AK morning EMH / Rope Drop / No FP+ / May 1, 2018

[CarolMN]

SUMMARY: Was able to experience Na'vi River Ride (twice) and FoP (once) before AK officially opened at 9 am. Highly recommend rope drop for those without FP+.

AK now has 8am - 9am EMH daily. Appears to be continuing for at least the next several months.

Had a FP+ for Na'vi for 4/26, but Na'vi was closed that entire day. Since I hadn't had a chance to experience it yet, I was very disappointed. We did have another AK day scheduled for 5/1 butI had a FoP FP+ for that (9:15 - 10:15). When I looked to see if I could exchange it for Na'vi, all of the Na'vi were gone (and of course, so were all the FoP). Decided to give rope drop a try.

Arrived at AK about 7:30 am and got in the entrance line. We were let in about 7:40 am or so. After entering through the turnstiles, a CM scanned MBs to determine if we were eligible for EMH. Then we were allowed to enter up to the turn to Pandora. I was walking leisurely and stopped (due to waiting crowd) just before the bridge. After just a few minutes, we were released to walk to Pandora. I walked my normal pace - many rushed right by me, I walked to the Na'vi entrance, walked through the queue and almost directly onto a boat. Once I exited the ride, I thought I might as well give FoP a try - I'd never seen the queue except for the part allocated to FP+ and I had nothing else I wanted to do before the park officially opened at 9 am.

The line for FoP was backed up to across from the entrance to the ride - a CM was standing with a sign to mark the end of the line. Got in line about 8:05 am. Sign said standby was a 60 minute wait (which was not true, LOL). Line kept moving and didn't stop until we got to the loading zone. I was off the ride about 8:35am or so. Decided to ride Na'vi again. This time there was a short wait. Off that about 8:50 am. Then I went to get a coffee.

I cancelled my FP+ for 9:15-10:15 as I can't do FoP twice in a short period of time without feeling a bit sick, but it is an awesome attraction!

Anyway, seems not a whole bunch of guests like to get up early for an 8 am EMH, even to do the popular FoP without a long wait. I also think those who rushed ahead to do FoP first probably waited longer than I did by riding Na'vi first.

Early morning EMH is a good alternative when the FP+ reservations are all sold out!

 

[JJ2017]

Same experience on 4/29!!! We had no fast passes due to a severely delayed flight in which caused a last minute park switch day.

Arrived at AK at 7:40, was let in a little before 8, was off FoP at 8:25!!! Then walked right on to Na’vi.

I was shocked!

 

[GADisneyDad14]

Thanks for posting your detailed experience @CarolMN. Very helpful!

 

[CuteAsMinnie]

THANK YOU for posting your experience!!! That is our plan for next Wednesday, May 9 but will plan to ride in the reverse order as you... FoP first.

 

[jhoannam]

That’s awesome... I wonder how crowded the non-EMH days will be. There are few of those, and we just happen to be going to one. We are on-site and have FOP FP.

 

[NYG]

Uh oh...I purposely planned our trip to Animal Kingdom this upcoming Monday a while back to avoid EMH. Am I screwed even if I get there at general public rope drop? Really don’t want to wait 60+ minutes for a ride....

 

[DSLRuser]

in a month it will all be different...much of the corwds who have avoided The Studios the past 12-18 months will not migrate back to there as Toy Story will be the new "hot" thing. Animal Kingdom will go back, but not all the way back, to the Disney park many people skip.

 

[CarolMN]

in a month it will all be different...much of the corwds who have avoided The Studios the past 12-18 months will not migrate back to there as Toy Story will be the new "hot" thing. Animal Kingdom will go back, but not all the way back, to the Disney park many people skip.

I disagree. IMO, that's not going to happen until Star Wars Land opens. I don't think any of the new TSL attractions will draw anywhere near the number of guests who want to repeat FoP as often as possible. TSM will not be new (and will have more capacity than in the past) and IMO, many of us (without kids) will consider the other two as one and done.

 

[sharonabe]

That’s awesome... I wonder how crowded the non-EMH days will be. There are few of those, and we just happen to be going to one. We are on-site and have FOP FP.

