FP vs. Rope Drop vs. End of Day

[chekhovgirl]

Hi everyone, we're visiting Disney in a few weeks with my extended family, 14 people ranging in age from one to, well, grandparents! I have a few RD vs. FP questions.

Related to rope drop: what are the actual times that they're letting people through turnstiles at MK and AK on a 9AM day?

Magic Kingdom: we have FP for PP and 7DMT, but they aren't until evening, 7-8ish PM, which is all we could get. Should we try and do them at rope drop (we're good about getting there early on our own, but don't know about the rest of the family) so we can use FP for the rest of the day, or be happy we got FP for those later and get through the day without? The one other we have booked is Space Mountain around 11AM.

Animal Kingdom: we have FP for KS, Na'vi River and Rivers of Light. If we're at the park at RD, should we be fine with these or should we also try and do them early and free up FP? Other big question: FOP at RD or at the end of the day?

Thank you for your input! I've read a lot of threads about all of this, so that's been helpful, too!

 

[fgnghg5821]

For your AK questions... I would do FOP at the end of the day. Not sure how that would interfere with Rivers of Light though. If you get in line for FOP right before park close your wait should be shorter than the middle of the day.

Also if you ropedrop at AK you should be able to walk on Navi River Journey and quickly get on the safari.

 

[chekhovgirl]

For your AK questions... I would do FOP at the end of the day. Not sure how that would interfere with Rivers of Light though. If you get in line for FOP right before park close your wait should be shorter than the middle of the day.

Also if you ropedrop at AK you should be able to walk on Navi River Journey and quickly get on the safari.

Thank you! One last question, then. Do we need the FP for Rivers of Light? Or should we try and standby that to use FP throughout the day at AK?

 

[mousehouse23]

For MK, the challenge is that it'd be difficult to get both PPF and SDMT done right at Rope Drop. You'd want to hit SDMT first, but by the time you got off, the line for PPF could be somewhat formidable. Not terrible, but not great.

What I'd try for is doing SDMT at Rope Drop and try to modify the PPF to earlier in the day. If you keep refreshing MDE, I think you'll be able to do this, eventually. Then I'd add a 3rd FP for something else, be done with all FP+ selections by 1:00, and try to get rolling Fastpasses after that.

Btw, they let everyone onto Main Street a hair before 8 a.m., typically. You should definitely be lined up to the right of the castle by 8:15 if hoping to Rope Drop SDMT.

For AK: I do think a FP at ROL is useful. It depends on whether you want to ride Expedition Everest or not, or can do it Single Rider. If that's not a priority for you, then keeping the ROL FP+ is probably a good idea. Rolling Fastpasses aren't as important at AK.

As for when to ride FOP . . . that's tough. You're going to have a long day staying from RD to closing. I guess it depends on when the park closes that night. If it's an early closing, I'd try to RD FOP (which means getting there more than an hour before opening). If it's a late closing, I might stay and ride at the end. But you could easily be looking at a 1+ hour wait.

 

[chekhovgirl]

For MK, the challenge is that it'd be difficult to get both PPF and SDMT done right at Rope Drop. You'd want to hit SDMT first, but by the time you got off, the line for PPF could be somewhat formidable. Not terrible, but not great.

What I'd try for is doing SDMT at Rope Drop and try to modify the PPF to earlier in the day. If you keep refreshing MDE, I think you'll be able to do this, eventually. Then I'd add a 3rd FP for something else, be done with all FP+ selections by 1:00, and try to get rolling Fastpasses after that.

Btw, they let everyone onto Main Street a hair before 8 a.m., typically. You should definitely be lined up to the right of the castle by 8:15 if hoping to Rope Drop SDMT.

For AK: I do think a FP at ROL is useful. It depends on whether you want to ride Expedition Everest or not, or can do it Single Rider. If that's not a priority for you, then keeping the ROL FP+ is probably a good idea. Rolling Fastpasses aren't as important at AK.

As for when to ride FOP . . . that's tough. You're going to have a long day staying from RD to closing. I guess it depends on when the park closes that night. If it's an early closing, I'd try to RD FOP (which means getting there more than an hour before opening). If it's a late closing, I might stay and ride at the end. But you could easily be looking at a 1+ hour wait.

Thank you, that is all very helpful!