AK Touring Strategy With Pandora Open

[bmahokie]

Our family has a stay booked for June 8 - June 16. My original planning has us going to AK on June 11. However, it has EMH in the morning on both the 10th and the 12th. With Pandora being open then I wonder if I should switch our AK day to one of those, get their at rope drop, and hope for lines for the Pandora rides that are as small as they are going to get during that time frame (which isn't saying much). Of course that would mean switching dining ressies, etc. What say everyone? And I've got to stop obsessing!

 

[DrummerBoy523]

Our family has a stay booked for June 8 - June 16. My original planning has us going to AK on June 11. However, it has EMH in the morning on both the 10th and the 12th. With Pandora being open then I wonder if I should switch our AK day to one of those, get their at rope drop, and hope for lines for the Pandora rides that are as small as they are going to get during that time frame (which isn't saying much). Of course that would mean switching dining ressies, etc. What say everyone? And I've got to stop obsessing!

Well, we will be there the week prior. I think I am going to try to grab FP+ for at least one of the attractions and rope drop the other one assuming they will be on the same tier.

 

[fairytale]

I'm interested in this too. We have AK planned for day one of our 2 weeks stay and am wondering whether or not to consider utilising EMH and changing my days around. My issue is our ADR day is coming up next week so really could do with making my mind up. Do you think all the new attractions with be FP+?

 

[FireflyTrance]

I would be surprised if the new Padora rides didn’t have FP+. I’m also trying to plan since I will be there during Pandora’s opening week (by chance, not by choice) :/

 

[jamesnangie]

Well, we will be there the week prior. I think I am going to try to grab FP+ for at least one of the attractions and rope drop the other one assuming they will be on the same tier.

Agreed! We'll be there in July and hoping to try the same strategy. We already planned our AK day with the AK morning EMH...certain we'll have to be there plenty early for rope drop for the attraction we don't FP+.

 

[maryj11]

The problem with making ADR's or plans is they change EMH days sometimes. You never know if they will change or not. I have been thinking we should buy hoppers to just go for EMH's . Decisions decisions

 

[DisneyAnytime]

I’m also trying to plan since I will be there during Pandora’s opening week (by chance, not by choice) :/

Us too. My plan is to AVOID. We are fortunate to be able to visit often so we will visit Pandora after all the initial excitement has dwindled. We switched our AK day from 5/28 to 5/25 and added a dining package for Rivers of Light.

 

[GBBTomorrow]

A few questions about touring AK this summer:

• Do we know yet which attractions in Pandora will have Fastpass+?
  
• Does anybody know if it's absolutely necessary to get a FP for Rivers of Light in order to see it? Can you just walk up to it? I'm having trouble picturing where the show's focal point is. I'm trying to decide the benefits of making a ROL FP, which would prevent me from making more than 3 in a day, or walk up to ROL so that we can possibly get more FP during the day when we use up our initial 3.
  
• Do you think anything in Pandora will be worth doing in daylight hours, or is it really a nighttime experience?

 

[viluvsdisney]

A few questions about touring AK this summer:

• Do we know yet which attractions in Pandora will have Fastpass+?
  
• Does anybody know if it's absolutely necessary to get a FP for Rivers of Light in order to see it? Can you just walk up to it? I'm having trouble picturing where the show's focal point is. I'm trying to decide the benefits of making a ROL FP, which would prevent me from making more than 3 in a day, or walk up to ROL so that we can possibly get more FP during the day when we use up our initial 3.
  
• Do you think anything in Pandora will be worth doing in daylight hours, or is it really a nighttime experience?

Same questions! Love to hear the responses

 

[linzbear]

A few questions about touring AK this summer:

• Do we know yet which attractions in Pandora will have Fastpass+?
  
• Does anybody know if it's absolutely necessary to get a FP for Rivers of Light in order to see it? Can you just walk up to it? I'm having trouble picturing where the show's focal point is. I'm trying to decide the benefits of making a ROL FP, which would prevent me from making more than 3 in a day, or walk up to ROL so that we can possibly get more FP during the day when we use up our initial 3.
  
• Do you think anything in Pandora will be worth doing in daylight hours, or is it really a nighttime experience?

No one knows, yet. There are 2 attractions which we presume will have FP+, but we have no idea in how long the standbys will be for them or how their existing affects the other attractions in AK.

Check back in March for the ROL questions, and June for Pandora.

 

[Blue32]

One thing thing to consider is how these attractions load and their capacity. The river ride sounds like it will have a much higher capacity....something close to POTC? The banshee ride I'm sure will have a much lower capacity and develope longer waits in general. I think that will be the one to FP if possible. It will also be interesting if AK ends up with tiers as it currently does not.

 

[MickeyMinnieMom]

Well, we will be there the week prior. I think I am going to try to grab FP+ for at least one of the attractions and rope drop the other one assuming they will be on the same tier.

