Animal Kingdom Rope Drop and FOP..

[BigOHawk]

It's been many years since we've been to Animal Kingdom so curious with Early Entry at 8:30 and going straight to Flight of Passage if we would encounter much of a wait? Never been on the ride! Given the size of park and number of rides in early March is there a good touring strategy anyone can recommend? Thanks!

 

[Narcoossee11]

I think Most will have the same plan as you.
75%... Fop

 

[kylenne]

More like 95%. Plan to be at your resort bus stop 90 minutes before early entry so you’re on the first bus to AK. If you want to rope drop FoP you absolutely have to be at the front of the pack for it to still be a walk on. If you’re not at or near the front of the pack don’t even bother, wait times will have already ballooned and you’ll waste valuable early AM touring time in the FoP queue. As an alternative you can get on at the end of the night. AK waits plummet because the park closes so early compared to the others and many people only go for half a day.

 

[austinelsa]

do people RD the safari? or is that easy to walk on in the morning? Also want to RD FoP but not sure i'd be able to get my fam there in time to be in the front of the pack.

 

[Smugpugmug]

do people RD the safari? or is that easy to walk on in the morning? Also want to RD FoP but not sure i'd be able to get my fam there in time to be in the front of the pack.

People do and I've done it too. Just be aware that the safari does not open during early entry. So if early entry was 7 am and the park opens at 7:30, the safari typically opens at 8 am. One of my favorite AK early morning strategies is to not buy Genie+ and instead buy the ILL for Flight of Passage. Then you rope drop Navi (almost always a walk on), grab a coffee at Starbucks or one of the Joffreys carts and get on line for the safari.

 

[kylenne]

do people RD the safari? or is that easy to walk on in the morning? Also want to RD FoP but not sure i'd be able to get my fam there in time to be in the front of the pack.

IIRC the safari isn’t typically open for early entry, but the rest of the park is dead because everyone’s in Pandora. Usually it opens at 8 but once in a while it gets delayed due to issues with the animals. Rare but it can happen. It‘s best to hit the safari early anyway imo because the animals are out and more active in the morning before it gets silly hot.

 

[mickeyluv'r]

do people RD the safari? or is that easy to walk on in the morning? Also want to RD FoP but not sure i'd be able to get my fam there in time to be in the front of the pack.

Some, but not nearly as much as FoP.

On our most recent visit, we walked on to Na'vi, then we had a G+ for the Safari. When we got there, the wait for the safari was rather long.

 

[scrappinginontario]

People do and I've done it too. Just be aware that the safari does not open during early entry. So if early entry was 7 am and the park opens at 7:30, the safari typically opens at 8 am. One of my favorite AK early morning strategies is to not buy Genie+ and instead buy the ILL for Flight of Passage. Then you rope drop Navi (almost always a walk on), grab a coffee at Starbucks or one of the Joffreys carts and get on line for the safari.

This is a great strategy!!

 

[BigOHawk]

Thanks for the tips! Family and I are indeed early risers and usually grab first bus to the park and move/run rather quickly to the rope drop attractions...I was nearly stampeded a few years back while walking/running to Slinky, would that be a good comparison rope drop wise? Alternately, as mentioned, maybe you could knock out a few other rides like Navi and Eversest, etc while the 'heard' all migrates to FOP?

 

[gharter]

do people RD the safari?

I have not seen Safari open for EE. Generally it open with the park.
We get there early, at least 45 minutes before EE, near the front of the line.
After FoP, take the bridge to harumbi and its a short walk to Safari and generally have a short wait there as well.

 

[kylenne]

Thanks for the tips! Family and I are indeed early risers and usually grab first bus to the park and move/run rather quickly to the rope drop attractions...I was nearly stampeded a few years back while walking/running to Slinky, would that be a good comparison rope drop wise? Alternately, as mentioned, maybe you could knock out a few other rides like Navi and Eversest, etc while the 'heard' all migrates to FOP?

I’ve never done Slinky at rope drop because I like it better at night and my preferred strategy at HS has always been to do Sunset attractions first. In general I like to zig at rope drop when most others zag, because I feel like you can get more done that way. But I’ve rope dropped FoP many times even in the FP+ days because it’s my favorite ride in AK and it’s definitely running of the bulls. The rest of the park is dead, I’m not exaggerating when I say everybody is going to FoP that time of morning. For our upcoming trip we plan to ILL it and zig elsewhere like smug said.

 

[Smugpugmug]

This is a great strategy!!

Thanks! Once the safari opens, it's usually not a long wait. When I did this strategy in May, I waited 15 minutes. The line looks long but moves quickly. Also the food stand to the right of the safari entrance (do not remember the name right now) has good breakfast options too. Usually not a long line.

 

[snayak]

We were at AK last week, got there for EE (7:30 arrival for 8:30 Early Entry) and it seemed like EVERYBODY was going toward FoP.

Cast members let us past security, held us at the park tapstiles for a few, then let us past those and then started queuing at the lands - Pandora was packed (they held us at the bridge). Finally they let us go to attraction queues and opened up Navi at like 8:25am (we were like 2nd boat -walk on).

I don't know the exact wait at FoP but there were a TON of people looking for it during Early Entry.

We did FoP $ILL$ for 11:30AM, and did Navi, Everest 2x, and Meet Mickey/Minnie before heading to our G+ LL for Safari by 9:15am. Had plenty of time for shopping/bathroom/snack before 11am Festival of the Lion King.

If you can swing the $ILL$ I'd recommend it, since you can do so much at the park first thing. Since I knew we were going to hop in the afternoon, I started stacking LL for the second park as soon as we tapped into Safari. If you're not going to hop, then I don't think G+ is needed.

