My 17th WDW Trip – in 2017 too! – Day 1 (Animal Kingdom)

So this will be in brief for now, just hitting the important points for folks trying to plan ahead for their upcoming trips.

Our only day in Animal Kingdom, here’s what I can tell you about crowd trends with the new Pandora now being a factor.

We got to the park just after rope drop on what should have been a highly recommended Animal Kingdom day. Most people should have gone elsewhere, and I think they did. We decided to check out Flight of Passage’s line and it was already up to an estimated 150 minute wait. The line ended at the bridge from Discovery Island to Pandora, but I suspect they had not really begun letting folks move forward into the interior queue. We checked wait times periodically since we didn’t FP it. Long story short we never got to experience it. The wait hit its peak about mid-day with a 225 minute wait. It hit a low point at around 8-9:30pm while many folks were going to see Rivers of Light, dipping down to 100 minutes. Of course after Rivers of Light, half those people left the park and the other half flooded Pandora. So bottom line, you’re going to wait at least 2 hours at Flight of Passage unless you have a FP. The Na’vi River Journey however hovered around a 60 minute wait. We did have a FP for this one. It’s not too bad, but I don’t foresee using a FP on it again. The animatronic of one of the Na’vi in the ride though is absolutely very well done! So life-like!

So after looking at the length of the FoP line, we commenced our actual plan. We went straight to the Safari. It was a 15 minute wait, and the walkway from Pandora Bridge to Discovery Island to Africa was very sparsely populated. So that should tell you what most people had in mind when they go there that morning.

Our plan in brief and it worked out pretty well:
Breakfast at Boma at 7:30am
Kilimanjaro Safari after rope drop (15 minute wait)
Gorilla Falls Trail
Festival of the Lion King first show (11:00am) Got in line at 10:30am with much success
Expedition Everest with FP+ (there was a 55 minute wait when we got there at 11:45)
Flights of Wonder (12:30 pm show) we got there at 12:15 with success at getting a good seat front and center.
It’s Tough to be a Bug! (around 1:15pm with a 10 minute wait) but the Hopper animatronic was broken :p
AFTERNOON BREAK
Returned to Animal Kingdom a little before 6:00pm
Na’vi River Journey with FP+ (There was a 55 minute posted wait when we got there at 6:10)
DINOSAUR at about 6:30 with a 20 minute posted wait
Quick bite to eat at Flame Tree BBQ
Kali River Rapids at 7:30 with a 20 minutes posted wait even in the heat
Rivers of Light (showtime 9:15pm, entered seating area at 8:25pm with FP+) More on this below…
Back to Pandora at night just to see the scenery – worth a walk around
Left Animal Kingdom at 10:30pm

On Rivers of Light – I don’t think a FP+ is absolutely needed for this. It could be better used elsewhere. I’m not sure when standby folks were permitted in, but I can say at 8:25 some of the best seats were still available (front and center, though most seats are at least satisfactory). At 8:45 best seats were gone, but still plenty of seating left. At 9:00, pretty much filled to capacity. The show had some dazzling effects for sure! But I think the story is better at any other nighttime spectacular in the other parks :| Still you’ve gotta see it if you haven’t!