FOP at Rope drop?

[Erika1234]

Our last trip was October.
It all depends on the time you get there.
You need to be toward the front of the line at the tapstiles.
That usually means getting there about 60 minutes before official opening time.
As pp noted, you will be let in about 30 minutes early and held at the bridge.
You need to move quickly as many will be rushing that way.
We have entered the line to FoP about 7:45 and off at 8. The standby line by that time was 90 minutes.
The line grows that quickly. 15 minutes can make a huge difference.

What are the tapstiles that everyone is talking about? I’ve never been on FoP or Navi and wanting to do both at RD with my trip next month.

 

[Robo]

What are the tapstiles that everyone is talking about?

The actual park gates where you go into the park.
You "tap" your ticket or MagicBand (and touch the finger-scanner) to enter through the gate.

I’ve never been on FoP or Navi and wanting to do both at RD with my trip next month.

It has nothing to do, specifically, with FoP or Navi.
It's just how you enter the park.

On the inside of the park, you also "tap" your ticket or MagicBand (on the Mickey Head Scanners) to access the entrances of all FP+ attraction lines.

 

[finedice]

My last trip in August 2017, we were at the gate 90 mins prior to opening, about 6 deep at the tapstile line, and HUSTLED to the rope at "the bridge". We did this 3 times on the trip and were pretty close to the rope at the bridge (about 6-8 rows back). We took a bunch of elbows and ended up falling a bit further back on the slow "rope walk" in to the attraction, but we were off the ride about 20- 23 minutes after opening. Later in the day, we used fastpasses. We rode 6 times in a week on 3 AK visits with a TOTAL wait time of around 1 hour (give or take) for all 6 rides. BUT.... this takes effort - and whether you count the 90 minutes pre-park opening as wait time - is all about perspective... Given that we were done with FoP 20 minutes into the day, and wait times at everything else were non-existent - I call it a win!

As far as I can tell, the RD situation hasn't changed - but you really do need to MOVE when you get through the tapstiles. Take a look at the group behind as we waited at the RD bridge into Pandora... As a previous poster mentioned, this is about 10 minutes after we were "in position" at the rope!

 

[Sjm9911]

Even though you have a FoP fast pass, if you have never experienced FoP, you will not want to waste the rope drop advantage on Navi. You will want to ride FoP twice.
Arrive at the park 75 minutes before scheduled opening. Rope drop FoP, then try for Navi and decide if the wait is too long. I usually do both without a huge Navi wait.

I just did this in october, navi then fop fastpass. I was there early, maybe 45 min before park opening. The longest weight was trying to exit the area, lol, the fop lines had crossing guards and atuall ropes directing the cue. Good news, the rest of the park was empty at this point as they were all still in line.

 

[DisAg]

Our last trip to WDW was Jan 2017 so this was our first time to ride FoP and navi (trip was last week with 1 scheduled full day at AK). We had FP+ for FoP and also rope dropped FoP. But we also had an AH later in the week so we knew we would be able to ride navi then. Some of our group did not go to the AH so they waited 70 minutes standby to ride navi. It was one of the lowlights of their trip.

For me I was actually a little disappointed in FoP. Any fast motion was blurry to me and I was getting double vision a lot (similar to watching 3d without 3d glasses). I ended up letting a member of our group use my fastpass for it later that day. I did ride it 2 more times during the AH with pretty much the same thing with the blur/double vision. I wore contacts on the first ride and glasses the next 2. not really any difference. I will ride it again but next trip I foresee 1 full day at AK with FoP FP+, easier navi rope drop and no AK AH. FoP was my MIL favorite attraction of the trip...she liked it better than ROTR.

 

[finedice]

For me I was actually a little disappointed in FoP. Any fast motion was blurry to me and I was getting double vision a lot (similar to watching 3d without 3d glasses).

I didn't experience that at the time, but my close-up vision has deteriorated since then, so I will let you all know if I have a problem this time when we get back in early March!

 

[glk2009]

I just read online that someone preferred going through the standby line of FOP because the theming was amazing. So, we have a FP for FOP and were planning to rope drop Navi, but now I'm wondering if we should rope drop FOP and then run over to Navi... I'm ok with a 20-30 minute if that seems to be the norm.

Any thoughts?

 

[georgina]

We spontaneously rope dropped FOP last week on Thursday. We were planning to rope drop Na'vi but when we arrived about 8:30 the line didn't seem too bad so we decided to do FOP. Line moved continually even though they took us all the way over the bridge to Africa to the restrooms and back. I think we were off shortly after 10, and while standing in line I managed to grab a FP for Na'vi for later (had only made 2 FP originally). If I had a FP for FOP no way would i be waiting in the queue just to see it.

 

[glk2009]

We spontaneously rope dropped FOP last week on Thursday. We were planning to rope drop Na'vi but when we arrived about 8:30 the line didn't seem too bad so we decided to do FOP. Line moved continually even though they took us all the way over the bridge to Africa to the restrooms and back. I think we were off shortly after 10, and while standing in line I managed to grab a FP for Na'vi for later (had only made 2 FP originally). If I had a FP for FOP no way would i be waiting in the queue just to see it.

