Solo Trip to Disney's Animal Kingdom for One Day!!!

Lewandowski

Mouseketeer
Joined
Jan 11, 2016
Hey All,
So to introduce myself, I am currently an 18 year old guy that is a college student. This was my third trip to Walt Disney World, and my first solo trip. I have one younger sister and have done two Disney trips with family in the past. I gotta say that it is a little different experience going alone especially at my age.

Of course I wanted to do a whole Disney Vacation again, but unfortunately one day is all I could afford as a college student. Well in the future after I have a job, I'll be taking longer Disney Vacations!!!

I was already in Orlando, FL staying with some friends for a week, and decided to go to the most magical place on earth for a day. My last visit was August 2016. I chose to go to Animal Kingdom because of the New Avatarland, Rivers of Light, and DINOSAUR was closed for renovations last time I was there. Of Course I did this to have fun, but I also have a really tiny business (hoping it will grow in time) that I hold to plan Disney Vacations for others when it comes to how to tackle parks etc, and make money for that, so I really had to test out a few strategies with all the new attractions at Animal Kingdom.

I'll be posting the trip report next post!!!
 
Disney's Animal Kingdom Trip Report:

OK now to the real Trip Report. So to start off I was there just 2 weeks ago (January 16th 2017). The park was open 9:00am-8:00pm. Of Course I did not want to go on an extra magic hour day because it usually draws more crowds and I was staying offsite anyway so it wouldn't make any sense.


Fastpass+ and ADR's Prior: Since this was kind of a sudden trip, I was really worried about Fastpasses and what I would be able to get, because I booked only 16 days in advance. Actually when I was reserving Fastpasses, I just had a one day ticket and I thought I would check every day in the week before I decide what day to actually go. Now this was the best thing ever: I SNATCHED the LAST FP+ for Flight of Passage on Tuesday January 16th. It was all booked for the rest of the week. I considered myself very lucky that there was even one last FP+ availible for that ride because I cannot imagine how hard it is to get one, let alone only 2 weeks out. I also decided to do FP+ for Everest in the later afternoon and a nighttime Safari.

For ADR's I really wanted to revisit Yak & Yeti because I liked it so much, however unfortunately there was no dinner time availible that day. I was really surprised actually because Y&Y usually is not a very hard ADR to get and I know many people that have got it the day of before. There were many availible times most other days of the week but for some odd reason it was all booked up that day. Because of this I decided to try Tusker House instead and reserved a 7:50pm ADR. I heard Tusker House was pretty good to and I LOVE buffets. I also was fascinated by the menu of African flavors and Character Meal was a plus because I never did one with Mickey & Friends before. I also thought this will help me with my future vacation planning business so I decided to reserve a TH dinner.


Getting to the Park:

I was staying with some friends that live about 38 miles away from WDW so I travelled there by LYFT Taxi. It was pretty efficient. I left around 8:00am that morning and the driver was on time. However there was a huge backup at the parking toll for Animal Kingdom so it delayed and I missed rope drop, but it did not turn out to be too big of a deal though.


At the Park:

As soon as I arrived at the Animal Kingdom gates, it was around 9:10am. By the time I entered the park after finishing with security and tickets it was around 9:20am. I quickly picked up a map and sprinted as fast as I could to Pandora Avatarland. I wanted to hit Flight of Passage before the lines got too long. However unfortunately when I got to Avatarland, Flight of Passage was already a 4 hour wait, and since I already had a Fastpass+, I decided to just ride once (That made me so happy to have snatched the last Fastpass, because I really did not want to wait more than 2 hours for that ride). Since that was the case, I went straight to Navi River Journey which was a 60 min wait (not too bad for a new ride). I gotta say the Navi River Journey is a great ride and I am happy I did it, however I do not think it is worth the wait after you have done it once already. I have seen the wait sometimes up to around 90 min for most of the day and I definitely would not wait that long for it. I believe as time goes on, the lines will shrink and not be as long. I think Navi just has long liens right now because it is a new ride and everyone is riding for the first time. Don't get me wrong I enjoyed it, but won't wait forever to get on it.

My Fastpass for Flight of Passage was at 10:20am, so I spent the next 15 min just walking around the Land of Pandora. I honestly have to say it is BEAUTIFUL. I LOVE the trees and river surrounding it. It has become my new favorite area in all of Animal Kingdom. After exploring, I went to use my Fastpass for Flight of Passage (The ride I have been waiting to ride since it opened up). OMG Flight of Passage is an amazing ride, arguably the second best ride in all of WDW if you ask me. It has some similarities to Soarin, but it is quite a few steps up (just like how we would say Big Thunder Mountain is fun, but Everest is a quite a few steps up from BTMR). I LOVED the Flight of Passage so much. Let me say this: it is like Soarin, Star Tours, and It's Tough to Be a Bug combined all together in one. I really wanted to ride again but the wait was still 4 hours. I decided though to just keep an eye on the Touring Plans app for wait times and for any FP+ in case I get really lucky and an FP opens up. I said to myself that if the line gets down to 2 hours or less, I'll ride it standby.

