ROL to Everest w/ 8pm park closing-is it realistic?

[ppjohnston]

Scenario: DAK Thursday 2/1/2018 with crowd level 3 park closes 8pm
Goal: ride Everest after dark

We have a 7:15pm ROL show (dinner package preferred seating, if it matters). Will we have time to get over to Everest and ride w/ a 7-8pm FP+, then head towards park entrance/exit and see Tree of Life Awakenings on the way out? Looking at the map, it seems doable to me. Wondering if the ROL exit crowd will be an issue. Thank you

 

[Marthasor]

If ROL starts at 7:15 pm, you will be fine! EE is literally right next to the ROL theater. You may be pushing the tree awakenings though as you've only given yourself a half hour to ride EE and get to the entrance. I think you will be ok, but, you may want to consider trying to see the tree awakenings before ROL if possible.

 

[Babe the Blue Ox]

At that time of year, I would expect to be able to ride Everest 3 times between 7:30 and 8 pm.

 

[ppjohnston]

At that time of year, I would expect to be able to ride Everest 3 times between 7:30 and 8 pm

Not so much worried that way.... more so the logistics of getting there from ROL crowd heading to exit.

 

[sharonabe]

Scenario: DAK Thursday 2/1/2018 with crowd level 3 park closes 8pm
Goal: ride Everest after dark

We have a 7:15pm ROL show (dinner package preferred seating, if it matters). Will we have time to get over to Everest and ride w/ a 7-8pm FP+, then head towards park entrance/exit and see Tree of Life Awakenings on the way out? Looking at the map, it seems doable to me. Wondering if the ROL exit crowd will be an issue. Thank you

The dining plan section is on the wrong side for you. I don't know if you can use the package to get in early, and sit in a different section or not. The problem is you want to be on the other side of the bridge in front of Everest to not have to fight the exit crowd, so it's not like you can enter at the package location and just walk over (unless you can walk on water). With a low crowd level, I would probably ditch the dining package and just arrive early enough to get into the section you want to be in and sit toward the top of the stadium seating.

Check out Robo's maps here: https://www.disboards.com/threads/wdw-maps-by-robo.3545729/#post-56460957
Scroll down to find his ROL seating map.

 

[DisneyWishes14]

The dining plan section is on the wrong side for you. I don't know if you can use the package to get in early, and sit in a different section or not. The problem is you want to be on the other side of the bridge in front of Everest to not have to fight the exit crowd, so it's not like you can enter at the package location and just walk over (unless you can walk on water). With a low crowd level, I would probably ditch the dining package and just arrive early enough to get into the section you want to be in and sit toward the top of the stadium seating.

Check out Robo's maps here: https://www.disboards.com/threads/wdw-maps-by-robo.3545729/#post-56460957
Scroll down to find his ROL seating map.

I disagree with this. We did ROL with FP+ during a low crowd time (last week of August) and standby was still packed with people waiting a very long time to get in (some didn't get in at all as they went to standing room only by the time we entered for our FP+ seats). I would absolutely not drop the dining package and wait an hour or more to see ROL just to save 5 minutes to get to EE after the show. The exit crowds really aren't slow. We had a FOP FP+ almost immediately following ROL the night we saw it. We exited the FP+ section, made a left, went over the bridge in Asia and headed toward the tree of life to get to Pandora. Yes, it was crowded, but we still had time to stop and buy popcorn before we got to Pandora. It will take you five minutes tops to get from ROL to EE from the dining package section.

Edited to add: the other thing you could do is ride EE before ROL. Sunset will be around 6 pm that time of year. If you ride around 6:30/6:40 pm, it should be fairly dark. You can then watch ROL and have a more leisurely exit to see the tree awakenings.

 

[disneyfreak202]

We just did this in November, we did ROL with dining package and sat towards the middle of the section. We were able to ride Everest twice with a 7:30 ROL and then catch the end of Tree Awakenings.

 

[Robo]

then head towards park entrance/exit and see Tree of Life Awakenings on the way out?

This will be the easiest of your goals.
They continue to run shows of Awakenings well past "closing time."
You will be able to see the Awakenings show(s) as you exit, even if you are taking one extra ride on EE as the rest of the park is "closing" for the evening.

And, I agree with the DisneyWishes14 post about the sky being fully dark by 6:30-ish on Feb, 1.

 

[ppjohnston]

Thank you all for the advice. This gives me a much better idea of how might tune our. I'll let you know post trip what worked!