Animal Kingdom Rope Drop and FOP..

[Wood Nymph]

Any guesses on if you would've opted for FOP what the wait might have been? Still tossing ideas around and we probably won't do Genie+ or $ILL at AK.

It all depends on how close you are to the front of the huge mass of people waiting to get into FoP. But the last time we got in line it was already 60 minutes and that was only about ten minutes after rope drop.

There were a lot of people waiting to get into the park when we arrived 45 minutes before rope drop. They were almost all going to FoP

 

[Mandipandi]

How does my strategy sound? First time at WDW and AK.
Get up at 6:30am, buy G+. At 7am get an ILL for FOP, then a LL for Navi. Get to the park early hours and ride Expedition everest once or twice, then dinosaur, then my ILL or LL, whichever comes first. Then in the later afternoon safari. In between times is for shopping/eating! Would like to eat in Pandora for lunch

 

[CamillaF]

How does my strategy sound? First time at WDW and AK.
Get up at 6:30am, buy G+. At 7am get an ILL for FOP, then a LL for Navi. Get to the park early hours and ride Expedition everest once or twice, then dinosaur, then my ILL or LL, whichever comes first. Then in the later afternoon safari. In between times is for shopping/eating! Would like to eat in Pandora for lunch

are you hopping to Another park? If so it’s a good plan. My kids road Everest 6 times with no line during early entry. You might want to do dinosaur first just to cut down on walking.

If not not hopping then don’t spend your money on G+ or. LL. spend you money on a nice air conditioned lunch when the lines get long. Spend the heat of the day at the shows and after 3pm on rides that your were unable to do and leave Pandora for the end of the day. The lines should be short and it’s beautiful when the suns down. You could even ride it multiple times.

Enjoy!!!!

 

[BigOHawk]

How early will buses start running at POR for Early Entry and is the 'West' Depot the first pickup spot in order to guarantee a spot on the first bus?

 

[Wood Nymph]

How early will buses start running at POR for Early Entry and is the 'West' Depot the first pickup spot in order to guarantee a spot on the first bus?

The west depot is the first pickup stop. The best way to know when the first bus is coming is to turn on the MDE app and watch the bus arrival time. Then go to the bus stop 15 minutes before the listed time. Start checking at least 1 1/2 hours ahead of early entry time.

 

[justafigment27]

I would seriously consider purchasing ILL for FOP.

You can get so much done at rope drop if you’re not standing in line for FOP and your morning will be a lot less stressful. I mean, I’d still plan to get there early as if you were rope dropping FOP, but you won’t have to be at the front of the line and race towards FOP and your position at rope drop won’t be so critical - a minute can make a big difference at FOP rope drop.

We rope dropped AK the week before Christmas and walked straight to Navi at a normal (not race walking or running, but with purpose) … by the time we passed the FOP line (which you have to walk by to get on Navi), it was already an hour long - and we had a reasonable rope drop position. That line just builds super fast and people literally run.

Because we didn’t rope drop FOP, we were able to get Navi, EE and Dinosaur done before our Safari Genie + time … and the standby wait time when we got to Safari was short enough that I was questioning why we bothered buying Genie+ for AK.

 

[DLRExpert]

With G+ and ILL my strategy for Early Entry is...
7am book G+ for Navi 930am-1030am and FOP 1030-1130
Start of EE
Dinosaur
Everest, maybe twice if time permits
As park is about to open, I head to Safari. While in line create my Mobile Order for Satuli for around 1130am
After Safari head to Kali River as it is about to open
Then use LL for Navi, while in line book LL for Lion King for show around 1230 or 130pm
Use ILL for FOP
Lunch time
Followed by Lion King show. While in line for Lion King choose a LL.
Explore the park and see other shows in between LL and animal exhibits.

 

[MickeyMice]

I would seriously consider purchasing ILL for FOP.

You can get so much done at rope drop if you’re not standing in line for FOP and your morning will be a lot less stressful. I mean, I’d still plan to get there early as if you were rope dropping FOP, but you won’t have to be at the front of the line and race towards FOP and your position at rope drop won’t be so critical - a minute can make a big difference at FOP rope drop.

