Strategy Question - Epcot

[123SA]

Aug 31, Monday not an EMH day, no special events
We will arrive around 815 for 9am opening and will proceed quickly, but safely, to Test Track. Party of 5 - 2 adults, kids 9,12,15

Can we reasonably expect to accomplish this?

test track
test track
sum of all thrills
mission space (will try for 10-11am FP)
figment ride
living with the land
soarin (will try for 11-12 FP)
character connection (will try for 12-1pm FP)

Be in China to meet Mulan sometime during her 1pm-140pm set.

Our last trip was at this time of year in 2012, before FP+ and I can say, yes, we did all of this and more.

I appreciate your help.

 

[itchin2go]

Aug 31, Monday not an EMH day, no special events
We will arrive around 815 for 9am opening and will proceed quickly, but safely, to Test Track. Party of 5 - 2 adults, kids 9,12,15

Can we reasonably expect to accomplish this?

test track
test track
sum of all thrills
mission space (will try for 10-11am FP)
figment ride
living with the land
soarin (will try for 11-12 FP)
character connection (will try for 12-1pm FP)

Be in China to meet Mulan sometime during her 1pm-140pm set.

Our last trip was at this time of year in 2012, before FP+ and I can say, yes, we did all of this and more.

I appreciate your help.

The only thing I would question would be the back to back Test Track rides. They're possible, but I would guess it will take some extra time. One Test Track ride should be no problem and the rest of it looks doable.

We do Test Track, Soarin (with FP), Figment, Club Cool, quick breakfast and a bit of The Seas, and we are always ready to enter World Showcase when it opens at 11:00. You're giving yourself at least another hour and a half on of top of that. Looks pretty good to me.

One other thought - I don't know how important Living with the Land is to you. I never noticed it being busy in years past, but on our past trip (now, mind you, it WAS Thanksgiving week), there was a HUGE line for it.

 

[minnie mum]

I think it is possible if you are prepared to do single rider for TT on your second ride if the standby line is long. The kids are old enough to do this.

I agree that there is the possibility of running into a line at LWTL, especially in the late morning. I'm assuming that you will be squeezing in lunch somewhere in there. Might be able to do Sunshine seasons in between your Soarin and character M&G. But I think its going to be a very rushed morning.

 

[Lucius Best]

Looks like a good plan. TT seems to get backed up pretty quick in the morning, it's also unpredictable, if it breaks down for 5 minutes the line becomes huge. Also on our last trip (late April, not too busy), LWTL would inexplicably have a 30 minute wait mid-morning. It was baffling because I had never done it before when it wasn't a walk-on.

 

[itchin2go]

Looks like a good plan. TT seems to get backed up pretty quick in the morning, it's also unpredictable, if it breaks down for 5 minutes the line becomes huge. Also on our last trip (late April, not too busy), LWTL would inexplicably have a 30 minute wait mid-morning. It was baffling because I had never done it before when it wasn't a walk-on.

You know, it occurred to me that LWTL may be one of those rides that's been affected by FP+. We went to Epcot on the first day of our 2014 trip, and when I saw that line, I thought - Whoa - we are in trouble! That was the only line where I was surprised by the wait time, though.

 

[Lucius Best]

You know, it occurred to me that LWTL may be one of those rides that's been affected by FP+. We went to Epcot on the first day of our 2014 trip, and when I saw that line, I thought - Whoa - we are in trouble! That was the only line where I was surprised by the wait time, though.

We also noticed inflated lines at Spaceship Earth, it would fluctuate, sometimes up to 30 minutes. That one we attributed to FP+ returners, figuring for most people Soarin/TestTrack will be first choice, then SpaceshipEarth/MissionSpace are probably the next most popular choices. When the standby line for SE was 30 minutes, it was clearly because there were hundreds of people (like us) returning with FP.

But LWTL is in the same FP+ tier as Soarin/TestTrack, so it can't be people returning with FP making the line 30 minutes long on a random weekday at 11am. Maybe it's because so many people get their FP+ at 10am/11am/12pm, and before or after their Soarin FP window they figure they'll do LWTL because they were already in The Land and they don't have time to do anything else? Figment and Nemo never had the same lines as LWTL, it was truly bizarre.

