I’m sketching out my plan for a January trip and am hitting a few issues. First up: scheduling WAT. My FIL has always wanted to do an African safari so I was thinking of splurging on WAT for the group. General wisdom is that you want to do it early if it involves animals but general wisdom also says that it’s best to take advantage of early entry and low crowds during the morning. Can’t do both! Any advice on how to schedule WAT? First thing and use Genie+ to stack for the afternoon? (and just for fun I’ll add that general wisdom also states that Genie+ isn’t necessary for AK so clearly general wisdom is not helpful sometimes) Plan WAT for after 10 so we do some attractions before the tour? Close out the day with WAT? Not sure if January means it’ll be so cold the animals will be huddled somewhere regardless of the time.
We did exactly this in June. I think our WAT tour was 10 something? We arrived for early entry. Rope dropped FOP and Navi. Did EE twice immediatley after had some breakfast then did WAT. We had a great experience and dont think the later time affected us. It was pretty rainy when we went however so sometimes the animals like the rain. They feed hippos snacks to bring them in closer for us and the will drive and stop whenever needed to get best possible view of the animals. We did have Genie+ and just grabbed a few after we were done the tour. Stacking wasnt really needed. The afternoon times didnt show until after we were done the tour and you cant bring your phones on the tour anyways so you cant check for genie + times. Which is good because you should enjoy the tour 
Heads over to the Acronym thread. Scrolls. Returns to this thread…
WAT → Wild Africa Trek
I don’t think a later time is bad in the colder months, like January.
It’s more critical in the hot months since the animals will be less active in the heat
Great tour by the way - one of the best things I’ve ever done on vacation anywhere!
I agree - and might actually be better. We went in February, and no hippos were out because it was too cold - they said the hippos weren’t coming out until later in the afternoon when it was chilly.
I also agree it’s one of the best things I’ve done at WDW. Amazing experience and worth the time and splurge.
Reading up on it, the things people on this forum had to say about it is a big reason I’m thinking of doing it.
Good to know. We’ve never been during that time of year so I’m not sure what exactly to expect.
It’s probably for the best- for the money you want to be immersed in the experience- but if I were to buy Genie+ for the day it’ll drive me nuts missing the 2-hour window. I might be obsessive that way!
Actually you can bring your phone if it can be tethered to your person
That said, they take a bajillion fabulous pics for you that you get to download as part of the fee so you don’t actually need to take pics if you don’t want to!
I honestly didnt think of my phone much really and when we were done there were still plenty of genie + selections for the taking so no harm done. And yes as @OBNurseNH mentioned you are allowed to have your phone or camera as long as you have the ability to securely strap it to yourself or the vest. I should have been more clear on that. You have to provide said strap though so keep that in mind. They wont have anything for you to use. We stored our in our lockers.
Oh this is new. They provided a strap to us.
I did it twice and they provided the strap both times, so must be new. I think the only picture I got that they didn’t was the view down from the rope bridge. That was a fun shot!
Aww that’s a great idea!
I need to re-do the trek just for that 
Maybe they didnt have any at the time?..didnt think to ask them just assumed they didnt supply them normally. They gave us straps for our sunglasses and the water bottle but asked us to leave our phones in the locker if we didnt have something to attach it to our vest.
Good intel for those going more recently! Thanks for that!
I guess if you are sure you want to bring your phone with you then have something of your own just in case? Someone on our group did have a camera with a neck strap and they said that was fine to take 
guess nothing is guarateed these days. It was also pouring on and off when we went so probably wouldn’t have brought it with me even if I could have lol
They did supply us with Ponchos though…which if we werent using also had to fit in a little pocket on your vest. That was no easy task…but i did make it fit. I was happy to have it when the water poured off the truck down my back 