Jambo from Animal Kingdom! Our last park day at Walt Disney World

For our final park day of our Walt Disney World trip, we went to Animal Kingdom! Aptly named, Animal Kingdom is full of different animal exhibits, conservation education efforts, and so many things to encourage guests to be more mindful about the planet and its creatures.

While there are fewer amusement park rides here, there are some pretty cool animal-focused attractions that I would definitely not want to miss out on like the Kilimanjaro Safaris and the animal exhibit trails!

Schedule

Time	Activity	Location
6:10AM	Waited at bus stop	Art of Animation
6:20AM - 6:40AM	Bus ride to Animal Kingdom
7:10AM	Scanned into Animal Kingdom	Animal Kingdom
7:20AM	Started walking to Avatar Flight of Passage (early entry)	Pandora - The World of Avatar
7:40AM	Avatar Flight of Passage (10 min wait)	Pandora - The World Avatar
8:30AM	Breakfast at Kusafiri Coffee Shop & Bakery	Africa
9:30AM	Kilimanjaro Safaris	Africa
11:00AM	Gorilla Falls Exploration Trail	Africa
11:30AM	Lunch at Yak & Yeti Local Foods Cafe	Asia
12:30PM	it's tough to be a bug	Tree of Life
12:50PM	Dole whip at Tamu Tamu Refreshments	Africa
1:00PM	Festival of the Lion King	Africa
2:00PM	Expedition Everest (10 min wait) - single rider	Asia
3:00PM	Maharajah Jungle Trek	Asia
3:30PM	Finding Nemo: The Big Blue...and Beyond!	DinoLand U.S.A
4:00PM	DINOUSAUR (20 min wait)	DinoLand U.S.A
4:30PM	Coffee at Dino Bites	DinoLand U.S.A
5:00PM	Dinner at Flame Tree Barbecue	Discovery Island
5:30PM	Photos at the Tree of Life	Tree of Life
6:45PM	Na'vi River Journey (20 min wait)	Pandora - The World of Avatar
7:30PM	Tree of Life lighting	Tree of Life
8:00PM	Bus ride back to Art of Animation

Operating hours

Animal Kingdom is one of the parks that opens earlier in the day, and it’s the park that closes the earliest. So yes, you do have to wake up earlier, but you also go home earlier too!

Rope drop

At Animal Kingdom, we rope dropped Avatar Flight of Passage. There aren’t that many rides at Animal Kingdom , and certainly not that many thrill-type rides (I think the only other one is Expedition Everest?), so the rope drop crowd is pretty concentrated at Animal Kingdom. That could be why the experience of rope dropping Avatar Flight of Passage was the worst out of all of them.

Getting to the rope and waiting there for early entry to start were typical as with the other parks we visited, nothing too wild about that. Since we were really early, we were right at the front up against the rope. However, once early entry started and the cast members were walking us to the ride, it just felt like everyone was really pushing and shoving their way to the front of the pack, even using their strollers when they had them to roll over people’s feet to get ahead of them. You could also hear families and groups strategizing out loud how they were trying to get past these people or how they were going to use their stroller as their shield and all that, and it just felt very unnecessarily stressful?

To make matters worse, the route the cast members use to walk guests to the ride to form a queue involves snaking back and forth and “creating” switchbacks but without actual stanchions or anything to block people from just cutting all the switchbacks altogether. Literally, there’s crowds of people following close behind the cast member and after the cast member has left the “switchback” area some people just coming into the area will just cut right past it and giggle that they got to cut the line. Then, of course, the people who were cut get upset and start throwing passive aggressive comments at the cutters about how they could think that’s fair and all that, meanwhile the cutters are just ignoring them and smiling like they did something so smart.

Even with all that, we did still only end up waiting about 10 minutes from the time we entered to the queue to get to the pre-show, so the wait wasn’t that long. But the vibes were just really off, and people were acting pretty atrociously. Makes me wonder if it’s worth rope dropping or just coming by later in the day when the line is set up because at this point the wait time does go under an hour during the day.

Rides

Avatar Flight of Passage

To be honest, I’m not a huge fan of the Avatar franchise. I don’t dislike it per se, but I’m not a huge fan and don’t really care for it. That being said, the Flight of Passage ride is really cool! I really liked the ride mechanism and the way the made the banshee “breathe” while you ride is so incredible! The views and the way they blow wind at you like you’re actually flying through the air is just so cool and breathtaking!

You do have to wear 3D glasses on this ride, so if you have glasses already, particularly ones with larger frames, you might struggle a little with them. I did feel the need to keep adjusting them to keep them on properly.

All in all, this is a really cool ride!

Like I said about rope drop though, the experience of rope dropping this ride can be pretty miserable. Since the wait times could go down during the day, if you don’t mind waiting for around an hour or so, I might just come to this ride a little later and avoid the rope drop mess.

Na’vi River Journey

This is a slow dark boat ride through a rainforest type environment in Pandora. The ride is really beautiful inside with a lot of bioluminescent type of scenery and effects. The animatronics are very cool and look great!