 

[savannie]

I agree with everyone else. If anything is gonna throw your schedule off, it'll be TT. You should know pretty early, though, and be able to adjust your schedule accordingly. Personally, I'd bump that Soarin' FP+ to 11:30-12:30. I did a rough estimate in my head, and you'll probably arrive for it around 11:40, which is a little too close to 12 for comfort. Also, remember to set aside time for lunch.

 

[itchin2go]

But LWTL is in the same FP+ tier as Soarin/TestTrack, so it can't be people returning with FP making the line 30 minutes long on a random weekday at 11am. Maybe it's because so many people get their FP+ at 10am/11am/12pm, and before or after their Soarin FP window they figure they'll do LWTL because they were already in The Land and they don't have time to do anything else? Figment and Nemo never had the same lines as LWTL, it was truly bizarre.

You are probably exactly right about that. And they may be killing time close by, waiting on their next FP window to open up ... whereas before, you would move on to the thing you WANTED to do next (standby), but maybe you have a FP booked for that (whatever it is) in an hour, so you find a way to occupy the time.

 

[Lucius Best]

You are probably exactly right about that. And they may be killing time close by, waiting on their next FP window to open up ...

I enjoy LWTL, but I couldn't figure out who all those people were, thought maybe it was opposite day. Even if I had some time to kill, you'd have to put a gun to my head or threaten to cut off a finger in order to get me to stand and wait 30 minutes for LWTL. There was no line at Nemo, you could easily pop over there, check out the dolphins or manatees.

 

[123SA]

Thanks to all for your suggestions.

1. We were planning to have lunch in the countries - -boys will get lunch ready for all of us in China while girls wait for Mulan
2. THe Land -- we do like it, but not enough to wait in a line like that. We will be back in Future World for dinner and can easily do the land then if it is too crowded.
3. It seems like I should be hoping to get a 4th FP for Test Track and skip that 2nd turn in the morning.

I've been confused about this because in all of our previous early Sept trips, we've been able to ride test track a few times in the morning, but I think we did 2 times stand by and once with paper FP, then then runner would go get the Soarin FP -- this strategy just won't work with FP+


Is there a better time of day to be looking to do the standby line for TT?

 

[Lucius Best]

Is there a better time of day to be looking to do the standby line for TT?

First thing in the morning is the best bet. No way of knowing how long the wait will be after you get off first ride. Theoretically the line will move quicker because there won't be many people using FP at park opening. If ride breaks down, your plans can go out the window, just get 4th FP for TT later.

 

[vicb]

We did a similar but not exactly the same schedule last May, we entered Epcot at the Int. Gateway and hustled to TT, rode it with no wait, by passed the post interactive section and got in line again, 15 min. posted wait but was more like 10. Rode, then spent some time in the interactive area. Had a FP for MS 9-10 time frame, missed it by a few minutes but the wait was only 10 min for the spinning side which is what the kids and hubby wanted to do so just did it stand by ( I don't ride that ). Had FP 10-11 for Living with Land, went and rode that, got a snack and it was time for our 11-12 Soarin. Some headed to Sum of all Thrills, others to Living Seas. Made 4th FP for Spaceship Earth for later in day. Headed to lunch at 12:30 Via Napoli. Did some countries then SE before park hopping to AK to ride EE with less than 10 min wait twice! We always do Epcot is stages, usually one morning park opening and then a couple of evenings.

Figment rarely has a wait, we did Figment and Captain Eo on a eve. emh.

 

[Rosebud123]

We've done TT 2x at RD (arriving around 8:25 and finding an empty turnstyle) and the wait for the 2nd ride is usually around 15 minutes.

 

[123SA]

We've done TT 2x at RD (arriving around 8:25 and finding an empty turnstyle) and the wait for the 2nd ride is usually around 15 minutes.

I'll hope for this but be prepared to skip it.

We did a similar but not exactly the same schedule last May, we entered Epcot at the Int. Gateway and hustled to TT, rode it with no wait, by passed the post interactive section and got in line again, 15 min. posted wait but was more like 10. ...

Good point. I will need to make sure I remind the kids that we will stop later to check out that section.