Rope Dropping FOP

[Dominason]

What kind of wait time can I expect for rope dropping Flight of Passage in September? Just trying to mange expectations.

We have 3 kids and will have to utilize rider swap.

What's the best option for the other parent and kid(s) to do while the others are doing FOP?

Edited to add: we'll be staying onsite and using Early Entry.

 

[marmentrout85]

What kind of wait time can I expect for rope dropping Flight of Passage in September? Just trying to mange expectations.

We have 3 kids and will have to utilize rider swap.

What's the best option for the other parent and kid(s) to do while the others are doing FOP?

Edited to add: we'll be staying onsite and using Early Entry.

I can't say I have any recent experience rope-dropping FOP but I will say that the two times I've been to WDW in September, Flight of Passage had relatively short wait times once mid-afternoon hit. I specifically remember having a 20 minute standby wait around 3pm back in 2022. Heck, even this past January we waited ~25 minutes a bit later in the afternoon. AK in general seems to noticeably clear out in the afternoons.

Flight of Passage seems like it gets the longest waits first thing in the morning, so you definitely have to be on the ball even with Early Entry. While the others are riding you could maybe grab some breakfast at Satu'li Canteen or maybe even ride Na'vi River Journey (depending on the wait) as it doesn't have a height requirement.

 

[Babe the Blue Ox]

What kind of wait time can I expect for rope dropping Flight of Passage in September? Just trying to mange expectations.

We have 3 kids and will have to utilize rider swap.

What's the best option for the other parent and kid(s) to do while the others are doing FOP?

Edited to add: we'll be staying onsite and using Early Entry.

We’ll be at Animal Kingdom on Sunday and have been contemplating the same plan. I’ve watched the stats for the past several weeks and the Flight of Passage wait times shoot up to over an hour each day within minutes of the 7:30 early entry.

This seems way too stressful for us so we’re going to hit Dinosaur and Everest first and save FOP for later. There does seem to be a daily lull around 1 pm where the wait times drop quite a bit.

 

[Disnsyncey]

the past few times I have been arriving an hour before EE and they had let us to the bridge between the center and Pandora 30 min early. It changes for sure though......but if you want to wait the least amount of time, get there the EARLIEST you can.......I have been within the first 100 people in the park, but with all the shuffling, probably many more folks in front of me.....I have gotten in on the first theater, and then I have also waited 20 min......it's anyone's guess depending on how fast you walk, your group's cohesion, how many people are more slithery than you in the bunch, and then how early the park opens (9am vs 8am will be very different with crowds).....

but no matter what, I get a pongu lumpia for breakfast!

 

[brockash]

If you can be at your bus stop 90 mins prior to early entry and tgen mive very quickly for line at security, line at tapstyles and hurry to bridge and hold your own on the walk over you'll wait less than 10 mins. Otherwise it can be anywhere between 10-30 at early entry.

 

[scrappinginontario]

I feel there is waiting involved with FoP regardless of when you go. It’s still an extremely popular attraction so you either wait before the park opens or, later in the day.

To me an added challenge if choosing to go during ETPE is the number of guests who would likely pass you as you secure Rider Switch.

 

[elvispursley]

we must have really lucked out when we went the first week of Sep last year. We were not front of the pack for EE and we walked on up to the point just before they sort you to the different theaters/room. We waited maybe 10 minutes because we were in the queue with all the other eco/wheelchairs.

 

[cruising spud]

How old are your kids? Even if you get to the park early, if the kids can't walk FAST, there is no way you will be at the front of the line. Have you considered LLSP?

 

[Dominason]

How old are your kids? Even if you get to the park early, if the kids can't walk FAST, there is no way you will be at the front of the line. Have you considered LLSP?

My older kids are 6 and 9, youngest is 1. I've considered LLSP, but we'll be buying LLMP, and I don't think I can justify the additional cost. I know we could probably get away with not buying LLMP for Animal Kingdom, but we have park hoppers and won't be spending the whole day there on our trip.

 

[cruising spud]

My plan would be-get to the park early. While waiting in line to get into the park, have one adult stay in line and the other take all of the kids to the bathroom. Then, once the park opens-hustle. You aren't allowed to run, but you need to power walk. A six- and nine-year-old can do that. Hold hands-it is easy to get separated with the crowd. The pushy, pushy crowd. Keep it positive, and your wait shouldn't be too bad. I agree with "scrappinginontario"-you're going to have to wait no matter when you go. So, get it done while everyone is rested and raring to go. Also, it's most probably going to be hot and humid in September, so better to wait in the morning, when the heat isn't too bad. Then, you can breathe easy and enjoy a more relaxing pace in the rest of the park.

