Our NEW Best Animal Kingdom Touring Plan for 2025

Good news if you’re headed to Disney’s Animal Kingdom over the next few months! The touring plan listed here should be the most efficient way for you to see all of the park’s attractions, shows, and animal exhibits with the lowest possible waits in line. Also, this touring plan doesn’t use Lightning Lane, so you’ll be able to save some money too.

In a recent blog post I described how we’re testing new ways to predict wait times at Disney’s parks. In another post I provided a step-by-step touring plan for Disney’s Hollywood Studios that used those new wait times to see all of the park’s rides by 2 pm, leaving plenty of time for shows, character greetings, breaks, and shopping.

Animal Kingdom has fewer attractions and we tested on a slower day starting at 7:30 am. I was able to complete all six open attractions in the park (except one I forgot) by 9:15 am. So it took an hour and 45 minutes to complete this six-ride touring plan. As part of this post I’ll highlight the key decisions that make this touring plan so efficient.

What’s New in Our Animal Kingdom Touring Plans and Models

Our focus for these new wait time models is to predict how lines grow and shrink during the first two hours a park is open. Everyone has different walking speeds and touring styles in the parks. With that in mind, we think it’s reasonable to see four to six attractions in a park during those first two hours.

It’s critical to pick those first four attractions correctly. Lines in the parks will be at their lowest during the first hour the park is open. And choosing those first few attractions correctly makes it easier to decide which attractions to leave for late in the day, when crowds start to thin out.

How We Test Our Animal Kingdom Touring Plans

We’ve been working on our new Animal Kingdom models since early 2024. Most of those involved testing two or three different touring plans simultaneously on the same day. The models that produce the best touring plan generally move on to the next round of testing.

We stop testing on days where ride breakdowns cause significant differences in how long our testers wait at each ride. In those cases, we re-run the tests by starting over on another day. Luckily, we didn’t have any ride breakdowns during this test.

For this test, we tried two different strategies on the same day:

• This new touring plan, based on our latest wait-time models that performed well in the past
  A Cast Member’s custom touring plan made using their knowledge of the park

I mentioned in our Studios touring plan post that the Cast Members we test against have a very good sense of how lines grow in the parks. It’s common for these Cast Members to beat very early versions of new models and touring plans as we try to figure out what works and what doesn’t.

That’s okay – failure is a useful part of the testing process. We record the decisions the Cast Members make at each step in the day. We use those decisions and their outcomes to see the strengths and weaknesses of the wait time models we’ve built for each attraction. So if a Cast Member makes a better decision than a model, we examine the model to see where it went wrong.

For this plan we set the touring plan software’s walking speed to ‘fast’ and told it to minimize waits in line.

We tested this plan on January 15, 2025. The Animal Kingdom opened at 8 a.m., with Early Theme Park Entry starting at 7:30 a.m. We used Early Theme Park Entry. The actual crowd level for the day was a 2 out of 10 on our Disney World Crowd Calendar.

Attractions In Our Animal Kingdom Touring Plan

Each of the touring plans tested included all of the park’s operating rides shown below, plus one character greeting:

• Avatar Flight of Passage
• Dinosaur
• Expedition Everest – Legend of the Forbidden Mountain
• Kilimanjaro Safaris
• Meet Favorite Disney Pals at Adventurers Outpost
• Na’vi River Journey

Kali River Rapids was closed for refurbishment. I forgot that the It’s Tough to Be a Bug theater show existed or I would’ve included it. It wouldn’t have made a difference in the plan though. For one thing, It’s Tough to Be a Bug is closing permanently on March 17. And its wait times are consistently low most days.

I also didn’t include the Wildlife Express Train between Africa and Conservation Station. I finished the plan well before Conservation Station opened. So getting to Conservation Station isn’t a critical decision early in the morning.

Our Best Animal Kingdom Touring Plan Without Lightning Lane

We didn’t use the single-rider line for Expedition Everest. Single-rider lines can save time if you’re willing to split up your group and ride in separate vehicles. And there are times where that’s the compromise you make to avoid two-hour waits in line. We don’t think most families would split up at Everest, and we wanted this test to model how most families would tour the park.

We also didn’t use Lightning Lane Single Pass or Lightning Lane Multi Pass. If you’re willing to rope drop the Animal Kingdom, we don’t think it’s necessary to pay for Lightning Lane with this touring plan.

Explaining Our New Animal Kingdom Touring Plan Step-by-Step

I’ll go over this new Animal Kingdom touring plan step by step. This is the order we recommend you follow if you’re starting at the Animal Kingdom during Early Theme Park Entry. We’ll also explain a bit about why each attraction appears in each step.

I used the upcoming “rope drop” checkbox for our touring plan optimizer. This indicated to the optimizer that I’d make every effort to be at the front of the rope drop crowd for the Animal Kingdom’s opening. That’s because the initial group headed to Avatar Flight of Passage can be nearly 1,000 people.

Your exact position in that crowd is important. Beyond the first few hundred people, you’re probably better off doing something else instead.

The Animal Kingdom’s toll booth opened around 6:25 a.m. I got there around 6:40 a.m., parked and was at the security checkpoint by 6:45 a.m. There were maybe 100 people ahead of me across the security lanes.

I made it through security and headed for the entrance tapstiles. I still wasn’t at the front. But I noticed that nobody was in line for any of the leftmost tapstiles. I figured Disney would open them before the park, so I got in line at one of them.

That was the correct decision – I went from being maybe 50th in line to fourth.

I was also lucky in that everyone in front of me got through the tapstile without problems. By knowing where I was going and some fast walking, I ended up at the very front of the rope drop crowd for Avatar Flight of Passage.

