Flight of Passage Advice

So I just booked my (60+5) day fast passes, and sadly was not able to get Flight of Passage. As I believe that is not only the best ride at Disney, but the best way a human being can spend 10 mins of their life, I was pretty disappointed.

So does this mean all FOP FPs are being booked by Club Level guests before anyone else even has a chance?

NM - saw OPs response further in.
 
Thank you for that. I will have to re-evaluate whether I keep my current ADR for that day, as the main reason was to eat quickly and be in line for FOP before the crowds. If it does't matter, then I may not need that ADR after all.
Also, keep in mind, that AK opening may change to 8am during the month before you arrive. ( Watch for that to happen, then keep a sharp eye out for an additional hour of fast passes to become available). Also, even if AK opening remains at 9am, everyone is let in to AK up to 45 minutes early. Most everyone heads to Pandora. FoP usually opens 30 minutes before scheduled park opening. You can be off the ride at the same time the park was scheduled to open. A Breakfast ADR at AK should never be made with the intent to ride FoP without a fast pass at rope drop.
 
So I just booked my (60+5) day fast passes, and sadly was not able to get Flight of Passage. As I believe that is not only the best ride at Disney, but the best way a human being can spend 10 mins of their life, I was pretty disappointed.

I searched around on here for the best way to ride it standby, and I was surprised to see someone suggest (and many others corroborate) the strategy of getting to the park at 7:30 AM (for a 9 AM park open) and going immediately to FoP. I don't really understand how this works, especially as it did not seem like those doing this had a pre-open ADR. My only experience getting into a park early involves pre-open breakfast ADRs (usually at BOG at MK). We do this to get right in line for Mine Train, and basically get a "free" fastpass. But they still do not actually let anyone onto the ride before 9 AM (or whenever the park opens.) Yet people in this FoP thread were claiming that they have finished both FoP and Navi River Journey by 9:15 (when the park opens at 9:00) with no pre-open ADR! They just showed up at 7:30, were let right into the park (along with lots of other people of course) and went right to FoP and got in line.

Is this the best strategy for riding FoP standby? I know going right at the close is also popular, but have other plans that night so it is not really feasible without switching a ton of stuff around.

Thanks in advance for any help!

Okay, I LITERALLY just asked this similar question 2 weeks ago before my trip! I will tell you what I did on my trip and it TOTALLY worked and was suggested by people on this forum.
With the plan already in place for AK rope drop so we could ride the FoP , I decided to try for the 2 days before the trip to do the "refresh the MDE" app repeatedly every time I got online. Someone else suggested to take the 1st FP that came up at AK for the other Pandora ride, Navi River, which I did in the days leading up to our trip. Then I would daily go to the MDE app, open that FP for the Navi River and ask to edit it. It would pop up with all of the choices I could alter it to. Well, the day rolls around when I am at AK, standing in the FP line (yes, we stood in the FP line for nearly 45 minutes to ride NRJ!!!) and I used the OTHER suggestion to start looking for FP right as soon as I stepped into the line for Navi and had scanned my bracelet for the FP and began looking for the FoP FP. I did and literally within less than 3 minutes I got one for later that day. I also, during that 45 minute wait in NRJ was able to get 2 FP for the Slinky Dog and the Alien Saucer ride that same day as well. DH and I kind of went on this trip to just do a laid back, not so much rushing and to see the new stuff/rides and restaurants that had popped up in the last 2 years since we had been doing Disneyland and we literally went to 3 parks in one day and rode all of the newest rides using FP! I was also able to score an ADR at 11 pm at night for the following day to eat at BOG in MK. So, if you are willing to spend a few minutes each day (I think someone suggested trying after 10 pm, EST which is when I tend to get my best ADR's for the following day on my trips!), you can keep hitting refresh and I can almost guarantee you will get one. Especially that far out, you will be able to catch someone who changes their mind and dumps their FoP reservation. :) We had booked/planned our vacation only 3 weeks before we left and we were able to eat last minute breakfast at Crystal Palace, dinner at BoG and AK Tiffin's. It really was super easy to pull off, you just have to be patient and diligent! Good luck!
 
You tried to book FoP for Tue 11/13 this morning and there were none? I thought they were still available around 60+3 or 4? I have a Christmas trip coming up and was hoping to grab this toward the end of our trip....

We're going in November - no luck at 60+4 for Flight of Passage, Slinky Dog or Seven Dwarves.
 


