Tell me about Garden Grill and early Soarin access...

[Jchoma]

We have an 8:15 a.m. reservation for Garden Grill breakfast on a day Epcot opens at 9.
I've heard you can ride Soarin' early. Is that true? What time would you recommend arriving at Garden Grill?

Ideally we would eat breakfast and ride Soarin' by 9:00 in time to rope drop Test Track.

 

[Sophia217]

We did this in December. We arrived at Garden Grill around 8:05, and were seated promptly. I asked our waitress, and she told us to go downstairs to ride Soarin' by 8:45. We were taken to the ride immediately, there was probably only 10 of us total. When we got off, the rope drop crowds were making there way into Soarin'. My family still talks about this as one of the highlights of their trips; the breakfast was great and getting to ride Soarin' before everyone else was a wonderful experience. My only complaint is that I did feel slightly rushed through breakfast.

 

[Jchoma]

We did this in December. We arrived at Garden Grill around 8:05, and were seated promptly. I asked our waitress, and she told us to go downstairs to ride Soarin' by 8:45. We were taken to the ride immediately, there was probably only 10 of us total. When we got off, the rope drop crowds were making there way into Soarin'. My family still talks about this as one of the highlights of their trips; the breakfast was great and getting to ride Soarin' before everyone else was a wonderful experience. My only complaint is that I did feel slightly rushed through breakfast.

That's great! Did you try to get over to Test Track right after breakfast with the rope drop crowd? I'm wondering how that process works. Where do you wait if you're done with breakfast/ Soarin' and then want to rope drop Test Track?

 

[SaintsManiac]

Arrive at Epcot at 7:45. They will seat you early at Garden Grill. The server will expect that you want to ride Soarin, but make sure to mention it. You then go down and wait at Soarin and they will usually let you on at about 8:50ish.

This is a must do for our trips. Food is fresh and tasty, character interaction is top notch. Walking off Soarin as the RD crowd walks in = priceless.

 

[Jchoma]

Walking off Soarin as the RD crowd walks in = priceless.

Ha- I imagine that's a great feeling! So if you ride Soarin' at 8:50-ish, if we wanted to rope drop Test Track after, do you think there will already be a big line at TT by the time we get over there?

 

[wrestler72]

Another good thing is that for the first ride you can pretty much choose your seat for Soarin, so you can have one in the middle. We always book PPO at Garden Grill. Decent breakfast and you can easily ride Soarin (which is our favourite ride in Epcot) twice (sometimes three times)

 

[SaintsManiac]

Ha- I imagine that's a great feeling! So if you ride Soarin' at 8:50-ish, if we wanted to rope drop Test Track after, do you think there will already be a big line at TT by the time we get over there?

I can't speak from experience, but I would imagine there would be a decent line at that time.

 

[wrestler72]

I think your chances of beating the rope drop crowd at TT after riding Soarin are pretty slim. But if you are Ok to use single rider line, you can still ride it without signiuficant waiting time.

 

[Sophia217]

That's great! Did you try to get over to Test Track right after breakfast with the rope drop crowd? I'm wondering how that process works. Where do you wait if you're done with breakfast/ Soarin' and then want to rope drop Test Track?

We didn't try to rope drop Test Track. We were planning on riding it using the single rider line or a 4th fastpass, but the ride was down most of the day. For the short periods of time the ride was running, the waits were extremely long so we decided to skip it.

If you finish breakfast and Soarin', that will probably land you right around 8:55 am so the other rope droppers will be on their way to Test Track too.

 

[Roxyfire]

We do this on every longer trip we have. Great way to get energized and full for a fun day plus ride a headliner right away. This allows us to use a Tier 1 on Test Track in the same day.

 

[disneydreamer1980]

We do this every trip, GG is an awesome character meal in its own but the early Soarin access is great. For some reason whenever we try to head to TT after Soarin it always seems to be down.

 

[GreggW]

We have done this the last few years around easter. Last year we got off soarin at about 8:55 when we were heading over to test track the crowds were just coming in. We ended up with about a 15 minute wait.

 

[brockash]

We have an 8:15 a.m. reservation for Garden Grill breakfast on a day Epcot opens at 9.
I've heard you can ride Soarin' early. Is that true? What time would you recommend arriving at Garden Grill?

Ideally we would eat breakfast and ride Soarin' by 9:00 in time to rope drop Test Track.

If you're trying to do all 3 Tier 1 rides; I would try to do Soarin' by 8:45 and then a better option may be to head over to Frozen and fastpass TT. - Heading to Frozen after, gives you more time to "catch up" or separate yourself from any rope drop crowd and TT goes down a lot, so if you rush over there just to find it's down, you're kind of out of luck to riding it without a long wait. I'd fp TT so if it does go down you can ride it at any time with a fp once it comes back up (if it's down during your fp time, it'll turn into an anytime fastpass - just hang onto it and use it when it comes back up.)

 

[SL6827]

Got an 8 am reservation. Planned to ride Soarin then head to Frozen and use my fast pass at TT.

 

[KateMW]

SERIOUSLY THIS IS THE BEST IDEA ANYBODY HAS SHARED WITH ME ON THE BOARDS.

That is all.

 

[Jchoma]

We have done this the last few years around easter. Last year we got off soarin at about 8:55 when we were heading over to test track the crowds were just coming in. We ended up with about a 15 minute wait.

Nice! We’ll be there week before Easter so crowds will be crazy. I’m hopeful our TR wait won’t be horrible

 

[Hardline]

Can you get to the Garden Grill early for your reservation, as long as it's PPO? For example, if you had an 8:45 am PPO reservation, could you be seated closer to 8:00 am, like at BOG?

 

[CrazyHare]

Can you get to the Garden Grill early for your reservation, as long as it's PPO? For example, if you had an 8:45 am PPO reservation, could you be seated closer to 8:00 am, like at BOG?

We have been able to both times we have done this. As long as it’s a PPO they let you back and it’s first come first served once you check in.

 

[hswillia07]

In October we had an 8:20am reservation at Garden Grill and we arrived closer to 8 and were seated quickly and able walk-on to Soarin' - it was great We will do it again this year. Have fun!

 

[Mambo Junkie]

We were seated around 8:00 and asked to pay our check, we rode around completely, saw all the characters, then went downstairs. We got on Soarin between 8:45-8:50, then went over to TT. By 9:20 we were headed towards Mission Space. Went over to the Seas, went on Figment, and were leaving the park around 11:50.