It’s very cool if you appreciate the technology and creativity that goes into creating the world inside the ride, but I would say it’s not a super exciting ride, and if you have to wait a long time it might be a little disappointing.

Expedition Everest

I believe this is the only roller coaster in Animal Kingdom, and it’s lots of fun! I like that they have a single rider option here so that you can reduce your wait time if you don’t mind splitting up with your group. We went the single rider route and it saved us a decent amount of time!

I really like the coaster track on this ride and how it splits and goes back and forth and all these different things. It makes the ride a lot more fun and exciting!

DINOSAUR

This ride is soo fun!! If you’ve ridden Indiana Jones at Disneyland, the ride is basically the same, but with a different storyline. The story is lots of fun and the ride decor is really cool!

I didn’t actually watch Dinosaur as a kid so I don’t have a lot of nostalgia tied to it, but even then I thought it was so much fun and had a great time with it. The photo pass moment here to is really incredible - they really like to take pictures at times that make for the funniest moments afterwards!

Sadly this is one of the rides being taken down in favor of newer rides and expansions in 2026, so it won’t be here for much longer.

Attractions

Kilimanjaro Safaris

The safari ride is a MUST DO when visiting Animal Kingdom! Riding through the reserve area is really cool, and the cast member is so knowledgeable and engaging! They’re kind of like a Jungle Cruise skipper but with fewer puns.

The animals you’ll see on the safari varies based on lots of different factors like the time of day you visit and the heat, among other things, so it’s kind of based on luck whether or not you’ll see a lot of animals. We went around mid-morning and the weather was not too warm yet, so we were quite lucky to see lots of animals out and about!

I believe when the day gets hotter, you’re less likely to easily see animals since they’re usually hiding in the shade, so I would try to avoid the peak afternoon hours.

Gorilla Falls Exploration Trail

There are two walking trails in the park where you can see different animal exhibits. The Gorilla Falls Exploration Trail is located in the Africa area. On this trail you can see different types of monkeys, birds, meerkats, and, of course, gorillas!

It was really cute seeing the gorillas laying down in the shade!

Maharajah Jungle Trek

The Maharajah Jungle Trek is located in the Asia area and has even more animals to visit! The main attraction animal on this trail is the tiger, particularly Baby Bakso!

I didn’t know Animal Kingdom even had a new tiger cub, but they did and I’m so glad we got to see him! He was out and about playing with a giant Kong toy and it was so cute and funny to see him play just like a regular house cat! Also his paws are huge!!

Shows

Festival of the Lion King

This is an incredible show! I didn’t know what to expect with this show since we also have a Lion King show at Disneyland, and that one is a lot more like a mini Lion King musical. But this one is cool and different - there are different floats that come through, and there’s a bunch of acrobatics going on, and there’s Lion King character mascots who come out as well! This singing and the performances are really incredible!

It’s also a bit interactive at a crowd level, which adds a bit of fun too!

It’s tough to be a bug

It’s tough to be a bug is another attraction at Animal Kingdom that is being replaced with something new, so sadly this show is already closed! We were lucky enough to visit shortly before it closed down, so we got to see it one more time!

I always forget how fun this show is, but I love to be reminded with the crowd’s excitement and laughter. All of the different effects make it so much fun. Also the spider scene was actually kind of intense?? But all the screeches and laughter really made the experience!

I’m really going to miss this show!

Finding Nemo: The Big Blue…and Beyond!

If you ever wondered what Finding Nemo would be like as a musical, this is exactly that! The actors in this musical have little fish mascots to represent the characters and swim around the stage - it’s quite cute and the performers are great!

This show feels a lot more catered toward children with the performers acting a bit over the top comedically. It’s fun and corny, but a little less captivating for adults perhaps. I’ll admit, I did take a little snooze during this one.

But it’s still a fun and cute time, and it’s nice to enjoy the chill atmosphere in some nice air conditioning.

Tree of Life lighting

This show happens after sunset, but I guess since sunset time varies, the showtime itself also varies. If you want to catch it, you’ll likely want to be in the area near the Tree of Life around sunset or shortly after.

They do run the show a couple times before the park closes, so I believe if you miss the first one, you can at least catch a second run.

We didn’t end up getting to see the whole thing since we weren’t sure what time it was starting and still wanted to get some rides in before the park closed, but we did catch some of it toward the end. It’s a pretty mellow show, and the music and audio for it are a little less immersive than other shows. Also because the tree is quite far away, the projections on the tree are not the easiest to see if you don’t have great eyesight (me).

Of course, because there are so many animals in the park and around it, it makes sense that the show itself should not be too disruptive to their habitats and schedules. But it’s still a nice touch and nice way to end the night!

Food

Breakfast Totchos

📍 Kusafiri Coffee Shop & Bakery
💵 $10.99

These totchos were a pretty solid breakfast option. The portion size is a little small for the price, but the flavor is pretty good! The tater tots (or potato barrels) were golden and crispy and the outside but had a nice fluffy texture on the inside. The nacho cheese added a lot of the savoriness to it and the scrambled eggs were good as well. I’m pretty neutral on cheese curds so I could have done without them, but they were fine in the dish as well.

