Early Garden Grill ADR to Soarin - how well does it work?

[jeremy1002]

Has anyone tried an early Garden Grill ADR to gain advantage over rope droppers in getting in line for Soarin? How well did it work for you? Thanks!

 

[bjschil]

We are anxious to hear the reports. Our ADR are for 8:00 and the park does not open u til 9:00. Anxious to see how this works as well.

 

[chloelovesdisney]

We did this two weeks ago. Were first on line at the International Gateway, only a few families were in front of us checking in from the front entrance. Sat down right away. Were done eating and seeing all the characters at 8:50am and headed over to Soarin. Walked right on and walked on a second time with no wait immediately after with folks slowly streaming in. The wait was still only 10 minutes at 9:30am and went up to 15 minutes shortly after. Was a slow day (last Monday in August). The waitress had told us to leave no later than 8:50am but we could have taken another 15 minutes at Garden Grill and still been perfectly fine.

 

[chloelovesdisney]

Also just an fyi, the new Soarin movie is distorted if you view it from the side, request the middle section. I didn't know and we sat on the side both times, next time I will wait if needed for the middle.

 

[disny_luvr]

We did this in June and it worked well. We had an 8:15 ADR and were able to eat and get to Soarin with about a 10 mins wait. We probably could have made it to the front of the line but we didn't want to rush our meal. We loved GG!

 

[anpeck]

We did this last Sunday. Our meal was at 8am and we were a few minutes late due to the International Gateway entrance waiting for clearance to let us in the park. We were done eating by 8:40 and had seen the characters twice in that time period. We were able to get on Soarin' as soon as we paid and got downstairs. We walked right on and were in the front row with no one in the second or third row. When we were done my husband and stepdaughter went on and they walked on as well. It worked out very well for us and I wouldn't hesitate to use this strategy again!

 

[jenjersnap]

So happy to read positive experiences with this strategy! We are also coming from IG so I worried about that.

 

[mommycrawford]

Just FYI, I was just there August 27-September 5, and it was not hard to get on Soarin with a wait of 30 mins or less provided you got there before 10. We had FPs and rode it right after since the wait was 15 or 20 mins just before 10. Frozen is the big draw, and the extra theater seems to really have alleviated crazy morning waits.

 

[DAKL101]

IA, this and TSM have been soooooooo much better

 

[chloelovesdisney]

We did this last Sunday. Our meal was at 8am and we were a few minutes late due to the International Gateway entrance waiting for clearance to let us in the park. We were done eating by 8:40 and had seen the characters twice in that time period. We were able to get on Soarin' as soon as we paid and got downstairs. We walked right on and were in the front row with no one in the second or third row. When we were done my husband and stepdaughter went on and they walked on as well. It worked out very well for us and I wouldn't hesitate to use this strategy again!

Yeah, the guard at the IG kept talking about having to wait for clearance the morning we were there also. They did let us in a little later than I expected, we were first on line so got in pretty quick but there were a bunch of folks lined up behind us. Not sure what the deal is, if you are supposed to check in 15 minutes before your adr, it's at 8am and they don't let you in till 7:45/7:50am that's clearly not going to happen.

 

[brockash]

Has anyone tried an early Garden Grill ADR to gain advantage over rope droppers in getting in line for Soarin? How well did it work for you? Thanks!

We did it about 2 weeks ago and were successful. I think they let us in around 7:50 and we had 1 person from our group head straight to check-in, while the rest took a couple pic's, but still basically headed straight to GG. We were seated by 8 and asked for our check. We had a nice server who was very good about fast service. We ended up seeing the characters more than once and while we did feel a little rushed in eating, we headed out of the restaurant at 8:40. We hung upstairs for a few mins. while one went to the bathroom and by 8:45 we saw the crowds coming in. We headed downstairs ahead of the crowd and got right into the line. I will say that if it's allowed, I would enter a little sooner, as there were still many fastpass guests that we were held back for at the merge point. In a park with the annoying tiering, this helped as we didn't have to waste a fastpass on it.

 

[sfbank]

We did this in July. Not only great character interaction, good food and service as well. Asked for the check when we got our food and the waitress smiled and said "on your way to Soarin yes?" We headed down about 8:40 and waited about 10 min and were the first ones on. We will definately do it again next year.