Disney World 50th Anniversary Trip Report (Part 6 - Animal Kingdom Day)

Welcome to part 6 of our Disney World 50th Anniversary Trip Report. This post covers a visit to Animal Kingdom with Early Entry.

Related Posts

Breakfast at Coronado Springs

Saturday was Emily’s turn to start the morning at Animal Kingdom while I hung out with Zoe. Zoe and I had breakfast at Rix Sports Bar in Coronado Springs. With El Mercado having basic grab-and-go items, Rix is a slightly better option with things like omelets and French toast.

I actually spent less on this meal than at grab-and-go breakfast the other day because it’s just a lot of guesswork trying to put together a meal for Zoe out of grab-and-go items. Zoe and I split an omelet, oatmeal, fruit, and potatoes.

Early Entry Rope Drop at Animal Kingdom

Emily got to Animal Kingdom gates at 6:49AM for the 7:30AM start to Early Entry, having caught the bus at 6:35AM. Crowds were light when she arrived but a bit heavier by 7:09AM.

With waits the way they’ve been, you don’t need to arrive at Animal Kingdom early. You probably don’t even have to arrive at Animal Kingdom before like, 10AM. But things won’t stay this way forever and knowing your luck, it’ll be the week you’re there that crowds start to tick up (or everything will change once Lightning Lanes debut October 19 anyways).

That said, as long as Animal Kingdom is opening at 8AM, we think arriving at 7AM for the 7:30AM Early Entry is early enough.

Around 7:17AM they started letting guests into the park, and Emily walked directly onto Avatar Flight of Passage, finishing the ride and getting back into Pandora at 7:51AM.

That’s not a typo—getting to and through the ride took 34 minutes. When the open the gates before 7:30AM, that’s not a huge deal, but if gates were to open at 7:30AM guests wouldn’t even be done with the ride until the park has opened to other guests.

I’m not going to belabor all the implications of this because my hope is that Animal Kingdom and it’s early opening time remain relatively low stress. The big thing to note is that on peak days, you’d at best ride Flight of Passage and then plan to go directly to Kilimanjaro Safaris, which opens when other guests can enter the park (it isn’t part of Early Entry). If Flight of Passage has a long wait, you might need to just start with Na’vi River Journey instead.

On slower days, like today, you can do what Emily did which was squeeze in Na’vi River Journey after Flight of Passage. She walked on and got off the ride at 8:01AM, after the park had opened to other guests.

She beat any rush to Kilimanjaro Safaris, boarding at 8:09AM. I know—we used to lecture that Kilimanjaro Safaris is a long ride so you don’t necessarily want to ride it too early because other waits might go up while you’re on it.

That’s still sort of true, but the bigger issue is that it’s rumored Kilimanjaro Safaris will be a paid Lightning Lane ride [Update: It won’t be, it will be a part of Genie+]. This means people who don’t want to pay for the Lightning Lane will rush there early, and you want to be ahead of them.

With today’s short waits, Emily was able to walk right onto Expedition Everest at 8:39AM. DINOSUAR was temporarily closed, so we met up to continue the day.

Until we see otherwise, this strategy is exactly what we’d recommend. Arrive 30 minutes before Early Entry, start with Flight of Passage, maybe squeeze in Na’vi River Journey, then Kilimnajaro Safaris and Expedition Everest. From there, if Kali River Rapids is opening soon you can head there, or else to DINOSAUR. Here’s how Emily’s morning wound up:

  • 6:35AM - On Bus at Coronado Springs

  • 6:45AM - Arrive at Animal Kingdom

  • 7:17AM - Park gates open, walk to Avatar Flight of Passage

  • 7:30AM - Early Entry official start

  • 7:46AM - Avatar Flight of Passage

  • 7:51AM - Na’vi River Journey

  • 8AM - Park Open

  • 8:09AM - Kilimanjaro Safaris

  • 8:39AM - Expedition Everest

You really can’t beat this morning. It leaves DINOSAUR, Kali River Rapids, and TriceraTop Spin as the only rides for the rest of the day, leaving you plenty of time for shows, meals, and the rest the park has to offer.

Mid-Morning at Animal Kingdom

Morning safaris are good because the animals tend to be more active, so we met up and headed back to Kilimanjaro Safaris since it’s one of the few rides Zoe can go on at Animal Kingdom (you can find more about height requirements at Disney World here). We walked right on at 9:04AM.

Since we were already nearby, this was a good time to swing by Starbucks (Creature Comforts) and the Baby Care Center. The Baby Care Center is hidden a bit, but if you’re facing Starbucks it’s to the right of it. After a diaper change and with venti beverages in hand, we headed over to Dinoland USA where we got to enjoy something new for us—The Boneyard!

