Pandora planning help needed!

[dawn117]

I really need some advice on our AK day plan. We will be in WDW Jan 3-7, with the 3rd and 7th as partial days due to travel. I have AK as our last full day, Sat Jan 6 which has morning EMH. We are staying onsite and plan to rope drop. I know this is marathon weekend. Touring Plans has the crowd in AK that day as a 9! Our priorities are 1) ride FoP twice, ideally once with FP and once standby to see the queue but with a wait of under an hour; 2) ride NRJ; 3) see ROL (am hoping to snag a dining package). I'm not sure what to do about FPs. I will jump on it at 7am on my day 60 but our trip is kind of short--should I start with our departure day even though we would rather end the trip in MK? Any advice on how to handle the Pandora thing would be greatly appreciated!

 

[ghtx]

I think if you want to ride FoP twice, then you should get one FP and also plan on riding it first thing at RD. If you are early enough (and since it's an AM EMH day) hopefully the wait won't be too long, and you can go to Navi River journey afterwards with not too long of a wait.

 

[dawn117]

If you RD FoP do you miss the queue like you do when you use a FP?

 

[Wish Upon A Starbucks]

Recently yes but YMMV

 

[mousehockey37]

Your bigger challenge is going to be getting around WDW with the marathon going on. The race will still be in full swing at the times you're going to need to start getting around.

At that, you need to be at the front of the RD crowd. There's older threads about Pandora at RD, so try searching a little as well.

 

[NH-to-FL]

If you RD FoP do you miss the queue like you do when you use a FP?

Yes, the front of the rope drop crowd bypasses part of the queue. I just did a 9am RD visit on Friday. I was at the park waiting at the no bag line at 7:30am.

Maybe by January the crowds will go down a bit but when I got back out to Pandora after my FoP ride the wait was already showing 150 minutes. At 9:01am! If you are trying to get in two FoP rides with minimum wait I would try an EMH morning. Use a FP+ for Navi River.

 

[dawn117]

It sounds like there isn't a way to ride FoP standby and see the queue without a significant wait. What will we miss if we don't go through the queue?