Soarin (1st thing in the morning) with out fast pass

[markpenske]

If I was at the Epcot gate as soon as they open and I make a B-line for Soarin what do you think the wait time would be (stand-by).
Same question for M.Train (MK)
THanks

 

[gymnasticsrocks]

We were there in late January, went right to Soarin. Rode twice in a row with no wait. We were also at the front of the line at opening time

 

[BABYJOSIE98]

If you head straight there at opening then you should be able to ride it with little wait. The line does build fast , but with your plan you will be fine. Same goes for the 7DMT.
I usually book a FP for Soarin and then head straight to Test Track and that works too.

Good luck.....

 

[grammimouse]

We were there in late January, went right to Soarin. Rode twice in a row with no wait. We were also at the front of the line at opening time

You're in ------ Or should I say ON !! Enjoy the ride !!

 

[JimmyV]

It all depends on where you are at Rope Drop. It is one thing to say that you are there "as soon as they open the gates". But 5,000 other people will be saying that as well. If you are the 5,000th person there when the gates open, you could be the 3,000th person in line for Soarin'. That does not result in a "short wait". If you are the 100th person who is there as soon as the gates open, then you will walk right on. The moral of the story is that there is Rope Drop, and then there is ROPE DROP!!" To avoid long lines, you want to do the latter.

 

[minnie mum]

The trick is not to arrive at the gates AT RD, but well BEFORE RD. Like at least 30 minutes early. More if it is on a high crowd day. Otherwise you could already have a sizeable crowd ahead of you by the time you get to the ride.

It seems that Jimmy V and I were posting at the same time.

 

[senadler]

Is it better to do Test Track first? I am wondering which one to ride at park opening and which one to FP+. We will be entering through the International Gateway.

 

[DisneyWisher]

We arrived at 9:30 on a morning EMH day we waited 10 mins. They were running both sides, FPers went to the left and standby to the right. We were doing 2 parks that day and saved FPs for the MK later in the day.

 

[LaurenT]

This must have been during a very low crowd time! By 9:30 on a non EMH morning the line is typically over 30 minutes - I imagine it would be much more on an EMH morning day ... Though I typically avoid EMH.
I meant to quote the person who said it was a 10 minute wait at 9:30 on an EMH morning.

 

[JimmyV]

Is it better to do Test Track first? I am wondering which one to ride at park opening and which one to FP+. We will be entering through the International Gateway.

My personal preference is to do TT first as a "hit-and-run" attraction and save Soarin' for later that morning with a FP. That way, when you get to the Land pavilion, there will be less pressure on you to ride Soarin' and then high-tail it out of there to get to the next ride. The Land pavilion has a second attraction in it, and a nice place to eat. So if I were to choose one pavilion to rush in and out of and a second pavilion to linger in, it would be to rush in and out of TT and linger at the Land.

 

[Cando86]

In January, we rode Soarin' twice in a row in the morning and even after we were off the second time the SB wait was only posted as 20 minutes (meaning it was likely much less). We did head right there at RD and it was not an EMH day.

 

[silenttuba]

It all depends on where you are at Rope Drop. It is one thing to say that you are there "as soon as they open the gates". But 5,000 other people will be saying that as well. If you are the 5,000th person there when the gates open, you could be the 3,000th person in line for Soarin'. That does not result in a "short wait". If you are the 100th person who is there as soon as the gates open, then you will walk right on. The moral of the story is that there is Rope Drop, and then there is ROPE DROP!!" To avoid long lines, you want to do the latter.

We were in Epcot on President's Day. We got there shortly before the gate opened (7:50 for an 8:00 AM opening), went directly to Test Track, and had a very short wait; less than 10 minutes .We could have, at that point, gone over to Soarin' for a 20 minute wait (which is very reasonable for Soarin') but chose to get other things done and use our FP+ later. maybe it's because RD was early that day (not EMH, btw, just an 8:00 AM open), but the lines really didn't start to build up until around 10:00.

 

[JimmyV]

maybe it's because RD was early that day (not EMH, btw, just an 8:00 AM open)

That always makes a huge difference.

 

[JZCubed]

Is it better to do Test Track first? I am wondering which one to ride at park opening and which one to FP+. We will be entering through the International Gateway.

Since TT is more likely to have technical difficulties, best to FP+ Test Track so as to have a return option once the attraction is running again.

