FOP at closing a good option or only rope drop?

[OldSchoolReasons]

Our group saw this first-hand with Navi River two Sundays ago.
We had not been on it over two trips and because we didn't want to burn an FP.
As luck would have it we met up with another group for dinner at Tiffins.
We finished up at 7:45p for an 8p park close.
Walked over to Pandora, hit the three nighttime Photopass shots and noticed there was a posted 40 min wait on Navi River.

"It won't be that long."

We entered the queue at 7:58p.
And kept walking.
And walking.
And walking.
Right onto a boat.

When we got off the CM said we were the last riders of the night.
We didn't see any other guests the from the time we entered the queue until we were outside the attraction.

We did the same after RP FoP. Queue said 25 minutes, it was probably 5. I think we actually spent more time riding than queuing, which is a miracle in itself.

 

[OldSchoolReasons]

I heard a while back that although there is not a single rider line, once you pass a certain point you MIGHT be a fill-in on a group that has an open seat. I'm doing a solo trip in January, and am hoping this is true.

We had a woman enter the FP queue who was using single rider. She said it "wasn't advertised but is so handy".

 

[pl71]

This past week, Jersey week, I got in line for FOP 45 min before close and waited 65 min to ride. I headed to the park alone at night leaving my toddler with grandma at the resort. In the final area before the linking rooms they split everyone into multiple lines to wait for a room. As a single they had me skip those lines and go into a separate empty line. It probably cut about 10 min off the wait, maybe more. They used me to fill in the room. At that point it was after park close so it may have been where fast pass people usually go.

It was all very pleasant. Only three us of on the bus ride to the park, no wait at all for bag check or to enter the park, then stroll through empty Pandora which is so pretty in the dark. I’d rather have that experience than rope drop.

 

[hakepb]

I wonder if they had a theater go down or something.

And/or closed a theater earlier.
I haven’t had a wait longer than posted at closing. But this summer, before closing the line was moving slowly. At close, the line started moving faster, until we were assigned our ramp before the pre-show. We then saw a group of CM’s leave, and the line moved a lot more slowly after then as it seemed they shut down a theater.

I’m still a fan of the closing option. You get to experience Pandora at night, and I still think FoP is worth an ~50 minute actual wait. (No other WDW ride is worth that)

 

[puffkin]

The way I look at it is this...if the goal is to maximize your overall time, not just park time, then it will be way more efficient to go right at closing.

Example- For Rope Drop you need to get there at least an hour before the scheduled opening and through bag drop. Which means you are still WAITING an hour. Then whatever time you actually wait at the ride, best case scenario 10-20 minutes. All in, you are taking over an hour out of your day, and even a portion of park time.

Example- jump in the line at Park closing. You are still putting the wait time outside of park hours. However, in most cases, your wait will be significantly less than the hour+ you dedicated in the morning to get there early. It seems to average about 40-45 minutes. In this example you are not using ANY park time.

So from an overall time perspective, you will spend less time at Park Closing. There are also some intrinsic benefits of seeing the land at night, less congestion in the land, etc.

I have done both, and I must say the morning rope drop method is pretty miserable. I much prefer the evening method..