Best strategy for riding Soarin without a FP: rope drop or at closing?

[pittsburghmom]

I am thinking of only scheduling 1 Epcot day this upcoming trip. FEA and Soarin are on our "must do" list. I will almost certainly book FP's for FEA. That leaves Soarin for standby. We have never really opened or closed a park before, but realize this will probably be necessary if we want to ride Soarin without a huge wait. Opinions on whether to ride at park open or at park close? Illuminations is not a must do for us.

 

[Robo]

Either way, or both.
Depends on whether you want to see IllumiNations.

 

[Sargeant Tibbs]

RD imo. You'll practically walk right on.

I miss the days of paper fastpasses because you could head over there at RD, grab fp, jump into a walk-on standby line, then use the fp's immediately after for a second ride. It was great strategy.

 

[Cinderella94]

Rope Drop. We always go at opening and between that and fastpasses we never have a wait over 10-15 minutes for anything. Definitely rope drop.

 

[Robo]

I agree that Rope Drop will work, but let's not go overboard about it being THE way to ride.

Just before park closing (which was part of the original question) is also a good way to ride.
But (as I mentioned,) it would preclude seeing all of IllumiNations if done that way.

 

[siskaren]

I miss the days of paper fastpasses because you could head over there at RD, grab fp, jump into a walk-on standby line, then use the fp's immediately after for a second ride. It was great strategy.

Can't you still do that? Just book FP for 9:00-10:00, but ride once doing standby before getting in the FP line.

 

[Cinderella94]

Can't you still do that? Just book FP for 9:00-10:00, but ride once doing standby before getting in the FP line.

Yes. Also a great idea.

 

[pittsburghmom]

Thanks for the feedback! Good to know either option will be doable. How soon before park open do you recommend arriving? We will be there the last week of January 2017 and it looks like Epcot park hours are from 9am-9pm.

 

[Cinderella94]

Thanks for the feedback! Good to know either option will be doable. How soon before park open do you recommend arriving? We will be there the last week of January 2017 and it looks like Epcot park hours are from 9am-9pm.

We always try to get there around 8:15 - 8:20. In the last week of January that's probably a bit extra, given the lighter crowds, but we like to be earlier than not.

 

[Sargeant Tibbs]

Can't you still do that? Just book FP for 9:00-10:00, but ride once doing standby before getting in the FP line.

Yes, but with legacy you didn't have to worry about limits and tiers. Now I'm not going to waste a fp on Soarin when I can rd it. I only get so many in a given day, and have to settle with what's available when getting additional fp day of. It's a different strategy now. I know I brought it up so I opened the door for discussion, but I really don't want or mean to derail this thread.

I also agree that rd isn't the only option, but if OP does plan to RD, it's easier to knock out future world in the morning. It can be difficult to trek back to future world when you're already dog tired from walking WS. It just involves some further planning and getting back to the pavilion before it closes.

 

[karly05]

Can't you still do that? Just book FP for 9:00-10:00, but ride once doing standby before getting in the FP line.

Yes if you don't mind using your one Tier 1 FP+ for Soarin'. OP wants that FP for FEA. I'm in the same situation for next trip. I plan to book a FP for FEA, hit Soarin' stand-by at RD, and use Single Rider on TT at some point.

OP, I would head straight to Soarin' at RD. Reading the Dis, it sounds like the addition of the 3rd theatre and the opening of FEA and the new A&E meet have improved RD at Soarin'. Plus I have a rule of doing priorities as early (in the day and/or in the trip) as I can, because you never know what could happen - ride breaks down, you or a party member gets sick, a TS meal runs late, etc.

(I was posting at the same time as Sargeant Tibbs.)

 

[hollyrose1313]

We did Soarin' back to back with no waits on two different nights this past week, went there about 30 minutes before park close and posted wait was 15 minutes but there was no wait.
Illuminations (with F&W crowd) was not a priority for us so this worked out well. Also did TT another night 15 minutes before close with no wait.

 

[NH-to-FL]

As a previous poster said, be there at rope drop and you will almost walk on. I would be at the gate no later than 8:30am, preferably 8:15 to get closer to the front of the crowd.

 

[BigAlsGal]

Since they added 3rd theatre the waits have been drastically reduced. It's no longer the 120 minute nightmare it use to be.

 

[disneymom0104]

I think either way. We RD Soarin' 3 different mornings in early Sept. We were able to walk on at least 2x before it started to even get a bit of a line. Most people are now going to FEA at RD.

 

[MOM POPPINS]

Just putting this out there we were there the last week of August. We got to the gate at 8:20! We walked on Frozen, Test Track and then Soarin.... all by get this 9:55! They were loading Frozen upon our arrival at 8:50 which helped a bit!

 

[smcabee]

I've been seeing reports
That is wait times have been minimal since the new theater opened. A lot of folks are not even bothering with FP for it

 

[TinkerPug]

We just returned from Disney and had no FP scheduled for Soarin' and were able to ride 3 times mid-morning and early afternoon. Longest wait was this past Friday. We got in line with 25 min wait and it quickly turned to 40 min.... still not bad considering what it used to be!

Definitely book FEA as your FP. That line never seemed to go down.

Have a great trip!

 

[MinnieMSue]

Last Saturday we walked on soarin twice at rope drop and could have done it a third time. No line at all - they were boarding as fast as you could walk (all the way) down the que. it was awesome!

 

[SeeDisney]

this is very encouraging to read as I will plan to hop on Soarin around 9:00 p.m.-ish.