Animal Kingdom has been given the "One Day Park" title by many, but here's why this was actually one of our better park days, and why this is now my favorite of the parks in Walt Disney World. Animal Kingdom was the very first park we visited during our stay, since we decided which park to go to each day based on the early magic hours available. We had a lot of expectations, as this would be the first Walt Disney World park any of us had stepped foot in for 20 years, and let me tell ya... Animal Kingdom literally set the bar for the remaining parks for the rest of the week. Rather than give you a play by play schedule of exactly when we did things, I just want to cover what my general experience in the park was. While we made fast pass reservations, we did not schedule out our park days, and there are literally hundreds of other bloggers who have that skill down to a science. Chunked up into three different categories, Rides & Attractions, Restaurants & Food, and Shows & Events, I'm going to touch on things we managed to fit in, what we really enjoyed, and what we could have done differently. Also just a disclaimer up-front, our entire group consisted of my mom, my sister, her boyfriend, and myself being the youngest at 25 years old. No Kiddos. *Disney has changed many policies due to the COVID situation, so I can't really comment on what to expect over the next few months, just assuming that they will get back to some level of normal eventually. Serena (Living By Disney) has always been my go-to for explaining legit Disney news so check out her recent posts and stories on Insta for better updates. Rides & AttractionsWe did our research, and since even on the first available day to reserve fast passes, Flight of Passage was not an available option, we knew we would be having an early morning to rope drop and march our butts right into Pandora. As this was our first ever rope drop experience we immediately got separated. Eventually we found each other again through the multi stage entrance process they had going on, until we efficiently narrowed our way down to a single file line. And while yes there was a line, the line was constantly moving, we literally "walked on" which made taking family photos with GORGEOUS backdrops of Pandora (along the FOP queue) very rushed, and probably annoyed the people who had to wait ten seconds longer behind us. Sorry people, we thought we would have to wait. The ride itself was easily in the top 5 for all of Disney World. Don't skip this one. Even though it's all essentially a simulation, you still get those stomach dropping moments and it's quite exciting. If the wait times are keeping you from checking this one out, I'd suggest rope dropping, or if you're not an early bird, head over there during or just after the River of Lights show, we had a 5 minute wait after the show and got to experience the ride twice in just one day (with no fast pass). After FOP we snaked our way over to Kilimanjaro Safaris, since my mom insisted that the animals would be out and about earlier in the morning, and we gotta hand it to her, they were all roaming around (and sometimes directly in the path of the vehicle). Even if its not a very active time of day for the animals this one was really relaxing, and you're in a covered vehicle. 10/10 would recommend as a chill-out activity, as its a long enough attraction, where you can sit and rest while enjoying the ride. We back-tracked a lot at Animal Kingdom, mostly because we didn't realize the distance between the attractions we had planned for the morning. This lead us right back to Pandora after the Safari ride to get in our Na'vi River Journey fast pass window. While this is a pretty quick ride in comparison to the Safari, it was indoors, and cool, which makes it a little paradise covered in neon plants and projected animals, and what not. To be honest though, the only real show stopper is the shaman animatronic at the VERY END. She's pretty sweet, not ganna lie, but unless you're absolutely dying of heat, I wouldn't wait over 30 minutes in line for this one. We had time to kill and there weren't any fast passes that we needed to run to, so eventually we meandered into Dinoland. I think the longest we waited in line for any ride, all day, may have been around 30-40 minutes for Dinosaur, which sounds kinda silly, and seems like an often overlooked ride, but it brought back the jerky jeep excitement similar to the Indiana Jones ride in Disneyland that I dearly loved. Also the queue was entirely indoors, which we are always appreciative of. Dinoland definitely is more geared towards younger kiddos, and didn't have much else to offer us, but I do wish we would have given Primeval Whirl a go. It reminded me of the old carnival rides that showed up at the fair. It could have had some nostalgic rickety fun. Coming out of Dinoland leads you towards the Asia area if you swing around the Rivers of Light stadium. Over here was our last fast pass of the day with Expedition Everest, and once we got there, we realized a fast pass wasn't needed at all. No one was there! I was super hyped for a real roller coaster, as the Cedar Point junky in me was coming out, living for every click clack as we climbed the mountain. I recorded our first run on my GoPro and didn't get to wave my hands all around sooooo of course we had to go again! Expedition Everest was a great ride and as the only real coaster in the land, it 100% satisfied my thrill needs for the afternoon. We did not pack extra clothes, otherwise we would have loved to hop on the Kali River Rapids, and get soaked to the bone. Water raft rides are always a surprise and never go the same way, though they do require a bit of pre-planning when you're packing your park bag. Thats about it for the rides, and while there really aren't that many rides in Animal Kingdom, the rides they do have are well thought, entertaining, and vary greatly in style and ride system. I do want to include the Restaurants & FoodAs we rope dropped Flight of Passage, I traded the Rum Blossom for the non-alcoholic Night Blossom and a Pongu Lumpia for breakfast. Both of which were honestly too sweet for breakfast, but I loved the boba in the Night Blossom, and it would be a great cool down treat. Once our tummies started grumbling again, we made our way over to Flame Tree and split a BBQ mac. While the mac itself was pretty standard, the pulled pork, slaw, and onion rings piled on top was a great combo that served up enough food for two to share for lunch. Mobile ordering here was available and we bypasses a HUGE