AK is our second favourite park (still love MK!) We adore the animals, the shows. It has our favourite parade, some favourite rides (Dinosaur, the Safari, EE) I'm constantly surprised by people who say it's their least favourite park (ours is HS!) and that it's just a "zoo" It couldn't be further from the truth.
I think the reason for people feeling like a zoo is that when people don't know the layout on their first trip or two, then they can end up in the places that are more zoo-like. For us, my parents planned our first trip, and they didn't know how everything worked. They didn't know the park closed early, which screwed up our day so much, and we didn't get to ride any rides. Well, they did, my husband, 4 year old daughter, and I got separated, so we didn't get to ride anything b/c we had no clue where to go.
So...our first trip went like this:
1. arrived around 11 AM (super late, but we were so tired!)
2. lunch at Tusker House
3. Safari
4. Rafiki's Planet Watch, Conservation Station, Habitat Habit, Affection Section (Snore!)
5. Separated from family, so we walked around a bit and explored some shops
6. It's Tough to be a Bug
7. My family finally tried to figure out where we were and had us meet them at Kali just in time to find out the park was closing and we couldn't ride.
If your only time at AK is spent in those areas, you maybe can see why some people would feel it is very zoo-like. Most of what we experienced was the Safari and #4 on my list. I hated #4. Hated it. I won't ever go back. We didn't get to ride all the wonderful rides, and I still haven't seen any shows. That is part of the magic I think. I am looking forward to experiencing them without wanting to kill my mother b/c it is too hot and she is crabby and evil. Haha!
I enjoyed AK much more last year though when I got to see more, so hopefully I will love it after this trip. I think I need some convincing!
For us we have a 3-way tie for favorite parks: MK, EP and AK. For us, MK is the quintessential theme park and we always open our visits there. When we go to EP we concentrate more on WS rather than FW because that's where we get our meandering enjoyment. We do most of the rides in FW but have never done Innoventions. Could we be missing something there? I don't know, but the kids have never been interested in exploring that area so it will probably forever be a mystery for me!!
DHS (MGM) for us is maybe a couple of hours a couple of days. We ride the biggies and then boogey to another park. But as a quick aside, we like to walk from WS to DHS, and vice versa, it's easy and enjoyable. However, when we get to AK all bets are off. We spend hours and hours there, meandering the trails, riding what we like, having little lookie-loos at the different architecture and little hidden treasures esaily overlooked, grabbing little tasties along the way, and gear down from high speed gottagettherefastsogogogo to enjoying the day and "smelling the roses". But I will grant that we probably slow down because it's too blasted hot to run in perpetual high gear!
We get so much enjoyment from the landscaping, shows, animals, everything about it. For us, we spend as much time there as possible because it truly is a park to slow down in and really savor.
I enjoy Innoventions. Even if you don't want to do the whole thing on your next trip, maybe it could be one of those things you try just because you have never tried it. We try to do several new things on each trip. Last trip I tried Ellen's Energy Adventure. No thank you. My husband took a 40 minute nap. There are only two things I will never do at Disney again. #4 on my list above, and EEA. Anyway, there are some really fun things to try in there, so even if you only try one, you can add it to your list of new things tried. We did more in there this last year, and I really enjoyed it.
This year my must do list includes: All of the things I have missed at AK, The Hall of Presidents, Tom Sawyer Island, Country Bear Jamboree, the parts of Fantasyland that opened after September, maybe Dumbo (I am not a fan of circle rides), maybe Liberty Square Riverboat, the KTTK tour, more of the shows in WS at EPCOT, and a couple new restaurants (Narcoossee's, Raglan Road, maybe Be our Guest, and one more that I am not sure of)
Anyway, just a suggestion!
I really enjoyed that, and this trip looking forward to Nemo musical and the Dinosaur ride that we missed last year. I would not say it is my favorite park but that's b/c I really love all the other parks and what each one has to offer us. And ultimately I do think that the MK is my favorite b/c of the Castle and my favorite ride, "It's a Small World".
) to closing at 5. For a little different perspective, below is a list of things we would have wanted to do, but didn't have time for:
