Hello Disney Peeps!
My kids want to do Wilderness Explorers. But it looks like a three hour event. This is going to impact the rest of my plans for the day, and we may not be able to be able to fit everything else in.
What are peoples opinions of Wilderness Explorers?
Is it worth it?
Does it really consume three hours of your time?
Thank you!
It does take a lot of time. The CMs are great working with kids and adults. You can do as little or much as you want but kids may want to complete it and that is a big time taker. Animal kingdom is heavy on thrill rides. If you have kids in your family that aren’t doing thrill rides, it is a good edition.
As long as your kids are ok not completing it, its great to pick up and do along the trails.
YES! It is so fun for them, and gives you a small break here and there too! Just do it as you go, as time and your touring permits. Do not feel pressure to do it all in one trip - it took my son three times there to get it all done. He loved it and so did we 
(the person who posted doing it all in 2.5 hrs had to have done nothing else and had to have run from thing to thing)
My DD4.5 really enjoyed doing the wilderness explorer stuff as we moved around the park. We really didn’t aim to ‘complete’ it as a separate thing with allocated time. We simply did them as we were exploring the park and doing other things. It almost became something akin to the pin trading where she would actively look for the right people to run up to.
We haven’t done it. But I was wondering about it too. There are some videos on youtube about it. Hope that helps!
Yes, it takes time to stop at each station but you only have to stop when you want to. For some I gave the kids a chance, and for some I said, we need to keep going and skip this one for now. And they were fine with that. I like that it gives them a chance to think more about what they are seeing. And I LOVE the tie-in with Up and Russell!
It is fantastic - don´t miss it!
You can do it all day long on the side.
You´ll pass the stations anyway.
We did not complete the handbook, but got several batches.
Great free souvenir btw.
What’s a good age for kids to take part?
I would say age 3 or 4 they can participate. My son just finished his in April and he’s 9. I think he started working on it when he was 5 or 6
Some of the things were a little over the head of DD4.5 but I agree with @OBNurseNH with the 3-4 age to start… I would almost say that 6ish would be the best age to take in the information they provide though
… BUT …
That being said. the cast members really did a great job of tailoring the experience for her so that she got to take something away from it and understood what they were trying to teach. The hands on stuff was awesome and she still comes up with ‘do you remember when…’ stuff about some of the explorer stations.
We did it casually as we went through the park when our boys were 7&10. They enjoyed the experience even though we did no fully complete it. The CM’s did a great job.
They are now 9&12 and they both really enjoyed sorcerers of the magic kingdom this year.
My daughter was 2.5 and the CMs were great involving her but we only did a few when she seemed interested.
It does take a lot of time but we enjoyed it. You can pick up the books at any of the stations and I don’t think it starts until 10am so if you RD you wouldn’t be able to start it right away. Just go with your plan and as you reach a station let the kids do it. They might not get them all but they will enjoy it more then trying to get it all completed in one visit.
