Pandora open before official park opening time?

[Countrywife45]

Sorry, I am confused. We will be in AK January 16. The calendar shows no EMH that day. Is Pandora opened seperately?

 

[Robo]

Sorry, I am confused. We will be in AK January 16. The calendar shows no EMH that day. Is Pandora opened seperately?

Certain high-popularity attractions at any park may rate a specific earlier-than-posted opening time.
(Guests let into the park "early" and allowed access to that specific attraction or area.)
These things can vary greatly at different parks and different "seasons."

There's certainly no guarantee that there will be an early opening for a given attraction on any specific date.
However, it seems very likely that Pandora at DAK will still be a very popular goal for guests in January (and beyond.)

If riding FoP is a priority on a given morning, it makes sense to plan on an extra-early arrival time at DAK.

 

[Countrywife45]

How will I find out if we can arrive early at the park? We will have a vehicle, so transportation is not an issue. And we are staying at AOA, so that takes care of that too

 

[Robo]

How will I find out if we can arrive early at the park?

Ask here (there will be others posting about their current trips at that time) as your trip dates arrive.

BTW, you can "always" arrive early to any park.
What you want to know is when you should be expected to be allowed to ENTER that park.

 

[TheWeasel]

On December 15th, there is no EMH, so how early should I arrive? Thx.

 

[Robo]

On December 15th, there is no EMH, so how early should I arrive? Thx.

At least an hour before the posted opening time.
And, it won't hurt to be even earlier.

At WDW, "earlier" beats "later" just about every time.

 

[2009CAN]

Robo, I really, really appreciate all the info you share/post here. Thank you.

 

[jedijake]

I talked to someone at Disney signature and asked about pandora and they said pandora does not open before the rest of the park. Obviously I assuming they are misinformed. Can someone be so kind to explain how it works with pandora. I will be there on the 12 (can’t wait) be there with my two year old princess so I’m just interesting in doing NRJ and my boys want to get their hands on those banshees! I have fast passes for FOP Later in the day. So we get to Ak at say 815 what time can I expect so far as to enter pandora? Thanks everyone so much

 

[Robo]

I talked to someone at Disney signature and asked about pandora and they said pandora does not open before the rest of the park. Obviously I assuming they are misinformed. Can someone be so kind to explain how it works with pandora. I will be there on the 12 (can’t wait) be there with my two year old princess so I’m just interesting in doing NRJ and my boys want to get their hands on those banshees! I have fast passes for FOP Later in the day. So we get to Ak at say 815 what time can I expect so far as to enter pandora? Thanks everyone so much

Certain high-popularity attractions at any park may rate a specific earlier-than-posted opening time.
(Guests let into the park "early" and allowed access to that specific attraction or area.)
These things can vary greatly at different parks and different "seasons."

There's certainly no guarantee that there will be an early opening for a given attraction on any specific date.

If they open Pandora early on your date(s) there, you will be allowed in the gates early and you will be allowed (or even "escorted") to Pandora... along with a few hundred of your closest friends... to line up for the rides.

If riding FoP is a priority on a given morning, it makes sense to plan on an extra-early arrival time at DAK.
I would arrive at least an hour before the posted opening time.
And, it won't hurt to be even earlier.

At WDW, "earlier" beats "later" just about every time.

 

[elaine amj]

I talked to someone at Disney signature and asked about pandora and they said pandora does not open before the rest of the park. Obviously I assuming they are misinformed. Can someone be so kind to explain how it works with pandora. I will be there on the 12 (can’t wait) be there with my two year old princess so I’m just interesting in doing NRJ and my boys want to get their hands on those banshees! I have fast passes for FOP Later in the day. So we get to Ak at say 815 what time can I expect so far as to enter pandora? Thanks everyone so much

Like others have said, there's nothing set in stone that says Pandora will open earlier. However, they typically start letting guests in early - maybe up to about 20-30 mins early? I think I was let in quite early.

This is my report from Sunday, Aug 13: We got to Saratoga Springs Resort at 7am. Checked in and grabbed a quick snack for breakfast and hopped on a bus at 7:30am to Animal Kingdom. DD and I got to Animal Kingdom at 7:45am for a 9am open. There was already quite a few people there. We chose the line on the far right and 5 mins later, they opened two additional bag check lines and we hopped over immediately. This strategy meant we were 3rd in line at the tapstile. They finally let us through and we got caught up in the excitement and half walked/half jogged to Pandora. Ended up being among the first 50 people at the rope on the bridge to Pandora and we easily walked on to FoP. The whole ride from pre-show to exit took us maybe 15 mins - we were done FoP by 9am and waited less than 5 minutes for Na'vi River Journey in standby.

