Help Me with My Epcot Plan - Joy & Sadness

[PrincessWithABlaster]

With just over 2 1/2 months to go, I'm thinking of changing my plans. We were going to have 2 days at Epcot and 2 at MK. But now that I am trying to put together touring plans, the Epcot days are going to be very leisurely and the MK days rather packed. Character M&Gs are killing me. We have 2 kids who love rides and one who loves M&Gs so I have to balance. And there seems to be very limited FP availability for M&Gs so 4th FPs seem very unlikely. It actually appears far more likely that we can RD either TT or Soarin and get a 4th for the other (FEA as the prebooked Tier 1). So I'm toying with the idea of switching 1 Epcot day to an MK day (1 total Epcot and 3 MK). We don't have hoppers so it would be the whole day. But that depends on being able to see Joy and Sadness at some time other than the 1st attraction at RD. Can anyone give me an idea of what wait times have been like for them and Baymax recently? Is it possible to see them either late morning or afternoon with a 30 min or less wait?

 

[Canooknic]

We were there today and did Baymax in less than 10 but Joy & Sadness were probably around 35-40 (they were interacting with all the guests so it took longer) the line was short so we assumed 10-15 minutes, luckily it was our 2nd of 3 Epcot days so we didn't need to rush

 

[CAS239]

Joy and sadness are usually 30-60 min. It's generally only shorter early or late in the day

 

[jvz82]

We did Soarin at RD and then Joy and Sadness right afterwards and it was a 20-30 minute wait (I didn't pay attention to how long we actually waited, but I would say under 30). It was a fun M&G though! Baymax was only a 10 minute wait.

For what it's worth, we did 1 day at Epcot this trip with several M&Gs and we saw most everything we wanted in Future World (except Test Track), but saw almost nothing in the World Showcase. We made it to Norway to meet Elsa and Anna and go on FEA, and we went to Mexico and met Donald and did the ride there but that was it. I wish we had had at least another half day there.

 

[Ambehnke]

I'd say definitely doable if you don't want to spend a ton of time in the countries. And it would be my kids preference too since they are ride kids.

 

[PrincessWithABlaster]

We did Soarin at RD and then Joy and Sadness right afterwards and it was a 20-30 minute wait (I didn't pay attention to how long we actually waited, but I would say under 30). It was a fun M&G though! Baymax was only a 10 minute wait.

That was going to be my next question. Thanks.

I'd say definitely doable if you don't want to spend a ton of time in the countries. And it would be my kids preference too since they are ride kids.

We want to do at least 1 agent P mission, the hedge maze in UK, and the trains in Germany. Oh, and I have wanted to see the Chinese acrobats for 3 years now (and haven't yet). But we have over 2 hours free time and things like The Land can easily be dropped to make more. So I think it's doable. Need to discuss with DH and do the touring plans but I'm definitely leaning toward going down a day. It'll give us 3 more leisurely days in MK instead of 2 leisurely days and a lot of me stressing about getting things in.

Someday we'll do a nice leisurely afternoon in WS - when the kids are out of the house.

 

[dreiwhit]

We did Joy & Sadness at RD back in November. The CM said the wait time was 45 minutes, and sure enough, it was exactly 45 minutes. We got in line at the tapstiles at 8:40am.

One thing i've noticed about Epcot is that every time i've gone there, the CMs are letting folks go in early. If I wanted to be first in line at J&S, I would plan to get to Epcot and go through security no later than 8:15am. After you go through the tapstiles, hustle over to their meet & greet area.

 

[DisneyHardin]

When we were there in November, we did Soarin' RD and then went ahead and hopped on Living with the Land since we were there and then head to Joy & Sadness. We waited about 25-30 minutes. The CM manning the line kept telling everyone it was at least and hour wait, but I think she was trying to discourage people from getting in line because it wasn't nearly that long of a wait.