Fop rope drop question

[GabrielMom]

Was not able to get fp due to late planning. We are going march 6 thru 12. Is rope drop better idea on emh or regular AK day?

 

[pitpat]

If you're staying on property and can actually get there early to take advantage of it, EMH day. Your other option is getting in line before park closing.

 

[Justplainchy]

If you can get there a good half hour or hour before EMH day, that would see the lowest waits, but on 12/7 we were able to do normal rope drop on a normal day arriving 30 minutes before opening and waited 37 minutes from joining end of line to walking into pre-show, so it definitely wasn't terrible at all.

 

[Cornucopiaoflove]

We did rope drop on an EMH day (hours were in the morning). The weather was kind of grey and drizzly and I think we made it through the line in 30-40 minutes. There were a couple of huge tour groups ahead of us which slowed the line just a bit.

 

[DisneyMom93]

Just keep on top of the park hours!! When we did rope drop for Navi (we had FP for FoP) they opened the park an hour earlier that day because they were closing it early for a special paid event. It wasn't listed as opening earlier when we made our park plans. I think they changed it the day before or something like that. So we went for rope drop and it was already packed. We couldn't understand why. Then we found out later. Ugh.

It was listed as an hour wait when we got on the line and I think it went to two hours by the time we got on. Navi is not worth a two hour wait IMO. But we had invested an hour already and didn't want to walk away not know how much longer we would be waiting.

 

[scrappinginontario]

I think these days as long as you're at the park entrance at least 30 mins before park opening you will ride within the first hour. If you want to ride as soon as the park opens I would recommend being there 45 - 60 mins before park opening.

Just a heads up for those who may have been at AK for FoP early in 2018 vs now, the queue has moved. The first time we lined up back towards Pizzafarri. The second time we walked across the bridge and then the queue was on the walkway beside the river. Much less congested that way and we thought it was a good improvement.

 

[HydroGuy]

I think these days as long as you're at the park entrance at least 30 mins before park opening you will ride within the first hour. If you want to ride as soon as the park opens I would recommend being there 45 - 60 mins before park opening.

Just a heads up for those who may have been at AK for FoP early in 2018 vs now, the queue has moved. The first time we lined up back towards Pizzafarri. The second time we walked across the bridge and then the queue was on the walkway beside the river. Much less congested that way and we thought it was a good improvement.

Thanks for this, as I was going to ask about this here. I only have ridden FOP twice - with FP - on the opening day and on day #2 in 2017.

We are planning to do RD on FOP in March and wondering for advice on this. I am guessing (??) that it is better to queue up towards the left at the turnstiles outside AK? In 2017 there were clearly marked directions, and CMs with handheld signs, at RD for FOP and Pandora in general - once you entered AK. How are directions given now? Do CMs lead the way to the queue?

@Robo has the map shown below (see https://www.disboards.com/threads/maps-of-wdw-by-robo-65-maps-more.3545729/#post-56460957)

This "red route" to Pandora does not seem to correspond with your queue location. Is the map out-dated, or am I misunderstanding you? Thanks!

 

[Mome Rath]

We have found EMH mornings our preference.

My last trip was in December (of 2018) and they changed the queue situation. You still head to Pandora as always (enter as normal, go through the Oasis and hang a left toward Pandora). The old way of doing it was to hold everyone in a herd at the bridge with another rope or CM's and then lead the herd all the way back into Pandora and into line. The new way was that they formed a queue already with no herd. There were CM's clearly showing you where to line up when you passed over the bridge. It was all very orderly and flowed a lot better. If you want NRJ you still hang to the left after crossing over the bridge.

In short, I don't think it matters where you enter the park at (which tapstile I mean), just head to Pandora, and the CM's will be there showing everyone where to go... just remember things can change slightly from day to day, but there should always be CMs around during rope drop.

 

[Robo]

This "red route" to Pandora does not seem to correspond with your queue location. Is the map out-dated, or am I misunderstanding you? Thanks!

Guests enter from the front gates via the red line, then
(as more, and more, and more, and more guests arrive)
they direct those standby guests to queue up along the orange line, facing south.

 

[HydroGuy]

Guests enter from the front gates via the red line, then
(as more, and more, and more, and more guests arrive)
they direct those standby guests to queue up along the orange line, facing south.