For photos to get an idea what to expect, here's a walk-through with a detailed play-by-play posted by easywdw in June 2017: https://www.easywdw.com/easy/blog/animal-kingdom-pandora-rope-drop-touring-strategy-round-two-61117/

Also, you should be aware that other parks also often open early. I've been caught twice now showing up at Epcot "late" just before 9am. It often opens 20-30 mins early. Same goes for Hollywood Studios. And when you're "late" like that, you're behind the pack which means it's hard to do the headliners. MK typically always opens close to schedule. You can go up to an hour early to wander Main Street and the park itself opens after the opening show just a few mins before official opening time.

OP, in your case, I would rope drop FoP, ride Na'avi on standby, then use your FP on a re-ride of FoP. It's worth it.

 

[jedijake]

Thanks for help my friend

 

[megveg]

I rope dropped an EMH Morning on Monday December 4th, with EMH starting at 8am.

I took an uber from All star Sports and was dropped off at AK at 6:55am. There were already 30 or so people waiting for bag check to open. At 7:05 they opened bag check and I was 3rd in line at a tap point. The "rope" was dropped at 7:20 AM wirh Cast member escort to the bridge.

At 7:30, cast members guided the hoarde of people to Pandora and i was in line and matched with an avatar on FOP at 7:38.

Walked off the ride, moved to River Journey, was in a boat and starting the ride at exactly 8am.

From then on, Pandora was a SWAMP of people, I went on safari and Everest with No waits (best safari ever) and was done with everything I wanted to do by 9:15.

It wasn't crowded but the rope drop crowd was intense but if you planned for it, it was easy.

I hope this helps someone!!

I will be repeating this plan on Tuesday Feb 6th who h is a non-emh day.ill report back

 

[ilovetotravel1977]

We'll be there on Feb 6th as well, but we scored FOP FP+ for 9:10am, thank god!

 

[mort1331]

Heading to AK on Friday feb 2. EMH. What time do busses start running from POP. Catching the first busses, will that be early enough? From out of country so do not have Uber.
Also side question, is there enough seating at night for ROL, we would like to watch the tree show and then walk over to ROL, do able or too crowded?
Thanks

 

[MIChessGuy]

I arrived at AK yesterday, January 21, around 7:15 a.m., non-EMH. There were maybe two dozen or so people ahead of me at the tapstile. We were admitted to the park around 8:05. Not in running condition any more (though I recall the "Space Mountain sprint" from decades ago quite clearly), I walked at a purposeful pace to the bridge leading to Pandora, ending up at a spot just before the beginning of the bridge. The land opened right around 8:30 a.m. I walked right on and exited around 9:00 a.m., at which time the posted standby was 120 minutes. Now it's likely the 7:15 a.m. was overkill, but I had heard about the colossal waiting times for FOP so it seemed prudent to err on the side of caution. (One odd fringe benefit was that the parking booth guy waved me in without collecting the fee...a first for me in 40+ years of theme park attendance.)

 

[megveg]

We'll be there on Feb 6th as well, but we scored FOP FP+ for 9:10am, thank god!

Let's high five at some point!!

 

[kalynn]

Is it worth trying for a 9am FP+ for Flight of Passage or is it going to be too busy and congested at FOP first thing in the morning? Should I try for something later in the day instead? I'd like to try to minimize how much criss crossing I'm doing but I don't want to get caught in a situation where I can't even make it to the FP line because there are so many people crowding around

We have an 8:55 a.m. FP for FoP for an 8:00 a.m. park opening. We plan to be there at 7:20 and are hoping to be able to ride both FoP and Na'vi before our FoP fastpass expires at 9:55 a.m.

I recommend a strategy similar to this.

 

[Burgermom]

We are headed to AK next Wednesday.
Can anyone confirm if they are still opening Pandora a bit earlier than the rest of AK?
We are rope dropping Navi (have fpp for FOP)
If we get to park by 8:15 should we be ok?

 

[mort1331]

No FP for us, we will do RD and take our chances. Good luck to all

 

[DavidNYC]

We are headed to AK next Wednesday.
Can anyone confirm if they are still opening Pandora a bit earlier than the rest of AK?
We are rope dropping Navi (have fpp for FOP)
If we get to park by 8:15 should we be ok?

I would think more than OK - we've done Na'vi at Rope Drop twice getting to the turnstyles at about 15 minutes before rope drop and Na'vi was 5 minutes wait once and 10 minutes wait once. It builds very quickly after rope drop but it really does look like 95% of the traffic goes to FoP.