I expect they will be VERY crowded since that will be the only day offsite guests have a chance at rope drop.

Uh oh...I purposely planned our trip to Animal Kingdom this upcoming Monday a while back to avoid EMH. Am I screwed even if I get there at general public rope drop? Really don’t want to wait 60+ minutes for a ride....

Maybe. Above poster was an on-site guests and had FP+. No one has come back yet to let us know how things are going for offsite guests arriving at general public opening. If you can, you may want to rearrange your day and do FoP at the END of the day, just before closing. You'll probably have a better chance at not having to wait 60+ minutes at that time then you will at opening.

 

[NYG]

I expect they will be VERY crowded since that will be the only day offsite guests have a chance at rope drop.



Maybe. Above poster was an on-site guests and had FP+. No one has come back yet to let us know how things are going for offsite guests arriving at general public opening. If you can, you may want to rearrange your day and do FoP at the END of the day, just before closing. You'll probably have a better chance at not having to wait 60+ minutes at that time then you will at opening.

My biggest fear with waiting until the end of the day is if it breaks down. We only have one day there and if something technical happens that doesn’t let us experience it, I would be so upset. Am I being irrational?

 

[sharonabe]

My biggest fear with waiting until the end of the day is if it breaks down. We only have one day there and if something technical happens that doesn’t let us experience it, I would be so upset. Am I being irrational?

Not irrational at all. The long stream of early EMH just started last Sat. Keep checking for more reports of how things go. With there being one EVERY morning, it does spread out the onsite guests who take advantage of them, so hopefully, that means offsite guests will have a better/shorter wait. If we don't hear anything else, I'd still get there about 45 min to an hour before general pubic opening so you can be at the front of the offsite line once it gets let inside.

 

[ShadeDK]

I had a similar experience with EMH at AK this past week. It’s quite possible to complete most of the rides before the park officially opens at 9am - leaving you the opportunity to then take in the shows and other attractions, or move on to another park. I regretted having set my FPs for AK that day as I didn’t need them and could’ve made them for another park later in the day.

Just for comparison - I caught the 7am bus out of Pop and arrived at bag check by 7:20. We were held by security at the ticket windows until about 7:30 and allowed through to line up at the turnstiles, which opened at about 7:40. Resort guests were directed to the pathway to your left and non-resort guests to the right (thought it was interesting non-resort guests were still there for RD, but there were quite a few even though they couldn’t get in until 9am). MBs checked at the head of the path and then guests were held at the bridge before the walk to Pandora began. That started after a couple of minutes and they took us straight on to the ride.

I was off FoP by 8:10, rode NRJ (walk-on), headed across the park to ride Dinosaur (walk on), then over to EE (walk on) by 8:35. I rode EE three times in a row just cycling through (most trains were going out with only 6-8 people onboard), and was done with rides by 8:55. Overall, it was one of the better EMH experiences I’ve ever had in the parks.

Just a couple of additional observations. CMs had blocked off the bridge over to Harambe for the first part of EMH. Best guess is that this was to prevent guests from splintering off and trying to “shortcut” to FoP on the path from Africa to Pandora. It caught me off guard, however, when I was trying to get to Asia after leaving Pandora. Starbucks had almost no wait. Lots of guests will try to sprint or dodge in on the walk to Pandora - there is absolutely no need - if you’re in that group walking over you’re going to have about a 10-15 minute wait at worst.

 

[mamamelody2]

Wow, sounds amazing! Thanks for sharing!

 

[sharonabe]

Just a couple of additional observations.

Any idea how things were in Pandora by the time offsite guests were let into the park? That's the group we'd most like to help at this point, since they have no chance for rope drop from now until July 1.

 

[ShadeDK]

Any idea how things were in Pandora by the time offsite guests were let into the park? That's the group we'd most like to help at this point, since they have no chance for rope drop from now until July 1.

Agree that offsite guests will need to consider strategy more now that EMH is everyday - but also helpful for the onsite guests to know how much is possible since previous morning EMH has been lackluster (if not something to avoid as a PP noted). Between morning EMH at AK and evening EMH at Epcot (which was a ghost town and lots of walk-ons as well), EMH seemed more valuable this trip than it has in years.

To your question, though - at about 8:50, the wait time for FoP was around 45min and NRJ was around 25min. By 9:20, wait time had shot up to about 85min for FoP and 55min for NRJ. I'll add that this was a weekend - so higher crowds overall. Pandora itself had moderate crowds within the land - with EMH guests steadily continuing to flow in between 8 - 9am, as well as a "second" RD crowd when the park officially opened (saw a few sprinters headed toward Pandora crossing the bridge). For offsite guests, best bet is to be in the park and ready to go before 9am when they release - there will still be a wait in Pandora but that wait time looks like it could double quickly if you're just walking up to the gates around 9am.

 

[DisneyPiPhi]

I had a similar experience with EMH at AK this past week. It’s quite possible to complete most of the rides before the park officially opens at 9am - leaving you the opportunity to then take in the shows and other attractions, or move on to another park. I regretted having set my FPs for AK that day as I didn’t need them and could’ve made them for another park later in the day.

Just for comparison - I caught the 7am bus out of Pop and arrived at bag check by 7:20. We were held by security at the ticket windows until about 7:30 and allowed through to line up at the turnstiles, which opened at about 7:40. Resort guests were directed to the pathway to your left and non-resort guests to the right (thought it was interesting non-resort guests were still there for RD, but there were quite a few even though they couldn’t get in until 9am). MBs checked at the head of the path and then guests were held at the bridge before the walk to Pandora began. That started after a couple of minutes and they took us straight on to the ride.

I was off FoP by 8:10, rode NRJ (walk-on), headed across the park to ride Dinosaur (walk on), then over to EE (walk on) by 8:35. I rode EE three times in a row just cycling through (most trains were going out with only 6-8 people onboard), and was done with rides by 8:55. Overall, it was one of the better EMH experiences I’ve ever had in the parks.

Just a couple of additional observations. CMs had blocked off the bridge over to Harambe for the first part of EMH. Best guess is that this was to prevent guests from splintering off and trying to “shortcut” to FoP on the path from Africa to Pandora. It caught me off guard, however, when I was trying to get to Asia after leaving Pandora. Starbucks had almost no wait. Lots of guests will try to sprint or dodge in on the walk to Pandora - there is absolutely no need - if you’re in that group walking over you’re going to have about a 10-15 minute wait at worst.

Awesome. I'm hoping to have a similar experience at the end of June (although I'm guessing it will be busier due to the summer holiday.)

 

[kmermaid]

SUMMARY: Was able to experience Na'vi River Ride (twice) and FoP (once) before AK officially opened at 9 am. Highly recommend rope drop for those without FP+.

AK now has 8am - 9am EMH daily. Appears to be continuing for at least the next several months.

Had a FP+ for Na'vi for 4/26, but Na'vi was closed that entire day. Since I hadn't had a chance to experience it yet, I was very disappointed. We did have another AK day scheduled for 5/1 butI had a FoP FP+ for that (9:15 - 10:15). When I looked to see if I could exchange it for Na'vi, all of the Na'vi were gone (and of course, so were all the FoP). Decided to give rope drop a try.

Arrived at AK about 7:30 am and got in the entrance line.

CarolMN - What transportation did you use to get to AK?

 

[CarolMN]

CarolMN - What transportation did you use to get to AK?

Took a bus from the GF.

 

[kmermaid]

Perfect, what time did you go to the bus stop. Staying at VGF in less than 2 weeks and trying to decide how to get to EMH AK. Last dec I took a minnie van from BC and it was great. But $25.00 and tip could be used somewhere else!

 

[Rangers67]

That’s awesome... I wonder how crowded the non-EMH days will be. There are few of those, and we just happen to be going to one. We are on-site and have FOP FP.

I'm wondering about this too. We planned our day to avoid EMH and now they are every day except our AK day (next Thursday). I'm worried this will end up being the busiest day to go and that rope drop will be crazy busy. I would switch days now but don't want to give up our FOP fast passes.