Today we rope dropped EE at AK. Was at the Poly bus stop at 6:30 this morning with only one other family, and were on the first bus out at 6:44. I didn’t note what time we arrived but there was already a decent crowd being held at the tapstyles.
One very important tip: if you get there this early, stay as far left as you can, regardless of what the lines look like. 99% of the time they will open up more tapstyles on the left. They did that this morning and so we peeled off into one of the new lines and got very close to the front, probably ahead of guests that got there before we did.
A CM was going up and down the line with stacks of card media, asking if anyone didn’t have a card or MB and coding them for those guests. I assume it’s because they are trying to avoid the guests trying to tap in for big groups with magic mobile for efficiency sake. Note that AK was the only place we saw this.
We were let in at 7:24, and the running of the bulls to Pandora commenced. We bought FoP ILL so avoided all that craziness and walked onto Navi at 7:34. I booked a Safari LL for 8:05 and because we were off Navi so quickly and the Safari doesn’t start running until 8, we decided to head to Dinosaur next. We walked straight into the preshow at 7:51. Afterwards the Safari was up and a posted 15 min wait, we tapped in at 8:12 and got a very very active trip! Wildebeests were out, rhinos and elephants and even the lions walked about and made vocalizations! The weather was cool which helped I think. After that I began stacking rides for Epcot.
Moana was our top priority, being huge fans, so we got in line at 8:47 behind a handful of other groups and got breakfast from the Isle of Java cart right there. The line quickly ballooned behind us curving back toward Flame Tree, but they were not letting us into the actual queue until 9:10 or so. She began meeting at 9:15. If this is a priority especially on a busier day, definitely line up before 9. It was a pretty low crowd day today at AK but she only meets until 3pm and her line is crazy all day. We were in and out and able to do more things this way.
Afterwards we rode FoP, had a snack at Satuli, walked the Gorilla Falls trail and saw some otters afterwards, but on the way to FotLK I realized my Magicband+ had popped off. We retraced our steps all the way back through the trail with no luck, asking the CMs there who hadn’t seen it. But finally we went back to Satu’li and they’d found it and we’re keeping it in the office. I was relieved given I had an old Passholder slider on it, but everyone there was super nice and we left a cast compliment. Thing is we were so tired by then and it was so hot that we left back to the resort early.
After nap and pool time at Poly we were on the way to Epcot for dinner when we saw a PhotoPass photographer by Pineapple Lanai and got a handful of pics outside before the rain started. More pics in the lobby, including with a Pride Mickey prop, but the sky opened up outside and we were caught in that horrid rain that
@ten50 mentioned. We just threw on our rain jackets and had umbrellas and soldiered on to the TTC.
Will say that crowds were very light at Epcot tonight probably bc of the rain but waits were crazy. We did Guardians, Soarin, Remy and Frozen all on ILL/stacked LLs and then hit a ton of food booths with the discount. Third party owned booths don’t have it. If you have a food allergy don’t be deterred! They can call the chef and check ingredients, which they did for the plant based cheese on the elotes (it was tree nut free, and I can have coconut).
We left and came back to Poly since tomorrow is another early entry day (MK). Watched EWP from the beach but fireworks are delayed bc of weather so calling it a night with our dole whips.
One note, if anyone wants September on Guardians just ride with me. I have gotten it every time but twice