Did I miss something? Is there talk of tiering FP for AK??

 

[Blue32]

Did I miss something? Is there talk of tiering FP for AK??

If you missed it , I have also. Never seen it mentioned but it's certainly possible.

 

[DrummerBoy523]

just speculation on my part.

 

[jknc]

Another wrench/opportunity could be if they announce an early morning entry option to Pandora for an additional fee.

It is Di$ney World after all.

 

[MickeyMinnieMom]

Another wrench/opportunity could be if they announce an early morning entry option to Pandora for an additional fee.

It is Di$ney World after all.

I would love this. Sorry.

 

[Zippa D Doodah]

A few questions about touring AK this summer:

• Do we know yet which attractions in Pandora will have Fastpass+?
  
• Does anybody know if it's absolutely necessary to get a FP for Rivers of Light in order to see it? Can you just walk up to it? I'm having trouble picturing where the show's focal point is. I'm trying to decide the benefits of making a ROL FP, which would prevent me from making more than 3 in a day, or walk up to ROL so that we can possibly get more FP during the day when we use up our initial 3.
  
• Do you think anything in Pandora will be worth doing in daylight hours, or is it really a nighttime experience?

This is mostly just an educated guess on my part...
1. I would think all attractions in Pandora will have FP+.
2. From what I have seen of the pics of the ROL seating area, I'm planning on needing either FPs or doing a dinner package. Seating area looks relatively smallish, and ROL is sure to be a popular draw for a good while.
3. I bet Pandora will be magical at night, but am trusting that imagineers will have built in enough charm to make it worthwhile in daylight. Time will tell

 

[Anal Annie]

We're going for 8 nights beginning June 30th so we'll be there during the busy July 4th week. This is our first time going during that week and I have no idea what to expect for crowd levels. Assuming possibly close to Easter / Spring break or the Christmas holidays levels (I know they had offered a bounceback offer for that time period so they may have high crowds). I have been switching plans around all over the place this week with the announcements of Pandora, RoL and the new fireworks show that's going to replace Wishes. Because of the possible crowd levels I am hoping to use FPs for the new Pandora stuff and EE. Nobody knows yet if they will initiate tiering at AK with the new attractions. I wouldn't be surprised tho if they did. I mean everyone is going to want to FP both of those if possible, right? I have now changed our arrival day evening from HS to MK so we can see the new fireworks in addition to the special July 4th ones.

While I initially had planned 2 mornings and 1 evening at AK I have now decided that we'll likely want to spend more time at AK than usual and I am thinking that the new Pandora will be an entirely different experience at night so now I'm thinking to spend 2 mornings there (with both mornings being EMHs). We always do AK morning EMHs and find we usually get a lot done there. We usually use our FPs at our evening park but on one of these days there is a special DVC member event at Typhoon Lagoon which I hope to book - which means we can go ahead and FP things at AK that morning too. I plan to book a RoL dining pkg. at Tusker House for 1 evening when they release them for July because I want to save our FPs for Pandora. We don't usually book a dining pkg. because we can't use our TIW or AP or DVC discounts for them. But I think for 1 out of our 2 evenings we will as I'm just expecting high crowds that week. We've done Tiffins for lunch 2x already and while we love it I'll save going back for another time when we can use our TIW discount. We'll either do standby for RoL on the 2nd evening or I may FP it depending on reviews and how hard it sounds like it is to get in once it opens. I also think it's a good idea to plan on 2 evenings at AK because of the possibility of thunderstorms. We've been stormed out of fireworks & shows before during trips. I would be bummed to get rained out and not have a backup plan in place for another night.

I'm also trying to make sure to cram a little bit of everything in on our first weekend because we don't know yet if our DS will be able to join us on this trip or not (he's in college and will hopefully be working an internship - so he may only be able to join us for the weekend if at all).

 

[LaurenT]

Planning AK is making me crazy! We're going end of July, so ROL dining ADRs aren't even available yet.
If I do the first show, I probably won't be able to squeeze in a pre-sunset KS, but I may be able to tour Pandora after the show, when it's more magical.
Or, do the second show, do sunset KS and then hope there's time to take in some Pandora before ROL ...

 

[PrincessArlena'sDad]

Planning AK is making me crazy! We're going end of July, so ROL dining ADRs aren't even available yet.
If I do the first show, I probably won't be able to squeeze in a pre-sunset KS, but I may be able to tour Pandora after the show, when it's more magical.
Or, do the second show, do sunset KS and then hope there's time to take in some Pandora before ROL ...

1. It depends what time closing is relative to RoL 2nd show time. Might be able to walk through after the show.

2. In July, sunset is after 8:30, and you need to plan at least 45 min for KS. And, if an animal blocks the road, it could take a lot longer. I would not plan on seeing RoL after sunset KS unless the showtime was after 10:00