To celebrate my wife's birthday, we did a short overnight trip to AK.
We are annual passholders as of last month. With just a 30 day window for AP to get fast passes, there was and currently is no expectation of getting FP for FOP. We were desperate to see it. Even after booking a cheap All Star Movie resort room, we were well inside the 60 day window, no passes available. But, we had a plan:
Arrive at All Star Movies around 3 PM and enjoy the pool and eat in the food court.
Be at AK by 6 PM, we did have a FP for the river journey at 6:10 PM, Safari at 7:45 PM and the late Rivers of Light show since we could stay to 12AM with EMH.
I also had FP for Everest, Kali and FotLK for the next day. For the 2nd day, we planned to be at the park no later than 7AM to queue for EMH at 8 for FOP.
Here is how it went down:
Work delayed me on Friday and we didn't get to the resort until almost 5PM, so there went any extended pool time. We were on the 1st floor in the Mighty Ducks wing. IMHO, this is the weakest of the movie themes, but, being the furthest wing from the central area, it ended working all right as it was very quiet. We did not get a chance to enjoy either pool.
The food court was empty at 5:30 and the food we had there was okay, not great, but it filled our tummies rather quickly which is why we ate there. We ordered an Italian sandwich and a roast beef sandwich.
We got the park around 6:30 and with our FP for the river journey expiring at 7:10, we had plenty of time to use it. Wow, for just a easy ride, it as quite impressive, very immersive in the world of Pandora. Not a "thrill", but enjoyable.
We then walked a bit, including the Africa Gorilla trail (I mean, who doesn't love Meerkats) until it was time for our Safari.
We got in line with our FP at 7:45 and it still took 25 minutes until we got on a safari truck. While the animals were still pretty much in view (hello Okapi!) and lots were moving about, what struck us was the spectacular sunset that went along with our ride. The lions had begun to stir, the giraffes were all moving about and the white rhinos were practically on the road. Had never been that close to one before, that was coo. All the while the sky was ablaze in orange and red. We thoroughly enjoyed that ride and I recommend sunset rides on the Safari, especially on nights were storms have moved on providing just enough cloud cover for the light to reflect and paint the sky.
Since the line for Everest was at 5 minutes, i rode that at night a few times and this is another great night time experience. The view going up is beautiful and most of the ride is completely black, as black as Space Mountain. Wife, not so much, but she was patient with me riding several times.
We explored Pandora at night and then attended Rivers of Light (10:30) show. We had FP for it and the FP section and the section with dining passes were all full. The open seating, which was full at the 9:15 show was about 2% full for this late show. So, if you want to see it without FP, if you can manage the late show, that would appear to be your best bet.
We enjoyed the show, certainly not as spectacular as HEA, or even Star Wars fireworks, but very appropriate for the park where it is presented.
The show ended around 10:45 and we decided to call it a night and try and tackle FOP in the morning. One side note, we were hungry upon returning to our room and went back to the food court for a snack. I have to say the rice cereal treat in a Mickey Head shape was absolutely the WORST thing I have ever taken a bite of. OMG, it was horrible, being stale and had some sort of odd taste and was way too chewy, it was awful! It had no sweetness at all and was rather bitter. Yuck!
Alarm went of at 6AM, we were at the food court at 6:20, but even though the hours said 6 - Midnight, nothing was being served. One station opened at 6:30 and we had Mickey waffles for breakfast, but we lost 10 minutes.
We got to AK around 7:15 and the queue was forming. We arranged it so that we would not have bags to check and when they opened the security check point at 7:30, we got through ahead of most of the bag check people. We were about 15th in line for entering the park, and there were about maybe 6 lines they were going to open, not sure about that. At 7:40 the started letting people in, at least as far as the great tree. At 7:55 we were moved to Pandora and FOP. We weren't first, but i believe we made the 2nd ride as we did get to go through all the pre-show stuff, which I think is worth it. It really gets you in the mood and to be ready for the ride that is to come.
There has been a lot already on this board about FOP, and I'm not going to go into great detail. My wife called it "the best ride ever" and i put it second behind Star Tours because i am such a Star Wars geek. This whole ride experience is wonderful, amazing, unforgettable. Really, you don't need to have seen the film to enjoy it, as my wife never saw the film and was still blown away. We can't wait to do it again.
By the time we left FOP it was only 8:20. The line was now ridiculous, timed at over 2 hours. So, if you don't have a FP for this ride, your only chance at not waiting 2 hours is to get there when the park opens, if you are not staying at a Park Resort, go on a non-EMH day.
We then did a morning safari, did the Tiger trail, rode Everest twice (well I did), Kali once, Dinosaur once, had a snack (frozen banana) and enjoyed FotLK and the Birds in Flight show (shout out to Tuesday, Great Horn Owl). Other than Pandora, most of the lines were manageable, less than 20 minutes. Single riders on Everest had hardly any wait at all, which is why I could ride it several times in a short period of time.
By 2PM we were out of gas. But, in our 2 half days we enjoyed almost the whole park, leaving out the silly Dino area and the tough to be a bug thing, which I didn't appreciate very much when we saw it a long time ago.
Being passholders, we hope to go back in the fall and get on FOP again. If this is what they can do with Avatar, the mind boggles at what Galaxy's Edge will bring!
