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You said it much better than me. I still haven’t been able to do either of the bird things or watch Nemo. And an hour or two at Nomad is chef’s kiss.
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Was asked about rides. I don’t need treks and trails at Disney when I can see the same thing at a zoo. It depends on you, this is my opinion, I park hop and every trip I go, I only spend a 1/2 day at AK. So much more at the other parks unless animals are your thing.
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My local zoo has much more impressive big cats area with a lot more variety and even a miniature safari set up along a beautiful range with gorgous views of the mountains in the back on one side and views of the valley below. So I understand where you’re coming from. And the zoo even has a Feathered Friends equivalent. And Polar Bears and otters and sea lions and a whole beautiful reptile house. So for seeing animals, I get it, the zoo has more (which is why we ultimately breeze through a lot of the trails, especially on account of DH who feels very much the same).
My zoo does not have Wilderness Explorers though. Nor does it have Festival of the Lion King or any show that warms my heart or gets “In the BIG BLUE wooooooooorld!” stuck in my head like Finding Nemo does. And my zoo also doesn’t have anything like the Conservation Station (without booking an exclusive experience or having a connection). So I do like to make time (when I can) for all of those things. And of course, when Boneyard was there, I think it was a minimum requirement for me to spend 45 minutes in there, negotiating after 30 min with kids on when we would move on to the next thing.
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These days we either skip AK or do what you do, but for a first time visitor to WDW I typically would recommend a full day to experience the park (as long as they had at least 4 full park days available).
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I have yet to get that time at Nomad’s. But one day! Maybe there’s snacks in there that would help DH appreciate AK a lot more (he really is ready to go after about a half day, so I’m usually balancing his feelings there too). But I have done one of the birds (Winged Encounter) and I LOVE watching Nemo, so I do highly recommend them!
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I still haven’t caught the kingdom takes flight
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I think this is the very best way to say it! If you have 4 full park days available, definitely use one for AK to know if it’s a park you love to take in the atmosphere & details or if you’re a ride it in a half day & move on.
And, one thing we did on our very first trip was when AK closed at 5 or 6pm we left pretty much as it closed and went straight to Disney Springs and got to see and enjoy it for dinner and wander the Lego Store, World of Disney and did at least a 1hr side quest of fitting as many accessories as humanly possible into a build your own Mr. Potato Head box (two of them, one as a souvenir for our nephew and one for our kids).
Our first trip we did 8 days so we had a 2nd AK full day and that day we also left right when it closed but it was day 6 of 8, so it was a very lovely rest evening. We ate dinner at the hotel food court right off the bus from AK, I did laundry, took the kids for some night swimming and we all tucked in much earlier than we had been all week.
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Your husband & I would get along very well! 
I do like AK, but I can RD it and be done around lunch depending on how many shows I want to see!
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So you’re saying you’ll come be his park buddy in all the other places out of AK while I enjoy my peace at AK not having to hurry along on anyone’s account?
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Deal!
The question is, “Can he keep up with me??” 
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He used to weave our double stroller through RD crowds at speeds I had to slow jog to keep up with.
But just in case, we’ll plan it early in the trip when he hasn’t done 20K+ steps/day for 4-5 days straight and might need more breathers.
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