Certainly a case can be made that if coming from International Gateway and you can get on/off Soarin' quickly enough, you could start at Soarin' and subsequently have just a bit of a standby wait at TT.

Personally, we FP+ TT over Soarin'.

 

[jade1]

Did it last week, (not EMH) took about 10 minutes, then did SB for TT and still could select either TT or Soarin as part of our 3 choices "after" that.

 

[Sargeant Tibbs]

Piece of cake, OP, as long as you get to the park early and are near the front at RD, as PPs suggested.

I miss the days when I could go straight back to Soarin', grab our FPs, jump in the still short line, then afterwards, if the line was still short, ride it a second time, take a potty break, and hit it with the fastpasses. Pretty much got my Soarin' fix for the day.

 

[Suzanne74]

I am very torn on this issue too and have gone back and forth.

The positives of using FP for Soarin and RP TT:
The walk to TT is easier, especially if you have a stroller which parking is right outside of entrance vs closer to Living Seas at Soarin and holding kids down stairs etc.
More people tend to go towards Soarin which gives you a chance to ride TT twice with little wait
You can always go back to TT later and do Single Rider
You can do Mission Space and/or Sum of all Thrills with little wait after your 1st run at TT.
Put your Soarin FP in around lunch and once you do TT, MS, Innovations, you can eat lunch at Sunshine Seasons before/after FP
Then spend after lunch doing Nemo FP, Turtle FP, Imagination, Captain EO

The positives of doing FP for TT and RP Soarin
Soarin's line will always be long, no single rider option, and the only way to do it twice without a FP is to go at RP and do it back to back.
The FP line can take over 20 minutes. It just loads slow
If you want to ride both first thing in AM without FP, you need to RP Soarin and get to TT after. It should still be between 20-30min.
TT goes down and closes a lot more than Soarin. Having a FP secures you a future ride that day when it opens.
TT can also open late due to water/dew on the tracks. People have posted going over and waiting 20+min before the first ride goes off. That would be frustrating
Kids love the exit games/cars with TT and if you RP it, you will be wanting to get to something else right away. Soarin has a quick exit

 

[JimmyV]

I am very torn on this issue too and have gone back and forth.

The positives of using FP for Soarin and RP TT:
The walk to TT is easier, especially if you have a stroller which parking is right outside of entrance vs closer to Living Seas at Soarin and holding kids down stairs etc.
More people tend to go towards Soarin which gives you a chance to ride TT twice with little wait
You can always go back to TT later and do Single Rider
You can do Mission Space and/or Sum of all Thrills with little wait after your 1st run at TT.
Put your Soarin FP in around lunch and once you do TT, MS, Innovations, you can eat lunch at Sunshine Seasons before/after FP
Then spend after lunch doing Nemo FP, Turtle FP, Imagination, Captain EO

The positives of doing FP for TT and RP Soarin
Soarin's line will always be long, no single rider option, and the only way to do it twice without a FP is to go at RP and do it back to back.
The FP line can take over 20 minutes. It just loads slow
If you want to ride both first thing in AM without FP, you need to RP Soarin and get to TT after. It should still be between 20-30min.
TT goes down and closes a lot more than Soarin. Having a FP secures you a future ride that day when it opens.
TT can also open late due to water/dew on the tracks. People have posted going over and waiting 20+min before the first ride goes off. That would be frustrating
Kids love the exit games/cars with TT and if you RP it, you will be wanting to get to something else right away. Soarin has a quick exit

I think this sets it up very well. If you want to ride Soarin' twice, it is best to go at RD. If you will be satisfied with one ride on Soarin', go later in the day with a FP.

 

[DavidNYC]

If you have a hopper pass I recommend not using FP for either of them (unless it's a really peak time) if you can make RD. There just aren't enough good uses of FP at Epcot. Last year we got on line about 20 minutes before rope drop, made a beeline to Soarin and walked right on the ride. Off by about 9:20 and went right to TT. Wait had grown to about 30 minutes at that point but still - we got to do Soarin and TT in the first hour without using FP. We used them to hop to MK later in the day where we used it for 3 rides where the waits were over an hour for each!

Now if you don't have a hopper, might was well use them but I just can't myself to use FP at Epcot if I can make RD if I'm going to another park later in the day.

 

[clambert1273]

When we went a week ago, we had a FP for test track and rode Soarin' first thing. I think we waited maybe 15 min...