What's New in Animal Kingdom: Primeval Whirl Construction and Disney Genie Debuts!

Hey, DFB friends! We’re here with a quick update from Disney’s Animal Kingdom!

Tree of Life

The Disney Genie service debuted this week and let’s just say we had a very different experience at Animal Kingdom than we did at other Disney Parks! Let’s discuss.

Construction Update

Primeval Whirl construction continues! The walls are still up and part of the ride remains…

Primeval Whirl

…while a BIG part of the ride is already demolished and gone.

Goodbye, Primeval Whirl!

We still don’t know what Disney plans to do with this spot but we’re watching closely for any news!

Something is missing from a fan-favorite ride while another is demolished!

Merchandise Updates

In Discovery Trading, we found three new Monsters, Inc. pins featuring Sulley, Mike, Randall, and of course, Roz!

NEW Monsters, Inc. Pins

They’re limited edition and Sulley costs $15.99, while the other two pins cost $19.99 each.

Disney Genie Update

The Disney Genie debuted on October 19th and we tried out Disney Genie’s two new paid services in Animal Kingdom. We purchased both the Genie+ and Individual Attraction Selection (pay-per-ride) as an experiment, as both services provide access to different attraction Lightning Lanes. When we rope dropped Avatar Flight of Passage first thing in the morning, we noted that the standby line was 50 minutes.

Flight of Passage Wait

Later, when we bought an Individual Attraction Selection for Flight of Passage for $11, we waited in the Lightning Lane for approximately 8 minutes while the standby line was 75 minutes!

We moved through the Flight of Passage queue very quickly with Lightning Lane!

When we bought Genie+, the posted time for Na’vi River Journey was 40 minutes for standby, while our Lightning Lane wait time was only 7 minutes.

Na’vi River Journey

And when there was a 50 minute standby line for Kilimanjaro Safaris, we ended up waiting 5 minutes via the Genie+ Lightning Lane.

Kilimanjaro Safaris

We also encountered a very low 10 minute standby wait for Expedition Everest, while the Individual Attraction Selection cost for the Lightning Lane access was $7.

Expedition Everest Wait

It’s REALLY important to check wait times before buying an Individual Attraction Selection, especially since they can’t be modified or canceled.

Here’s EVERYTHING we learned using Genie+ and Individual Attraction Selection in Disney World!

So that’s the news from Animal Kingdom! Keep checking back with DFB for more Disney World and, of course, Disney Genie coverage!

How smart is the FREE Disney Genie planning service in Disney World?

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What do you think of the news this week? Tell us in the comments!