Animal Kingdom After Dark
I understand that Disney’s Animal Kingdom gets a fair amount of grief aimed at it. I also understand the basis for a lot of that grief: that Animal Kingdom is not a full day park. There is however one reasonably unique touring experience that can be found at Animal Kingdom that I would bet many of you haven’t done. In fact, you probably haven’t even realized that you hadn’t done it. No, I’m not talking about Triceratop Spin, but visiting Disney’s Animal Kingdom in the dark.
The reason that visiting Animal Kingdom in the dark is a rare occurrence is two-fold. For one, many people just don’t spend all day there. Secondly, due to the animals (and because of reason number one), the park often closes at or near dusk. The reason I am writing this piece now is because December through February is, in many cases, the only time to visit the Animal Kingdom after sundown.
Throughout the winter, Animal Kingdom is often open on weekends until 7pm with sunset being at approximately 5:30pm. Sure that’s not a lot of time, but it is all the time you will need.
The Cons
I’ll start with the bad news because everyone likes a happy ending. The big drawback to wandering the Animal Kingdom at night is that all animal-related experiences are closed including Kilimanjaro Safari, Pangani Forest Exploration Trail, Maharajah Jungle Trek, and Rafiki’s Planet Watch. Since we’re talking about a park with a shortage of attractions, this cuts the list even further. That’s pretty much it for the cons…not bad, right?
The Pros
You probably expected this article to be mostly positive. After all, why would I bother to write an entire post about visiting the Animal Kingdom after dark if the final verdict was that it stinks? Well I wouldn’t, so let’s get to all the good stuff.
The two main reasons for being at Animal Kindgom at night are 1) it’s pretty and 2) it’s empty. Once the sun goes down people start to leave the park in droves, leaving short lines at the attractions that are open.
Of course, the major attraction at Animal Kingdom is Expedition Everest. Let me tell you, it is spectacular at night, both to look at and to ride. The softly lit mountain is a wonderful sight in the dark and the attraction itself takes on a completely different feel. What’s different? Well, it’s kind of obvious, but it’s darker. Since the ride snakes in and out of the mountain, it normally is bright on the outer sections (what, the sun is bright? Stop the presses). In the dark it actually seems more like an indoor ride which makes the whole thing feel a little more ominous (except the stationary Yeti animatronic, which is still embarrassing).
The other thing that I always recommend at Animal Kingdom is to take some time to walk around and look. While it may not be the most exciting of the Disney parks, it is still a very pretty area. With all of the lush vegetation, waterways, and fantastic African and Asian themes there are a lot of serene spots and interesting details to see. With light crowds and few available attractions, nighttime is the perfect time to check all of those out. Africa is an especially nice area to wander in since there are a total of zero things happening there at night meaning a total of zero people hanging around (seriously, look at that picture…I know it’s fuzzy, but the only person there is a custodian).
Writing more words here isn’t going to go any further to convincing you to spend extra time at Animal Kingdom so I’ll wrap up with a final thought. Everyone wishes they had more time to relax and enjoy Walt Disney World. Night time at Animal Kingdom is that chance to see something different, or let the kids run around, or snap some wonderful pictures (I know I’m no Tom Bricker, but these are nice, right).
Animal Kingdom is a different animal (har-dee-har-har) than the other parks at night. No neon, no fireworks, no bright lights. It’s just simple; simply lit, simply themed, and simply wonderful.
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Nice article. I love reading about how to enjoy this park since my first visit there was a flop. We just did not “get” it. This trip, we are planning on visiting our first afternoon/evening and this article is inspring. I cannot wait to give AK another chance….I want to like it bc others feel it is relaxing. I want to relax at WDW but have no idea how!!
If you time your day right, you can do shows like Lion King after dark, leaving more time during daylight to see the animals. Everest at night is like a completely different ride.
Never done animal kingdom at night, but would like to. Like someone else said, I like to take things a bit slower, so I really enjoy AK and world showcase. So many neat things to explore and discover. That is what really sets Disney apart for me over other parks.
Agree. Although we love all the parks at night! Something very cool about each one. That’s why we love to park hop. Spend the day at one park have supper and go to another after dark. Luckily it gets dark early in December.
This article has convinced me to stick around AK on my day there in early March when the park is scheduled to stay open until 7. I was going to park hop earlier in the day, but now I see I’ll be there before the time change so sunset will be at 6:30. Thanks for a great article!
If you’re a runner, a terrific way to experience Animal Kingdom after dark is the Expedition Everest Challenge (5K).
http://espnwwos.disney.go.com/events/rundisney/expedition-everest-challenge
The first time I saw AK was at night. We were there last February when they still had EMH in the evening. We were planning on hitting AK the next morning (thanks to TouringPlans we know that its best to hit Rope Drop on a park that had EMH evening the night before!). But someone mentioned that AK at night was not to be missed (especially Everest) and that was the only EMH evening left that week. So we headed over to AK about 7:30 and it was EMPTY! We must have rode Everest 5 times in a row without ever waiting in line. It was awesome! We had to wait until the next day to actually get to look at the queue because we just kept walking right by everything.
Having never been to the park before, I found it to be quite dark at night. Perhaps because of all the trees? Or lack of attractions with neon lighting? When we left the park, as we were walking through the Oasis if you look into the tress you can see at least a hundred birds sleeping! It was both cool and creepy.
Part of me wished that we had a chance to see the park in the light first, but overall it was an amazing experience and I’m so glad we made the decision to go!
We just returned from 8 days at WDW. We had planned only one day at AK, but actually added the 8th day so we could go back to AK. The first day we just weren’t able to see everything we wanted to -we did get to ride Everest twice, once in the dark which was amazing!
AK is a great park. It feels more like the World Showcase at EPCOT rather than the Magic Kingdom and that’s how I approach it. Kilimajaro and Everest are among my top experiences at Disney. If you are not taking the time to enjoy the animal exhibits, you are missing the point and I can understand why you feel the park comes up short. I do agree it does need more and I hope Avatar will provide it.
I don’t like ANimal Kingdom because it is a total knock off of Busch Gardens Tampa.
You get a much better animal experience there and better rides.
I have never understood why people have such a low opinion of AK. I LOVE it!! I have never considered it anything less than a full day park. If you take the time to fully experience everything there is to see, it absolutely fills the day and more. I am a huge fan of taking everything at WDW a bit more slowly, anyway. We normally visit in the summer so have never been able to see AK after dark. I hope that at some point our family will make a winter visit to enjoy one of our favorite places a bit differently.
My family stayed at Animal Kingdom until closing during our trip in August. The kids agreed that it was their best day at WDW. Now we need to experience it after dark. Thanks for the great post!
Our family LOVES Animal Kingdom!!! We find ourselves spending as many, if not more, park days there than any other of the resorts parks. We would loveto be able to experience it after dark. My 11 yr old would especially love Expedition Everest at night.
I totally agree. We really like AK and were there after dark last year in December. The place was empty and we got to meander around without feeling like people were going to run us over. Even though that park kicks my heiny every time, and gives me huge blisters, we can’t think of skipping it. Thanks for a good post!