Coconut Iced Coffee

📍 Kusafiri Coffee Shop & Bakery
💵 $6.50

This drink is available both as an alcoholic and non-alcoholic drink. I opted for the non-alcoholic option.

I found this coffee to be enjoyable at first, but the coconut flavor leans more on the synthetic dried-coconut type flavor, so after drinking it for a while, I got a little tired of it. I didn’t totally love it, but I did enjoy it for the most part!

Firecracker Shrimp

📍 Yak & Yeti Local Food Cafes
💵 $17.99

This was a pretty delicious bowl! The firecracker shrimp had a nice bite and texture to it and was flavored quite well. The rice and vegetables were fine - they didn’t add too much to the flavor, but the shrimp offered enough flavor for the whole dish.

Dole Whip

📍 Tamu Tamu Restaurant
💵 $5.49

The dole whips don’t seem to hit the spot the same way the ones from Disneyland do. They’re actually a lot more whipped here and less like a soft serve / icy type of frozen treat. The pineapple flavor is also not as refreshing since it feels a lot more like eating an icy whipped cream? I wasn’t a huge fan of this dole whip, and it didn’t taste the way I had hoped it would.

Cold Brew Float

📍 Dino-Bite Snacks
💵 $6.50

The cold brew float sounded better than it tasted. The base of the cold brew float was the Joffrey’s Shakin’ Jamaican cold brew, and I already realized I wasn’t a huge fan of the flavoring of that coffee. For whatever reason, it just doesn’t sit very well with me, so mixed with the ice cream, the flavor of the coffee was still the most prominent and it made me feel a tad queasy afterwards.

Impossible Burnt Ends

📍 Flame Tree Barbecue
💵 $12.29

These were quite good! I wouldn’t say that this necessarily tastes “like meat” to me, but it was still a tasty dish! The texture is a bit more like a meat loaf, so it was kind of more like eating cubed meat loaf with some charred flavor. I do like Impossible products, so I did enjoy this one.

The dish also came with fries which were nice and crispy as well.

Highlights

The animals

The animals are truly what make Animal Kingdom special (of course!). The safari was really cool, and I’m really happy we got to see so many animals - your miles really will vary depending on the weather, time of day, all kinds of things, but we got really lucky!

I’ve found that doing the safari earlier in the morning and maybe later in the evening will probably have the best luck since it’s most temperate during those times so the animals aren’t too hot hiding in the shade.

The animals on the different trails and surrounding the Tree of Life were also really cool to see. Baby bakso was especially cute!

Festival of the Lion King

This is such a fun and beautiful show! It’s cute and interactive, but also very cool to see the different acrobatics and floats. The dancers and performers were all amazing! I thought it was going to be like the Lion King show that played at Disneyland, but it’s completely different and I’m so glad I got experience this one!

It’s tough to be a bug

I’m so sad that this show has gone away ;__; But I’m glad we got to see it before it closed down for good!

Other Notables

Flight of passage rope drop was probably the worst experience of the park rope drops

I don’t know what it is about the people who were rope dropping Flight of Passage but it was probably the most hostile experience we had all trip. People were shoving and cutting and being passive aggressive towards each other for shoving and cutting.

Part of it didn’t help that the queue getting onto the ride gets set up with switchbacks, but there are not stanchions or rope of any kind to actually enforce the switchback, so while the crowds are following the cast members snaking back and forth, people coming in just cut past the switchbacks - this wasn’t the case at any of the other rides that we rope dropped

I know people are eager to get on the ride, and we rope dropped popular rides each morning, but I felt like at least with the other rides, while people did try to scoot their way to the front, it didn’t resort to actual pushing and stepping on feet - it was actually kind of ridiculous and slightly soured the morning. The ride itself was fun, but I don’t know if I would want to go through that rope drop experience again.

A lot of closures coming

Animal Kingdom is going to be getting a lot of new attractions and renovations in the coming years. While it’s exciting, it means quite a few things we experienced won’t be there anymore like it’s tough to be a bug and Dinosaur (and all of Dino Land).

Animal Kingdom is not really a place for rides

We knew before going that there weren’t that many rides in Animal Kingdom - it’s really all about attractions like shows and animal exhibits.

I think that’s a really cool way to entertain guests but also maintain the animal life in the area - there’s also a lot of effort to educate about conservation in this park which I think is also something that’s really nice about it.

It’s a much lower energy kind of park - aside from expedition Everest, there really isn’t another coaster ride

Recap

This was our final day at Walt Disney World, and we had a lot of fun with a more relaxed park day! Choosing Animal Kingdom as our last park day turned out to be a great idea since we were able to get back to our hotel room a little earlier at night and get ourselves ready to head home.

The animals are really the main attraction here, so if you love animals you’ll love this park. If you don’t really care for animals it might not be the most enticing one to visit.

Pandora is a really beautiful place with lots of majestic structures and really beautiful luminescent decor. Aside from that, the park is a little bit more on the dated side (but is still incredibly charming!), which could be why many of the upcoming expansions are focused here. I’m really excited to see what’ll be in store for this park in the future once the plans actually pan out!