We’re back with another look at Animal Kingdom’s wait time scorecard. This week, waits were up and Flight of Passage reclaimed the top spot at the park…but how does that impact our strategy? Read on…
ABOUT THIS POST
If you’re new to the wait time scorecards, check out our post explaining our Disney World Wait Time Scorecards. That post explains the different numbers you’ll see here including why they’re imperfect. Our wait time scorecards are based on the last week of data from Thrill-Data.com.
Here are the most recent looks at wait times across the four parks:
Animal Kingdom Wait Times (Week End August 2) (you are here)
For more on the reopening of Walt Disney World, check out our Walt Disney World Reopening Masterpost.
This post works in tandem with our Animal Kingdom Rope Drop Strategy post, which covers things like when (and how) to arrive at the park, and what to expect when you get there. If you’re new to Disney World, you might also want to check out our Guide to the Rides and Entertainment of Animal Kingdom, which includes brief descriptions of the rides.
Note: I shifted the week to Monday through Sunday for this scorecard because I want to post the most recent weekend data quickly from now on.
Bottom Line + Random Walks
We’re not changing our recommended strategy this week, but we do note that we don’t think it minimizes wait times anymore (read on for why we still recommend it). That recommendation is to start with Na’vi River Journey, then Flight of Passage, then Kilimanjaro Safaris.
We think the best strategy for minimizing wait times is to start with Flight of Passage, then Na’vi River Journey, then Kilimanjaro Safaris.
I tested these strategies using an overly simple python program that visits the rides in different orders and waits whatever the posted wait time is when it “arrives” at each ride. (I owe people a much more in-depth explanation of this program, but for now you’ll just have to take it at my short explanation.)
I set this program to do all the rides in a random order, and then to ride the first three in each of the above two orders (with the remaining rides in random orders). For 10,000 simulations for each group, run on Saturday’s wait times (busiest day of the week) here’s what I found:
Source Data: Thrill-Data.com
You can see that the recommended order isn’t too much better than picking a random ride order, but it is slight better than a random strategy. Saturday was particularly tough for our recommended strategy, because you caught 20 minute waits for both Flight of Passage and Kilimanjaro Safaris.
The wait minimizing order did a good job, and its maximum wait time was actually better than the average you’d have had visiting rides in a random order.
Animal Kingdom Wait Time Scorecard Part 1
Here’s part one of the scorecard:
Source Data: Thrill-Data.com
Waits were up across the board, with Flight of Passage surging back to the highest average wait for the week. This average comes with a pattern that peaks mid-morning and very late in the day.
Actually, 5:45PM to 6PM had the highest average wait for the week at Flight of Passage—just over 29 minutes. I think this is an interesting case of how low wait times impact guest behavior and thus skew the patterns.
Specifically, Flight of Passage is an amazing ride, and if you’re about to leave the park at 5PM and see a wait under an hour, why wouldn’t you wait again for it?
This is all speculation, but I wonder how much Flight of Passage waits are driven up by people riding it multiple times. This is definitely going to happen to every ride at Animal Kingdom with these low waits, but Flight of Passage is probably the most impacted.
Here’s a comparison of the trends from 8AM to 6PM at Na’vi River Journey and Flight of Passage:
Source Data: Thrill-Data.com
As with previous weeks, Na’vi sits at 5 minutes for a bit before jumping, presumably as more and more guests get off Flight of Passage and head there second.
At some point, mornings at Flight of Passage will become busy enough that we’ll recommend heading there first. And if you did head there first, your morning would probably go a little quicker.
But we still lean toward visiting Flight of Passage second, after Na’vi River Journey. “Best” case, it goes quickly. “Worst case” you spend a few minutes in the queue, which is remarkable and worth a few minutes.
This also allows you to arrive just as the park is opening, while getting to the front of the Flight of Passage queue to start the day requires you to arrive 15 to 30 minutes early.
If you want to ride Flight of Passage twice, don’t wait until the very end of the day. Afternoon minimums occur between 1PM and 2PM. I’d probably eat lunch at Satuli Canteen and then hop in the Flight of Passage line afterward.
So, where to go third? You can see that Expedition Everest overtook Kilimanjaro Safaris in terms of wait times this week. This was driven by Kilimanjaro Safaris peaking early and then dropping off, while Everest built a slow, increasing wait throughout the day.
Let’s look at Part 2 of the scorecard to help us with this decision.
Animal Kingdom Wait Time Scorecard Part 2
Here’s part two:
Source Data: Thrill-Data.com
If you knew nothing about these rides, you’d say Everest is clearly the priority. And if you were only trying to minimize wait times, you’d go to Everest third and visit Kilimanjaro Safaris in the afternoon—but don’t do that!
The reason Kilimanjaro Safaris wait drops so much in the afternoon is because it’s an outdoor ride featuring animals. Heat makes it less pleasant to be outdoors and makes the animals less active.
Even in its busiest days, a strategy that started with Pandora and went to Kilimanjaro Safaris third worked pretty well. Might you wind up waiting a bit for Kilimanjaro Safaris? Sure. But you’re (hopefully—no guarantees) getting a better ride experience. With wait times where they are at Animal Kingdom these days, a morning Kilimanjaro Safari ride is worth an above-average wait.
This leaves you with Kali River Rapids, Expedition Everest, and DINOSAUR. Coming from Kilimanjaro Safaris, that order makes the most geographic sense, and there’s little reason to depart from that. Here’s an extra table, looking at the percentage of the afternoons that the rides spent at or under certain wait times:
You could defer Kali River Rapids into the afternoon since it’s a water ride. Even in peak heat, the ride spent 53% of the afternoon with waits at or under 10 minutes. You can see back in Part 1 that waits peak at 12:30, 2:30, and 4:25, so try to avoid those times.
The later you push Everest into the day, the higher a wait you’re facing. But the maximum wait for the week was 45 minutes, and the afternoon median was around 20 minutes. DINOSAUR spent a strong majority of the week (79%) at or under 5 minute waits. The scorecard doesn’t cover TriceraTop Spin, which also spends most of the week at or under 5 minutes.
Conclusions
If you want to minimize wait times at Animal Kingdom, you’re probably doing something like:
Arrive 30 minutes early
Flight of Passage
Na’vi River Journey
Expedition Everest
Kali River Rapids
DINOSAUR
TriceraTop Spin
Kilimanjaro Safaris
But you’re talking about a few minutes of savings, and there are some unappealing things about this itinerary, too. First, you don’t get any time in Flight of Passage’s very cool queue.
Second, you ride Kilimanjaro Safaris in the peak heat of the day, when animals are at their laziest and the ride is least pleasant. Third, you’re waking up and arriving early, rather than at park open.
To be clear—this is still a great day, and if you want to visit the Flight of Passage queue, you’d have plenty of time to ride it again. And if I knew nothing about wait times, arriving early and starting with Flight of Passage is definitely the safer move.
But I don’t like to bank on re-rides. I don’t like to delay a great ride like Kilimanjaro Safaris too late into the day, particularly when the ride is best earlier in the day. So while it might not minimize waits, I still like a strategy like:
Arrive at park open
Na’vi River Journey
Flight of Passage
Kilimanjaro Safaris
Kali River Rapids (consider pushing into afternoon)
Expedition Everest
DINOSAUR
TriceraTop Spin
I’m keeping my eyes on this, because someone will be the first guest to follow this order and get hit by cascading huge waits on Flight of Passage, Kilimanjaro Safaris, and Expedition Everest. But for right now, there isn’t much risk involved.