My dh and the other guy who will be with us on our short March trip (2.5 days in the parks) are really looking forward to the Safari. On Sun March 16, AK is open from 8-8. So we want to be there for rope drop... coming from POR, we'll take the bus (no other choice, right?) and we'll want to be there by what time?? Then... from reading here the best plan would be get FP for Everest and then head straight to the Safari and hopefully get one of the first trips of the day? Is this the best plan for getting the most out of the Safari? Thanks.

nvmom

That should work fine, or you could do it in reverse. We were there last week. The park opened at 9:00, and we didn't get there until around 9:30 (despite our intentions to get there earlier). The Discovery Island area seems to slow down a lot of newcomers, so once we fought through the crowd it opened up a lot. We rode the safari first, with only about a 10 minute wait. When we got off, I left my wife with the boys (6 and 8) at the entrance to the Pagani Trail, and I went to get an Everest FastPass. Only problem was that Everest was MUCH farther away then I remembered. I got the FastPasses at around 10:30, and I think our return was 12-1:00. When we got there, we literally walked directly on the ride. At the end of the day (it closed at 5:00), we rode the safari again with no wait and a half-empty truck at 4:45.

The first time we were there we went to AK on an early entry day. (Everest wasn't open yet.) We got there around the time they opened and the wait for the safari was 10 minutes. As runner110 said, if you head straight to the safari, you should have little if any wait, as people tend to spend time at the front of the park before moving on to the major attractions. You would probably do best to hit the safari first since everest is pretty far from it and you would lose the advantage of riding with such a short wait. There is plenty to do after you get your everest fastpass, if your ride time turns out to be later in the morning.

General rule of thumb-I allowed an hour to get anywhere by bus. So, we were at the bus stop(CBR) at 8am for any 9am openings. Gave us time for getting maps, potty breaks, a bus that was full, etc.

AK plan-at opening. Hot footed over to EE for FP; rode EE w/o FF then headed over to KS-walked on. Saved our EE FP has our good-bye ride. We love it-and the queue-that much.

AK plan-at opening. Hot footed over to EE for FP; rode EE w/o FF then headed over to KS-walked on. Saved our EE FP has our good-bye ride. We love it-and the queue-that much.

I agree with this. Everyone should go through the queue at EE at least once, it is that amazingly detailed.

I agree with the advice for one of your party to go and get an EE fast pass then meet up with everyone else at the entrance for KS. A note about getting there for rope drop. To really make the best use of this first golden hour it does make a difference if you are at the turnstiles half an hour before opening. Getting to the park for 9am is notthe same as getting there at 8.30am...

So if we want to be there by 7:30 for an 8 a.m. opening coming from POR... the busses start running at 7 a.m. then? Is 30 min enough time to get from POR to AK? or anyone have any idea what a cab between the 2 might cost?

I know I'm going to have to be really focused in the morning to just move our little group straight back to the Safari and EE... since none of us have ever seen this park... and we're very excited! :) We have to remember we can go back and explore, wander and take in the sights - lol

nvmom

nvmom - you should be ok if you catch the bus at 7.

Pray for rain. The day we were the Safari family it was pouring. It was 9 am and every animal was out. :)

Another strategy is to have breakfast IN the park. That way you miss the congestion at the front gates. We did this at Donald's which is now closed but you could do the character breakfast at Tusker House. We did an 8am seating (first of the day) for a 9am park opening. Had plenty of time to visit with characters, have breakfast and have our own rope drop where the CM's walked us to EE. First EE train of the day!

If you do this, be sure to use the resort buses. They were holding private cars and taxi's at the parking lot gate. There was one enterance open that had a sign 'character breakfast'; then you're through the gate and you have the park to yourselves as you walk back-great photo op.

We tried to do the 'pre park opening' character breakfast, but when the park opens as early as it does when nvmom is visiting, they don't do pre-opening breakfasts. You don't even get to enter the park early to make it to the restaurant before your ADR time.

At least that's the way it was for us last April.

(At least now with the change you don't have to walk by Primeveal Whirl and try to convince dare-devil kids that they are NOT riding that right now! I think that was the only thing I didn't 'suggest' the whole trip, but there was no way I was letting them ride that right after eating! They did ride it later - and I had fun with the too-short one in the boneyard while they did standby.)

Just to confuse things, I have a slightly different morning routine at the Kingdom. I go straight up to KS, but instead of riding I get a FP. Then I hotfoot it over to Everest and ride, sometimes as many as 3 times with no more than a 10 minute wait. Then it's back to KS and bypassing the 30 minute line with my FP. It's a little bit of extra walking, but it really works well for me.

Pray for rain. The day we were the Safari family it was pouring. It was 9 am and every animal was out. :)Even the cheetahs?