Confirmed: Disney Removes Classic Animal Kingdom Ride From After-Hours Lineup
Getting extra time inside Disney’s Animal Kingdom after most guests have left sounds like a pretty great perk.
There’s just one problem: Disney isn’t keeping very much open.
The attraction lineup for Extended Evening Theme Park Hours at Animal Kingdom includes only four experiences. While several of the park’s biggest attractions made the cut, Kilimanjaro Safaris did not.
That omission may be especially disappointing for longtime visitors who remember when exploring the savanna after dark was actually possible.
And if Disney was looking for an opportunity to bring nighttime safaris back, this seemingly would have been it.
Only Four Animal Kingdom Attractions Make the List
Extended Evening Hours gives eligible guests additional time inside select Walt Disney World parks after regular operating hours.
The benefit is available to registered guests staying at Disney Deluxe Resorts, Disney Deluxe Villa Resorts, and several other participating hotels. Disney has already confirmed that the perk will continue through 2027.
When Extended Evening Hours comes to Animal Kingdom, however, guests won’t exactly have a massive attraction lineup.
Disney currently lists four participating experiences:
- Avatar Flight of Passage
- Expedition Everest – Legend of the Forbidden Mountain
- Na’vi River Journey
- Zootopia: Better Zoogether!
That means guests looking specifically for rides really have three options.
Compare that with Magic Kingdom, where Disney lists more than 20 attractions for Extended Evening Hours. EPCOT and Disney’s Hollywood Studios also have considerably more participating attractions.
Animal Kingdom was always going to have fewer options simply because the park has fewer rides. Still, four experiences make for a surprisingly small lineup.
Kilimanjaro Safaris Is the Obvious Absence
There are other Animal Kingdom attractions missing, but Kilimanjaro Safaris stands out.
Longtime visitors may remember when Disney made a much bigger effort to keep Animal Kingdom active after sunset. Nighttime safaris became part of that push, allowing guests to experience the attraction in a completely different setting.
Those opportunities eventually became much less common.
That’s why Extended Evening Hours seemed like such an obvious way to bring the experience back.
Disney wouldn’t necessarily need to operate Kilimanjaro Safaris late every night. It could offer nighttime rides specifically during Extended Evening Hours, creating something unusual for the smaller group of eligible guests remaining inside Animal Kingdom.
Instead, Disney has left the attraction off the current lineup entirely.
Animal Kingdom Could Use Another Nighttime Attraction
The omission matters even more because Animal Kingdom can be spectacular after dark.
Pandora – The World of Avatar transforms at night, while Expedition Everest takes on a different feeling once the sun goes down.
Kilimanjaro Safaris could add another reason to stick around.
It would also help distribute guests beyond Pandora and Expedition Everest. With only four attractions scheduled, any downtime could make the limited lineup even smaller.
Disney does warn that Extended Evening Hours offerings are subject to change, so Kilimanjaro Safaris could theoretically be added later.
For now, though, guests shouldn’t expect nighttime safaris to make their comeback through this perk.
And that may tell us something about their future.
If Disney wanted to test nighttime rides on Kilimanjaro Safaris again, Extended Evening Hours would seemingly provide one of the easiest ways to do it. Instead, the attraction remains absent while just four Animal Kingdom experiences are scheduled to stay available.
For guests who remember seeing the savanna after dark, it’s another sign that a unique chapter of Animal Kingdom may be staying in the past.
