Epcot without FPs?

[ForMyBoys]

Hi All, We will be at WDW for 5 days late March/early April and have hopper tickets. When I went to sign up for FP's I ended up booking FP's for MK, AK and HS but none for Epcot. Part of the issue was that I could only get FP's at good times for certain rides that are a must for us. And then on other days we had lunches booked that I was unable to move as there is no availability anymore so I'd prefer to keep our FPs in early afternoon so we have the ability to get others later in the day.

We are staying on the Boardwalk so will be able to easily hop between HS and Epcot. What is the likelihood I'd be able to get FPs same day for Test Track or Soarin? My boys really love Soarin so that is probably the more important one. Touring plans shows Epcot as a "6" crowd level for every day of our stay if that helps.

Thanks!
Ali

 

[Tiggerlover91]

What is the likelihood I'd be able to get FPs same day for Test Track or Soarin? My boys really love Soarin so that is probably the more important one. Touring plans shows Epcot as a "6" crowd level for every day of our stay if that helps.

Thanks!
Ali

I can't speak from experience, but I've read where it's pretty easy to get a same day FP for Soarin'. It's possible for TT too, but can be a bit harder to manipulate. @JETSDAD is the one to ask on that matter. He seems to have the same day FP down to a science!

 

[JETSDAD]

I can't speak from experience, but I've read where it's pretty easy to get a same day FP for Soarin'. It's possible for TT too, but can be a bit harder to manipulate. @JETSDAD is the one to ask on that matter. He seems to have the same day FP down to a science!

Personally I do get all of them same day with some refreshing. Soarin' typically is the easiest, then TT, then FEA. The earlier in the day that you can start trying to get them the better the odds...the larger the party the more difficult it can be (we're normally a party of 3).

 

[Tiggerlover91]

Personally I do get all of them same day with some refreshing. Soarin' typically is the easiest, then TT, then FEA. The earlier in the day that you can start trying to get them the better the odds...the larger the party the more difficult it can be (we're normally a party of 3).

That's great to hear! As of now, it's just going to be son and myself. But I guess either way, we'll be in good shape. If husband comes, he'll make 3. I've decided to rope drop FEA, then go to the Anna and Elsa meet and greet. Head over to do our FP for TT and then standby on Soarin. I'm going to do a 10am FP for TT. Think I'll be good with that doing FEA first at Rope Drop and then the Meet and Greet? For our tier 2s I will then probably do Living With the Land and I believe Figment Is also close by. Son and I will ride both of those. While on Living With the Land, I might work either a Soarin FP or FEA. I'll let my son decide if he wants to do one of those again. If I know him, he'll choose TT more than likely. I'm good with that!

 

[ForMyBoys]

Personally I do get all of them same day with some refreshing. Soarin' typically is the easiest, then TT, then FEA. The earlier in the day that you can start trying to get them the better the odds...the larger the party the more difficult it can be (we're normally a party of 3).

Thanks for the reply! We are a party of 5. But we could split it to a party of 3 and then try a party of 2 on my DH's phone and see if we can get an overlapping time. That has worked for us before. I've also read that the minute you use a tier one FP at one park you can try for a tier 1 FP at a different park, but with no tiers at MK do I have to wait until we've used all 3 or can I try for a tier 1 FP at Epcot after we use our first FP at MK?

 

[JETSDAD]

Thanks for the reply! We are a party of 5. But we could split it to a party of 3 and then try a party of 2 on my DH's phone and see if we can get an overlapping time. That has worked for us before. I've also read that the minute you use a tier one FP at one park you can try for a tier 1 FP at a different park, but with no tiers at MK do I have to wait until we've used all 3 or can I try for a tier 1 FP at Epcot after we use our first FP at MK?

Yes, if you only intend on using 1 or 2 FP's in your first park then as soon as you tap your first FP you can add additional FP's at the next park(s). So if you have 7DMT and then Space Mountain but that's all you really want to use FP's for you could start looking for an Epcot FP as soon as you tapped 7DMT...no need to use 3.

 

[ForMyBoys]

Yes, if you only intend on using 1 or 2 FP's in your first park then as soon as you tap your first FP you can add additional FP's at the next park(s). So if you have 7DMT and then Space Mountain but that's all you really want to use FP's for you could start looking for an Epcot FP as soon as you tapped 7DMT...no need to use 3.

So when I book the Epcot FP will my MK FP that I haven't used still be available? In my case I have exactly as you note, 7DMT, then Space Moutain, then BTMR. We would like to do all three, but as soon as I'm able I want to try for a same day FP to Soarin at Epcot.

 

[JETSDAD]

So when I book the Epcot FP will my MK FP that I haven't used still be available? In my case I have exactly as you note, 7DMT, then Space Moutain, then BTMR. We would like to do all three, but as soon as I'm able I want to try for a same day FP to Soarin at Epcot.

You will have to use all 3 before adding another then...and I would do the same. You will have time while switching parks to search for a FP at Epcot.

 

[Tiggerlover91]

@JETSDAD , did you see my question about the 10am FP I am considering for TT? If rope drop is at 9 and we head to FEA for RD and then do the Anna & Elsa meet and greet, we should be good on that 10am FP for TT and then doing Soarin standby right? At that point, Soarin should be up to what 30 ro 45 minutes? Or should we just head over and ride our Tier 2s and then look for the Soarin' FP after I tap in to our last one? I don't mind standing in line for 45 minutes at the beginning of the day. But I'm told because of Soarin's ride capacity, they tend to move fairly well on stand by.