Step 1 – Avatar Flight of Passage

It’s not surprising that Avatar Flight of Passage is the first step in this plan. Kilimanjaro Safaris isn’t open for Early Theme Park Entry, and Na’Vi River Journey and Dinosaur aren’t as popular. So it’s really a choice between Flight of Passage and Expedition Everest.

Flight of Passage is the correct choice for your first attraction of the day. Both testers did Avatar Flight of Passage first.

We walked through Avatar’s incredibly long line and got lined up to board. There was a 6-minute delay until we were let into the pre-show. It ended up not affecting the plan and I’m sure it was just the ride operators making sure everything was working safely and correctly. But my initial reaction was to wonder if guests heading to Flight of Passage first thing was something management didn’t expect.

Step 2 – Na’vi River Journey

Both testers had Na’vi River Journey as the second attraction of the day. We got there around 7:45 am and walked on to the ride. As far as I could tell, there were only six other people ahead of us on Na’vi River Journey.

We stepped into our boats without waiting at all.

We were off the ride before 7:55 a.m. It was at this point that the other tester and I went different ways. And the next decision was the big difference.

Step 3 – Meet Favorite Disney Pals at Adventurers Outpost

Our new wait time models said that once the park opened to regular guests, lines grew faster to meet Mickey and Minnie at Adventurers Outpost than anywhere else. And that makes sense because it takes time to talk to the characters, pose for photos, and then hug and say goodbye. Most character greetings can handle a couple hundred guests per hour at most – even if they’re running at “love and shove” top speed.

I went to meet Mickey and Minnie while the other tester went to Dinosaur. I was the first person in line at Adventurers Outpost that day.

It was still so early that after I high-fived Mickey Mouse I forgot to high-five Minnie. She pretended to be shocked and started walking out of the room. This is me saying I’m sorry to Minnie and begging forgiveness.

Step 4 – Dinosaur

The new wait time models put Dinosaur next. I knew the other tester went to Dinosaur right before, so I was worried that the models had overestimated the time saved by me meeting Mickey and Minnie first.

But once I got through the preshow I saw that there was absolutely no line at the load station for Dinosaur. I only had to wait for the next ride vehicle to show up, unload its guests, and then ride. And funnily enough, the other tester was getting off the ride vehicle as I was getting on it.

From then on I had a pretty good idea that the models had made the right choice to see Adventurers Outpost first.

Step 5 – Expedition Everest

At this point I only had two attractions left for the day. The plan sent me to Expedition Everest next.

I was a bit worried as I got into the line for Everest because I was just a few seconds behind a pretty large group of schoolkids. But we never stopped moving through the queue. I ended up getting one of the last seats on the next train out of Serka Zong.

Step 6 – Kilimanjaro Safaris

I arrived at Kilimanjaro Safaris at 8:47 am and it was the last attraction of the day for me. The people in front of me didn’t stop walking until we were in the boarding area. I had to wait for two sets of safari vehicles to fill up and depart before boarding. My wait – the longest of the day – was 5 minutes.

The animals were being fed as we drove through the savannah, so a lot of them were out and about. Here’s a decent photo of some zebra and cattle:

And here’s one of the lions out on the rock:

It was a really good safari ride and our driver was excellent.

Our safari pulled into the station and I was back in the middle of Africa by 9:15 am. It took me an hour and 45 minutes to see all but one of the park’s operating attractions.

Touring Plan Testing Results

The touring plan I tested was about 30 minutes faster than the one our Animal Kingdom Cast member came up with. As I said above, the most important decision was to meet Mickey and Minnie at Adventurers Outpost as soon as the park opened to day guests. Character greetings are slow-moving, low-capacity attractions. Being able to get through them with a low wait is a key part of an efficient touring plan.

How to See the Rest of Disney’s Animal Kingdom

I finished so early that the first train to Conservation Station wasn’t leaving for another 15 minutes. The very first show of the day – Festival of the Lion King – was still 45 minutes away. And since the park closed at 6 pm, I had 8 hours and 45 minutes to see three shows, walk the three animal trails, and see the rest of the park.

Here was the schedule of shows for the rest of the day:

• Festival of the Lion King at 10 am, 11 am, 12 pm, 1 pm, 2 pm, 3 pm, and 4 pm
  Feathered Friends in Flight at 10:30 am, 11:30 am, 1:30 pm, 2:30 pm, and 3:30 pm
  Finding Nemo: The Big Blue … and Beyond! at 11 am, 12 pm, 1 pm, 2:30 pm, 3:30 pm, and 4:30 pm

If I was staying in the park I would’ve grabbed a snack in Harambe, hit the restrooms near Lion King and got in line for the first show. From there I probably would’ve walked the Gorilla Falls Exploration Trail next. I’d see Conservation Station after that before leaving Africa.

Lunch I’d probably head back to Dinoland via Discovery Island for the next showing of Finding Nemo. That’d be a good chance to stop off at either Flame Tree Barbecue, or if I’m up for a little walking, Satu’li Canteen in Pandora. Both of those are some of the highest-rated quick service dining options in Walt Disney World.

After Nemo and lunch my suggestion would be to walk the Maharaja Jungle Trek and (if it’s open) take a spin on Kali River Rapids. Then see Feathered Friends in Flight.

That’s all of the major attractions, shows, and animal exhibits in the park. You’ll have plenty of time to see the other animals throughout the park as well as Animal Kingdom’s excellent street performers. The touring plan software will schedule all of this for you, too.

Future Animal Kingdom Touring Plans

We’ll be updating our standard Animal Kingdom touring plans soon with these results. We’re on schedule to have these new wait time models available around the end of March for our custom touring plan software. And we’ll work on plans that use regular park opening too.

As always, let us know if there’s a specific set of attractions you’d like to see us test next. And remember this: