AK Strategy When Booking FP 1-2 Days in Advance?

[BalooHoo]

I've read all of the great information on this board, and now I'd appreciate a little help with strategy for my specific situation. We will be in AK on April 8, arriving for the early EMH at 8 am. We currently have 1-day park tickets that we will upgrade when we arrive at WDW on 4/6, and I will get FP for a different park at the 60 day mark. That means I won't be able to get FPs for 4/8 in AK until I add another day to our park tickets when I arrive on 4/6.

After following the daily availability I have no concerns that I will have many choices in AK, but I have some limitations based on family preferences that make it hard to choose which ones to get. As described below, one possible problem is that I may have a hard time finding enough attractions to use my first 3 FPs that work for our expected schedule. Here are our limitations:

1. We want to ride Safari early in the morning.
2. We do not want to ride Kali.
3. If we ride Dino, it probably won't be in the early morning because my wife doesn't want to ride and I don't want to make her wait for the rest of us that early in the day.
4. My DS15 would choose to ride EE all day if we let him, so we want to give him multiple rides throughout the day.
5. We may or may not see Nemo.
6. If possible I want to use my first 3 FPs by around 12:30 to free up more of them later in the day. I hope to get EE and Whirl sometime during the afternoon, maybe more than once.
7. We are leaving the park around 12:30 for lunch and a break, then returning around 3:00.

With those guidelines, I'm having trouble planning which FP to try to get. If FP availability were not an issue, ideally I'd plan to get the following FPs: (1) Safari 9am-10am; (2) EE 10:15-11:15; and (3) FOLK 11:30-11:45 for the noon show. The problem is that I don't expect the Safari to have early morning availability by the time I can book 2 days in advance, and I'm not confident I can get the FOLK noon show.

If I can't get an early Safari FP, we'll ride it standby before 9am during EMH and we won't need a FP. That leaves us with EE and FOLK (maybe). What else should we get? I don't need Kali, and I suppose I can get Dino for my DS15 and me as long as it's after around 10:00am. If I assume that I'm getting the 11:30 FOLK, and if I throw in a Dino around 10:15-11:15, then that leaves EE around 9:15-10:15.

Would these likely be available for those times if I'm only booking 2 days in advance? Are they wastes of FPs to use that early in the morning? Do I even need a FP for FOLK? Should I get a FP for Whirl sometime in the morning just to use up my first 3 FPs? Any other options or strategies that might work better? Thanks in advance for your help!

 

[loves to dive]

You don't need to use all three of your FPs, you can use 1, 2 or 3. I don't think you would even need them for Safari or EE if you are arriving at rope drop. I've never booked a FP at AK before actually being in the park. If you son wants to ride EE multiple times and you have no problem with him riding it alone, they have a single rider line that goes pretty fast. I don't think you will need a FP for FOLK, just get there about a half hour before start so you are pretty close up in the stand by line. 2 days in advance should be no problem if you do want to book FPs, especially if you are going to be there all day and the time doesn't matter.

 

[crazylady]

We went to AK at a pretty busy time and had no issues without using FP so I don't think you'll have issues booking FP at the last minute. Just add an FYI, Re hadls a single rider line. Your 15yo will love that.

 

[BalooHoo]

Thanks for the helpful tips. I'm sure my DS15 will use the single rider line at EE while we recover from a few rides on it! We like it too, but usually we need a break after 2 or 3 rides on it in a row.

I was mainly concerned with trying to use all 3 FPs in the morning so that I would be eligible for more in the afternoon. I know that we can get through the early morning without needing FPs, but I want to clear out our first 3 FPs so we're eligible for another FP at EE for the afternoon.