Animal Kingdom - Pandora Wait Times and EMH

[Bailey22]

Hey everyone, I'm hoping to get a little bit of advice on a decision I'm trying to make.

This will be my first visit to Disney since Pandora opened and Happily Ever After started. The only problem is, I'm only going to have one full day and night in the parks. My two main goals for this trip are to do some exploring in Pandora and see Happily Ever After, and I'm trying to figure out the best way to go about that. I'm going down to Orlando January 26 and I only just managed to squeeze a Disney day into my plans a few days ago - so just a little over two weeks before my trip. Yikes.

My initial plan was to rope drop Pandora and do those rides early in the morning when wait times are lower, but the day I'm going is an EMH day and I'm not staying on property. So my question is, if I were to go to Animal Kingdom that morning, what should I expect with regards to Pandora wait times at 9am if EMH have been going since 8?

I actually managed to get a Fastpass for Flight of Passage, but the time I have now is 6:10. I'll keep checking to see if another time opens up, but I'm a little worried about riding it that late and then making it back to Magic Kingdom before Happily Ever After - the biggest thing that I actually HAVE to do this trip. I have a lot of bad luck when it comes to buses and delays, so I'd be worried that something would happen to cause me to miss it.

Like I said before, this is just a random last minute trip so I won't be too upset if I don't get to do everything I wanted. But I also don't want to miss doing other stuff I love because I spent 3 hours waiting in line in Pandora. So any advice/opinions you have on this would be great!

 

[CAS239]

Lines will be long by the time you get there at 9am. River Journey might be under 45 min but it's likely that FoP will be 90 or more minutes. I'd bet money that it's higher.

Your best bet is to keep refreshing the app and try to get an early time for FoP.

If you can't get an earlier time for FoP then what I would do is rope drop MK, head to AK later in the day and do River Journey standby, FP at 6:10 for FoP, then take Disney bus back to MK for Happily Ever After.

 

[KEW]

...and if you can't move up your FOP FP, make sure you are there at 6:05 so you can do that ASAP before heading to Mark.

 

[sharonabe]

I actually managed to get a Fastpass for Flight of Passage, but the time I have now is 6:10. I'll keep checking to see if another time opens up, but I'm a little worried about riding it that late and then making it back to Magic Kingdom before Happily Ever After - the biggest thing that I actually HAVE to do this trip. I have a lot of bad luck when it comes to buses and delays, so I'd be worried that something would happen to cause me to miss it.

Why not just plan to take an uber or a taxi from AK to MK and then you don't have to stress about the travel part.

 

[Bailey22]

Lines will be long by the time you get there at 9am. River Journey might be under 45 min but it's likely that FoP will be 90 or more minutes. I'd bet money that it's higher.

Your best bet is to keep refreshing the app and try to get an early time for FoP.

If you can't get an earlier time for FoP then what I would do is rope drop MK, head to AK later in the day and do River Journey standby, FP at 6:10 for FoP, then take Disney bus back to MK for Happily Ever After.

Yeah, I figured Flight of Passage would be a pretty long wait. But thank you for the advice! Hopefully I'll get lucky and get an earlier Fastpass.

 

[Bailey22]

Why not just plan to take an uber or a taxi from AK to MK and then you don't have to stress about the travel part.

That's a good point! If I don't find an earlier Fastpass time that's probably what I'll end up doing. Thanks!

 

[Linkura]

Why not just plan to take an uber or a taxi from AK to MK and then you don't have to stress about the travel part.

The Uber/taxi would take them to TTC. Better to do AK to Contemporary or just use the buses.

 

[larie21]

FOP will have a very long wait by 9am on an EMH day. The day we went it was 180 min wait by 8:30 easy.

 

[TheDudeAbides]

We rope dropped FOP last week but were late getting there so were towards the back of the rush. By the time we got in line it was 2.5 hours. We decided against it.

Later that night we got in line with a Disney advertised wait of 210 minutes. This was at about 7 when the park closed at 8. From the time we got in line until the time we got to the briefing room was 80 minutes.

Same thing the next night.

The ride really is spectacular but they totally inflate the wait times late in the day.