Has your family done FOP in the past? If not, I would suggest you all take a look at it on a YouTube video. If the kids want to do the ride (heck the grown-ups, too) realize that if you hate the ride, just close your eyes, and it will be over soon. That was me-we waited three hours for the ride (before LL), and FOP was NOT my thing.

Good luck.

 

[blue oranda]

We recently did rider swap using LL and even then it took about a full hour for both groups to finish, maybe even a little more, since there is the preshows, and exiting to the gift shop etc. first group not riding just waited around in the shade for about 35 minutes, then 2nd group not riding looked in the gift shop and stayed there until everyone was done riding.

I don’t know about your group, but my group didn’t understand the need to hustle it in the morning for early entry. One wanted to leisurely finish breakfast, another thought we were walking too fast, etc.

For slinky dog I knew my mom couldn’t walk fast so I told my husband and son to go on ahead of us, and even just the two of them kinda rushing, slinky was 60 minutes wait right at 8:30. Only A few seconds later it jumped up to 90min. Only the two of them were riding anyway so it didn’t make sense for the rest of us to rush with them

I would suggest to actually just get the LL for FOP. It’s just too unpredictable with the times and you could be waiting longer than you want in pandora. As stated above, that you need to set up the rider swap will delay you greatly. And plus you could get there early and the ride could be down. I had a lot of down rides and sometimes it’s hard to pivot if nothing is close by with a short wait. I didn’t want to spend the extra money either on the LL but in the end glad I did.

 

[kylenne]

All of these headliners are very much a Ricky Bobby situation at EE, "if you ain't first, you're last". FOP is the best possible example of that to me. Your general position in that holding area at the bridge means the difference between walking straight onto the ride before EE even officially opens and getting off to have your whole EE time to do other things, or spending all of EE in that standby queue before you even see a theater. tbh this is why if you can't be at or near the front of the pack for whatever reason during I don't recommend even queuing up, because you'll save more time elsewhere. I only rope dropped it over Fourth of July weekend because I was literally right at the CMs at the bridge, in the front line, and I figured I might as well so I could ride twice (I always buy SP for it and rope drop Na'vi River Journey instead). I was actual first in line for the ride that morning, but I was solo and I speedwalk like a maniac.

End of the night is the best alternative to rope dropping it imo but since you're hopping out that's not an option, so you'll need to try and catch the midday lull if you don't feel like paying extra. It can drop to between 20-30 minutes once the morning crowd starts leaving to hop to other parks, if it's not a super busy day. But you have to watch wait times like a hawk because when people start to see it that low they beeline over and it spikes again. Personally I would just buy the LLSP for it.

 

[Babe the Blue Ox]

All of these headliners are very much a Ricky Bobby situation at EE, "if you ain't first, you're last". FOP is the best possible example of that to me. Your general position in that holding area at the bridge means the difference between walking straight onto the ride before EE even officially opens and getting off to have your whole EE time to do other things, or spending all of EE in that standby queue before you even see a theater. tbh this is why if you can't be at or near the front of the pack for whatever reason during I don't recommend even queuing up, because you'll save more time elsewhere. I only rope dropped it over Fourth of July weekend because I was literally right at the CMs at the bridge, in the front line, and I figured I might as well so I could ride twice (I always buy SP for it and rope drop Na'vi River Journey instead). I was actual first in line for the ride that morning, but I was solo and I speedwalk like a maniac.

End of the night is the best alternative to rope dropping it imo but since you're hopping out that's not an option, so you'll need to try and catch the midday lull if you don't feel like paying extra. It can drop to between 20-30 minutes once the morning crowd starts leaving to hop to other parks, if it's not a super busy day. But you have to watch wait times like a hawk because when people start to see it that low they beeline over and it spikes again. Personally I would just buy the LLSP for it.

We rode FOP on Sunday. We arrived at the gate at 7:55, about 5 minutes before the park opened for regular hours and well after early entry had started. Total wait time was 40 minutes. We then easily made an 8:45 reservation at Tusker House.

The highlight of the day was front row at the final Lion King show of the day, courtesy of a guy parking strollers outside of the theater.

 

[ParrotBill]

FOP has 4 theaters. I am sure they stagger start to get a flow for staffing to move from one to the other. Since the theater room is about 10 minutes total, I bet the fourth theater starts loading about 15 minutes after the first. So the first 192 people will load in the first 15 minutes or so, then you have approx. 10 minutes for each group to get through the theater after the preshow. So you can see how your wait grows to 30 minutes quickly and an hour as a few more hundred arrive. Pretty amazing it can move a thousand people through every half hour!