FP return at AK Safari...

[TammyC]

I am wondering if this is the norm... Last time we had FP for the safari, there was a large group of people standing around the FP return. Every 5 minutes the CM checking FP would announce the next group to go in and the stampede began! I have never noticed this at any other attractions.

 

[bettyann29]

I am wondering if this is the norm... Last time we had FP for the safari, there was a large group of people standing around the FP return. Every 5 minutes the CM checking FP would announce the next group to go in and the stampede began! I have never noticed this at any other attractions.

Ive had FP for this ride before and didnt notice this happening.. Last time I rode was in September last year.. Maybe it was just a onetime thing..

 

[bcsmom]

I have never had this happen either. That is weird, maybe alot of people had FP's for that time frame?

 

[mrsR123]

I've routinely seen clock-watchers at Buzz and Soarin' in addition to the safari. At times, people who are in the middle of their window can hardly get to the front to enter.

 

[MelanieC]

I see this at many rides. I think it's really rude because people who have the correct time on thier FP's have a hard time getting in.

If it's not your turn, stand far enough away from the entrance to the FP line so others can get in.

 

[Karnak]

Perhaps the crowding you noticed at the fastpass entrance was caused by the fact that the fastpass machines issue a number of the tickets with the same times. Since the cast members will not let folks in before the earliest time on the fastpass many people do wait around for their passes to be good, and then most of them line up to enter the loading area at the same time. I have noticed that a crowd will be the result because the guests do not have any other nearby attractions to disperse the crowds.

And this is more likely to be the case for the Animal Kingdom's safari ride because most people don't want to walk to another section of the park, only to have to walk back later in the morning to ride the safari. In fact, there is really one other attraction in the Africa section (Pangani Forest Exploratin Trail), where one may pass the time before the fastpass will be good, unless one is willing to walk to Asia or another part of the park and then walk back to the safari ride before the fastpass expires.

Enjoy.

 

[polixeny]

There was a cm at the safari in September too. When I asked him about it he said many people were trying to sneek in before their time.

 

[Jotash]

We had this experience too when we were there in February. I thought the CM was very rude. In fact, she was downright nasty about it and it wasn't that busy. It was our fastpass time and she made us and another group wait another fifteen minutes, telling us to go sit down or we wouldn't get in at all, since other people had earlier times that were still coming in. (They were sporatic to say the least.) She also took time away from her job to make fun of what I assumed was a manager since he was wearing a dress shirt and tie and had a headset on. Boy, he didn't appreciate that. The other thing I noticed that I thought was odd was after the point where they collected the fastpasses they combined the two lines and we actually ended up waiting longer to get on a truck than people coming in without fastpasses. Is that the norm?

 

[bcsmom]

The other thing I noticed that I thought was odd was after the point where they collected the fastpasses they combined the two lines and we actually ended up waiting longer to get on a truck than people coming in without fastpasses. Is that the norm?

Unfortunately they do this sometimes. I think the FP line should stay that until you get on the ride. We have had this happen on Splash Mountain, Space Mountain & Dinosaur (all enter into that little holding area)

 

[Cor44432]

The area in front of Spalsh Mountain is particulary gridlocked because of
this.

This may be an odd question, but if the stand-by line is quicker than the
fastpass line, then why use your fastpass??

On those attractions where they do combine the lines, I always think of
it this way, it took me 5-10 minutes to get to the merger point, whereas
someone in the stand-by line may have taken 35-40 minutes.

 

[PuckHeadBill]

Several points (i'm not a ks cm, but I have friends who are)

A) yes there are people that will wait for their fp time and clog the fp return line. the cm usually tries to keep the area clear, some are better at it than others.

B) once you reach the merge point (where they collect the fp), you don't have to stay to one side or the other. you can go to either side. fp and standby are together. MERGE point. most people think they have to stay on the same side they were originally on. not true. if the other side is faster, go with it.

c) fp return is, without a doubt, the single most stressful position to work. Not always easy to keep your cool. sometimes the only way to make folks listen is to yell.

 

[eeyoreiscool]

We have also seen lots of people waiting at the Safari FP as well as ITTBAB. If we get back to a ride a little early, we try to stand back or far enough to the side not to interfere. I guess that people are a little impatient and can't wait that extra minute to get on the ride.

 

[loafskier]

We had some trouble at Splash Mountain on Veteran's Day (very crowded at MK) this past year. We returned in the middle of our FP time and had trouble getting to the CM. There was a crowd of people around and I was being polite and saying excuse me to get to the CM, and these people just didn't want to budge. One of the guys said "This CM is being anal", I felt very bad for the CM. I WANTED to say "Shut up, get out of the way, leave the CM alone, and step to the side until your correct time!". But, I just said "Excuse me", showed my fast passes, and off we (dh, ds5, dd7) went to the ride and had a fantastic "virgin" trip to visit Brer Rabbit .

It's times like these when you just have to ignore the jerks because all they will do is bring you down. We had similar issues at Buzz, but the people were not as nasty about it.

 

[buckylarue]

We've routinely had to fight our way thru the 'waitabout' crowd to get to the FP return entrance to RnRC. As big as that plaza is, they all seem to feel the need to stand DIRECTLY in front of the entrance, watching the clock like it will make it move faster...

 

[jaysue]

We have seen this too - people go do something else - walk around, admire the design of the parks, go people watching

cheers
jaysue