Dolby1000
We are annual passholders as of last month. With just a 30 day window for AP to get fast passes, there was and currently is no expectation of getting FP for FOP. We were desperate to see it. Even after booking a cheap All Star Movie resort room, we were well inside the 60 day window, no passes available. But, we had a plan:
Arrive at All Star Movies around 3 PM and enjoy the pool and eat in the food court.
Be at AK by 6 PM, we did have a FP for the river journey at 6:10 PM, Safari at 7:45 PM and the late Rivers of Light show since we could stay to 12AM with EMH.
I also had FP for Everest, Kali and FotLK for the next day. For the 2nd day, we planned to be at the park no later than 7AM to queue for EMH at 8 for FOP.
Here is how it went down:
Work delayed me on Friday and we didn't get to the resort until almost 5PM, so there went any extended pool time. We were on the 1st floor in the Mighty Ducks wing. IMHO, this is the weakest of the movie themes, but, being the furthest wing from the central area, it ended working all right as it was very quiet. We did not get a chance to enjoy either pool.
The food court was empty at 5:30 and the food we had there was okay, not great, but it filled our tummies rather quickly which is why we ate there. We ordered an Italian sandwich and a roast beef sandwich.
We got the park around 6:30 and with our FP for the river journey expiring at 7:10, we had plenty of time to use it. Wow, for just a easy ride, it as quite impressive, very immersive in the world of Pandora. Not a "thrill", but enjoyable.
We then walked a bit, including the Africa Gorilla trail (I mean, who doesn't love Meerkats) until it was time for our Safari.
We got in line with our FP at 7:45 and it still took 25 minutes until we got on a safari truck. While the animals were still pretty much in view (hello Okapi!) and lots were moving about, what struck us was the spectacular sunset that went along with our ride. The lions had begun to stir, the giraffes were all moving about and the white rhinos were practically on the road. Had never been that close to one before, that was coo. All the while the sky was ablaze in orange and red. We thoroughly enjoyed that ride and I recommend sunset rides on the Safari, especially on nights were storms have moved on providing just enough cloud cover for the light to reflect and paint the sky.
Since the line for Everest was at 5 minutes, i rode that at night a few times and this is another great night time experience. The view going up is beautiful and most of the ride is completely black, as black as Space Mountain. Wife, not so much, but she was patient with me riding several times.
We explored Pandora at night and then attended Rivers of Light (10:30) show. We had FP for it and the FP section and the section with dining passes were all full. The open seating, which was full at the 9:15 show was about 2% full for this late show. So, if you want to see it without FP, if you can manage the late show, that would appear to be your best bet.
We enjoyed the show, certainly not as spectacular as HEA, or even Star Wars fireworks, but very appropriate for the park where it is presented.
The show ended around 10:45 and we decided to call it a night and try and tackle FOP in the morning. One side note, we were hungry upon returning to our room and went back to the food court for a snack. I have to say the rice cereal treat in a Mickey Head shape was absolutely the WORST thing I have ever taken a bite of. OMG, it was horrible, being stale and had some sort of odd taste and was way too chewy, it was awful! It had no sweetness at all and was rather bitter. Yuck!
Alarm went of at 6AM, we were at the food court at 6:20, but even though the hours said 6 - Midnight, nothing was being served. One station opened at 6:30 and we had Mickey waffles for breakfast, but we lost 10 minutes.
We got to AK around 7:15 and the queue was forming. We arranged it so that we would not have bags to check and when they opened the security check point at 7:30, we got through ahead of most of the bag check people. We were about 15th in line for entering the park, and there were about maybe 6 lines they were going to open, not sure about that. At 7:40 the started letting people in, at least as far as the great tree. At 7:55 we were moved to Pandora and FOP. We weren't first, but i believe we made the 2nd ride as we did get to go through all the pre-show stuff, which I think is worth it. It really gets you in the mood and to be ready for the ride that is to come.
There has been a lot already on this board about FOP, and I'm not going to go into great detail. My wife called it "the best ride ever" and i put it second behind Star Tours because i am such a Star Wars geek. This whole ride experience is wonderful, amazing, unforgettable. Really, you don't need to have seen the film to enjoy it, as my wife never saw the film and was still blown away. We can't wait to do it again.
By the time we left FOP it was only 8:20. The line was now ridiculous, timed at over 2 hours. So, if you don't have a FP for this ride, your only chance at not waiting 2 hours is to get there when the park opens, if you are not staying at a Park Resort, go on a non-EMH day.
We then did a morning safari, did the Tiger trail, rode Everest twice (well I did), Kali once, Dinosaur once, had a snack (frozen banana) and enjoyed FotLK and the Birds in Flight show (shout out to Tuesday, Great Horn Owl). Other than Pandora, most of the lines were manageable, less than 20 minutes. Single riders on Everest had hardly any wait at all, which is why I could ride it several times in a short period of time.
By 2PM we were out of gas. But, in our 2 half days we enjoyed almost the whole park, leaving out the silly Dino area and the tough to be a bug thing, which I didn't appreciate very much when we saw it a long time ago.
Being passholders, we hope to go back in the fall and get on FOP again. If this is what they can do with Avatar, the mind boggles at what Galaxy's Edge will bring!
Dolby1000
