EPCOT a 3 Day park?

[HatboxHaint]

If you don't want to wait in a line longer than 3 minutes but you want to experience FEA, Soarin and TT do you need 3 days worth of FP+?

 

[mom2rtk]

Maybe once things settle down the wait late in the evening during Illuminations will be reasonable?

If you hadn't planned on doing 3 days, I wouldn't do it just for the fastpasses.

FP FEA. Rope drop Soarin or TT, and wait for the other late in the evening.

Of course, I preferred the good old days when I could FP both Soarin or TT (typically more than once), but alas that ship has sailed.

 

[bnhonest]

If you don't want to wait in a line longer than 3 minutes but you want to experience FEA, Soarin and TT do you need 3 days worth of FP+?

Seems to me that between Rope Drop and FP+ that you get two out of the three done before 10:00 am. Maybe RD and head straight to FEA, then double back to Soarin' with an early morning FP. Then grab another FP for TT later on that evening.

I think you could still keep it a one day park if you were determined to make it so.

 

[wilkeliza]

If you really can't wait at all then yes it is a 3 day park.

However, I give Epcot at most 1.5 days. I love Epcot and it is my home (ex-Epcot CM) but I can't imagine being able to fill 3 full days there with out just drinking and eating around the world a lot. Not against that if it is your thing but I usually spend half days there if I'm not doing all the rides.

 

[HatboxHaint]

If you really can't wait at all then yes it is a 3 day park.

However, I give Epcot at most 1.5 days. I love Epcot and it is my home (ex-Epcot CM) but I can't imagine being able to fill 3 full days there with out just drinking and eating around the world a lot. Not against that if it is your thing but I usually spend half days there if I'm not doing all the rides.

There's no way I stay there all day. I would park hop and just use my pre-booked FP. If Soarin or FEA doesn't resolve then one could probably ropedrop TT and then use their FP for one or the other two days in a row.

 

[wilkeliza]

There's no way I stay there all day. I would park hop and just use my pre-booked FP. If Soarin or FEA doesn't resolve then one could probably ropedrop TT and then use their FP for one or the other two days in a row.

Yeah I think you can get it down to 2 then. Ropedrop TT and FP Soarin'. Then come back another day and FP FEA. After that you can hope to any park by 10 or 11 am and get other fast passes.

 

[havoc315]

Considering the popularity of the top 3 attractions, combined with the lack of good secondary attractions, combined with the tiering system.... It does leave some challenges for planning Epcot.
There is almost no need for a second or third fastpass.

I'm currently trying to plan Epcot for August. I will likely spend a lot of time there, because staying at Beach Club. But I'm still struggling with my plan, as I only intend to get fastpasses for 2 of the days. And I'll only be spending half days at Epcot -- 2 nights and 1 morning.

Here is what I suggest: You can still do 1 of the top 3 attractions at ropedrop.
1 of the 3 then with a fastpass.

And especially if you are willing to skip Illuminations, you may find a reasonable wait after 8:30 pm. I've been keeping my eye on the lines, to see how they are behaving at night. I suspect both Test Track and Soarin will be under 30 minutes late in the evening. If you don't have young kids, you can also always single rider Test Track.
Remains to be seen how much Frozen slows down at night. Being a "young family" attraction, it may be less popular at night. Even the Mine Coaster waits get reasonable at night.

I will be doing 1 EMH night at Epcot. In August, after Frozen has been open for a couple of months, I wonder how the line will be at 10 pm. But I'm not betting on it being reasonable.

So I'd:
1 -- Ropedrop Soarin
2 -- FP Frozen
3 -- Single rider TT, or wait till after 8:30.

 

[PabloMax]

Planning now for a late August trip, aiming for one day at Epcot though could double back (with Park Hoppers) if absolutely necessary. With 2 boys, Frozen is hardly a "must" ride, but would like to see it if possible.

How would you go about prioritizing one day in Epcot? It's expected to be a 3/10 day according to the calendars, so I'm thinking standby lines for TT and Soarin might be feasible?

 

[wilkeliza]

Planning now for a late August trip, aiming for one day at Epcot though could double back (with Park Hoppers) if absolutely necessary. With 2 boys, Frozen is hardly a "must" ride, but would like to see it if possible.

How would you go about prioritizing one day in Epcot? It's expected to be a 3/10 day according to the calendars, so I'm thinking standby lines for TT and Soarin might be feasible?

Rope Drop Soarin or Test Track and FP Frozen. If you boys are old enough then single rider TT and Rope Drop Soarin but I think you can get Soarin and TT done in the early morning with a moderate wait at either if you do them back to back and then fastpass Frozen.

 

[PabloMax]

That's kind of what I was thinking. I'm thinking TT first so we can do the "car design" part which you miss on the FP line (single rider line too?).

Now here's one other twist: what about Sum of All Thrills, assuming it's still there?

 

[g-dad66]

You don't need 3 days, but 2 days is certainly a good idea.

If the Rope Drop frenzy for Frozen Ever After continues to be like it has been this week, I'd definitely pick FEA as the Tier 1 FP+ for one of the two days.

Either Soarin or Test Track would be fine at Rope Drop, so two days should be plenty for experiencing all three attractions (even doing one of them twice by selecting it as Tier 1 FP+ for the second day). And heading for Sum of All Thrills second is a good idea. The line won't build much for it prior to 10:00.

 

[wisblue]

If I really wanted to do all 3 attractions, but had no other reason to spend more than one day in Epcot, I would rather wait in line for 45-60 minutes for one of the 3 attractions than use up one or two days extra days of a ticket (or 1 or 2 days of FPs if you have hoppers) essentially to do just one attraction.

As others have said, unless and until the rope drop frenzy for FEA dies down (which I wouldn't see happening for the foreseeable future) getting a FP for that is the obvious choice to save the most time.

We have always been able to do Soarin and TT at park opening without a FP for either by going directly to Soarin and then going to TT to ride single rider. If you can't do single rider or want to go through the car design, you would have to wait in the standby line, but it usually hasn't been THAT long in the first 30 minutes after opening. Even if it's 60 minutes, it seems better to just wait in the line than have to make a special trip back to the park. It comes down to whether you'd rather wait in a line for 60 minutes or spend probably more time than that getting into and out of the park and to the attraction, plus the cost of the ticket.

The thing I'll be watching is how the buildup of the standby lines for Soarin and TT in the first hour after opening is affected by FEA and the third theater at Soarin. It may be more efficient to do to TT first and then go to Soarin because the third theater should mean more tolerable standby lines there, especially once the rush to see the new film subsides.