Alright ya’ll, we’ve made it to our last day of Disney World theme parks! For our last day, we ventured over to Animal Kingdom, which I was heavily influenced to visit by a friend of mine after she heard it was not originally on my itinerary lol. I’m so glad I listened because it was hands down Jaxson’s favorite park and was actually the best way to wind down and end our trip.

I’d say Animal Kingdom is a much more relaxed theme park overall than the others. There aren’t too many rides so it feels like the day is more calm and you can really take your time going through without feeling rushed to get to the next thing. That being said, I also purchased lightening lane passes for this day!

Animal Kingdom has a PANDORA : The Land of Avatar with two rides, and I was told by my same girlfriend that we could NOT miss these rides. One of the rides does have a height requirement (Flight of Passage), so my husband and I had to single rider and then rider swap for that one because again, I was under strict orders not to miss it lol.

So I ended up purchasing Lightening Lane for the Na’vi River Journey ride, which is a boat style ride and was unlike anything I’ve ever seen! So if you’re planning your trip to AK, I also have to urge you NOT TO MISS either ride!

The other two rides I got lightening lane for were Kilamanjaro Safari and Dinosaur, although I definitely did not need it for Dinosaur. You just get three rides with the lightening lane package I purchased and there really wasn’t another option. Jaxson could not ride Dinosaur so we did rider swap for it, if you’ve been to Disneyland, its basically the exact same ride as Indiana Jones, just themed to being in the jungle looking for dinosaurs, but you’re in a big jeep “driving” around.

Something to note: this park opens and closes earlier than the others, I think for the safety of the animals. So you definitely have to plan this day a little differently.

Early entry for our hotel allowed us to get in 7:30 am (regular opening is 8 am) and the only way from our hotel to Animal Kingdom was via bus. We caught the bus at around 7 am at the bus stop right outside our hotel and ended up getting into the park closer to 8:30 am. I didn’t predict very well how long it would take via bus and it does take much longer than I anticipated because guests are all packing in, unloading strollers, etc. So it’s not as quick as a drop off process as say the tram system is or if you’re driving yourself to the park.

After getting into the park, we stopped in to a Starbucks location in the park for my chai tea and some breakfast sandwiches for the kids. On our way out, we noticed a little stand set up with employees handing out what looked like little pamphlets to kids, so we ventured over there and learned that littles can become a Wilderness Explorer if they complete the booklet of activities throughout the day! We grabbed one and knew it would be a hit after seeing how much our daughter loved the Passport activity at EPCOT. For this one, throughout the park there are tents set up where kids can learn about something related to the planet or animals, and earn “badges” (stickers) in their booklet after they complete an activity or answer a question. It was really fun!

Our first lightening lane was for Kilamanjaro Safari at 11:30 am, so we walked straight to Pandora to get on the Flight of Passage ride in the meantime. When we got there, it had a 25 min wait, so my husband went and got in line while I walked around with the kids eating their breakfast sandwiches. We did rider swap, so once he got off, I was able to walk through the line and get straight on without a wait. Although, if the wait isn’t too bad and you have kids that do meet the height requirement, I’d almost say its worth it to wait and go through the entire line before actually getting on the ride. My husband filmed it and the entire queue was so cool and then there was a whole room where they had it set up like the labs from the Avatar movies- going rider swap or single rider, you bypass this entire area to get on the ride so when it was my turn, I didn’t see any of it!

Our lightening lane for the second Avatar ride wasn’t until 2 pm, so we walked towards Africa to walk around. After getting my daughter a henna tattoo (which was really cute) we went to watch The Lion King show. I’d say definitely don’t skip this! It’s so cute and they perform all the hits from the original movie! My kids both loved it! The show got out around 11:30 am which meant our lightening lane passes were eligible to get on the safari! We walked straight to the safari and walked right on!

I was told to try to do the safari ride earlier in the day because the animals are more active earlier in the day, and from my experience, that rang true. We had a rhino walking straight towards our van, giraffes grazing in the field, and hippos swimming in the water! The lions were lounging on rocks, but we still got a good view of them!