 

[JETSDAD]

@JETSDAD , did you see my question about the 10am FP I am considering for TT? If rope drop is at 9 and we head to FEA for RD and then do the Anna & Elsa meet and greet, we should be good on that 10am FP for TT and then doing Soarin standby right? At that point, Soarin should be up to what 30 ro 45 minutes? Or should we just head over and ride our Tier 2s and then look for the Soarin' FP after I tap in to our last one? I don't mind standing in line for 45 minutes at the beginning of the day. But I'm told because of Soarin's ride capacity, they tend to move fairly well on stand by.

Oops, missed it. I think you should have plenty of time to do FEA, the M&G, then head to TT. I'd even make it for 9 or 9:30. After using the TT FP I would then quickly do 2 tier 2 FP's and then go for a Soarin' FP.

 

[PrincessWithABlaster]

That's great to hear! As of now, it's just going to be son and myself. But I guess either way, we'll be in good shape. If husband comes, he'll make 3. I've decided to rope drop FEA, then go to the Anna and Elsa meet and greet. Head over to do our FP for TT and then standby on Soarin. I'm going to do a 10am FP for TT. Think I'll be good with that doing FEA first at Rope Drop and then the Meet and Greet? For our tier 2s I will then probably do Living With the Land and I believe Figment Is also close by. Son and I will ride both of those. While on Living With the Land, I might work either a Soarin FP or FEA. I'll let my son decide if he wants to do one of those again. If I know him, he'll choose TT more than likely. I'm good with that!

This is what we're doing as well except that we're going to do the tier 2s before Soarin and try to grab a 4th FP for it. I'd you don't want to risk the stby time getting longer and not being able to get a same day for Soarin you could just tap off the 2 tier 2s and not ride. But I don't have near the luck as Jetsdad and others here. I cannot get any attraction in 10 mins like has been reported by others in the last couple days but I had no problem getting Soarin and was also able to get TT in 10 or so minutes. FEA is the one I have a hard time getting (although it sounds like the relative popularity between FEA and TT might be changing so I wouldn't be surprised to see TT being a little harder on our next trip).

 

[fbarker]

Hi All, We will be at WDW for 5 days late March/early April and have hopper tickets. When I went to sign up for FP's I ended up booking FP's for MK, AK and HS but none for Epcot. Part of the issue was that I could only get FP's at good times for certain rides that are a must for us. And then on other days we had lunches booked that I was unable to move as there is no availability anymore so I'd prefer to keep our FPs in early afternoon so we have the ability to get others later in the day.

We are staying on the Boardwalk so will be able to easily hop between HS and Epcot. What is the likelihood I'd be able to get FPs same day for Test Track or Soarin? My boys really love Soarin so that is probably the more important one. Touring plans shows Epcot as a "6" crowd level for every day of our stay if that helps.

Thanks!
Ali

We have a trip planned for the end of March and got the following FP's for March 25: Soaring: 9:20-10:20, Living w/the Land: 10:30-11:30, SE: 12:10-1:10. Soaring was our goal the other two were to get my 3 T2 FP out of the way so we could get TT during the afternoon.

 

[DarthMommy05]

OP thanks for posting this question. I have the same plan for our upcoming trip.
@JETSDAD thank you for all of your answers and other posts on the DIS.

We will be visiting Disney Spring Break and I am splitting one of our days between MK and EP. I had planned to setup FP at MK and try and grab 4th and on at EP. Like most everyone else I’m hoping for Soarin, TT, and FEA. I have not used the refresh process yet but I plan to use all the knowledge I’ve learned here and see if I have luck.

 

[Tiggerlover91]

Oops, missed it. I think you should have plenty of time to do FEA, the M&G, then head to TT. I'd even make it for 9 or 9:30. After using the TT FP I would then quickly do 2 tier 2 FP's and then go for a Soarin' FP.

I'll do a 9:30 one instead. I keep forgetting than hour window. I will then try to bump my tier 2s up earlier...or just simply ride and work on a 4th FP for Soarin. We plan on staying in EPCOT till at least noon.

 

[gharter]

Soarin' FPs for afternoon are not too difficult to find. TT is still a challenge as is FEA.
You didn't say if you were going to RD EPCOT. If you are, getting on Soarin' is easy.

 

[JETSDAD]

OP thanks for posting this question. I have the same plan for our upcoming trip.
@JETSDAD thank you for all of your answers and other posts on the DIS.

We will be visiting Disney Spring Break and I am splitting one of our days between MK and EP. I had planned to setup FP at MK and try and grab 4th and on at EP. Like most everyone else I’m hoping for Soarin, TT, and FEA. I have not used the refresh process yet but I plan to use all the knowledge I’ve learned here and see if I have luck.

I just had a quick look for Epcot today to see how hard it would be. FEA is often a tough one to get within a short window but TT and Soarin' usually aren't bad. Here's what I found in just a few minutes. If I were there right now I would have spent some time trying to move up FEA more.

 

[DSLRuser]

Soarin changed for the good when the added the 3rd concourse.

 

[stinkpickle]

Even standby for Soarin' isn't so bad anymore.

 

[Haley R]

We were at Epcot today all day and I was unable to get a fp for soarin or tt. I looked diligently all day long and could not get a thing. It was just Dh and I so only a party of 2. FPS were pretty slim today though. Even spaceship earth didn’t have much but I saw it pop up more when refreshing. We stayed for evening emh and soarin had a 50 minute wait. We ended up just not riding it today

 

[dynastyyanks]

Remember you can also use Single Rider for Test Track. If you're ok splitting up in the ride vehicles, it can significantly cut down your wait.