Should I rope drop for FOP??

[Canuckgirl78]

I book our FPs tomorrow but already know there are no FPs for FOP on the day we go to AK
I'm thinking about doing a rope drop for it but have some concerns.

I've read even if you RD to FOP you might still have to wait 2 hours, but I've also read the wait might be 30 minutes if you get there early. Do the wait times for FOP really fluctuate this much when you RD depending on crowd size? Is it more based on when you arrive at AK (e.g., if you arrive 90 minutes before AK opens, you'll be on the the ride in the first 30 mins, but if you arrive 15 mins before AK opens, you might have to wait 1-2 hours)? Do EMH days make a difference?

Also, to give some context, it'll be 4 of us including my DH, DS (who may not want to ride it) and a DD (who can't ride it as she's too small). We're going on Tuesday, Dec 19, which is a non-EMH day, so the park opens at 9am, and TouringPlans is forecasting it to be a crowd level 6. Ideally we would do a rider switch, and DH would go on FOP in the afternoon (and maybe our DS will go on it too if we don't think it'll be too scary for him).

I have a feeling our options might be limited to:

1. We take an Uber to AK and arrive around 7:30am. We RD for FOP (kids would be in the stroller so they don't get trampled and don't have to complain (as much) about just standing in line). I would ride FOP, DH gets rider switch pass to use later in the day. We then go to Kilimanjaro Safaris for a 10am FP (assuming that's possible??). We do NJR later with a 4pm FP, and DH (& DS?) use their RS pass to ride FOP.

OR

2. We take the bus to AK and arrive around 8:30am. We use 9:30am FP for Kilimanjaro Safaris. We do NJR with a 4pm FP when crowds are little more manageable and we can walk through Pandora. No FOP experience for us.


Thoughts???

 

[djdan888]

There is a wait either way. Either you wait an hour or so for rope drop then another 30 minutes for ride or wait in the ride queue. I hear early afternoon the wait drops a bit as people head to lunch. Morning and evening are jammed at 150 minute waits

 

[G8rchamps]

I had never considered waiting on Rope Drop as time spent waiting in line for a ride, but its a good point. If your family does not have an issue with being up early (we are usually out of out room by 7am) then I say go for it - just be willing to head to the Safari if the line is too long. That also leaves your afternoon open for other rides or a nap for the little ones. We tried RD this summer and got there to find a delayed opening for technical difficulties- AAARRGGHHH. We did manage a FP just this past Sunday and the ride is really cool!

 

[Canuckgirl78]

There is a wait either way. Either you wait an hour or so for rope drop then another 30 minutes for ride or wait in the ride queue. I hear early afternoon the wait drops a bit as people head to lunch. Morning and evening are jammed at 150 minute waits

But if we wait 1 hour for rope drop it wouldn't sacrifice time in the park.

 

[disneygeek90]

Option 1 if you want to do FoP (I would recommend). While your wait in the morning will be a little long, they will start letting people in the gates around 8:15/8:30. When I rope dropped they actually let us into the FoP queue around 8:45.

I would also encourage your son to ride, depending on what his reasons are for not wanting to or thinking he wants to.

 

[NelleBelle]

I would think that if you're going to wait all that time, why not do it in the ride queue where you can have the full experience? You could always ask the CM if your DD could wait in line and then step out before boarding with DH so you can all wait together. For all our years of going to AK, we've either always done FP for Everest or the standby line has been so short that we haven't been able to check out the queue details. But can see waiting for RD too, where your kids can sit in a stroller and not stand, maybe having breakfast while you wait?

 

[Canuckgirl78]

I had never considered waiting on Rope Drop as time spent waiting in line for a ride, but its a good point. If your family does not have an issue with being up early (we are usually out of out room by 7am) then I say go for it - just be willing to head to the Safari if the line is too long. That also leaves your afternoon open for other rides or a nap for the little ones. We tried RD this summer and got there to find a delayed opening for technical difficulties- AAARRGGHHH. We did manage a FP just this past Sunday and the ride is really cool!

That sucks about the technical difficulties!!! To make all that effort only to have that happen sucks.

My kids are usually up by 6:45am or 7am on a regular day, so waking up a little earlier should hopefully not be too difficult (although we're going to DHS the night before so will be home later than usual) and our plan is to have breakfast in the room and then go.

But if the line for FOP is too long by the time we get there, i guess we could potentially just walk on to NJR as I've heard there's not much of a wait for that ride and then go to the Safari, or just skip it and to the Safari...

 

[Canuckgirl78]

Option 1 if you want to do FoP (I would recommend). While your wait in the morning will be a little long, they will start letting people in the gates around 8:15/8:30. When I rope dropped they actually let us into the FoP queue around 8:45.

I would also encourage your son to ride, depending on what his reasons are for not wanting to or thinking he wants to.

When you rope dropped, do you remember when you got on/off FOP? Would it be possible to do the Safari afterwards around 10am?

 

[Canuckgirl78]

Also, and i apologize for all these questions (it's my first trip to WDW!), I've read a lot about going bag-free. But with two little ones and with erratic December weather requiring layers, that's not realistic. So I was thinking maybe DH, kids, and stroller to go in the bag-free line and, once they're through, wait at the first holding area. I go through the bag check line with our bags and then try to meet up with them. And then we all either make our way to FOP together (with thousands of other people).

