I have a very specific FoP question that I'm sure has been addressed somewhere but I don't quite see where, despite my searches. Soon my family will be visiting Disney World and only one of our vacation days will be at Animal Kingdom. This will be our first time in AK with Pandora so we're hyped to see fi it's possible to experience Navi and/or Flight of Passage but we're also realistic that this is going to be near impossible since we're staying off site and they've extended EMH throughout the summer (i.e., we can't make FP+ reservations 60 days in advance or rope drop). Our original plan was to rope drop FoP but now that plan is basically scratched because of this recent change to EMH during the entire week of our stay. I've read some great suggestions in different forums to just let it be the last thing we do at AK before closing (e.g., from
@Pooh.sHoneyHuntTDL and others) because once we're in line for Flight of Passage we can still work our way through the standby queue even after the park is closed. This all sounds fantastic! (FYI I'm bring this question to this particular forum because I didn't want to hijack the forum topic of EMH somewhere else on this site). BUT I'm going to throw a wrench (i.e., additional detail that could create issues) with in this suggestion/plan to wait to join the standby queue until close to park closing. I'd be very grateful if
@Pooh.sHoneyHuntTDL or others who have shared some excellent advice on this issue (anyone really who can speak to experience on this) can help walk me through how this is handled. The wrench is a question about Flight of Passage and Rider Swaps (for those in the fam too young--read "short"--to ride).
Our family consists of my wife and I and our 3 daughters (aged 8, 6, and 3). The 2 older kiddos will be able to ride Flight of Passage (and really want to if possible) but not our youngest. For lots of other rides that the youngest isn't tall enough for during our trip the plan is to simply do a rider switch. For Flight of Passage our (rope drop) plan
was for us all to wait in line together and then once we get close to the official Standby/FP+ entrance tell a cast member that we'd need to do a rider swap. They'd issue me a Fastpass for the ride at that point and I'd step out of the standby queue with our youngest daughter to walk around Pandora while my wife and the older two kids continued on in the FoP standby line. Then after the wifey and older two kiddos eventually exit FoP we'd simply swap so that I could experience the ride too (using the issued rider swap Fastpass). Classic rider swap scenario. However rope dropping isn't going to be possible now with EMH every day so the next best plan seems to be to enter the standby queue close to park closing.
NOW TO THE WRENCH: if we are getting in line for Flight of Passage near park closing time then it's my understanding that at some point after closing the Fastpass line will no longer be in operation as all the standard Fastpass folks will have already made there way through (not sure if that's accurate though because I've never been there). 2 related questions: First,
Are rider swap fast passes for Flight of Passage given out after the park closes (not sure we'd even make it to the castmember in the long standby queue before official park closing)? And second,
even if we made it to the cast member waiting at the Standby/Fastpass+ entrance before park closing and I was issued a rider swap fastpass, would I even actually be able to use this fastpass when my family eventually exits after park closing?
I expect we can't possibly be the only family staying off-site that will be wondering about this, especially now that EMH will be running most of the summer. It seems the best plan now that rope-dropping Flight of Passage isn't really an option is to get in line just before park closing.
But is that plan doable if a family needs to do a rider swap? (By the way, I totally get that this would be a LATE night for these young children so depending on nap schedules we'll also see if this is doable. Right now I'm simply wondering if the mechanics are even possible).
