Avatar flight of passage... When do i ride it?

[chill n bongo]

Hi there, in going to disney very soon and visiting Pandora (mainly for flight of passage). Should I go at RD or extra magic hours at 10pm-12am local time?

 

[AtlantaDisneyDreamer]

When I was there in July, EMH was definitely better than rope drop. Even better was 8-9:30 pm. Between 8 and 9:30, quite a few people were at ROL. Also, many people who arrived at RD had already left the park, and those who were coming from other parks for EMH had not yet arrived. In July, massive crowds headed into AK after the nightly fireworks at the other parks.

It was still very crowded, but some of the shortest lines I saw were during the 8-9:30 time frame. I don't know if that is still the case, but I do know that RD was insane- a 210 minute wait soon after RD- but EMH tended to be between 90 and 120 minute wait (though I did see the posted wait time climb to over 200 minutes during EMH one night- don't know if it was actually that long or if they were just trying to discourage people). I waited one night during EMH with a posted 120 wait and it was only about 60 minutes. One night posted wait time was 75 minutes around 9 pm, but that was a night after big afternoon storms, so that could have affected the lines, too.

 

[CAS239]

Rope drop if you get there early.

Get there early and you can be done with the ride within 15-30 min. If you arrive right when the park is opening though you'll be looking at a lot longer wait. I'd aim to get to the park 60-75 min before park opening.

Emh won't be 3-4 hour waits, but you'll basically spend the entire emh at FoP if the line are long. Right now at FoP with evening emh the wait at 11:30pm is 90 min

Either you'll be waiting in line during emh or you'll be waiting for the park to open.. I'd rather kill time in the morning and spend little time waiting once inside the park vs taking the chances of waiting over an hour in line while the park is open

 

[ucfknight]

Rope drop getting there an hour early would be the way to go.
Since they stopped cutting off the line for day guests an hour before EMH, the line at the start of EMH is often longer than it is for last couple hours of normal park time.

 

[GF Girl]

We had to do the rope drop...and it was ridiculous. People running, shoving and hitting the backs of our ankles with strollers. Insanity...the ride is okay, but it's not worth a 3 hour wait...which existed every day we were there...all day.

 

[Disney_and_Wine]

It's a tough call. RD will be your best bet to complete the ride in the shortest amount of time if you start the clock running at the time that you arrive at the attraction. But with RD, you also have to add in the time that you waited outside the gates. If you show up at 7:00 for an 8:00 opening and your wait time at the attraction is 30 minutes, did you wait 30 minutes, or did you wait an hour and thirty minutes? In reality, it was the latter. But that is OK for most folks, because you are now in the park and ahead of the curve for most other rides while people wait in a two hour line for FoP. But waiting an hour outside the gates in the morning isn't for everyone. So a second strategy would be to show up when the park opens, hit the other major attractions in the morning when Pandora is a mob scene, and come back later. Perhaps during Rivers Of Light, the line will "drop" to 90 minutes. If so, and you get in that line, your wait for the ride is the same 90 minutes that it would have been if you had arrived at 7:00 a.m. Personally, I would choose RD because there is never a guarantee that the line will ever drop to 90 minutes until the park is getting ready to close. You can check Touring Plans and Easywdw to get a sense of what the wait times are, hour by hour, and judge for yourself if you would rather kill a chunk of time waiting before the park opens, or kill a chunk of time later in the day.

 

[Geoff_M]

Hi there, in going to disney very soon and visiting Pandora (mainly for flight of passage). Should I go at RD or extra magic hours at 10pm-12am local time?

The problem with waiting until EMH is that there's no guarantee that the lines will be "short". Here's Josh's wait time chart at EasyWDW for July 25th and you can see that EMH didn't offer any relief from long lines for FoP. Here's his full report on the current RD scene at AK. The only real sure thing for a "short" wait for the attraction is to be there at RD. We were there around the 4th of July and we only had to wait around 40 minutes or so when we arrived at the front gate 30 minutes before the posted opening.

 

[mickeyfanachey1999]

We rope dropped last Wednesday. Opening was at 9. We got to the tapstile line at 7:35 and were off the ride and out of Pandora at 9:12. Sure we waited in a crazy crowd with 1000s of our new (sweaty) best friends but we didn't waste hardly any park time and got to experience the ride. This was the crowd behind as at the entrance to Pandora

 

[Justin S]

How does everyone think the line will be in January with a fast pass? will it still be insane?

