Visitors Guide to Disney's Animal Kingdom

Readers' Pick

• Flight of Passage ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
  A breathtaking "Avatar"-themed flying theater ride in Pandora - The World of Avatar. Height requirement: 44 inches
  

Other Attractions

Discovery Island

• Zootopia: Better Zoogether!: 4D movie in the Tree of Life Theater
• Tree of Life Awakenings: Projection mapping show on the Tree of Life in the evenings
• Discovery Island Trails: Animal exhibits

Pandora - The World of Avatar

• Na'vi River Journey: Indoor boat ride. 🎦 Video

Africa

• Kilimanjaro Safaris: Narrated driving tour of the park's live animal habitat
• Festival of the Lion King: Live musical celebrating the Disney animated film
• Gorilla Falls Exploration Trail: Animal exhibit>

Rafiki's Planet Watch

• Wildlife Express Train to Conservation Station: Train ride to animal exhibit and petting zoo

Asia

• Expedition Everest: Vekoma roller coaster to the "Forbidden Mountain." Height requirement: 44 inches. 🎦 Video
• Kali River Rapids: Rapids ride. Height requirement: 38 inches
• Maharajah Jungle Trek: Animal exhibits

Dinoland USA

• Dinosaur: Motion-base dark ride. Height requirement: 40 inches. Closes February 2 for a retheme to Indiana Jones, as part of the upcoming Tropical Americas land.
• Finding Nemo: The Big Blue... and Beyond!: Live musical just outside Dinoland USA<

Coming Next

• Tropical Americas - The current Dinosaur ride will be rethemed to Indiana Jones, and Disney will add an Encanto-themed ride to this land that will open in 2027.

Recommended

• Tiffins: Table-service restaurant, featuring indigenous art and Imagineering memorabilia, located just outside Pandora on Discovery Island

• Satu'li Canteen: Counter-service bowls in Pandora - The World of Avatar

Other places to eat

Entrance

• Rainforest Cafe: Table service chain restaurant

Discovery Island

• Flame Tree Barbecue: Ribs, chicken, and pulled pork
• Pizzafari: Pizza, pasta, Caesar salads
• Creature Comforts: Starbucks
• Kusafiri Coffee Shop & Bakery: Wraps and flatbreads
• Eight Spoon Cafe: Mac and cheese, pretzels, and churros

Africa

• Tusker House Restaurant: Character meal at breakfast, lunch, and dinner
• Harambe Market: Food court with bowls, pitas, hand pies, and salads

Asia

• Yak & Yeti: Table-service Asian-inspired cuisine, with counter-service windows next door

Disney's Animal Kingdom is part of the sprawling Walt Disney World Resort, located in Lake Buena Vista, Florida – about 25 miles from Orlando International Airport (MCO).

Note that Disney no longer provides free Disney's Magical Express bus service to and from the Orlando airport for its hotel guests.

If you are renting a car while visiting Orlando, you can save on toll road fees by getting a Visitor Toll Pass at the Orlando airport rather than renting a toll transponder from your rental car company: Toll Discounts Return for Orlando Theme Park Visitors

Disney's theme park ticket prices vary by day, so you can use Disney's pricing calendar [scroll down] to see which days have the highest expected crowds. The lower the price for a ticket, the smaller the expected crowd that day.

According to the travel agents at Academy Travel, these are the dates when you will find the lightest crowd levels at the Walt Disney World theme parks in 2026:

• January 12-29
• February 2-5
• April 20-May 2
• May 5-16
• August 24-September 5
• September 8-26
• November 12-20
• December 1-12

On the flip side, large crowds will fill the parks on runDisney weekends:

• January 7-11
• February 26-March 2
• April 16-19

In addition, crowd levels are high during:

• any U.S. holiday week
• President's Day week through Spring Break in mid-April
• first week in November (the infamous "Jersey week")
• the week of Thanksgiving
• from mid-December through early January

Before You Go

For assistance in planning a Walt Disney World vacation, please contact our travel agent for a free, no-obligation vacation quote.

Dining reservations can be made via the Disney World website or our travel agent, and each date's reservations open 60 days in advance, at about 5:45am Eastern Time. Disney's on-site hotel guests may make reservations for their entire stay (up to 10 days) starting 60 days before their check-in date. That gives Disney's on-site hotel guests an advantage in making reservations for the most popular restaurants.

Walt Disney World Resort hotel guests may purchase and book line-skipping "Lightning Lane" access for their entire stay (up to 14 days) starting seven days before their arrival. Other theme park guests may book Lightning Lanes up to three days in advance of their visit. Please see The complete guide to Disney's Lightning Lane for more information on this important option.

Itinerary

Disney's hotel guests also get 30 minutes of early access to each of the resort's four theme parks every day. So hotel guests should plan on an early start each morning to take advantage of empty queues. Unfortunately for guests staying off site, this new early admission policy means that they no longer have any opportunity to be the first to enter any Walt Disney World theme park in the morning.

The longest wait in the park is Avatar Flight of Passage. Since Disney's hotel guests fill its queue at park opening, we now recommend that non-hotel guests wait until after 4pm to ride this attraction, unless you want to pay up for Lightning Lane Single Pass access.

Start first instead at park opening riding its neighbor, the Na'vi River Journey, which is the next-longest average wait in the park. From there, head to Everest if you can get there before 10am, or to Dinosaur if you cannot. If you don't get to Everest in the morning, ride it after 5pm, when its wait times decreases substantially.

Kilimanjaro Safaris also is nice as the very first thing in the morning, when many animals are active. But if you are getting the other rides out of the way early, come back to the Safaris just before dusk. If you don't think you can squeeze it in and then still do Avatar and Everest before the park closes, just go ahead and ride Safaris in mid-afternoon, after about 2pm, when the wait time is minimal, even if many animals are asleep.