I vote for ride it before the park closes. I went in line 15 minutes before closing and had to wait 40 minutes. Better than waiting 90 minutes at park opening.
How does this work if you’re watching Rivers of Light? I was also unable to get FP for FOP for my early October
Yes - they will let you get in line at 7:55pm for an 8pm closing. One other thing - when we were booking FPs for this summer I couldn't get FOP at day 60 for the first 5 days of our trip. At about day 40 before our trip Disney opened many FOP FPs - so then we got it for day 2 and day 3. So I would check daily. I hope it works out.

Hmm, I was unable to get FP for FOP for our early October trip. I had to get up on the west coast while on another vacation back in August to try....so that was extra disappointing. I didn’t get Slinky Dog Dash either. We’re booked for Rivers of Light. When that show is over, I’m afraid it will be too late to get in the FOP line.
 
Okay, I LITERALLY just asked this similar question 2 weeks ago before my trip! I will tell you what I did on my trip and it TOTALLY worked and was suggested by people on this forum.
With the plan already in place for AK rope drop so we could ride the FoP , I decided to try for the 2 days before the trip to do the "refresh the MDE" app repeatedly every time I got online. Someone else suggested to take the 1st FP that came up at AK for the other Pandora ride, Navi River, which I did in the days leading up to our trip. Then I would daily go to the MDE app, open that FP for the Navi River and ask to edit it. It would pop up with all of the choices I could alter it to. Well, the day rolls around when I am at AK, standing in the FP line (yes, we stood in the FP line for nearly 45 minutes to ride NRJ!!!) and I used the OTHER suggestion to start looking for FP right as soon as I stepped into the line for Navi and had scanned my bracelet for the FP and began looking for the FoP FP. I did and literally within less than 3 minutes I got one for later that day. I also, during that 45 minute wait in NRJ was able to get 2 FP for the Slinky Dog and the Alien Saucer ride that same day as well. DH and I kind of went on this trip to just do a laid back, not so much rushing and to see the new stuff/rides and restaurants that had popped up in the last 2 years since we had been doing Disneyland and we literally went to 3 parks in one day and rode all of the newest rides using FP! I was also able to score an ADR at 11 pm at night for the following day to eat at BOG in MK. So, if you are willing to spend a few minutes each day (I think someone suggested trying after 10 pm, EST which is when I tend to get my best ADR's for the following day on my trips!), you can keep hitting refresh and I can almost guarantee you will get one. Especially that far out, you will be able to catch someone who changes their mind and dumps their FoP reservation. :) We had booked/planned our vacation only 3 weeks before we left and we were able to eat last minute breakfast at Crystal Palace, dinner at BoG and AK Tiffin's. It really was super easy to pull off, you just have to be patient and diligent! Good luck!
Thank you for posting! I’m going to try this when we’re there.
 
We just did the rope drop rush on Monday Sept 3. The park had EMH from 8:00 am to 9:00 am. We were staying onsite so it went really well.

We arrived at the AK entrance at 7:27 am. We made it through bag check, the turnstiles, and restrooms by 7:35. We headed to the left where cast members were scanning magic bands to make sure you either had an ADR or you were staying onsite. The rope had already dropped, probably at 7:30, and everyone was heading to Pandora, and walking so it wasn't chaotic. We were herded into a long outdoor line (lots of extra walking) and then through the regular line. The queue was purposely made long but kept moving the whole time. It was a way to keep the crowds under control. We were out of the ride by 8:10.We were never "standing" until the very end, so it wasn't a bad wait. The ride was totally worth the early morning wake up time.

If you don't mind the early start this strategy works well if you are in the park and ready to go at 7:30 am for an 8:00 am opening. If you are 30 minutes later, you will have a very long wait! If you are offsite, then pick a day without EMH. If you are onsite, I think choosing an EMH day is the way to go.
 


Here are my live notes I took during my January Attempt at Rope Dropping FOP. I did a live update on Facebook for another group with photos of the crowds/location holds.
Details:
Date: Saturday Jan 27th 2018
EMH: 8AM
Park Hours: 9:00AM to 8PM
# of People: 1
Weather: Dry, sunny 72 Degrees about
Note - ESPN Zone had the ProBowl stuff going on

