It’s been a while since I went to an Extra Magic Hour at Animal Kingdom. For the most part, that was just coincidence/timing, but it’s also because that extra hour usually made the park pretty easy. This most recent trip being over a holiday (MLK Jr. Day), I decided this would be a good chance to give it a go. Here’s how my day at Animal Kingdom went!
ABOUT THIS TRIP REPORT
This trip report covers a mid-January 2020 visit to Walt Disney World. All of our trip reports are designed to give updates on how our strategies are working at the parks, as well as to provide some information that doesn’t necessarily fit into our other posts. Here are the other posts from (or related to) this trip report:
Jan 2020 Disney World Trip Report - Hollywood Studios Visits
Jan 2020 Disney World Trip Report - Animal Kingdom EMH + Full Day (You Are Here)
Much of our trips are posted live on our instagram stories (and many days are then saved as highlights), but obviously the blog format allows us to provide more context and links to relevant content.
Animal Kingdom Content
For more about Animal Kingdom, you can check out the Animal Kingdom tag or the following core posts:
Extra Magic Hour at Animal Kingdom
In case you’re unfamiliar, Extra Magic Hours are a perk of staying at a Disney hotel (and select partner hotels). Each day, one of the four parks has an extra hour (or more) at the beginning or end of the day exclusively for these guests.
I’m generally a fan of the morning hour because the earlier the park opens, the fewer people will be there at open. That first hour will usually have fewer guests than a normal first hour at a park because its exclusive to Disney hotel guests.
After the first hour, it’s more complex. One line of thought, popularized by WDW Prep School, is that the increase in Disney hotel guests makes the park with the Extra Magic Hour unattractive the rest of the day. I don’t necessarily disagree with that, but if you’re using the extra hour properly then these extra crowds later on shouldn’t matter much.
Anyways, Extra Magic Hour crowds are tough to predict. Holiday crowds are tough to predict. Combine the two and it can be a real head scratcher.
I decided to aim to be at the park a whopping 90 minutes early for the 8AM EMH. I knew that was aggressive, but I’d rather try to be aggressive and “fail” by being too early than show up late and fail.
Well. I was too early. I stood outside starting at 6AM, and the bus didn’t show up until 6:51AM. This suggests its first pickup was probably around 6:30AM. I say “first” pickup because the All Stars often share buses, and I almost really got into trouble with that today.
While I’d been at the bus stop since 6AM, it was about 40 degrees out, so I was keeping warm by walking around. Somehow, it never occurred to me that if the first bus showed up full, I needed to be first in line. When the first bus showed up nearly full at All Star Movies, I was fortunate a family in front of me didn’t want to try to fit and fortunate to myself be a solo traveler.
Had I not gotten on this bus, it’s possible an Uber / Lyft / Minnie Van would have gotten me to the park even faster than the bus (depending on Minnie Van hours).
I’m obviously a bit behind the times at Animal Kingdom, at least for EMH, because even my 7:06AM arrival at the gates had me in a pretty good position. Live and learn (or, in your case, let me live and learn and tell you so that you don’t have to stand waiting for the bus for 51 minutes).
Rope Drop
I was really surprised when they started letting guests in at 7:30AM and we were taken all the way to Flight of Passage (where most of us were going). While early openings were common practice for Animal Kingdom from the opening of Pandora until the end of 2019, it seemed like they had stopped using them by the end of 2019.
Well, today they did an early open on top of an Extra Magic Hour. Tough to say what to expect from this park in the mornings. The flip side is that if you play it a little loose and arrive 45 minutes early to ride Flight of Passage, then most days you still won’t feel rushed fitting the park into your day.
Anyways, with a long, but mostly steady walk to Flight of Passage, I was back in Pandora at 8:10AM. I didn’t have a FastPass+ for Na’vi River Journey, so I got in line at 8:12AM when the posted wait was 30 minutes, and I boarded at 8:26AM.
This left me time for one, maybe two more attractions during Extra Magic Hour. I also wasn’t holding a FastPass+ for Kilimanjaro Safaris, so that was the natural next move.
The thing about Kilimanjaro Safaris is it’s a long ride—like 20 minutes. This means that if it’s part of your rope drop strategy, it’s going to usually be the end of it. By the time you get off that ride, the shortest waits of the day for other rides are going to be gone.
As it happens, I was sitting on FastPass+ reservations for DINOSAUR and Expedition Everest, which meant Kilimanjaro Safaris was easily my best option at the moment. I got in line at 8:39AM, boarded at 8:43AM, and exited at 9:11AM. The safari was fantastic.
The Rest of the Day
Kali River Rapids is under refurbishment, and Primeval Whirl is seasonal/not operating, so from there, the day mostly becomes about the entertainment. In particular, you want to balance the stage show schedules with the streetmosphere schedules. Fill the gaps with the nature trails.
Here’s what this day looked like after Kilimanjaro Safaris:
9:15AM Tam Tam Drummers
9:30AM Kora Tinga Tinga
10AM Festival of the Lion King
11AM It’s Tough To Be A Bug (FastPass+)
11:15AM Lunch at Restaurantosaurus
11:45AM Viva Gaia
12PM Gorilla Falls Exploration Trail
1PM Finding Nemo The Musical
2PM DINOSAUR (FastPass+)
2:20PM Maharajah Jungle Trek
2:50PM Snack at Tamu Tamu Refreshments
3PM Bollywood Beats dancers
3:30PM Up! A Great Bird Adventure (I actually skipped this to take some pictures around the park)
4PM Harambe Village Acrobats
After the acrobats, I went and got an up close look at the Tree of Life via the semi-hidden trails that can get you quite close to it. From there I went to Nomad Lounge, one of my favorite bars at Animal Kingdom.
I was booked for the Rivers of Light Dessert Party beginning at 5:30PM, and I reviewed that separately (<—click that link). After Rivers of Light, I used my FastPass+ for Expedition Everest at about 7PM and then rode it again via single rider at 7:24PM.
This left me just enough time to ride TriceraTop Spin (twice) at 7:37PM. I headed over to the Tree of Life and tried to wait for a good “Tree of Life Awakenings” show, but after about 15 minutes I had to leave because I was super exhausted.
Conclusions
Even when Flight of Passage was the place to be in the morning, Animal Kingdom wasn’t particularly challenging. With Rise of the Resistance taking some pressure off Flight of Passage, EMH at Animal Kingdom is a great opportunity to start a leisurely day at our favorite Disney park…well, as leisurely as a day at Disney World can be, at least.
All Your Other Disney World Planning Questions Answered
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Know what to ride with our guides to: Magic Kingdom rides, Hollywood Studios rides, Epcot rides, and Animal Kingdom rides! Plus learn about the water parks with our guide to Blizzard Beach and our guide to Typhoon Lagoon! And for some some fun prep, check out our Ranking of Every Ride at Walt Disney World.
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