EE AP Preview hours/wait times???

[DisneyCane]

I do not want any description of the ride or pictures. I would like to know if the EE AP previews are "on" during all normal park hours. Also, what type of wait times have there been?

I am asking because the only time I can make it for the AP preview is Sunday after 3:30 PM. I want to make sure I'll get to ride (barring a technical issue) if I make the trip.

Thanks!

 

[BwanaBob]

Yes. Attraction runs the same time the park runs... barring any technical issues.

Wait times are...(were)... not that bad. At least on Friday.

Stand-by was no more than 20 min... at its' worst. And the clock said 30-40 at those times. (the line was really moving)

I'm sure it will be a different story today and tomorrow. Rumor was it was going to be huge. They had extre queue poles all set up along the pathway by the restrooms to handle overflow from the regular queue.

 

[Pongo]

Yes. Attraction runs the same time the park runs... barring any technical issues.

Wait times are...(were)... not that bad. At least on Friday.

Stand-by was no more than 20 min... at its' worst. And the clock said 30-40 at those times. (the line was really moving)

I'm sure it will be a different story today and tomorrow. Rumor was it was going to be huge. They had extre queue poles all set up along the pathway by the restrooms to handle overflow from the regular queue.

And there is a single riders line, no?

 

[BwanaBob]

And there is a single riders line, no?

Yes.

The SRL kind-of dubs as the 'I-want-to-ride-in-the-front or the-back' line as well.

So yeah... it seperates off in the fast-pass queue right before boarding.

 

[BwanaBob]

Here's the pic of the overflow queue...

 

[XSTech]

Check out my Inside the Magic Photo Blog for pictures of what the lines looked like Thursday, Friday, and today:

http://itm.textamerica.com

We're getting lots of live photos in from the queue!

 

[Ducky_Love]

This morning when we got there around 10:00am the line started in Dinoland... :brick:

We gave up. I don't plan on ever riding and my hubby didn't want to make me wait for hours so he can ride.

 

[jcrb]

Yesterday, attendance was not that bad, was able to get 4 fastpass - went through stand by once. Oh yeah Fastpass right now for EE is not on the network. If you get a fastpass for EE you can always get one for Kali or Dino at same time.

 

[tampabrad]

Thursday, standby was posted at 40 min at 10 AM, but was actually about 25. SRL was about a 10 min max, walk on most of the time. I got about 10 rides in an hour. Acording to the FastPass clock, I was making complete trips in 6 minutes. The long lines were mainly people waiting for the free pin/lanyard coupons at the entrance, and then even longer chaiotic lines for people waiting to get some kind of pin from the gift shop. Getting into the area took a bit of time as well, EVERYONE had to show their AP/DVC card and a photo ID.

SRL was set up in the fast pass area. At about mid day, they started a seperate line for the front seat which seemed to work well.

I have to give huge applause to the CMs.:sohappy: :sohappy: They were getting people on the trains, and sending trains out of the station faster than I have seen on any attraction. Hope they keep up the great work.

The CMs that I spoke with are expecting Saturday and Sunday to be insanely busy. Some were worried about what they were going to do when the overflow area fills up.

 

[River Roost]

I have to give huge applause to the CMs.:sohappy: :sohappy: They were getting people on the trains, and sending trains out of the station faster than I have seen on any attraction..

I absolutely agree. The whole operation was moving very smoothly both mid-Thursday morning and Friday morning when I was there. It will be interesting to see how it does when it goes live to everyone in April.

 

[fiftiesdean]

today (saturday) was rediculous. I got there @ park opening and they wouldn't let us in b/c my fiancee didn't have her photo ID (never had this problem with a passholder event/preview) and by the time I went to my car and got them the line was way out of control. There was a 20 minute wait to get to the area where the line was, a 30-40 minute fast-pass wait, and God knows how long the standby line was. We eventually gave up @ 11am. I'm sure the line is letting down througout the day, I have a friend there now and will post an update when I can.

 

[tecowdw]

today (saturday) was rediculous. I got there @ park opening and they wouldn't let us in b/c my fiancee didn't have her photo ID (never had this problem with a passholder event/preview) and by the time I went to my car and got them the line was way out of control. There was a 20 minute wait to get to the area where the line was, a 30-40 minute fast-pass wait, and God knows how long the standby line was. We eventually gave up @ 11am. I'm sure the line is letting down througout the day, I have a friend there now and will post an update when I can.

