dbb727
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Mar 19, 2018
I had a great experience for RD at 7am EMH this morning, yikes that’s early! First time doing FOP and luck was on my side as a solo rider who can walk fast because I didn’t get to AK til 6:30 (I had planned to arrive closer to 6 but was lazy getting out of bed). I don’t recommend that but it worked out for me.
Everyone was still being held at the gates (through security but outside the tapstiles), I slipped into a gap in crowd along the right edge and in under a minute the welcome announcement came on at 6:36. Kinda hard to count but I’m sure it was a couple hundred people in front of me. I stayed on the edge in case they opened more tapstiles, they eventually did open just 1 more so I was able to move over and probably pass 30 people. Took 10min to get to Pandora walking briskly and passing families. Some idiots of course try to run, not a good choice since that walkway is wet and particularly not a great look for the 40+year old guy getting yelled at by CMs half the way.
Even once the crowd slowed in Pandora, the path was still wide and I was able to just go along the edge and pass at least 50 people who were staying with their group or looking at their phones, before reaching the end of a more formal line by 6:46, wrapped through Pandora with the line constantly moving and at the standby entrance by 6:55. At the loading area by 7:01 and only waited a few sec before they asked for a solo rider...YES! Walked off the ride at 7:21 and the wait posted was 150minutes. Used the restroom, went on Navi, posted 20min wait, was off in 14min and leaving the park a few minutes before 8am bc I had to get back for a 9am conference lecture! I could have done EE still during EMH as everything else had 5- 10min wait but that was too far away for me.
Take away message, you should still plan to arrive at least 60-75min before RD even on EMH morning. I saved a lot of time being solo and able to move through the crowd easily, but if anyone else was with me I would have been much further back. Even though it’s was a 7am opening, its a holiday weekend so I figure it’s prob the same as 8am EMH on regular Sat. FWIW, wait time was posted as 60min before they even let anyone in the park, not sure exactly when it became real.
One of the hardest parts of the morning was walking upstream against the sea of humanity that was entering the park, definitely a first for me!
Everyone was still being held at the gates (through security but outside the tapstiles), I slipped into a gap in crowd along the right edge and in under a minute the welcome announcement came on at 6:36. Kinda hard to count but I’m sure it was a couple hundred people in front of me. I stayed on the edge in case they opened more tapstiles, they eventually did open just 1 more so I was able to move over and probably pass 30 people. Took 10min to get to Pandora walking briskly and passing families. Some idiots of course try to run, not a good choice since that walkway is wet and particularly not a great look for the 40+year old guy getting yelled at by CMs half the way.
Even once the crowd slowed in Pandora, the path was still wide and I was able to just go along the edge and pass at least 50 people who were staying with their group or looking at their phones, before reaching the end of a more formal line by 6:46, wrapped through Pandora with the line constantly moving and at the standby entrance by 6:55. At the loading area by 7:01 and only waited a few sec before they asked for a solo rider...YES! Walked off the ride at 7:21 and the wait posted was 150minutes. Used the restroom, went on Navi, posted 20min wait, was off in 14min and leaving the park a few minutes before 8am bc I had to get back for a 9am conference lecture! I could have done EE still during EMH as everything else had 5- 10min wait but that was too far away for me.
Take away message, you should still plan to arrive at least 60-75min before RD even on EMH morning. I saved a lot of time being solo and able to move through the crowd easily, but if anyone else was with me I would have been much further back. Even though it’s was a 7am opening, its a holiday weekend so I figure it’s prob the same as 8am EMH on regular Sat. FWIW, wait time was posted as 60min before they even let anyone in the park, not sure exactly when it became real.
One of the hardest parts of the morning was walking upstream against the sea of humanity that was entering the park, definitely a first for me!