We rope dropped AK the week before Christmas and walked straight to Navi at a normal (not race walking or running, but with purpose) … by the time we passed the FOP line (which you have to walk by to get on Navi), it was already an hour long - and we had a reasonable rope drop position. That line just builds super fast and people literally run.

Because we didn’t rope drop FOP, we were able to get Navi, EE and Dinosaur done before our Safari Genie + time … and the standby wait time when we got to Safari was short enough that I was questioning why we bothered buying Genie+ for AK.

agree, this is the way to do AK rope drop. FOP is one of the most worthwhile ILLS in WDW for this reason.

 

[Juventus]

Any tips for FoP without Early Entry during the middle week of March. It's an 8:00 opening. If I got there a bit after 7 and was near the front of the non-early entry guests what would that look like?

And generally which side of the tapstiles would offsite guest line up at?

Thanks!

 

[CamillaF]

Any tips for FoP without Early Entry during the middle week of March. It's an 8:00 opening. If I got there a bit after 7 and was near the front of the non-early entry guests what would that look like?

And generally which side of the tapstiles would offsite guest line up at?

Thanks!

Buy a LL for flight or drop in line right as park closes. If you just want a shorter wait still 45+ min. You can get in line around 11am. The time will still be listed high but will be dropping as people go to lunch. Good luck and have fun!

 

[Juventus]

Buy a LL for flight or drop in line right as park closes. If you just want a shorter wait still 45+ min. You can get in line around 11am. The time will still be listed high but will be dropping as people go to lunch. Good luck and have fun!

Thanks!

I was looking at the data around Christmas and Presidents Day and it looks like the ILL$s will be gone by 8:00 for offsite guests.

 

[SwanVT2]

People do and I've done it too. Just be aware that the safari does not open during early entry. So if early entry was 7 am and the park opens at 7:30, the safari typically opens at 8 am. One of my favorite AK early morning strategies is to not buy Genie+ and instead buy the ILL for Flight of Passage. Then you rope drop Navi (almost always a walk on), grab a coffee at Starbucks or one of the Joffreys carts and get on line for the safari.

It says early entry is 7:30 tomorrow?! So should we go to Navi rope drop and then get LL for safari? Family with us is new to Disney and want to avoid long lines so time is money!

 

[DCLCruiseFan09]

It says early entry is 7:30 tomorrow?! So should we go to Navi rope drop and then get LL for safari? Family with us is new to Disney and want to avoid long lines so time is money!

I would say if you are getting regular Genie +, Rope drop FOP and get your first LL for Safari assuming that it will be about 60 min to be out and done with Flight of Passage even with a "favorable position" to use a PP words above when the park opens.

I would say get a LL for Safaris for 9 am would be a good bet. Once you use that/your next window opens you can look to Navi river maybe for your next one? That's the most painful of queue's to wait in at AK in my opinion. I would encourage you to do this in line while in the LL queue to get on Safaris. It will take a few minutes to get on a truck in the station usually anyway.

Dinosaur and Everest are tucked away in such polar corners of the parks that they don't typically get too busy until later on when the park starts really filling up. Once you finish safaris, you could head along to Everest/Dino in standby while they are still shorter.

Edit to Say: I went to the park and was there about 30 min after official opening back in December for Avatar. We waited 80 min from getting in line to walking into the gift shop. The line started just by the Bridge near Festival of the Lion king and moved REALLY quickly. That was what I was using for my time evaluations of a 9AM Safari LL (Almost called it a FP. So Sad those days are gone. RIP)

 

[bluedolphin32]

I’ve never done Slinky at rope drop because I like it better at night and my preferred strategy at HS has always been to do Sunset attractions first. In general I like to zig at rope drop when most others zag, because I feel like you can get more done that way.

Will this still be your plan with RnRC closed? I'm wondering if we can RD SDD and then hit ToT before the end of EE.

We did FoP $ILL$ for 11:30AM, and did Navi, Everest 2x, and Meet Mickey/Minnie before heading to our G+ LL for Safari by 9:15am.

Sounds awesome! I'm thinking we will do something similar, but I will LL Navi so we don't have to go to Pandora at all in the AM. My DH can't ride FOP (motion sickness) so I don't want to rush to something he can't ride with us as our 1st ride.

 

[kylenne]

Will this still be your plan with RnRC closed? I'm wondering if we can RD SDD and then hit ToT before the end of EE.

