FOP morning or afternoon?

[JM23457]

We have an Animal Kingdom park reservation and are trying to decide what time to ride Flight of Passage.

For this visit we only want to ride FOP & maybe Expedition Everest, not tour the whole park. We'll be staying at a resort with a great pool complex & want most of that day to go toward pool time. The pool opens at 10am.

AK opens at 8am. Should we rope drop AK & head straight for FOP (sounds logical but afraid everyone else will be doing this, too). Or should we swim until midday, then go to AK around 3pm to ride FOP? Maybe by then, the crowds will have dissipated? Or maybe they'll never dissipate for FOP?

Thoughts?

 

[glocon]

When are you going? Maybe you can wait and see how it all is going before deciding... if you have time before your trip. If your trip is one of the first, there is just no telling what your best option is.

 

[JM23457]

When are you going? Maybe you can wait and see how it all is going before deciding... if you have time before your trip. If your trip is one of the first, there is just no telling what your best option is.

Yeah, we'll be at Animal Kingdom on July 12th. That's a good point to check prior reviews. I could try to find reports from the 9th - 11th. I'm leaning towards afternoon anyway because I'd like to sleep in.

 

[DduzDis]

Yeah, we'll be at Animal Kingdom on July 12th. That's a good point to check prior reviews. I could try to find reports from the 9th - 11th. I'm leaning towards afternoon anyway because I'd like to sleep in.

I'm beginning to think we have the same trip planned. Lol We'll be at AK on the 12th as well. I intend to be there first thing, but no real reason other than my daughter will have me awake early anyway. Also, we did AK last July and found it gets really hot with little shade near lunch time. The earlier morning will likely be the most pleasant time to visit if the heat feels excessive.

 

[MarkS2112]

FOP never has a small line and everyone heads there at rope drop. I suspect that will stay the same. We go to EE and ride it 4-5 times with little wait the do other attractions. With reduced capacity I would suspect that line stays long all day.

 

[eiblehs]

I’ve only ever ridden FOP with a FP so I’m curious how this will go for my trip in a few weeks. For those of you going sooner, please report back on what you experienced. My gut tells me not to rope drop it.

 

[holden]

We did it once without a FP. Got in line 5 minutes before closing and waited about 45 minutes.

 

[stinkpickle]

I would wait until July 11th to decide.

 

[JiminyCricket!]

Obviously we don't know anything yet. I'm so glad people will be filing reports before I go in August. I'm thinking crowd levels might be kind of like the After Hours events, when there's reduced capacity and no FastPass. At those events, for the first hour or two the FOP line is still very long, but in the last hour it gets pretty short & sometimes they even let you skip the pre-show videos I'm hoping it's like that!

 

[Ecomommy09]

Ride it both times . My favorite ride!!

 

[Babe the Blue Ox]

FOP never has a small line and everyone heads there at rope drop. I suspect that will stay the same. We go to EE and ride it 4-5 times with little wait the do other attractions. With reduced capacity I would suspect that line stays long all day.

This isn’t necessarily true. On our last visit, we hopped in line shortly before a 9:30 close and waited 17 minutes.

Unfortunately, those later closing times may be a thing of the past and this strategy may not work as well any longer.

 

[MomOTwins]

This isn’t necessarily true. On our last visit, we hopped in line shortly before a 9:30 close and waited 17 minutes.

Unfortunately, those later closing times may be a thing of the past and this strategy may not work as well any longer.

It's not just the early closing times, but the lack of nighttime speculators to draw people away from rides that makes me skeptical of a get-in-line-right-before-park-close strategy.

 

[ghtx]

I agree with PPs that all bets are off and who knows what it could look like when the parks re-open. Still, historically it has usually been the case that arriving for rope drop gives you the best chance for the shortest waits, even for headliners like FOP. Not sure that we should expect that to change with the limited-capacity reopenings.

 

[MomOTwins]

Chiming in again to add a few thoughts on why I think rope drop will be best: (1) 8am is pretty early for a lot of folks, especially once you factor in budgeting time for reduced buses, security lines etc. which means you probably have to leave at 6:30 for an 8am open; (2) I imagine more people will be arriving later to avoid rope drop crowds at the gate and because they view this trip as an "old school" one where it can be less scheduled and they can show up later and still ride most things; and (3) I expect a lot of people are going to want to take advantage of the opportunity to ride FOP over and over, and others may be riding for the first time because they avoided it in the past when they couldn't get FPs (e.g. off site guests); and (4) i expect they will have reduced capacity because they'll need to sanitize the goggles and ride vehicles and/or only fill every other vehicle in the simulator. All of this leads me to think that wait times for FOP will still be quite high throughout the day--not at "normal" levels, but something like 2-3 hours all day long after the initial rope drop.

 

[puffkin]

For the early days (we go early August) our thought is later in the day. I still think there will be plenty of people rope dropping, and that is where they will head. I think the crowds will disperse later in the day. Many people will get tired of the heat as the day progresses. Their kids will get cranky, etc. There is no park hopping and FP queue. With the hours for this park, I just don't see a lot of people showing up late. Maybe not right at 8am but not many are going to show up at noon either. Finally, this queue and River Journey are primarily inside, in AC. If I have to wait for any ride, this would be the ideal one to wait for in AK as the day gets hotter.

We will try to do more of the outdoor attractions/queues first in the morning while the temps are bearable. My kids love Everest, so we will probably head there first and can hopefully get multiple rides in for them before people start filling in that area.

ETA- Pre shutdown we usually did the safari or everest first and tried to hit this ride last thing if we didn't have a FP. Sometimes I would get lucky and snag a refresh FP. We did the rope drop wait twice and it was awful.

 

[Babe the Blue Ox]

It's not just the early closing times, but the lack of nighttime speculators to draw people away from rides that makes me skeptical of a get-in-line-right-before-park-close strategy.

You’ve got that right. Heading over to FOP for a short wait while the crowds were watching the early performance of Rivers of Light was always a winner.

 

[JM23457]

I think the crowds will disperse later in the day. Many people will get tired of the heat as the day progresses. Their kids will get cranky, etc. There is no park hopping and FP queue. With the hours for this park, I just don't see a lot of people showing up late.

This is basically my perspective. I think most guests will arrive in the morning, due to wanting to beat the heat and having generally limited park opportunities due to the reservation system (& our day is July 12th, so people will really be eager beavers to get to the parks).

They'll probably get tired of the heat with masks by the mid-afternoon, and leave. With 8 - 6 being the hours, likely rain in the mid-afternoon, and all shows being closed, I don't think many of the morning arrivals will stick it out until 6pm in July.

We're planning to arrive around 3pm, rain or shine, and head towards Flight of Passage. I'm guessing about an hour wait, but nothing extreme. If the posted wait is much longer than that, we'll ride something else & return later.