Where to begin? For those of you that may not already know, Disney’s Animal Kingdom is one of the many fun-filled adventure parks apart of Disney World located in Orlando, Florida. This spring break my family and I all took a week-long trip and explored the various parks in the area. In this post, I’m going to share my personal experience at the park, and talk about all the tips & tricks I have for you to make the best of your OWN trip!
OUR DAY AT DISNEY’S ANIMAL KINGDOM
The first thing to know about the Disney parks is that for every ticket purchased, you are automatically given three (3) fast passes to the rides of your choosing. (TIP: Book your fast passes as early as you can to guarantee you get to ride the most important rides to you!) If you book your fast passes back-to-back, you also have the option to get a 4th fastpass at no additional cost. Unfortunately, our fast passes were not back-to-back so we only had 2 for that day.
Our journey through Animal Kingdom started out at “Finding Nemo: The Musical”. Truthfully, I didn’t know what to expect. I thought it would be fun for the kids but maybe not something I would enjoy as much…but I was completely wrong! It was such a great show with amazing performers – I was blown away thinking of all the hard work and talent that was put into the making of that kind of show. Not to mention Charlie and Keatyn had a blast; they were singing and dancing along the whole time!
For the next 2 hours until our lunch reservation, we walked around exploring all Animal Kingdom had to offer – including picking up some popcorn and Mickey Mouse-shaped ice cream bars along the way. During this time we checked out the most original and iconic part of the park, “The Tree of Life”. Inside the tree is the “It’s Tough to be a Bug” 4D experience. Our personal experience with that did not go so well. Unfortunately, Keatyn was terrified the whole time and had a panic attack. Charlie wasn’t as bad with it as Keatyn, but she definitely didn’t enjoy it either. Ultimately, I do not recommend that ride for your smaller kids as it may be too intense.
Next, we spent some time walking around “Africa” and “Asia”, spotting plenty of famous Disney characters such as the cast of Disney Pixar’s “Up”, and joining a giant dance party. Located right next to the dance party was a quaint little bar called “Yak & Yeti Quality Beverages”, where we picked up some delicious margaritas. Across the street behind the dance area at a small concession cart, was the only place in Animal Kingdom where you could get “spiked dole whip” aka soft-serve ice cream with rum. It was delicious.
We then headed to our lunch reservation at “Tiffins”, which is one of the highest-rated restaurants in all of Walt Disney World. Some of their popular dishes include that of Wagyu beef, lamb, and duck. Everything including the service was phenomenal. There are plenty of other fantastic restaurants to try such as Tusker House, Flame Tree Barbecue, and the Harambe Market. Not to mention there is a Rainforest Cafe located inside the park as well.
Right down from Tiffins you’ll find the newest and most anticipated part of the park, “Pandora: The World of Avatar”. Pandora is based off of the planet and home of the Na’vi from the box office hit, “Avatar”. (TIP: If you want to ride the NA’VI RIVER JOURNEY or FLIGHT OF PASSAGE, you’re definitely going to want to have a fastpass for those unless you want to wait 2-4+ hours in line.) Unfortunately, we did not have a fastpass for either of the rides in Pandora, as they sold out before we got the chance. Pandora was truly stunning nonetheless. Between the floating rocks, the music, the glowing paths, and so much more straight from the movie, just walking through it was an experience in itself.
Our next stop was the “Maharajah Jungle Trek” and our final fastpass of the day, “Kilimanjaro Safaris”. Within these two adventures, we got to see a huge variety of animals including lions, elephants, tigers, gorillas (which actually terrified me more than any other animal), giraffes, and SO many more! It was like we were genuinely inside of “The Lion King”. Out of every ride in Animal Kingdom, excluding Pandora, the safari is the one I would recommend the most for a fastpass. It is a MUST if you are visiting!
By this point in the day, we had done so much yet so little. There is SO much to do that it’s nearly impossible to do everything there in one day. So the safari was our last stop. Out of all our Disney park days, Animal Kingdom was our shortest. It was so much fun though. I definitely could’ve gone a whole other day and done every other thing I didn’t get to do or see the first time. Overall, we had a fantastic time and I definitely want to go back again!
DISNEY’S ANIMAL KINGDOM – DO’S AND DON’TS / IMPORTANT INFO TO KNOW
- DO make sure to have plenty of water and sunscreen. An important thing to know is that yes, the parks DO let you bring in your own waters, snacks, etc.
- DO get your fastpasses as early as possible. If you have specific rides that you want to do more than the others, I suggest putting that as a top priority.
- DO expect to spend some money. Even if you’re just buying a bottle of water, that alone will cost you almost $4….it’s definitely not cheap.
- DO expect to wait in line for AT LEAST 15-20+ minutes per ride. This does vary depending on the popularity of the ride given the “It’s Tough to be a Bug” only had about a 15 minute wait and two of the rides inside Pandora had a 3-4 HOUR wait.
- DON’T rush your day. If you are wanting to do every ride, I suggest taking two days to explore the whole thing. If you try to do it all in one day, you’ll be completely exhausted. Plus, it’s probably almost impossible to do everything in one day due to the wait times.
- They DO have single and double strollers available for rent if needed. We brought our own for Charlie but they do have them at the park worst case. You cannot take the actual strollers on most rides but they do have designated stroller areas to leave it.
- Note that we did have our visit during spring break so it was definitely very busy but how busy it is will depend on what time of the year and week you go, as well as what time. Regardless, it’ll always be fairly busy at any Disney park so if you’re not into big crowds or long lines, you might want to avoid it altogether.
It is always possible that at any moment a ride will be temporarily closed down for repairs so make sure to check any info about ride shutdowns before your visit! (The Kali River Rapids was temporarily closed during our visit.)
DISNEY’S ANIMAL KINGDOM – BEST SPOTS FOR PHOTO-OPS
- The Tree of Life
- Pandora: The World of Avatar Floating Rocks
- “The Moss Wall” in Pandora
- Fichwa Fellow Wall in Africa next to Harambe Market
- You Are Most Beautiful Wall located in Harambe Market
- Multiple other great spots in Harambe Market for cool pics!
- Dinoland USA (most underrated area of the park btw)
- There are also plenty of stops along the way at popular scenery where park photographers will take pictures for you – but for a cost of course.
All in all, I hope this helps some of you out when planning for your own trip! It can be stressful but worth the magical memories you’ll make with your loved ones! Thank you for checking this out, I appreciate all of you so much! Much love. xo