 

[Tigger's ally]

How does everyone think the line will be in January with a fast pass? will it still be insane?

Nope, insanity is doing the same thing day after day and expecting it to be different. On second thought, Yes!

Just kidding, January should be a lot better.

 

[CAS239]

How does everyone think the line will be in January with a fast pass? will it still be insane?

With a FP is no problem now. FP line is a very short wait.

Standby is where it's a long wait and it'll be the same come January as it is right now. Line could drop some next summer once Toy Story land opens at HS, but I don't think Pandora will see a drop in crowds until the Star Wars area opens in HS

 

[lmmantini]

We rope dropped last Wednesday. Opening was at 9. We got to the tapstile line at 7:35 and were off the ride and out of Pandora at 9:12. Sure we waited in a crazy crowd with 1000s of our new (sweaty) best friends but we didn't waste hardly any park time and got to experience the ride. This was the crowd behind as at the entrance to Pandora

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Oh my goodness! We are going in April. My husband hates crowds. I sure hope the lines improve by then!

 

[married2mm]

May I jump in with a query?...

With a das;would you advise another member of the party going at rope drop for the return time-I cannot even begin to imagine being in such a throng of people like that photo...

 

[sweetpee_1993]

We rope dropped last Wednesday. Opening was at 9. We got to the tapstile line at 7:35 and were off the ride and out of Pandora at 9:12. Sure we waited in a crazy crowd with 1000s of our new (sweaty) best friends but we didn't waste hardly any park time and got to experience the ride. This was the crowd behind as at the entrance to Pandora

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Seriously. There is nothing in this world anywhere worth being in the middle of that sea of humanity. Nope.

 

[Pipkin]

Not one second after opening. We were here in July at rope drop. 45 minutes or less on and off. In the park today at 9:03. I'm ashamed to admit that I am still in line 3 hrs later. Malfunction in the ride. Line jumpers but we are at the point where we have said, "we are here now". This line is the most insane thing I have committed to at WDW. Just hope I get out in time for my ADR at Jiko tonight.

 

[Disney_and_Wine]

We rope dropped last Wednesday. Opening was at 9. We got to the tapstile line at 7:35 and were off the ride and out of Pandora at 9:12. Sure we waited in a crazy crowd with 1000s of our new (sweaty) best friends but we didn't waste hardly any park time and got to experience the ride. This was the crowd behind as at the entrance to Pandora

View attachment 260122

All I can think of when I see that photo is..."Are we having fun yet??" Try to find one person in that photo who is genuinely having a good time. Hours of angst for minutes of fun. What a system!

 

[mtemm]

We did rope drop to pandora 2 weeks ago. We rode Na'vi since we had a FOP fp, but were close enough to the front that we could have done FOP fairly quickly. As a huge crowd hater, I was pretty nervous but I will say getting there early and being toward the front helped me a lot. We weren't at the front, but could see the front easily. I turned around once to see the mass of humanity and then avoided that....it was crazy!

 

[mickeyfanachey1999]

We did rope drop to pandora 2 weeks ago. We rode Na'vi since we had a FOP fp, but were close enough to the front that we could have done FOP fairly quickly. As a huge crowd hater, I was pretty nervous but I will say getting there early and being toward the front helped me a lot. We weren't at the front, but could see the front easily. I turned around once to see the mass of humanity and then avoided that....it was crazy!

we were only about 15 people back from the front...the crowd behind was insane though

 

[sweetpee_1993]

All I can think of when I see that photo is..."Are we having fun yet??" Try to find one person in that photo who is genuinely having a good time. Hours of angst for minutes of fun. What a system!

I wouldn't. If I showed up to any theme park and it looked like that I think I'd leave. Because there is no happy in that.

 

[Thestamos23]

I am going on Saturday and debating what to do. I imagine you can walk through the park and ride the majority of the big tickets in that first hour. If i dont get there until close to rope drop I am wondering if it may be decently time efficient to just go ride all of the other rides with minimum wait and then come back to avatar in early afternoon and wait in FOP then. By then I probably wont feel as rushed as I had already rode the other attractions. Anyone gone this route?