Jan Disney notes
Animal Kingdom- Took an Uber and arrived at 6:50 a.m. and there's probably about 100 people. Stayed at Dolphin (didn't know if buses would come that early)
Early magic hours are 8 a.m. to 9 a.m.
7:04 through the security/bag check. (they didn't open bag check till 7 AM)
7:15 and they let us move past the ticket booths to the tap styles.
7:22 through the tap styles - (before letting us scan & get into park they announced that those guests with ADR's or non-Disney Resort guests should enter and go to the right, if Disney Resort guest head left and have bands/tickets ready to scan 1 person in your party to verify Disney Resort guest validity for EMH entry - THIS WAS DONE AFTER going through Tap stiles)
Once past the EMH verification, they held us just before the bridge, looking at the tree of life. (Hint - Line up left, when start moving towards TOL stay left, but as you start turning toward Tiffins start cutting/fading across to the right)
7:40 I just passed the Pandora bridge and walking to the Standby line (Hint - Stay right crossing bridge into Pandora but keep in mind there are trash cans far right and people with strollers will have a hard time maneuvering around and in the crowd, so stay right but not too far. Also, there is an island that will take people off towards NRJ, you can go around this and take it back to FOP but this adds time and will put you farther behind people)
When I reached standby line it says 60 Minutes, walked right thru and kept walking - they took us through the FP lane. (I'd say despite my early arrival, quickness, singularity, etc. There were probably about 200-300 ppl in front of me by the time entering queue into line)
Pre-show started at 7:56 (Preshow I mean the matching you to your Avatar scan thing before entering rooms with the "vehicles")
I'm on the ride & off by 8:10

Further Information/Plans for the day
Hope to get on/off FOP by 8:30
Then ride Mount Everest and possibly the Safari before going back to the hotel taking off any extra layers for having a bag and going to Epcot for breakfast.



***As you can see I accomplished the plan - I did the Safari, then rode Mount Everest single rider and was taking a bus back to my hotel by 9:50 AM

I will do this again if I wish to ride again and can't get the desired FP.

LAST RIDE OF NIGHT - Before closing
I did just do the night time ride plan - where you get in line the last hour of the park opening. I did not intend to do this, it happened as a fluke as I was going to return the next morning to repeat the above since I had 3 in my party this time and only got FP's for the next day for 2 of us and it was in the afternoon and we were not planning on being there then.

I did not do a detailed notation for the evening one but I wanted to note some important things:
1. We got in line 34 minutes before park closing and the standby was listed at 60 minutes. Yes even though the park was closing in ~34 minutes later and the wait and ride time would take us beyond the park closure they let us in line so as people have said if you get in line 5 MINUTE before the park closes they seem to let you in even though you will be at the park after it closes and in most cases past the 1 hour for transportation to hotels.
2. The wait was 50 minutes
3. There was not really a line till we got into the "caverns" (we were walking/constant forward motion till entering caverns)

WHY-
We opted to do this as we had nothing else to do that night (we were heading back to get to sleep before we woke up at 5:45 AM to make the rope drop the next morning for FOP).
If we had something else to do, we probably would not have done it, but weighing:
Staying an extra 1hr that night vs. being able to sleep in the next morning and not have to return to AK only to ride 1 ride (we had done everything else we NEEDED to that night, only returning next morning for FOP).

Did the math - wake up 60 minutes before, 15-minute drive to AK, 1hr before EMH = 2hr:15min wait for the ride
Got in line at 9:26 Pm (wait an hour - based on wait time) = 1 hr wait for the ride

The extra sleep and 1 hr wait was worth it.
My biggest arguments against this plan are:
1. Wasting park time in line when I could be on something else
2. I don't wait in lines longer than 30 minutes - at any park for any reason (I'll be back I can wait till lines are shorter or get FP)


Hope this helps someone - it's 2 examples of how this can be done.
 
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So I just booked my (60+5) day fast passes, and sadly was not able to get Flight of Passage. As I believe that is not only the best ride at Disney, but the best way a human being can spend 10 mins of their life, I was pretty disappointed.

I searched around on here for the best way to ride it standby, and I was surprised to see someone suggest (and many others corroborate) the strategy of getting to the park at 7:30 AM (for a 9 AM park open) and going immediately to FoP. I don't really understand how this works, especially as it did not seem like those doing this had a pre-open ADR. My only experience getting into a park early involves pre-open breakfast ADRs (usually at BOG at MK). We do this to get right in line for Mine Train, and basically get a "free" fastpass. But they still do not actually let anyone onto the ride before 9 AM (or whenever the park opens.) Yet people in this FoP thread were claiming that they have finished both FoP and Navi River Journey by 9:15 (when the park opens at 9:00) with no pre-open ADR! They just showed up at 7:30, were let right into the park (along with lots of other people of course) and went right to FoP and got in line.

Is this the best strategy for riding FoP standby? I know going right at the close is also popular, but have other plans that night so it is not really feasible without switching a ton of stuff around.

Thanks in advance for any help!
You didn't get any because I took them all 2 days before you.
 