After I was done with Pandora, it was almost 11:00 am so I headed next to the Wildlife Express Train to go to Rafiki's Planet Watch. I did tour the Conservation Station a little but did not spend much time there. There really isn't much there. There was a listening station that I did which was sort of fun, but otherwise its mostly just a view of people treating animals, a movie, and meeting Rafiki. There is also a petting zoo right outside of the building. Now I didn't go to the petting zoo, but I stopped to take a few pictures because my younger sister likes that place, so I thought I would just take a few pictures to send to her. I then just took the train back to Africa. I was starting to get hungry at that point (especially because I didn't have breakfast), so I went to Flame Tree BBQ to grab some lunch. The line was a little long but it wasn't too bad. I got the combo with ribs, chicken, and pork. I gotta say that I really like the food there a lot. It is my favorite CS location in AK and one of my favorites in all of WDW. Quality is pretty good and one of the healthier options.

After lunch it was around 12:40pm so I decided to go to Africa to catch the 1:00pm Festival of the Lion King Show. This was my second time seeing this show so I knew what it was like, but it really is a great show. The Music is really nice to hear, and one of my favorite parts of the show is the huge animals that come out in the 4 corners of the theater. This time I also had a seat in the very front row at the bottom of the theater so I saw the show way closer up this time. However I did really miss my family when seeing this show. It was one of my mom's favorites, and my sister loved it too.

So after FOTLK, I was checking for Fastpasses hoping Flight of Passage would magically show up, but of course there wasn't any availible. I asked a cast member just in case if he had any extra Fastpasses and told him I wanted one for FoP. He laughed so hard and basically said: "HAHAHA, that one is almost impossible to get the day of." He did recommend though that I try getting in line like 5 min prior to park closing though because the line moves a lot faster due to no FP+ for that time. I felt it was a good idea but unfortunately my Tusker House ADR was at 7:50pm. In the meantime I went to Dinoland to get in line for DINOSAUR. Line was posted a 55 min wait, however I actually only waited 25 min. While I was in line I was looking on my phone at options to change my ADR for TH to an earlier time. Thank Goodness I was so happy to find an ADR open for 7:05pm, so I changed it to that time. Still pushing it, but I thought that would at least give me a slight chance that I could be done before 8pm if I eat fast. The only problem them though was it would interfere with my FP+ for Nighttime Safari because my window opened at 6:55pm. I looked to change that as well and thankfully found an FP+ for 4:20pm in the daylight, so I changed it to that. Anyway I was really impressed with the new DINOSAUR ride after renovations. Some creepy parts to it, but it is a really fun ride with medium thrill and great loud scary noises as well. I was so happy to have ridden it because I missed it due to renovations last vacation.

After DINOSAUR, I had an FP+ for Everest that was around 3:20pm but it was only like 2:40pm so I rode Primeval Whirl. I love the sudden turns on PW, but I feel the ride is a little too short. I waited about 20 min for it which is probably a fair wait time for the ride. I was starting to get a little tired by the time I finished PW. Before Everest, I decided to go to Anandapur Ice Cream Truck and grab some ice cream. It still was not quite time for my Fastpass yet, but I did plan to ride Everest multiple times anyway, so I got in the single rider line first. The Single Rider line was consistently around a 15 min wait which was great. I gotta say Everest was the ride I really missed my sister on. I LOVE the ride but when my sister was with me last vacation, I always used to ask her really loudly: "Oh No the track is broken, what do we do?" and then after that: "OMG the Yeti is breaking our tracks, what are we going to do now?" Its just fun screaming out those words to your friends. Anyway I rode Everest a total of 4 times. Single Rider Line 3 times, and one time with Fastpass. After 4 great rides on Everest, it was time to ride Kilimanjaro Safaris with FP+. I must say that I have only ever been to WDW in the summer before, and this time of year, you can see much more animals and they are more active as well. I really liked seeing the Giraffes and Flamingoes especially. I think the weather is just way more suitable for the Animals. Usually in the summer, you have to ride first thing in the morning in order to see as many animals as possible, and while that was easy in the past, it is not so much now with the new Pandora Land. At this time of year though, you really can ride anytime and get a great view of many animals.