After the safari, we went over to Rafiki’s Planet Watch and Conservation Station, you do have to take a little train ride out to the area, but they give you a behind the scenes look at the caring of the animals and the veterinary areas. You also can do a drawing session where you learn to draw one of Disney’s famous animal characters. We got the crocodile from Peter Pan! There’s also a meet and greet area where kids can meet a character! We met Timon from The Lion King, which was great because during the Lion King show we watched, Jaxson was obsessed with watching Timon and he even came to give him a high five! So it was so cute that he got to meet him for photos!

By the time we were done in this area, our lightening lane for Na’Vi River Passage was getting close, so we walked back to Pandora and walked on the ride when we got there! My daughter was a little afraid at first because the lighting for the ride is pretty dark in the beginning and then you get into the “river” and all the colors of Pandora come to life! It was so beautiful, definitely recommend making sure you get on this ride when you visit! It’s unreal and so unlike anything else I’ve ever seen! Truly makes you feel like you’re in the movie.

We were pretty hungry afterwards so we walked to the Yak & Yeti Resturant, which does require a reservation, so I recommend booking it on the app when you start your day! This is a sit down, waited restaurant that serves a blend of Asian/ American foods. My husband got the orange chicken entree which was delicious and I got an ahi-ahi salad which was also amaaazzinnng!

Afterward, we walked around the “Asia” area looking at all the animals they had and completing our Wilderness Explorer activities in this area. They do have a roller coaster ride called Expedition Everest that was actually closed for refurbishment when we were there, but we didn’t have it on our to-do list anyway because the kids aren’t tall enough and we’ve been on it already when we visited waaayyy back when we actually lived in Florida. But I’d say ride it if you haven’t before!!

Then we were tailing the end of our lightening lane time frame so walked over to DinoLand USA to get on the Dinosaur ride. It was about 5:15 pm once we got off and the park closed at 6 pm so we started to make our way back to the front of the park to take photos in front of the tree of life. My son fell asleep in the stroller on the way so he missed out on the family selfie lol.

We walked around the stores in the front of the park and did some shopping before the park closed at 6 pm. I will say this- the parks in Florida don’t mess around, they close right on time and the employees are strict about it. It was getting close to 6 pm and they were already ready to shut all the doors to the stores. I’d never seen anything like it, at Disneyland they let you shop as long as possible just to get you to buy something.

**NOTE: the new Zootopia area that opened at Animal Kingdom literally opened 2 weeks after our trip, so I don’t have any insight on that.

Once we got to the buses to bus back to our hotel, there was MAJOR traffic with all the buses and we ended up waiting an hour before even getting on the bus which was actually the worst part of our entire trip to be honest. So each hotel (there are A LOT) has their own buses that only go from that hotel to the park and vice versa, so the bus back to our hotel specifically was wayyy behind schedule. Luckily, we didn’t have anything left to do that evening other than laundry before bed so that we came home from vacation with clean clothes 🙂

Once we finally got back to our resort it was around 8 pm, we went to one of the quick service restaurants for pizzas for dinner and then spent the rest of the night doing laundry and packing all of our things. It was really the saddest night every lol, just packing all of our souvenirs in denial that the trip was actually coming to an end.

Rides We Loved

+ Flight of Passage // does have a height requirement

+ Na’Vi River Journey

+ Kilamanjaro Safaris

+ DINOSAUR /. height requirement

+ Wildlife Express Train

Shows / Activities We Loved

+ Festival of The Lion King

+ Finding Nemo : The Big Blue & Beyond (we didn’t have time to see it this trip but I’ve heard great things about it!

+ Wilderness Explorers Safari Pamphlet (so much fun for little ones!)

+ The Animation Experience at Conservation Station (character drawing!!)

Where We Ate

+ Breakfast: Starbucks (boring sorry!)

+ Lunch: Yak & Yeti Resturant

+ Dinner: we got back at our resort and not in the park.

It was such an amazing day and really rounded up the trip nicely!