Early Morning Hours - Animal Kingdom

[TinkSassy]

Working on a strategy but don't have my FP window open quite yet. Is there a difference in the rope drop line for FoP on a EMH day vs a regular day? Planning to not get a FP+ and then hoping for the best . . .

 

[Robo]

Working on a strategy but don't have my FP window open quite yet. Is there a difference in the rope drop line for FoP on a EMH day vs a regular day? Planning to not get a FP+ and then hoping for the best . . .

You would want to arrive about an hour earlier on an EMH morning than you would arrive on a "regular hours" morning.

Expect the standby line to be roughly the same on an EMH morning as on "regular hours" days
(except there might very well be fewer guests at the EMH rope drop as many guests find it difficult to get up early in the morning.)

 

[ABZDisneyFan]

Aim to get there for between 7:00 - 7:15 on an EMH day.
The EMH day that we went, people were let into the park from 7:15 & were guided to Pandora at which point we were given the choice of NRJ or FOP, most people opted for FOP.
We were on & off the ride by 8:00 & in line for NRJ by 8:10 with both rides done by 8:45.
The standby time for FOP was pushing 3 hours by 8:45 the day that we were there, we felt sorry for the guests arriving at 9am & running to Pandora expecting to get a reasonably short line for FOP.
For reference we were there the week before Thanksgiving & the week of Thanksgiving.

 

[LSUfan4444]

Working on a strategy but don't have my FP window open quite yet. Is there a difference in the rope drop line for FoP on a EMH day vs a regular day? Planning to not get a FP+ and then hoping for the best . . .

Here is a post I made from back in July but the timeline holds true today. Some of the pics are missing but you can still get the point.

https://www.disboards.com/threads/ak-pandora-fop-at-emh.3622556/

IN summary, a 6:58 arrival for an EMH morning, being genetically matched at 8:10 am and back out front by 8:23 am with River Journey only at a 20 minute wait the made our way to Everest and rode twice (once with a 5 minute wait and once with a 10 minute wait).

Anything before 7am is great. 7 am is awesome. 7:15 and you're still good. After 7:30 and you better be ready for black friday.

 

[kangaand2roos]

Has anybody experienced this on a day where regular park opening is at 8:00 and EMH is 7:00? That will be the case for us on Christmas Day. We do have fast passes for later In the trip, but I’d like to try to go through the standby line once. We will be staying at Jambo House and plan to be at the bus stop by 6:00.

 

[Robo]

Has anybody experienced this on a day where regular park opening is at 8:00 and EMH is 7:00? That will be the case for us on Christmas Day. We do have fast passes for later In the trip, but I’d like to try to go through the standby line once. We will be staying at Jambo House and plan to be at the bus stop by 6:00.

I'm not sure that the DAK buses will be running by 6AM, but it can't hurt to be "too early."
(I hope that they will move the bus schedules up that week.)
When you get to the resort's bus stop, check the monitor screen to see if any DAK buses are scheduled to arrive.
If nothing is listed, you might want to take a hired car to DAK.

 

[KEW]

Has anybody experienced this on a day where regular park opening is at 8:00 and EMH is 7:00? That will be the case for us on Christmas Day. We do have fast passes for later In the trip, but I’d like to try to go through the standby line once. We will be staying at Jambo House and plan to be at the bus stop by 6:00.

This is us! Trying to rope drop on Christmas Day. Do have FP+ for another day but was hoping to do this ride multiple times. Didn't try for FP+ on this day because we're using it when we hop to MK that afternoon (yes, I know, from craziness to madness). Even though I'm planning on rope dropping, hoping to head out of our resort around 6, I also jotted down in my plans the worst-case scenario of it being a long wait and allocating up to 9 o'clock for FOP (2 hours after early entry starts) and hopefully getting in NRJ by around 10. If we're done much earlier - bonus!