When I was done with the Safari, it was just about 5:00pm. My plan was to see It's Tough to Be a Bug and then go to the 6:30pm Rivers of Light Show. On the way there though, I stopped at the Fastpass Kiosk JUST IN CASE any time for Flight of Passage opened up. Just as expected no times availible, however I did find an FP time for Its Tough to Be a Bug like 5 min later, so I thought I'd reserve that since I used all my 3 FP's and I was going to go standby anyway, so I thought using FP might be quicker. So I went to see It's Tough to Be a Bug show. Now that is another show where I really missed my whole family because it was our family favorite show in all of WDW. My Dad and Sister even got pretty scared to death during parts of the show last vacation. Anyway I was very happy to see it again, and I'll admit: a few parts of the show scare me a little as well. It was 5:50pm when I got out of the show, so I was debating whether to get in line for Rivers of Light or ride one more thing before. I went to check the wait time for DINOSAUR and it was posted 25 min. The cast member told me it was actually only a 10 min wait and told me that I should still get a good seat for Rivers of Light if I rode DINOSAUR, so I decided to ride it again. I indeed only waited like 9 min for it, and was happy to do it a second time.

After DINOSAUR, it was almost 6:15pm so I ran streight to standby line for Rivers of Light. Line was moving pretty efficiently and I got a good seat for the show. I was really impressed and have to say that Rivers of Light is probably the best nighttime show at WDW although Fantasmic is not far behind. I like how the lights reflect from the river. The Nighttime show is really cool. Show finished at 6:50pm and I sprinted to Tusker House. My ADR was not until 7:05pm but I wanted to get in as early as possible so I could hit Flight of Passage again before park closing. I got seated around 7pm. The TH waitress told me that the whole experience is around 75 min in order to see all the characters. It worried me a bit because if it took that long I wouldn't make it to FoP so I decided to just head out at 7:50pm whether I have seen all the characters or not. Indeed the experience was great and went efficiently. I did get to see all 4 characters: Mickey, Donald, Daisy, and Goofy well before 7:50pm and I was happy I did. I also really enjoyed the food there. Wasn't as good as Yak & Yeti, but I LOVED the fact that it was a buffet because I could never leave hungry and I was already starving by that time. My favorite was the chicken curry and salmon. Pita bread was also good too.

When I was done eating it was 7:50pm so I paid the check fast, stopped at the bathroom quickly, and then sprinted back to Pandora. I really wanted to catch Flight of Passage before park closing. Thank Goodness I got in line at exactly 7:57pm (3 min before park closing). The wait was posted 3 hours, and I was still not sure if I wanted to wait that long. It was also worrying for me what time I would get back to my friends' house because they sometimes sleep early. While I was waiting I was talking to a few others in line and one person told me to go to the FP+ line and ask the cast members if they might be able to let me in fast. He told me that sometimes with single riders at night time they do let people pass through. I waited 10 more min, and then decided to do that. So I switched to the FP+ line and then asked the cast members if they could let me through and told them I was a single rider. There were 2 people with Fastpasses in front of me. They basically said "well why not, and just let me through." I was really so happy they did that because I was really worried about getting back home at a reasonable time. It was so great to get a second ride on Flight of Passage. I even enjoyed it more the second time!!! Once again Flight of Passage is an amazing ride and is arguably currently one of the top 2 rides in all of Disney World if you ask me!

After Flight of Passage it was almost 9pm so I slowly walked out of the park and stopped at the Oasis Exhibits on the way just to get a few pictures!


Getting back Home:

Now as soon as I exited the park, I just remembered that my smart phone is really old and it couldn't download the Uber or Lyft app so I was afraid I would have to end up taking a taxi. However when I entered the taxi drop off area there were already Uber taxis there waiting for people to order them, so I asked if I could just pay cash. Thank Goodness they said yes, so I just got in and paid by cash. It was about a 50 min drive, so I arrived home around 10pm! OMG that was a long day, but I really enjoyed my day at Animal Kingdom!!!


Now I know exactly how to tackle the park with the new Pandora Land of Avatar!!!!
 
I also must point out that I was bummed to find out Flights of Wonder was closed permanently. I really liked that show in the past and was hoping to see it. I was also very bummed that Kali River Rapids was closed. Kali is one of my favorite rides in the park, but I'll admit, it was a little cold for it, although I would have ridden it regardless.

I also missed out of Finding Nemo Show, however I did not plan to do that one. I didn't really care for it the last time, so I decided I would skip it unless I had loads of time.
 
Great one day Trip Report. You have a good positive outlook. Best of Luck to you on your studies.
 


I also must point out that I was bummed to find out Flights of Wonder was closed permanently. I really liked that show in the past and was hoping to see it. I was also very bummed that Kali River Rapids was closed. Kali is one of my favorite rides in the park, but I'll admit, it was a little cold for it, although I would have ridden it regardless.

I also missed out of Finding Nemo Show, however I did not plan to do that one. I didn't really care for it the last time, so I decided I would skip it unless I had loads of time.
I miss Flights of wonder as well - saw the new show this summer - not 1/2 as good and it even seemed shorter.
 

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