Kilimanjaro Safaris wait times

What it is

A guided safari in an open-air truck across a huge African savanna with real giraffes, elephants, lions and rhinos. Bumpy roads; every ride is different because the animals roam freely.

Thrill level: ●●●●● Gentle (1/5) · no height requirement

Opened: 22 April 1998 (28 years ago)

Best time to ride

Quietest: around 6pm (typically ~5 min posted). Busiest: around 10am (~50 min). In the first 15 minutes after the park opens it typically posts ~20 min.

Typical means the median posted wait across every day in our log at that hour; crowd level, weather and breakdowns move it. For a specific date, the planner adjusts for that day’s forecast crowd.

Typical posted wait by hour

Bar = median; numbers on the right = typical range (middle half of days).

By day of the weekaverage 10am–6pm

Through the year2015–2021 history

Average posted wait by month from 2015–2021 records. Waits ran higher before the current Lightning Lane system, so read this for the seasonal shape — which months are busiest — not for today’s numbers; the hourly table above is current.

Posted vs real wait

Disney’s posted waits run high. For Kilimanjaro Safaris, a posted 60 minutes at 2pm has typically meant about 39 minutes in line, and at 8pm about 41 (from timed waits people recorded, 2015–2021 — before today’s Lightning Lane system, so treat it as an estimate). DisneyIQ shows both numbers on the live board.

Did you know?

The savanna alone is bigger than the whole of Magic Kingdom.

It opened with Animal Kingdom on Earth Day, 1998.

Ride facts

About 22 minutes including boarding · Seating: safari truck bench rows — party shares a row · Lightning Lane: Tier 1