 

[rhenkt]

People do and I've done it too. Just be aware that the safari does not open during early entry. So if early entry was 7 am and the park opens at 7:30, the safari typically opens at 8 am. One of my favorite AK early morning strategies is to not buy Genie+ and instead buy the ILL for Flight of Passage. Then you rope drop Navi (almost always a walk on), grab a coffee at Starbucks or one of the Joffreys carts and get on line for the safari.

This is exactly what we did and it worked out very well with our 18 month old. We got there early enough but hung back from the FOP crowd, walked on to Navi with no wait, had a snack, headed to Safari for a stunning sunrise safari.

 

[DCLCruiseFan09]

More like 95%. Plan to be at your resort bus stop 90 minutes before early entry so you’re on the first bus to AK. If you want to rope drop FoP you absolutely have to be at the front of the pack for it to still be a walk on. If you’re not at or near the front of the pack don’t even bother, wait times will have already ballooned and you’ll waste valuable early AM touring time in the FoP queue. As an alternative you can get on at the end of the night. AK waits plummet because the park closes so early compared to the others and many people only go for half a day.

Also, Dont forget that if you stay for park close and are IN LINE you'll get to ride before closing for any attraction that you are in the queue for (IE Flight of Passage) so if the park closes at 7 and you get in line at 6:58 you'll usually get on that ride within 30 min and be out and on your way. We used this strategy to hit FOP and Navi River a few years back. We timed getting off FOP with just enough time to get in the queue for River.

do people RD the safari? or is that easy to walk on in the morning? Also want to RD FoP but not sure i'd be able to get my fam there in time to be in the front of the pack.

Used to drive safaris for 2 yrs. It all depends on the Temperature. If it is a warmer morning, the animals will be out and moving. If it is cold out, (30's- low 60's) safaris are usually pretty barren because the animals get to choose if they want to go out on safari and they usually choose to stay in their warm barns until it warms up more outside. 60's you'll start to more consistently see Rhinos, Elephants, Lions, Giraffes, more of the bigger animals.

The 70 degree safaris were usually some of the best. 80 Degrees and above can be good for Pictures because the animals don't move around as much, they tend to stay still

My favorite safaris to drive were always during summer rainstorms or right after the rain. Usually its cool and the animals are extremely active. Elephants love to swim in the rain. Some of my favorite memories of working there was watching the baby elephants playing in the water. There were no other trucks behind us so we watched for a few minutes before someone else came along and we continued.

 

[jimmymc]

You want to be there a minimum of 30 minutes before the rope drop time. They will walk you in about 10 minutes early, and if you're there far enough ahead of time you'll basically walk through the entire queue right to the grouper.

 

[MickeyMice]

agree that you need to rope drop the rope drop if you want no/low wait for FOP. the flip side is that EE is usually a walk-on for a while in the early morning and that's usually where we head.

 

[kylenne]

Also, Dont forget that if you stay for park close and are IN LINE you'll get to ride before closing for any attraction that you are in the queue for (IE Flight of Passage) so if the park closes at 7 and you get in line at 6:58 you'll usually get on that ride within 30 min and be out and on your way. We used this strategy to hit FOP and Navi River a few years back. We timed getting off FOP with just enough time to get in the queue for River.

Used to drive safaris for 2 yrs. It all depends on the Temperature. If it is a warmer morning, the animals will be out and moving. If it is cold out, (30's- low 60's) safaris are usually pretty barren because the animals get to choose if they want to go out on safari and they usually choose to stay in their warm barns until it warms up more outside. 60's you'll start to more consistently see Rhinos, Elephants, Lions, Giraffes, more of the bigger animals.

The 70 degree safaris were usually some of the best. 80 Degrees and above can be good for Pictures because the animals don't move around as much, they tend to stay still

My favorite safaris to drive were always during summer rainstorms or right after the rain. Usually its cool and the animals are extremely active. Elephants love to swim in the rain. Some of my favorite memories of working there was watching the baby elephants playing in the water. There were no other trucks behind us so we watched for a few minutes before someone else came along and we continued.

Yea, that's what I meant by "end of the night". The other nice thing about doing that is you get to see Pandora all lit up.

Did you ever drive back when they had the sunset safaris? I only got to do it once before they stopped but it was the one time I ever saw the cheetahs actually moving around.

 

[DCLCruiseFan09]

Yea, that's what I meant by "end of the night". The other nice thing about doing that is you get to see Pandora all lit up.

Did you ever drive back when they had the sunset safaris? I only got to do it once before they stopped but it was the one time I ever saw the cheetahs actually moving around.

I started right after the Poachers storyline went away completely but right as they were working on the Sunset Safaris.

We all knew that the third try for night time safaris wouldn't work because the 1st and 2nd didn't. Animals don't care what kind of fake sunset you create. They know when the real sun goes down and they want to go to bed. Even shortening the ride path didn't make it worth it. The only things out there people really raved about were the Lions but even then, they usually wouldn't stay out on show very late anyway.

If you really want a great Lion show on safaris, go around 30 min to an hour before closing. They are usually all waiting for dinner and will sit very still. They are usually around at the very last part of the rocks since that is where the bridge is for them to get dinner.

 

[BigOHawk]

Great tips and information much appreciated! I'll have to re-think my strategy.

I guess the question is do you we want to ride FOP once or twice? If once, then I'm skipping it at RD, hitting Navii first, then EE, then Safari and maybe doing FOP at 6:45 for a 7 p.m. close.

If twice, then for early entry at 8:30 I'm on the Disney Port Orleans bus by about 6:30/6:45 then in line for early entry maybe by 7:15/7:30 at latest and proceed straight to FOP then Navi. To ride twice will hop in line just before park close to minimize wait and see the great colors of Pandora at night!