FEA Rope Drop? Or something else?

[firefly_ris]

Hey all, just wanted to see your thoughts. We are going for a fairly brief 3 day trip in October for our anniversary, so just my husband and I, no kids with us. One of the days, I will be planning a split Epcot/AK day, where we go to Epcot at opening (it has morning EMH that day, so it is currently listed at 8am for that), and head to AK later in the afternoon and stay there until closing (this is assuming they change the closing time... right now it's only listed as 7pm closing but at this point I'm assuming that may change closer to the month). Because of this, I want to use my FP+ for AK to get into one of the Pandora attractions and whatnot.

So, I won't be scheduling any FP at Epcot that day -- is FEA open during morning EMH? I enjoy dark rides whether the kids are with me or not, but see that this has had pretty mixed reviews. I don't want to wait hours upon hours for it, so if I get there at opening are my chances decent? Or would you recommend a different plan? We'll be going during Food & Wine so I'm hoping to spend some time meandering around World Showcase and while I enjoy Epcot's rides, I won't be upset to miss any particular one (I typically skip Test Track, just not a big deal for me).

[edit] I guess Spaceship Earth is really my only Epcot "must do".

 

[Tondee]

Yes, I would FEA rope drop. You may have a little wait but it will hopefully be shorter than later in the day. I really enjoy Spacehip Earth. I like to get the rides at the front of the park done before I meander around the world. But since you are not staying the day, I would focus on your "musts."

 

[StraightToDumbo]

As a primer, that race to FEA can be HELL. It's a long way from the entrance and of course once you're committed there's no turning back. Line-wise, FEA at EMH RD is probably your best opportunity without a FP.

 

[MickeyMinnieMom]

There's this AS OF TODAY as well, if this was of interest and fit in your plans... https://www.disboards.com/threads/“...wing-and-after-close-attraction-ride.3610900/

 

[firefly_ris]

Hmmmm! OK, I have to do some thinking here. Do they allow entry through the International Gateway during EMH? I assume that's where I would want to enter if I'm going to rope drop FEA. I don't like the idea of being in some kind of rope drop stampede (do they have CMs that moderate the crowd or do they let people full-out run? I'm not into that kind of stress).

Then the other thing I have to consider is if they DON'T change AK's hours and it really does close at 7.... maybe I would need to flip the whole day around and rope drop AK instead and potentially think about the dessert party if we can afford it for a little "special" thing.

We'll be back hopefully in 2019ish with our 3 children so I don't necessarily need to cram a gazillion things into this trip, but I just want to make sure I'm going to maximize the brief time we have! So if FEA doesn't work out, I'll still enjoy just doing Spaceship Earth and making it a chill time at Epcot (as chill as we can be doing parks open to close...)

 

[fortheloveofchocolate]

We just did FEA rope drop on an EMH morning. We used the main gate and arrived by bus from Pop Century. Got there a few minutes before they opened the park. I didn't think the stampede was bad. My husband and I strolled more than speed walked. We waited in line maybe 15 mins. I would totally do it again and I hate everything that even resembles a Black Friday rush.

Matter of fact I was talking with a woman and her daughter while I was waiting for them to open Epcot. The woman had an Akershus breakfast reservation for 8:20. She was going to do FEA standby after her breakfast. I convinced her to do it before her reservation so she could relax and enjoy her breakfast. The woman and her daughter speed walked ahead of us and entered the line maybe 50 people in front of us. I remember feeling confident that the woman wouldn't be late for her breakfast. And this was last week with full summer crowds.

My vote is go first thing on EMH morning. Have a fun trip!

 

[firefly_ris]

Okay, that's reassuring. I'm thinking then head in at the main entrance (we'll be taking the bus from POFQ), rope drop it, do World Showcase for a little while, then slowly make our way back towards the front, maybe hitting some of my old favorites (The Land, Seas) along the way, then stop at Spaceship Earth as the last thing before leaving the park, even if at that point we have to wait a bit for SE I can't imagine it would be too bad. Thanks all!

 

[gatorlisa]

We did morning EMH rope drop at Epcot last September/October. We tend to do Epcot in the morning with hops to other parks in the afternoon, so very rare for us to have FP+ for Epcot. Anyway, on this morning, we arrived at Epcot maybe 20 minutes before the 8 AM EMH opening, at the main front entrance. We weren't first in line or anything, but still towards the front of the rope drop crowd. When they gave us the go ahead, we walked briskly back to Norway, with no stopping to look at anything. Didn't run, and never felt like we were in a stampede, but we walked with a purpose and didn't dilly dally. We had maybe a 10-15 minute wait from the time we entered the queue to the time we got on a boat. Was actually good, gave us enough time to appreciate the theming in the queue. So, Frozen done before 8:30. From there, we decided to go over to Soarin', which we rode twice pretty much as walk-on. We then went over to TT where we rode a couple of times via the single rider line. It's a lot of criss-crossing the park that way, but since we are fine with splitting up to ride TT using single rider, we felt it was best to head to Soarin' as our first stop after FEA. By 10:00 we had done FEA, 2 Soarin', and 2 or 3 TT with little to no wait on anything. I think our longest wait on this particular day was for Spaceship Earth, as we didn't get to that until we were ready to head out of the park around 1:00 (and even then it was probably less than 30 minute wait). Since you are planning to hop, I would recommend doing Epcot with the AM EMH, hop to AK when ready, with FP+ scheduled for there, and then if AK really does close at 7 and you're still wanting park time, hop back to Epcot for the last couple of hours. Epcot headliners are totally doable with rope drop and/or morning EMH and are a much more efficient (and enjoyable) use of rope drop time than trying to join the masses in Pandora right now.

 

[CAS239]

The walk is a little shorter from the main entrance vs international gateway. So if you have the choice, I'd do the main entrance. If you're staying at one of the Epcot resorts, there's no sense to Uber to the front of Epcot.

CM's do not guide the crowd to the ride. They open the park and off you go. Mostly everyone speed walks quickly, handful of people (usually young teens) will run.

If you want to ride FEA without a FP, then rope drop is where you want to do it