My Thoughts On The New Opening Process For Disney's Animal Kingdom!

Hi everyone! Apologies for the week without a new post on the blog. I've been away for a week (not to Disney), and I will admit I was very disorganised, so therefore couldn't find the time to write anything- I was either too busy or too tired! Now that I'm back, however, posting will resume as normal.

Today I'm going to talk about an interesting news story from the past couple of days that really grabbed my attention. What with all the awesome stuff going on at the D23 Expo this past weekend, this story, for what it is, has gone relatively unnoticed. This news is that Disney's Animal Kingdom has seen a drastic and pretty unique change to how it opens each morning. The traditional rope drop by the Tip Board on Discovery Island has gone, and has been replaced by a new system which sees guests let into the park 15 minutes prior to the official opening time. They are at this point allowed into the park, and are given the opportunity to do some of the park's awesome attractions before the time that the Animal Kingdom's official opening arrives. At present, three attractions are participating in this system, namely Expedition Everest, Kilimanjaro Safaris, and TriceraTop Spin.

I know, I was a little surprised by that last one too, but what I should imagine Disney are trying to do here is to firstly cater to all age groups and demographics with these early openings, and also to distribute crowds around the park as equally and evenly as possible. TriceraTop Spin may be a low capacity, moderately themed cycle ride, but it is an attraction that ticks both of those boxes. Indeed, I happen to really enjoy TriceraTop Spin- it's a fun take on a classic Disney ride system.

Whilst I'm not sure how this new opening effects or is effected by morning Extra Magic Hours at the park, what we do know is that park wide Fastpass distribution still doesn't begin until official park opening. Unfortunately, this leads us onto yet another thing we don't know about this system, which is how it'll work with Fastpass+ when that's fully implemented. Obviously I have no idea, but I expect that Fastpass+ reservations won't be offered for the 15 minutes prior to the park's posted opening time, as that quarter of an hour isn't inside the official park opening times. Therefore, it's not officially considered to be open, even though it is. Just like you can't get a Fastpass on the current 'Classic' Fastpass system for after a park closes, even if it doesn't actually end up closing at the official time, I'm guessing that the same will apply for before the park is officially open.

After this news having been around for a day or two now, it's becoming apparent what the majority of us Disney Fans think about it. From what I've read, opinions are pretty mixed, with a lot of people like myself being torn as to what they think about this innovative new opening procedure for AK. I personally am intrigued as to how this unique new system functions, and am interested to see how it works over time and how it deals with different crowd levels. I still heavily favour the traditional park opening ceremony and rope drop which is sadly featuring less and less in the parks, but I am always all for Disney trying out new things, especially with how they manage this vital part of the park day.

It seems to me like they are definitely doing this in the interest of enriching the guest experience. I can see no way that this could be a cost cutting initiative for them- surely opening attractions earlier will cost more in wages and power- and instead I see it as their way of distributing the crowds as equal as is feasible prior to park opening. Opening just the three attractions located pretty much equidistant from each other should achieve this, making traffic flow more balanced and less chaotic for when the remainder of the park opens- something which will really help this wonderful park that is- despite its status as Walt Disney World's largest park- typically quite congested.

I'm still not entirely sure how this system will provide the most efficient way of opening the park, but I do have compete confidence that Disney, thanks to their years of experiences running theme parks, will know exactly what they're doing and get it completely right. I also see several advantages and disadvantages for how we tour this park. I am concerned that maybe it could produce slightly disproportionate wait times in the first few hours of park operation, and could also jeopardise the plans of people who already have breakfast ADRs planned for the park. But I know that Disney will have most certainly taken these things into consideration when planning the change, so there'll be no problem. Besides, there's the trump card of more park time equals more experiences- definitely a massive win here! In my opinion, just one extra ride on Everest, the Safari or even TriceraTop Spin is a big bonus!

Now it's your turn- I want to hear your opinion if you want to share it! Do you welcome this change? How do you predict it will influence your touring of Animal Kingdom? Maybe you've visited the park recently and experienced this new opening system for yourself- in which case I'd love to know your thoughts! If you want to share your opinion, you can do so by commenting, Tweeting me @BloggerDisney, posting on the blog's Facebook page, or emailing me at worldofdreamsblog@gmail.com
I'd love to hear from you!

Thank you for reading! Please also check out the wonderful We're Going To Walt Disney World Podcast! I'm also now on Instagram; with my username being bloggerdisney. I hope you have a magical day!!!