Animal Kingdom vs Six Flags America

Disney's Animal Kingdom blends a full theme park with a working zoo. The park sits at Walt Disney World and is the largest of the four by area. Signature attractions include Avatar Flight of Passage, Na'vi River Journey, Expedition Everest, Kilimanjaro Safaris, and the Festival of the Lion King show. Pandora – The World of Avatar regularly posts the longest wait times in the park.

Animal Kingdom is usually less crowded than Magic Kingdom or Hollywood Studios, but Avatar Flight of Passage still routinely exceeds 60-minute queue times. Early mornings are best for the safaris when animals are most active. Check live wait times on arrival and head to Pandora first. Use our crowd calendar to pick a quieter date outside US school holidays for a more relaxed visit.

Six Flags America sits in Bowie, Maryland, between Washington D.C. and Baltimore. The coaster line-up includes Superman: Ride of Steel (a 205-foot hyper coaster), Wild One wooden coaster, Joker's Jinx multi-launch coaster, Ragin' Cajun spinning coaster, and Batwing flying coaster. A Hurricane Harbor water park is included with admission during summer.

DC and Baltimore weekend visits, Maryland school holidays, and the Fright Fest event drive most of the park's busy days. Weekdays in May, September and October stay dramatically calmer, with queue times on most coasters dropping to 10 minutes or less. Check live wait times for Superman and Wild One on arrival, and use our crowd calendar to pick a lower-crowd date for shorter waits across the coaster line-up.