AK EMH arrival time

[Mollyemmarose]

i’ve heard that the parks open earlier than the posted time and have experienced rope drop at Epcot. We are going to AK on an 8am EMH day and hoping to ride Na’vi right away. FOP FP in the afternoon. What time should we aim to arrive? I don’t need to be first but we have little kids so don’t really want to spend the first hour of day in line. Advice much appreciated

 

[SaintsManiac]

i’ve heard that the parks open earlier than the posted time and have experienced rope drop at Epcot. We are going to AK on an 8am EMH day and hoping to ride Na’vi right away. FOP FP in the afternoon. What time should we aim to arrive? I don’t need to be first but we have little kids so don’t really want to spend the first hour of day in line. Advice much appreciated

Everyone will run to FoP first thing. NRJ should be a walk on. We plan to get to AK at around 7:45am with the same plan you have.

 

[Robo]

to the DISboards, Mollyemmarose!

 

[jcarwash]

A few weeks ago, we arrived around 6:35am for a 7am AK EMH and at that time we walked directly into the park and into Pandora. Felt like we arrived "late" so to speak as Pandora was open and operating. The River Journey was a walk-on and so we did it twice. Like you we had a Flight of Passage FastPass for later.

If it were me, I'd aim to arrive no later than 7:15 for an 8am EMH. Theoretically I'd like to arrive by 6:15 for a 7am EMH, but that earlier arrival just isn't as easy.

 

[wdwjeffc37]

We were there for the opening weekend of Pandora and we got there about 7:30(on the third day it was open)and were able to ride FOP as basically a walk-on. when we came out the line for NRJ was stated at 20 minutes so we got in the line and it was only about ten minutes and we were on the ride. We had FP+ for both of the Pandora rides for other days but it was great to be able to do FOP more than once. It is a terrific attraction. Also, if you rope drop FOP you get to see the entire queue. Cheers!!!!!!!!!

 

[Mollyemmarose]

to the DISboards, Mollyemmarose!

Thank you!

 

[Mollyemmarose]

We were there for the opening weekend of Pandora and we got there about 7:30(on the third day it was open)and were able to ride FOP as basically a walk-on. when we came out the line for NRJ was stated at 20 minutes so we got in the line and it was only about ten minutes and we were on the ride. We had FP+ for both of the Pandora rides for other days but it was great to be able to do FOP more than once. It is a terrific attraction. Also, if you rope drop FOP you get to see the entire queue. Cheers!!!!!!!!!

Thank you for the thoughts. I might value sleep more than a second ride on FOP!! But that’s just me

 

[MirandaB]

We got to AK for EMH around 6:15 for a 7:00 opening. We did FOP and River by 7:45.

 

[m3b]

Everyone will run to FoP first thing. NRJ should be a walk on. We plan to get to AK at around 7:45am with the same plan you have.

We were there last Monday and the CM’s walked us all to FoP. Worked great. No running no pushing. It was a 7 am opening EMH. We arrived at 6:07 and were about 15 people from the front of the line. Walking into the ride with no wait at 6:50.

 

[Linkura]

I arrived around 6:25 AM for a 7 AM EMH opening this past Monday. I did NRJ twice before 7:01 AM, and could have gone a third time with no wait as well (and they were letting people go right back on without going through the queue again). I would shoot for a half hour before the EMH open- either 6:30 or 7:30 depending on your day. That will give you PLENTY of time as well as a cushion in case you're late!

If you're taking the resort buses, aim to get to the bus stop an hour before park open (6/7).

 

[slpeters]

The morning we did Na'vi was an EMH. We had a bit of wardrobe malfunction that morning and actually arrived 10 minutes after the scheduled start of EMH. We still walked on to Na'vi and the rest of the park was pretty much empty for about an hour and a half. Honestly if you aren't doing FOP at standby I would probably aim to arrive about ten minutes prior to scheduled start of EMH--not to get in line or because it's necessary but just because that's when they will let you in and that first couple hours are just golden if you aren't doing FOP.

 

[WaterLinds]

If you're just trying to do NRJ in the EMH, then you honestly don't even need to be there early based on my experience. Our EMH was 7, so probably slightly less crowded than at 8, though. But we arrived about 7:30 and were on NRJ in under 15 minutes. What little line there was moved continuously, so the kids didn't mind the wait at all, either.

We had 8:30 FP for FOP so weren't trying to head anywhere else during EMH, though. If you want to head elsewhere and do any other rides before 9 you'd probably want to be at the gate by 8 or a bit before so you can fit other things in.

 

[DisneyTravelers2008]

We were there Feb 10, 2018 for the 7 am EMH. We arrived at 6:55 am and the line for FOP was already 30 mins....but he line for Navi was only 5 mins. The Navi line stayed to under an hour until about 7:30am. Have fun!

 

[Linkura]

We were there Feb 10, 2018 for the 7 am EMH. We arrived at 6:55 am and the line for FOP was already 30 mins....but he line for Navi was only 5 mins. The Navi line stayed to under an hour until about 7:30am. Have fun!

That 30 minutes for FOP isn't really that bad considering you'd have to wait 30 minutes at the front of the park to ride it with no wait anyway.

 

[b52hbuff]

i’ve heard that the parks open earlier than the posted time and have experienced rope drop at Epcot. We are going to AK on an 8am EMH day and hoping to ride Na’vi right away. FOP FP in the afternoon. What time should we aim to arrive? I don’t need to be first but we have little kids so don’t really want to spend the first hour of day in line. Advice much appreciated

If you are going to RD AK anyway... I'd recommend following the heard and riding FoP and then riding again with your FP+. FoP opens a bit earlier than actual park opening and NRJ posted wait times at opening tend to be higher than they actually are. The result is that you can ride FoP and NRJ and be done before 0:15 after posted AK EMH open time.

The first time we rode FoP, we didn't have a FP+ so we had to ride at RD. I had read a bunch of stuff here and other places. And I watched a bunch of YouTube! videos. I felt as prepared as I could without being there. Our family was probably the first family to ride FoP, and if not we were in the first ten families. And I was so hyped up to make sure I was at the right place at the right time that I really didn't enjoy the ride. So like many Disney rides, there is a lot of detail. My recommendation is that you RD FoP and then NRJ and use your second FoP ride to get the detail you miss on your first ride.