The Boneyard is essentially a giant dinosaur dig site-themed playground. Zoe had a blast, and we alternated supervising and riding DINOSAUR (walk on at 9:51 and 10:08 for the two of us).

After some time at Boneyard, Zoe was very disappointed to realize it was nap time. I waited in line for Flight of Passage (posted 35, actual 40), and Emily was able to catch Winged Encounters, one of her favorite Animal Kingdom shows, while carrying Zoe (she also grabbed a rider switch for Flight of Passage that we never used).

Zoe woke up just after I was off Flight of Passage, so we had lunch at Satuli canteen, our go-to quick service at Animal Kingdom. It was a tough meal for Zoe because the kids’ tofu is still pretty tough and Zoe can’t chew much yet.

Afternoon at Animal Kingdom

We gave Zoe some walking time, including along Gorilla Falls Exploration Trail, and then watched Kite Tails. This show had some exciting unplanned moments this particular day, which are detailed in this BlogMickey post.

I recommend catching KiteTails as you walk by—don’t arrive early for a seat, just plan to walk by the area, maybe on your way to Everest or just grabbing a snack or drink nearby, and keep your eyes open for the giant, cool kites. 

Since we were nearby, we watched Feathered Friends In Flight. This is a tough one, but I have to say it’s skippable. This show has been through so many variations, and it never feels like they find the right balance between the birds doing tricks and the human actors / story.

We messed this next bit up a bit. We were done with Feathered Friends at about 1:55PM and walked all the way to TriceraTop Spin, which we walked onto at 2:07PM. Then we decided to go to Rafiki’s Planet Watch, so we walked all the way to the back of Africa (with a few stops along the way), just missing the 2:15PM performance of Winged Encounters along the way.

Our visit to Rafiki’s (more on that in a second) took about 45 minutes round trip. We could have gone straight from Feathered Friends to Rafiki’s and maybe made it back in time to try the 3PM Lion King performance. You can’t bank on Rafiki’s going to quickly, but at the very least we could have saved ourselves the walking.

And once we were all the way at TriceraTop Spin, we should have remembered the 2:15PM showing of Winged Encounters relatively nearby, which Zoe probably would have liked.

In any case, we took the train to Rafiki’s Planet Watch, passing the “Rafiki’s Planet Watch” sign at 2:28PM, boarding the train at 2:30PM, and arriving at 2:35PM. We passed Animal Kingdom’s new baby rhino along the way, but I was too slow to get a photo.

We were only at Rafiki’s Planet Watch for Affection Section, the petting zoo. Most of the animals were in a shaded area behind ropes, but a few pigs were relaxing in the sun. Zoe worked up the confidence to pet one, but it was overall a pretty unmemorable visit. We boarded a train back to the rest of the park, getting back at 3:10PM.

After another visit to the Baby Care Center and a few minutes of running around for Zoe, it was time for another nap. We walked the Discovery Island Trails and Maharajah Jungle Trek, and took a quick walk through the stores. Expecting Zoe to sleep for about 10-15 more minutes, we got in the Na’vi River Journey queue at 4:27PM with a posted wait of 25 minutes. The ride was actually basically a walk-on, so we stepped to an unused portion of the queue and waited for Zoe to wake up, eventually riding around 4:45PM.

Dinner at Tusker House

We’d booked a 5:10PM reservation at Tusker House, so that was the next stop. Our first visit to Tusker was just before the pandemic, when it was a buffet. With Biergarten back to buffet we assumed Tusker would be as well, but they’ve stuck with family style. 

We made the classic vegetarian mistake of saying “plant based”, which resulted in us immediately getting only vegan options. This was totally correct on Disney’s and the CM’s parts since we didn’t specify we were vegetarian, not vegan. The main difference seemed to be that we got a plainer salad and bread than the traditional options. We were sure to clarify we wanted the not-plant-based dessert (I can’t speak to the quality of the plant based one, though).

The characters make two types of visits. Sometimes they just wander in, posing near each table. Other times there’s music and they sort of pop in, dance for a second, and leave. You’re supposed to remain seated when they’re in the room (not in a “no going to the bathroom!” sort of way, just in a “don’t get up and approach them” sort of way).

Animal Kingdom isn’t lacking in good dining options, especially considering the park doesn’t require a huge time commitment. Satuli and Flame Tree Barbecue are great options, and Restaurantosaurus is at least a replacement-level restaurant.

Tusker is a good option, particularly because of the characters and the fact that a full day at Animal Kingdom will usually leave you enough time for a table service meal.

This was the end of our day. One of the nice things about Animal Kingdom is that you can do it in a single, easy day nowadays. Your morning is going to start early, sure, but you’re probably done with the high stress parts of the day by about 10AM, and you can be back at your resort to relax by early evening.

Tomorrow is yet another morning at Magic Kingdom and yet another afternoon visit to Hollywood Studios!