Changed Park Hours Impacted Our Plans

Last week, Walt Disney World released park hours for the remainder of 2014 along with changing park hours for July 2014.  The change in park hours impacted our plans, especially for our day at Disney's Animal Kingdom.  So, it was back to the drawing board. . .

Originally, we had planned to visit Disney's Animal Kingdom on a day with morning Extra Magic Hours--when the park opens an hour early for on-site resort guests.  Our plan was to ride Kilimanjaro Safari first thing, when the weather was a bit cooler which means more animals out and about, then go to breakfast at Tusker House with a 8:45 am Advanced Dining Reservations.  The rest of the day was full of FastPass+ selections for Festival of the Lion King, Expedition Everest, and Kali River Rapids.

With the change in the park hours, our 8:45 am ADR for Tusker House was still doable, but it meant adjusting the rest of our FastPass + selections and getting to Kilimanjaro Safari later in the day.

I called Walt Disney World Dining with our current Tusker House confirmation number in hand and adjusted our ADR to 9:20 am.  The park would open at 9:00, we would walk to Kilimanjaro, ride the 19 minute ride, and have to make it to the restaurant no later than 9:35 am to not miss our reservation and be charged $10 per person no-show fee.  I slept on the plans and decided it was cutting the time too close.

I called Walt Disney World Dining again in the morning and changed the reservation to 9:45 am.  We will most likely arrive sooner and it will make it tight to get to our 10:50 FastPass+ for Festival of the Lion King, but I think we can make it work.

Looking forward to a great breakfast with characters at Tusker House and a great day at Disney's Animal Kingdom!