line by using this Disney Parks app feature. As the day (and heat) was wearing us down, we found ourselves between fast passes and dining reservations. I knew I wanted to check out Nomad Lounge since its been recommended as a great relaxing spot, but we had covered just about the entire park and I hadn’t noticed it yet. Finally plugging it into the map, we realized we had walked passed it five times already. Centrally located just before Pandora, Nomad Lounge was just what we needed. The drinks were reasonably priced (for Disney) and tasted amazing, and it was just a quiet area to cool down and refresh for the rest of the evening. They have an outside covered patio overlooking the water as well if the indoor lounge seating area is full or if you just want to be outside. We made Advanced Dining Reservations for Yak & Yeti, and good thing we did. They were packed, even with a reservation we were waiting for a while for a table to open up. The menu was full of sharable items, which are great for a crowd that wants to try as much as we can. Dim sum, lettuce wraps, and firecracker shrimp were ordered to share around the table. I was thrilled that there wasn't a single bland tasting item on our table. It was a good amount of food and it wasn’t heavy. We left full, but didn’t leave in a food coma. Lastly we rushed back over to Pandora after Rivers of Light to hit up Satu’li Canteen for those pods and the mousse. The Cheeseburger Pods were much larger than I had expected and looked pretty unique, but tasted just like a cheeseburger would. Creative looking, but I wouldn't say that they're worth all the hype. Maybe the different varieties of them would be better, but I would pass on the cheeseburger one. The blueberry mousse had layers that I enjoyed, and layers that were just okay. I loved the passion fruit curd, but the blueberry texture below was a but gritty and just wasn’t for me. Again, beautiful presentation, but lackluster in taste. There isn't much I would have done differently as far as food goes in Animal Kingdom, as I was overall pretty satisfied with the meals and snacks we did order. I do wish I would have tried a few more drinks at Nomad Lounge, but I wasn't trying to ride Everest buzzed. Perhaps if we were hungrier this day, we would have tried more of the snack offerings the park had, or fit in a smaller meal from Harambe Market, which we missed out on. Shows & EventsAnimal Kingdom had a fair amount of full shows, as well a good variety of smaller events and character "walk-through" interactions. As I've mentioned before in other posts, I'm not a very big show enjoyer, but the as was everything in Animal Kingdom, they all had a very unique artistic presentation. There was your little dance party with the characters that the kiddos flocked to, but I really enjoyed the smaller events like Kevin wandering around squawking at visitors, and the pandora mech suit guy. A while after our trip was over I saw CMs walking around with intricate and gorgeous puppet animal, that I was absolutely mesmerized by. We noticed quite a few smaller performances going on throughout the park as well, and these all invited you to participate and be a part of the show. My mom’s favorite was the drumming over in Pandora. I swear she turned into a giddy little kid when the CMs asked for volunteers to play along. Even though I sat back and kept my lack of rhythmic skill to myself, getting to see my mom having the time of her life was well worth it. The only stage performance we made it to, was the Finding Nemo show between Dinoland, and the Rivers of Light seating area. This is honestly the typical stage type show that I was expecting through out the park, since these were the performance styles I remember from 20 years ago. And while they may be enticing to a younger crowd, our number one reason for walking into this show was the blasting air conditioning. Crush's puppet was kinda cool to watch though, so there was that. The Festival of The Lion King wasn’t the traditional broadway style musical that we found in Finding Nemo. No this was an art piece with an almost “Circue-Du-Soleil” like rendition of the main themes in the movie. Something great about the way its set up too, is that unlike the large shows throughout the Disney parks, there really wasn’t a bad seat in this theater. No one was pushing and shoving to get a better spot. 100% would recommend this to anyone, of any age, and any group size. The colors, set design, acrobatics, the voices and music were down right fabulous. You just have to see it. Warning though, we had a fast pass for this and the line and wait was still brutal in the heat. Bring water bottles with you for the wait for sure. It's not a single file line situation either, so just be prepared to squish in. Animal Kingdom's night show was vastly different from the other parks. We didn't have fast pass seating, and our dinner ran a bit late, so we didn't get the best of seats. Sure, you couldn’t always make out the projections, but everything gliding around the water was mesmerizing, and trance-like. Rivers of Light was a pleasant and extremely calming surprise, that a "bad seat" didn't ruin. I guess a perk of this show that's worth mentioning, is that this actually is a seated show, so we did get a break from standing and walking around all day. Animal Kingdom OverallAnd I can tell you 100% after my first visit to Walt Disney World since I was 6 years old, Animal Kingdom is officially my favorite of the four parks for three reasons. Number one, it's the most beautiful and detailed park out of all of them hands down. Even though there are differently themed areas, unlike other parks, Animal Kingdom blends the transitions between them so carefully, which results in this spectacular overall cohesive theme. Number two is that the variety of attractions, shops, shows, events, and food was refreshing. I got to try new things everywhere we went, and there was something interesting to take from each place. I never got bored of it. Which brings me to number three, I was completely satisfied with my day in this park. I didn't leave after running out of time to do the things I wanted to do, and I never felt rushed to fit anything in. We had time to search out neat spots and really pick out the park's details. When people say Animal Kingdom is a "one day park" they always have this negative connotation to it, but I felt great that we saw the majority of this park in the limited time we had. I don't know, it was a very satisfying feeling, and in no way did I feel that it was underwhelming. |