Thank you!!

Did you happen to notice the wait time for Na’vi after you finished FOP?

I am definitely keeping my FP!

More trying to decide if I can rope drop FOP and then Na’vi with a reasonable wait.

 

[finedice]

Rope drop FoP - We were first in line the other day. If you are an effective dropper, you will not see the full queue. An interesting line is still a line. At $120+ a day, your time is better spent riding than waiting - even if the scenery is cool. We RDd FoP the other day, were "luckily" first in line - they opened the entire attraction 1/2 hour before EMH was even supposed to start (7:30). We were off FoP by 7:50, rode Na'vi with a 6-8 minute wait, and were free to do everything else by 8:05 AM or so.

 

[Ensusieasm]

I just read online that someone preferred going through the standby line of FOP because the theming was amazing. So, we have a FP for FOP and were planning to rope drop Navi, but now I'm wondering if we should rope drop FOP and then run over to Navi... I'm ok with a 20-30 minute if that seems to be the norm.

Any thoughts?

I have rope dropped FoP about 10 times and I did not go through the full queue any of those times.

 

[skuttle]

We rope dropped FOP this past Saturday during EMH. We walked in the gates at 8am, so not as early as we wanted. When we got to the line, it started in pandora but then wrapped all the way to the lion king down along the river. However, the line never stoped moving so it didn’t seem bad at all. We went through the entire queue, which we enjoyed because all of our other rides were FP. And I think they Must have opened parts of it while we were in line. Our wait was less than an hour.

 

[georgina]

Thank you!!

Did you happen to notice the wait time for Na’vi after you finished FOP?

I am definitely keeping my FP!

More trying to decide if I can rope drop FOP and then Na’vi with a reasonable wait.

I think it would depend on you getting to the park earlier than we did. It was president's day week and fairly crowded, so while I'm not positive the exact time I think the Na'vi line was growing the whole time we waited for FOP.

 

[MomOTwins]

I think it would depend on you getting to the park earlier than we did. It was president's day week and fairly crowded, so while I'm not positive the exact time I think the Na'vi line was growing the whole time we waited for FOP.

This answer is going to vary so much depending on crowd levels, and how near the front of the pack you are for FOP. We went at a medium crowd time last year and the wait for Navi was 30 minutes at 9am (i.e. when you would get off if you are the front of the rope for FOP and 60 minutes by 9:30 when we got off Navi (i.e when you would get off FOP if you are not so close to the front)

 

[DianaMB333]

On a very busy day.. I got 45-60mins before park open time, i was riding the attraction exactly at official open time because they let us in before..

 

[CanucksRock]

We RD'ed FoP but my group was so slow, we were a ways back...two hours in line. They loved the wait - they were disappointed when we used FP+ and they could not go thru the regular queue

 

[georgina]

This answer is going to vary so much depending on crowd levels, and how near the front of the pack you are for FOP. We went at a medium crowd time last year and the wait for Navi was 30 minutes at 9am (i.e. when you would get off if you are the front of the rope for FOP and 60 minutes by 9:30 when we got off Navi (i.e when you would get off FOP if you are not so close to the front)

Basically what I said. The question was regarding my earlier post, which was we arrived at AK at 8:30 and got off FOP by 10, so I recommended she get to AK earlier than we did to rope drop FOP then ride Na'vi without too long as line.

 

[Babe the Blue Ox]

Rope drop FoP - We were first in line the other day. If you are an effective dropper, you will not see the full queue. An interesting line is still a line. At $120+ a day, your time is better spent riding than waiting - even if the scenery is cool. We RDd FoP the other day, were "luckily" first in line - they opened the entire attraction 1/2 hour before EMH was even supposed to start (7:30). We were off FoP by 7:50, rode Na'vi with a 6-8 minute wait, and were free to do everything else by 8:05 AM or so.

How early do you have to arrive to be first on line? We use an alternate strategy and hop in line just before closing time. On our most recent visit, the wait was just under 20 minutes. I didn’t think that was too bad.

 

[Mome Rath]

Thank you both! We haven’t been on FOP yet so I will leave it up to my boys to see how early they want to get up that day. After the stress of trying for a RoTR boarding group they may need to sleep in a bit that day!! I’m just hoping I don’t get motion sickness on this. After hearing how great FOP is that would be a real bummer if I closed my eyes through the whole thing

We rope drop FoP, and get to the park an hour early. Line up, ride FoP, then go to NRJ and ride it right after. Love it.

One suggestion if you do tend to get motion sickness; there is a "guide" in the ride and if you can keep your eyes on her, it can be easier on you.

 

[MomOTwins]

How early do you have to arrive to be first on line? We use an alternate strategy and hop in line just before closing time. On our most recent visit, the wait was just under 20 minutes. I didn’t think that was too bad.

At least an hour to be in the first coupke hundred people. 75 minutes if you want to be near the front of the pack. First in line...there are always some superfans who will show up at 6 am just for bragging rights.