Not to worry this is one person that will not be soaking up the FPs. Not that the ride isnt good, its great. But as I get older I cant handle these types of rides. Rode it once to experience it, glad I did, but not again. They should have airsick bags near by. Just needed to get out quick to fresh air.
Very jealous of all those that can ride, great ride.
 
Okay, I LITERALLY just asked this similar question 2 weeks ago before my trip! I will tell you what I did on my trip and it TOTALLY worked and was suggested by people on this forum.
With the plan already in place for AK rope drop so we could ride the FoP , I decided to try for the 2 days before the trip to do the "refresh the MDE" app repeatedly every time I got online. Someone else suggested to take the 1st FP that came up at AK for the other Pandora ride, Navi River, which I did in the days leading up to our trip. Then I would daily go to the MDE app, open that FP for the Navi River and ask to edit it. It would pop up with all of the choices I could alter it to. Well, the day rolls around when I am at AK, standing in the FP line (yes, we stood in the FP line for nearly 45 minutes to ride NRJ!!!) and I used the OTHER suggestion to start looking for FP right as soon as I stepped into the line for Navi and had scanned my bracelet for the FP and began looking for the FoP FP. I did and literally within less than 3 minutes I got one for later that day. I also, during that 45 minute wait in NRJ was able to get 2 FP for the Slinky Dog and the Alien Saucer ride that same day as well. DH and I kind of went on this trip to just do a laid back, not so much rushing and to see the new stuff/rides and restaurants that had popped up in the last 2 years since we had been doing Disneyland and we literally went to 3 parks in one day and rode all of the newest rides using FP! I was also able to score an ADR at 11 pm at night for the following day to eat at BOG in MK. So, if you are willing to spend a few minutes each day (I think someone suggested trying after 10 pm, EST which is when I tend to get my best ADR's for the following day on my trips!), you can keep hitting refresh and I can almost guarantee you will get one. Especially that far out, you will be able to catch someone who changes their mind and dumps their FoP reservation. :) We had booked/planned our vacation only 3 weeks before we left and we were able to eat last minute breakfast at Crystal Palace, dinner at BoG and AK Tiffin's. It really was super easy to pull off, you just have to be patient and diligent! Good luck!
Had you already used your other 2 FPPs? Or was this the beginning of the day and you were changing one of your FPPs after using Navi?
 
So I just booked my (60+5) day fast passes, and sadly was not able to get Flight of Passage. As I believe that is not only the best ride at Disney, but the best way a human being can spend 10 mins of their life, I was pretty disappointed.

I searched around on here for the best way to ride it standby, and I was surprised to see someone suggest (and many others corroborate) the strategy of getting to the park at 7:30 AM (for a 9 AM park open) and going immediately to FoP. I don't really understand how this works, especially as it did not seem like those doing this had a pre-open ADR. My only experience getting into a park early involves pre-open breakfast ADRs (usually at BOG at MK). We do this to get right in line for Mine Train, and basically get a "free" fastpass. But they still do not actually let anyone onto the ride before 9 AM (or whenever the park opens.) Yet people in this FoP thread were claiming that they have finished both FoP and Navi River Journey by 9:15 (when the park opens at 9:00) with no pre-open ADR! They just showed up at 7:30, were let right into the park (along with lots of other people of course) and went right to FoP and got in line.

Is this the best strategy for riding FoP standby? I know going right at the close is also popular, but have other plans that night so it is not really feasible without switching a ton of stuff around.

Thanks in advance for any help!

When I plan our vacation, I try to get the most difficult to get fastpass FIRST and for the LAST FULL DAY of our trip - there are fewer people trying to get Fastpasses at that point in the 60 day window. But, I have to admit, if we had not had a full 7 day vacation, I'm not sure if even that would have worked. Good luck.
 