Would that be possible?? Or would I get a lot of dirty looks and not even be able to get to them?

 

[Canuckgirl78]

I would think that if you're going to wait all that time, why not do it in the ride queue where you can have the full experience? You could always ask the CM if your DD could wait in line and then step out before boarding with DH so you can all wait together. For all our years of going to AK, we've either always done FP for Everest or the standby line has been so short that we haven't been able to check out the queue details. But can see waiting for RD too, where your kids can sit in a stroller and not stand, maybe having breakfast while you wait?

I've heard the standby queue is a great experience, but wouldn't I be going through that if we did RD? I know my DH and DS wouldn't if they got the rider switch.
And if the wait was 45 minutes-1 hour, it wasn't our first trip to WDW, and it was a ride everyone was able to get on and loved, then I probably would just do the standby.

 

[Mickey5150]

FOP is worth the wait, finally did it and it is AMAZING. Had a FP for 1 ride and did EMH rope drop for the other. We waited about an hour but never made it thru all the queue. Such an epic experience as you look out at Pandora, so beautiful.

 

[disneygeek90]

When you rope dropped, do you remember when you got on/off FOP? Would it be possible to do the Safari afterwards around 10am?

Absolutely. We were on and off I wanna say by about 9:10. We were in the first "show" of the day. If you have a 10am Safari FP, you would technically have until 11:15 to use it. Plenty of time.

 

[disneygeek90]

Also, and i apologize for all these questions (it's my first trip to WDW!), I've read a lot about going bag-free. But with two little ones and with erratic December weather requiring layers, that's not realistic. So I was thinking maybe DH, kids, and stroller to go in the bag-free line and, once they're through, wait at the first holding area. I go through the bag check line with our bags and then try to meet up with them. And then we all either make our way to FOP together (with thousands of other people).

Would that be possible?? Or would I get a lot of dirty looks and not even be able to get to them?

Bag check is before the park entrance. They will open the bag check line (and the no bag line) at about 7:30, so if you are there around then I wouldn't worry about that holding you up for any drastic time. Strollers are still required to go through the "bag check" line as far as I'm aware because of all the extra pockets and holders in them these days. Stay together, arrive between 7:30-7:45 and you will be fine.

 

[Canuckgirl78]

Bag check is before the park entrance. They will open the bag check line (and the no bag line) at about 7:30, so if you are there around then I wouldn't worry about that holding you up for any drastic time. Strollers are still required to go through the "bag check" line as far as I'm aware because of all the extra pockets and holders in them these days. Stay together, arrive between 7:30-7:45 and you will be fine.

Good to know! I thought I read somewhere as long as there were no bags on the stroller, they'll just look in the mesh pouch underneath the stroller, but maybe it's better to be safe than sorry.

 

[Canuckgirl78]

Absolutely. We were on and off I wanna say by about 9:10. We were in the first "show" of the day. If you have a 10am Safari FP, you would technically have until 11:15 to use it. Plenty of time.

Wonderful! I hope our experience will be like yours and we can get on that quickly!

 

[Canuckgirl78]

FOP is worth the wait, finally did it and it is AMAZING. Had a FP for 1 ride and did EMH rope drop for the other. We waited about an hour but never made it thru all the queue. Such an epic experience as you look out at Pandora, so beautiful.

So this is where I get worried. The 1 hour wait at rope drop and you never made it through the queue. Did you arrive at AK close to the open time or did you come 90 mins before AK opened and still had to wait 1hour?

 

[Mickey5150]

So this is where I get worried. The 1 hour wait at rope drop and you never made it through the queue. Did you arrive at AK close to the open time or did you come 90 mins before AK opened and still had to wait 1hour?

I should have said that better, they weren't using the entire inside queue at the time so I missed some of the design of the queue. I was there around 7:30 for an 8am EMH morning. Was on the ride before 9.

 

[AndrewsJ]

So this is where I get worried. The 1 hour wait at rope drop and you never made it through the queue. Did you arrive at AK close to the open time or did you come 90 mins before AK opened and still had to wait 1hour?

If you miss part of the queue consider yourself lucky. Last week i toured with a hardcore Avatar fan club and the concensus was that the queue is fluff and filler. I couldn’t wait for these folks to experience the queue and they all found it laughable. Granted it takes place after the yet to be released final movie but that’s a great stretch. I’ll belive that the sequels are actually happening when I see them with my own eyes. I’ve been on FOP and in the land 20-30 times since opening and it contually breaks my heart. In my opinion Avatar has destroyed a masterpiece of a theme park. We have gone for our last time.

 

[LSV]

Another option is to wait until the end of the day. We got in line at 8:30 pm on a day when closing was at 9 and ROL was at 8:15. Even with the dreaded technical difficulties announcement that the ride was operating at reduced capacity we were walking out of the park at 10pm. There are no more fast passes once the park closes and we were in line before ROL attendees joined the line, 90 minutes was much shorter than the 150 minute wait time posted when we got in line.

 

[NelleBelle]

I would totally wait 90 minutes. When we were at DLR at CA, we kept waiting for the ride time for radiator springs racers to go down. It never did; we ended up in line waiting 170 minutes Awesome ride but we only rode it the once. That's when we'd make our kids pull out the backpacks and do some homework while we waited. Then I didn't feel bad about pulling them out of school