Thanks!

It sounds like the AK staff make it all clear and straightforward. Which is what I hoped and expected. And consistent with Pandora's opening weekend.

I also have to say that my experience with Pandora back in 2017 was amazing in how Disney organized it. There have been lots of folks speculating about how Disney will handle SWGE crowds over on the DLR forum (because it is supposed to open sooner than WDW - "early Summer" at DLR, "late Fall" at WDW). I keep telling them how Disney nailed it with Pandora and if Disney can get that knowledge to the DL staff on the West Coast things will be fine. Not many DLR vets have ever experienced that personally and thus have a hard time picturing it. I think many of them are envisioning mass chaos on Main Street every morning tying up the entire park all day with Star Wars confusion.

I tend to think SWGE at WDW will be fine because of how they handled Pandora. I am not so sure about DLR. If the key managers above both resorts are doing their job then DLR will be fine with SWGE. We'll see.

 

[Zooey]

Is the strategy to always do FoP first and River journey second?

 

[Robo]

Is the strategy to always do FoP first and River journey second?

If you intend to ride both, first-thing, without a FP... yes.

 

[Mome Rath]

Is the strategy to always do FoP first and River journey second?

At rope drop, yes.

 

[mamaofsix]

I think these days as long as you're at the park entrance at least 30 mins before park opening you will ride within the first hour. If you want to ride as soon as the park opens I would recommend being there 45 - 60 mins before park opening.

Just a heads up for those who may have been at AK for FoP early in 2018 vs now, the queue has moved. The first time we lined up back towards Pizzafarri. The second time we walked across the bridge and then the queue was on the walkway beside the river. Much less congested that way and we thought it was a good improvement.

If you only get there 30 minutes before park opening, I would put your wait more like 75-90 minutes. We were there on a low crowd day in November and were at the gates 45 minutes before park opening. We waited 65 minutes in line. Definitely recommend getting there an hour early at least.

 

[Lorelei18]

If you only get there 30 minutes before park opening, I would put your wait more like 75-90 minutes. We were there on a low crowd day in November and were at the gates 45 minutes before park opening. We waited 65 minutes in line. Definitely recommend getting there an hour early at least.

Would you say the same for a non-EMH day 8am park opening?

 

[chris1212]

We were just there for a 9am opening with no EMH’s. Arrived at gates at 8am, lined up back to ticket booths. Let us in at 8.20am. People were literally running to Pandora. Lined up on the bridge towards Pandora and they started letting us in at 8.30am.

At that point we were still lined up way down the path to Africa. We were on the ride by 9.10am. When we came off the line was at 3 hours already.

 

[CAQDaddy]

Thanks!

It sounds like the AK staff make it all clear and straightforward. Which is what I hoped and expected. And consistent with Pandora's opening weekend.

I also have to say that my experience with Pandora back in 2017 was amazing in how Disney organized it. There have been lots of folks speculating about how Disney will handle SWGE crowds over on the DLR forum (because it is supposed to open sooner than WDW - "early Summer" at DLR, "late Fall at WDW"). I keep telling them how Disney nailed it with Pandora and if Disney can get that knowledge to the DL staff on the East Coast things will be fine. Not many DLR vets have ever experienced that personally and thus have a hard time picturing it. I think many of them are envisioning mass chaos on Main Street every morning tying up the entire park all day with Star Wars confusion.

I tend to think SWGE at WDW will be fine because of how they handled Pandora. I am not so sure about DLR. If the key managers above both resorts are doing their job then DLR will be fine with SWGE. We'll see.

I think you're right. DD and I were there for the opening of Pandora as well. The crowds were insane, but I thought they were handled extremely well and our experience in the new land was nothing but positive. I'm sure SWGE will bring crowd levels never seen before. I also think that Disney has exhibited the ability to handle crowds like no other entity I've ever heard of.

 

[LaurenT]

Either emh or not, I’ve gotten there at least an hour before open and walked right on to FoP and then walked right on to Nav’i while everyone else was waiting for FoP. Then I wait 10 min or so for KS.
I’ll be doing this again several times during president’s week

 

[mamaofsix]

Would you say the same for a non-EMH day 8am park opening?

Yes. We were there on a non-EMH 8am opening day...