Yeah, my usual order was to work backwards from Sunset so ToT->RNRC->MMRR. Usually by then my BG would have been called for Rise. This will be my first trip of the G+ era though so after much research will attempt to use it similarly to FP+. Will keep to this plan, just obviously skip RNRC, purchase $ILL for Rise and attempt to get a SDD LL.

It’s going to be tough because now that we’re splitting our stay and starting the trip at YC our first HS day is Memorial Day. So expecting insane crowds. We plan to hop to Epcot after our afternoon resort break because that’s an EEH night over there. My birthday is the next day and we plan to do park hop in reverse (Epcot in the morning and HS in the evening) so if I can’t get SDD the previous day we’ll ride then. Fortunately we have such a long trip we will have plenty of opportunities to go to HS so I’m not as stressed about it.

 

[Davey Jones II]

It's been many years since we've been to Animal Kingdom so curious with Early Entry at 8:30 and going straight to Flight of Passage if we would encounter much of a wait? Never been on the ride! Given the size of park and number of rides in early March is there a good touring strategy anyone can recommend? Thanks!

Everyone and his cousin goes for FOP at early entry/rope drop. It's far better to be contrarian and go for other rides during that time; even Navi would be a better choice. Ride FOP with ILL or get in line before closing time, as others have mentioned.

By the way, which are the best parks to use early entry?

 

[BWVPam]

I unintentionally did exactly this for our trip last week. Bought G+ for Safari's and FoP $ILL, and then just started stacking LL for DHS in the afternoon. Had to wait until about 9:30 or 10am to get return times after 4pm, but was able to book TOT, RnRC, TSMM, and MMRR for a delightful evening in DHS. In fact we were done in like 2.5 hours, so we actually hopped over to Epcot via Skyliner for a 3-park day.

So quick question about the stacking part at a different park. Did you buy one LL at DHS and then book your first Genie attraction for that park? Trying to figure out how you were able to book all four of those rides at DHS that far in advance? Sorry, been many times to the parks, but not as much with Genie + and I am sure I may not have been using it correctly to maximize our bookings.

Thanks,

 

[bluedolphin32]

Fortunately we have such a long trip we will have plenty of opportunities to go to HS so I’m not as stressed about it.

I hope one day we can take a weeklong trip. We will have 4 park days, so not a lot of margin for error. I'll go in prepared and see how it goes!

 

[wmarievc]

We were at AK last week, got there for EE (7:30 arrival for 8:30 Early Entry) and it seemed like EVERYBODY was going toward FoP.

Cast members let us past security, held us at the park tapstiles for a few, then let us past those and then started queuing at the lands - Pandora was packed (they held us at the bridge). Finally they let us go to attraction queues and opened up Navi at like 8:25am (we were like 2nd boat -walk on).

I don't know the exact wait at FoP but there were a TON of people looking for it during Early Entry.

We did FoP $ILL$ for 11:30AM, and did Navi, Everest 2x, and Meet Mickey/Minnie before heading to our G+ LL for Safari by 9:15am. Had plenty of time for shopping/bathroom/snack before 11am Festival of the Lion King.

If you can swing the $ILL$ I'd recommend it, since you can do so much at the park first thing. Since I knew we were going to hop in the afternoon, I started stacking LL for the second park as soon as we tapped into Safari. If you're not going to hop, then I don't think G+ is needed.

How did this strategy work for you? This was my original plan, but I'm afraid getting a G+ LL for safari will push return times too far out for DHS. We will be there in early May, so I think similar crowd Levels as end of January, beginning of February. I'm waffling between almost this exact strategy or just getting ILL for FoP, RD EEx2, then Safari, Kali, etc.

 

[2Pirates2Princesses]

People do and I've done it too. Just be aware that the safari does not open during early entry. So if early entry was 7 am and the park opens at 7:30, the safari typically opens at 8 am. One of my favorite AK early morning strategies is to not buy Genie+ and instead buy the ILL for Flight of Passage. Then you rope drop Navi (almost always a walk on), grab a coffee at Starbucks or one of the Joffreys carts and get on line for the safari.

I am totally using this strategy! Our AK day will be on my birthday this July because it's my favorite park! We haven't been to AK in over two years so this is very helpful! Thank you