Okay, I LITERALLY just asked this similar question 2 weeks ago before my trip! I will tell you what I did on my trip and it TOTALLY worked and was suggested by people on this forum.
With the plan already in place for AK rope drop so we could ride the FoP , I decided to try for the 2 days before the trip to do the "refresh the MDE" app repeatedly every time I got online. Someone else suggested to take the 1st FP that came up at AK for the other Pandora ride, Navi River, which I did in the days leading up to our trip. Then I would daily go to the MDE app, open that FP for the Navi River and ask to edit it. It would pop up with all of the choices I could alter it to. Well, the day rolls around when I am at AK, standing in the FP line (yes, we stood in the FP line for nearly 45 minutes to ride NRJ!!!) and I used the OTHER suggestion to start looking for FP right as soon as I stepped into the line for Navi and had scanned my bracelet for the FP and began looking for the FoP FP. I did and literally within less than 3 minutes I got one for later that day. I also, during that 45 minute wait in NRJ was able to get 2 FP for the Slinky Dog and the Alien Saucer ride that same day as well. DH and I kind of went on this trip to just do a laid back, not so much rushing and to see the new stuff/rides and restaurants that had popped up in the last 2 years since we had been doing Disneyland and we literally went to 3 parks in one day and rode all of the newest rides using FP! I was also able to score an ADR at 11 pm at night for the following day to eat at BOG in MK. So, if you are willing to spend a few minutes each day (I think someone suggested trying after 10 pm, EST which is when I tend to get my best ADR's for the following day on my trips!), you can keep hitting refresh and I can almost guarantee you will get one. Especially that far out, you will be able to catch someone who changes their mind and dumps their FoP reservation. :) We had booked/planned our vacation only 3 weeks before we left and we were able to eat last minute breakfast at Crystal Palace, dinner at BoG and AK Tiffin's. It really was super easy to pull off, you just have to be patient and diligent! Good luck!
We never plan our trips since we are local. We may try to score a fastpass two - three days before going, but most of the time we don't. I believe Disney knows when you are in the park. In my experience, it is much easier to score a difficult to get Fastpass if you are in the park. We do the same, we will get a FastPass late in the evening and continue to refresh our search until and earlier fastpass will show up. This works well for one - two people and occasionally three, but if you have a larger group of people you most likely will not score fastpasses on difficult to get rides. In this case you are better off going before Park close. The experience/immersion is 10 times better than during the day.
 
Got to AK today at 8:05. Maybe 20 people ahead of us on line so we were almost at the ticket booths. They let us in at 8:15. Walked us to FoP at 8:30. We were done by 8:50. Could have done Rivers next with a 10 min wait but did safari instead. Worked perfectly.
 
keep trying. I tried every day for 3 weeks for my January trip and was able to get it. I might have to try at park close lie everyone is saying Maybe we can get on it twice! Pixie dust!:tinker:
 
This is all very good stuff people! Obviously trying daily to get actual fast passes, but we are a party of 12, so I don't like our chances.
 
Had you already used your other 2 FPPs? Or was this the beginning of the day and you were changing one of your FPPs after using Navi?

I only had this one FP to use at a time. We weren't really doing much of anything that day except mumbling around before our MK After Hours Party and so I had 1 FP for the Navi River Journey and as soon as I scanned my Magic Band for it and was standing in line for it, I cancelled my FP for Navi River and on my app I started looking for FP for FoP. While I was looking for it, a Slinky Dog popped up for the following day and I grabbed that. Then the next day, while we were in the FP line for the slinky dog, I did the same thing. Cancelled the Slinky Dog (because my magic band had already been scanned and I was in the line) then I started looking for the alien saucers ride. I didn't ever try for the Seven Dwarves because we were able to ride that at the After Hours party. I did have to reload/refresh/check all day and on weekends/after hours for the 2 weeks leading up to our trip to get the Navi River though at a time that worked around all of our ADR's. LOL! I was too scared to cancel the FP once I scanned it and still wasn't on the ride (it still shows until you board the ride) and there was a cast member in the line who overheard my telling my husband I was afraid to cancel and then stand in line for 45 minutes and get to the front for the 2nd band scan and have them say, "You don't have a fp. Get outta here! Next!" ha! ha! And the CM told me that once I am scanned, it is in the system at the front. the 2nd scan is for the CM at the end to know that I didn't get out of line. I don't know how true that is, but it worked for 2 different rides that I did it on. I hope that isn't cheating the system! The CM told me it wasn't because the system takes a while to catch up to you once you have ridden the ride even so Disney expects people are going to cancel. I did see that on one ride at Hollywood we FP (Star Wars) and it didn't pop off after we had ridden it until the time was up (we went at the beginning of the times instead of the end) so I guess that is true?

I wouldn't forget to check at least once a day for 10 minutes/day just hitting "refresh" and changing the times (if you are looking for an a.m. time, don't just refresh to "morning", change the times from 9 to 9:30 then 10 and 10:30, etc. then go back to "morning" and so on. That is how i got my rides standing in line, too.

Good luck! If I can do it booking and planning less than a month out, you surely can get them this far out!
 
Two days ago I was able to get FP+s for FoP on day 60 plus 5. For the exact time I wanted,9:45. It was for 2 guests. I plan to get there at rope drop, hopefully not too much earlier, and we will go to Navi first.
 
The only FOP FPs I've ever gotten were all on the same day as I rode it. Also, I have never ridden FOP without an FP. And I've been on it 4 times.
 

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