On Thursday morning (9 am), there was no line getting into the EE area from Dinoland. Yep, had to show pass and picture ID. The standby line was huge (but it was posted as 5 minutes) so we got Fastpass which were returning about an hour later. We exited the EE area to do a safari and the line at the Asia checkpoint was probably 5 minutes long. Came back through the Asia checkpoint (no wait anymore) and got to the Fastpass entrance. The standby line was now non-existent in the "extra" queue lines which were 3 rows deep earlier. Once our Fastpas time came, we had no wait to get on the ride.

The ride was great. It is the smoothest, quietest coaster I have ever been on. I loved the effect of going backwards and there were lots of hills and curves, much of it inside the mountain. The Yeti was cool but you go by it sooo fast that you can't appreciate it for it's wonder.

 

[Michael72688]

I was there today and I have never seen Animal Kingdom so crowded, I cant imagine what its going to be like when the ride actually opens. Anyways As I was leaving I overheard someone say the wait just to go get into the E:E area was between an hour and half to two hours, then you had to wait in the actual line for the ride. You couldn't move on the bridge from Discovery Island to Dinoland there were so many people.

 

[markc]

Don't judge Sunday's wait time based on what happened during the week...remember this preview is for Passholders, who 90% of them are locals who work during the week. I was there today, and it was packed...the standby line was an hour and a half at 9:30am (just 30 minutes after it opened) and by 2pm when I left, it was 2 hours. They ran out of fastpasses within 2 hours of park opening. If you go on Sunday at 3:30..prepare to wait for awhile, as you will not have the option of Fastpass, and most likely will be waiting 2 hours. You're only other option would be to do the single rider line, which should only be a 30 minute wait.

 

[donsullivan]

Just got back from the preview. As others have said, I've never seen AK as busy as it was today. They were parking cars on all the grassy areas in the lot and even then they had to have run out of spaces.

I got their at ~11:30 and there was about a 20 minute wait from DinoLand to get inside the area. At that point the FP's for the day were all gone so I waited 2-1/2 hours in the standby line.

 

[bsandersjr]

Went to the preview on Thursday Jan 26.
The sign had posted a 20 minute wait time, but it only took about 10.
We were not able to get the AP holder pin, they had sold out. So, we bought 3 shirts, and a magnetic Yeti for the fridge!
The ride?

You gotta ride it at least once. That amateur video that was posted before does the ride no justice, whatsoever!
That Yeti is HUGE!

 

[Ducky_Love]

Does anyone know if the parking lot hit capacity? It almost HAD to... when we left at 11:00am it looked like they were almost out of spaces and had cars parked in the grass and just parked randomly in the street.

Also there was a fender bender that forced them to route traffic over the grass to get to the remaining parking spots. It was NUTS!!

 

[PixyDust]

Sounds like it was a good thing we went Thursday and Friday. I stopped counting my rides after 20. The line Thursday morning was kind of long, but it was due to a lot of confusion I think. People didn't know where to go to get the lanyards, the Passholder and DVC pins, the fast pass or the standby, so it just crowded up. CMs got a handle on it by about 11 or so, and it was smooth sailing from that point on.

You MUST go through the regular line at least once to see the museum! Honestly it is just awesome. And as for the ride, it was just really, really awesome! I love being able to look to the left and see Epcot and MGM, and to the right and see AKL.

Thursday my hubby was waiting in the pin line and CMs kept handing him vouchers for the pins. People had gotten in the line and didn't realize they needed the vouchers, so every so often a CM would be handing out pin vouchers. From Thursday and Friday we ended up with 4 passholder pins and 8 DVC pins. And we didn't even ask for the additional vouchers!!! I told DH he shouldn't have taken them, but he said everyone else was. He didn't understand about the 2 limit anyway - I usually take care of the detail stuff, so he didn't know he was getting more than he should. According to one CM we talked to, they only had 100 passholder pins to start Friday with. But plenty of DVC pins.

 

[Laura]

Wow I was totally unprepared for what you all are saying is gonna be a 2-3 hour wait! Holy crap. I'm not gonna get to ride till tomorrow afternoon. I hope its calmed down by then!

 

[OmegaKnight]

Wow I was totally unprepared for what you all are saying is gonna be a 2-3 hour wait! Holy crap. I'm not gonna get to ride till tomorrow afternoon. I hope its calmed down by then!

But you can come say hi to me in the gift shop while you wait for the ride