Epcot rope drop plan

[Destinyz12]

I am having trouble figuring out what the better rope drop plan will be for Epcot...it will be a green park on a moderate crowd day, and we have a 10:45 Akershus reservation as of now. 60 day for Fast Passes is coming up soon. Is it better to rope drop Test Track (and hope that its up and running, as I've heard it sometimes has issues being open right at RD, and then FP FEA for what is hopefully a time between opening and our reservation, or should we rope drop Frozen and get an early fast pass for Test Track? Soarin will be a 4th FP option for later as we won't be on that side of the park in the morning.

 

[KenHutch]

What we are planning on doing is rope drop Test Track and do the fastpass for Frozen.

 

[sweetpea29488]

We are doing rope drop for Test Track and using a fastpass for Soarin. We are playing Frozen by ear since it's just the two of us this trip. (adults)

 

[lolomarie]

Touring plans just did a great video on this:

In case you don't want to watch the whole video, they determined your best bet is to FP+ TT, and if it goes down then you have an anytime pass. Then it doesn't matter which order you rope drop soarin' or FEA, if you're there early enough you can do both in a reasonable amount of time. But, if you want to minimize walking, you should FP+ FEA, and take your chances on TT. However, if it goes down, you may not ride it at all, because as soon as it opens it'll have 2 hour waits. So depends on how important TT is to you and how much you want to minimize walking.

 

[cassie58]

I would RD TT and FP FEA for after your brft to make use of time in FW before your ADR since nothing else in WS is open till after 11.(Sorry - realized there are a lot of abbreviations in that sentence!). If TT is not open, you could hit Soarin, and keep an eye on it coming back up - you also can always ride TT single rider later, depending on if you have younger kids.

 

[wareagle57]

Touring Plans posted a video where they had 3 teams of 2 going to all 3 attractions at RD, who then would split up and go to a different 2nd ride, resulting in 6 different possibilities for your first 2 RD rides.

Unfortunately Test Track was down that day. I don't know why they uploaded it as is and didn't just try another morning... but it was still informative. The people who did Soarin/Frozen and Frozen/Soarin finished within 1 minute of each other. So I don't think it matters that much. Frozen and Soarin both seem to be pretty forgiving in the morning. But I'm interested in what a Frozen to TT combo would have looked like since they take less time to get through than Soarin. And they are also in close proximity of each other.

 

[hllb]

We went on an EMH day last week so the park opened at 8 am. We had a FP for TT at 9 am. We RD'ed to FEA (this wasn't a must do for us, otherwise we likely would've used a FP) and then hit Soarin'. We had planned to do Soarin' twice and then head to TT, but the kids didn't want to do it back to back. So, we headed over to TT, and arrived maybe 8:45. Wait was short (less than 15, but can't remember exactly) so we did that one standby. The kids LOVED it (was their favorite in Epcot) so we did get back in line to use our FP after our first ride. We were also able to get two more FPs for it later in the day (I think...at least 1 more, but maybe 2). Then we snagged a FP for Soarin' later in the afternoon too. I'm not sure if it worked well for us because it was EMH, or if it would've worked that well for a 9 am open too.

 

[hllb]

Touring Plans posted a video where they had 3 teams of 2 going to all 3 attractions at RD, who then would split up and go to a different 2nd ride, resulting in 6 different possibilities for your first 2 RD rides.

Unfortunately Test Track was down that day. I don't know why they uploaded it as is and didn't just try another morning... but it was still informative. The people who did Soarin/Frozen and Frozen/Soarin finished within 1 minute of each other. So I don't think it matters that much. Frozen and Soarin both seem to be pretty forgiving in the morning. But I'm interested in what a Frozen to TT combo would have looked like since they take less time to get through than Soarin. And they are also in close proximity of each other.

TT takes longer to get through, unless you do the single rider line (which we don't). We did FEA, Soarin', and by 8:45 (8 am open) were in the standby line for TT. It was a short wait.

 

[wareagle57]

TT takes longer to get through, unless you do the single rider line (which we don't). We did FEA, Soarin', and by 8:45 (8 am open) were in the standby line for TT. It was a short wait.

TT takes longer to get through than Soarin? Assuming equal crowds, Soarin definitely feels like it takes longer. Walking all the way into The Land, waiting in the hallway before being assigned a spot in the preshow, waiting for everyone else to be assigned a spot before the preshow video, watching the preshow video. At TT the design a car thing is somewhere between 3-5 minutes if I remember right. Depending on crowds there is still a bit of a wait after that but not huge. I can't remember the last time I did standby at either though.

 

[hllb]

TT takes longer to get through than Soarin? Assuming equal crowds, Soarin definitely feels like it takes longer. Walking all the way into The Land, waiting in the hallway before being assigned a spot in the preshow, waiting for everyone else to be assigned a spot before the preshow video, watching the preshow video. At TT the design a car thing is somewhere between 3-5 minutes if I remember right. Depending on crowds there is still a bit of a wait after that but not huge. I can't remember the last time I did standby at either though.

TT took 15 minutes for us to get through, even though the lines were short. I still say TT takes longer to get through, at least it did for us.

 

[Donalyn]

I think that Touring Plans posted their video to provide a point - TT is down a lot. I've learned that the hard way and always plan to FP it for this very reason. I know that the others can go down too, but it isn't as frequent, so it seems.

 

[Destinyz12]

I actually had a similar mindset to what they concluded in that video posted above, but I wanted to get others opinions/experiences just to be sure. What I REALLY am hoping for, is an earlier Akershus reservation to open up, but I probably wouldn't find something like that till a few days prior to my trip if at all. Then RDing FEA, going to breakfast and then doing a FP for TT for after breakfast would be the best solution to minimize the excessive walking/time wasting.