Still need to rope drop Soarin'?

[I459WDW]

Do you still need to rope drop Soarin'? Or has the 3rd theatre taken care of the crazy lines? I had planned to run to Soarin first thing, but I wonder if I should do Frozen instead and wait till later in the afternoon for Soarin'.

 

[ZekeMaster]

Here now and have been to Epcot 3 times over the last two weeks. My impression was that the wait for Soarin was generally no more than 30-35 min or so and is readily available as a 4th (or more) FP.

So, you could rope drop, but definitely not essential.

 

[Redbudlover]

That was my experience as well when there last. I was shocked when I walked in to find a 35 minute wait in the middle of the afternoon. Rode it twice in a row!

 

[gap2368]

touring planes just did a test on this a few months ago.

 

[LA Poolboy]

There today at about 10:30 and the standby was only 25 minutes. We did Living with the Land, Soarin', Nemo, and Figment is about an hour. No rope drop needed. Throw in a fastness for Spaceship Earth and we had about 1.5 hours in. Rain may have driven some away.

 

[Just People]

The only long wait in Future World nowadays is Test Track, and that’s only because it breaks down at least 2x an hour!

 

[Mousefan mom]

Do you still need to rope drop Soarin'? Or has the 3rd theatre taken care of the crazy lines? I had planned to run to Soarin first thing, but I wonder if I should do Frozen instead and wait till later in the afternoon for Soarin'.

What we've noticed with the opening of both Pandora and even more so now with TSL is that the crowds are being ciphered away from Epcot. This may change if they have a festival going on, but we were just there 8 nights and enjoyed an uncrowded World Showcase to walk through, and waits for the first hour of park open were lower (under 20 mins) for both Frozen and Soarin. Most certainly, use your FP on TT as it was the only thing over there with really long wait times. The reason for that is because it goes down during rain, it backs up with all the fast passes that come back later, plus all the people who want to ride it. Its our fav ride and we only rode it once with a FP, but we found once we used all our 3 FPs for the day it was pretty easy to get a 4th FP at Frozen or Soarin throughout the day--we rode both of them more than once during our stay.

 

[Average Joes]

Touring Plans has us taking most of an 8am EMH hour doing Soaring twice at RD. It is a reportedly 1/10 day. Then we go to the two character spots that open at 9am to arrive at 9. I am now re-thinking this plan if the wait is that low.

 

[tbholc81]

Does anyone think that this might also be due the problem with the screens bending the objects since they added the new theater and screens?

We didn't even bother with Soarin on our last trip because watching the Eiffel Tower bend and look like a C doesn't appeal to me. I know it's not that way if you sit towards the middle but if you are on the side it's really bad.

 

[Robo]

Does anyone think that this might also be due the problem with the screens bending the objects since they added the new theater and screens?

Just to be precise (for technical clarity...)

They didn't add new screens (except for the additional completely new theater -which included a screen, of course.)
All three of the current concave screens are the same as the "old" (original) concave screens.
They did change all of the projection system(s) to electronic digital (from the original large format film system.)
But, the new image systems did not create the problem of the apparent "bending" of vertical lines.

The reason that predominantly vertical lines (like the Eiffel Tower) appear to "bend" is that these scenes with strong vertical lines are IN the current show and those kind of scenes were simply NOT in the previous show. The former (original) Soarin' Over California film didn't feature any predominantly vertical structures... so that "bending" phenomenon just wasn't an obvious issue. (The concave screens would have always caused this "bending" to occur, but the scenes in the original show did not have any visuals that made the phenomenon so obvious.)

And, yes, since the change to the new Soarin' Around the World movie was added at the (almost) same time as the third theater
and digital projection premiered, the complaints about the "bending" issue started and have continued since about that same time.

 

[gharter]

We have done Soarin at RD several times and had a 10 minute wait at most. When we leave the theater to walk over to LWTL, the wiat times are 45-60 minutes (last in April this year). Have not been back later in the day to see if wait times lessen as the day goes on.
Many claim the best RD is to Test Track and then go to Soarin. We always have a FP+ fo TT, so haven't tried that approach.

 

[tbholc81]

Just to be precise (for technical clarity...)

They didn't add new screens (except for the additional completely new theater -which included a screen, of course.)
All three of the current concave screens are the same as the "old" (original) concave screens.
They did change all of the projection system(s) to electronic digital (from the original large format film system.)
But, the new image systems did not create the problem of the apparent "bending" of vertical lines.

The reason that predominantly vertical lines (like the Eiffel Tower) appear to "bend" is that these scenes with strong vertical lines are IN the current show and those kind of scenes were simply NOT in the previous show. The former (original) Soarin' Over California film didn't feature any predominantly vertical structures... so that "bending" phenomenon just wasn't an obvious issue. (The concave screens would have always caused this "bending" to occur, but the scenes in the original show did not have any visuals that made the phenomenon so obvious.)

And, yes, since the change to the new Soarin' Around the World movie was added at the (almost) same time as the third theater
and digital projection premiered, the complaints about the "bending" issue started and have continued since about that same time.

Thanks for clarifying! I definitely didn’t know all of those details. I’m wondering if it’s an issue they can ever fix or address in the future. Or if there is even a way to do it.

Either way I am attributing this as part of the reason (amongst many other variables) that the ride is not as popular as it once was.

 

[KenHutch]

During our June trip we got a fast pass for Frozen and did Soarin on standby, the wait was I believe about 20-25 minutes. That day the longest wait was Test Track at an hour.

 

[Lanie]

I have never seen the wait for Soarin for less than 45 min (I haven't been in the past 2 1/2 years), so this is kind of awesome news to me!

 

[nkereina]

I wonder if I should do Frozen instead

Its my understanding that it's not that advantageous to rope drop Frozen, because you will first half to walk a good distance at a swift pace just to get back to the ride. And at that point, those who had pre-park opening ADRs at Garden Grill and Akershus will have already beat you to the stand-by line. Because of this, I always try for a FP for Frozen.

Agreeing with PPs that from everything I have read, the Soarin standby line is manageable due to the third screen and it should be somewhat easy to obtain your 4th FP there after your first 3 are used.

 

[LilyWDW]

So, FP Frozen and then at Rope Drop hit Test Track and then Soarin'?

 

[Robo]

So, FP Frozen and then at Rope Drop hit Test Track and then Soarin'?

Rope Drop-

with No FP:
1-Frozen
2-Test Track
3-Soarin'
----------------
with Frozen FP (FP starts at 9:30am or later: )
1-Test Track
2-Soarin'
-or-
1-Soarin'
2-Test Track

 

[I459WDW]

Thanks so much for everyone's input!

 

[qman6975]

I think that Soarin has become old news. It used to be a cutting edge experience, now FOP is a generation ahead and yes the Eiffel Tower bends and the CGI (particularly the Taj Mahal) looks fake. This was a top three attraction for us and now it’s way back in the pack.

 

[Robo]

I think that Soarin has become old news. It used to be a cutting edge experience, now FOP is a generation ahead and yes the Eiffel Tower bends and the CGI (particularly the Taj Mahal) looks fake. This was a top three attraction for us and now it’s way back in the pack.

But, it is still one of the top 3 rides of Epcot's morning choices (until Guardians of the Galaxy opens.)