Flights of Passage Strategy - Try to ride at Rope Drop or wait until 45 minutes before closing time?

[slyster]

Touring Plans has me going to FoP in the middle of the day. A 65 min wait. I was going to be there from rope drop with a mid day break, returning to close. Everyone keeps saying 2 hour wait after rope drop???

 

[Shaft41]

How much of that time was outside? Any idea? TIA

I would say 10-15 minutes. But, at night and with shade, it was comfortable.

 

[123SA]

at 6pm today wait is 105 minutes. I think I may go with the end of day option and use rope drop to get multiple Everest rides.

 

[luv2cheer92]

How much of that time was outside? Any idea? TIA

I know pre-Covid, once you got inside you had about an hour left. I only waited standby twice, both times were right about an hour and I stopped right as you first go inside. But that could very well be different now. (so subtracting an hour-ish from the wait time would be how much time is outside, but there's likely a bit of a variance)

 

[thingaboutarsenal]

My drive is about 80 minutes and I have a toddler so I never get to rope drop AK. I do find early in the morning, 9ish, has a dip that I think is people who ride it first being done and everyone else staying away because of the posted time. There's a sweet spot kinda early but not quite rope drop that is not bad. Getting in line at like 6:55 is also a good strategy.

 

[Princess Disney Mom]

Two weeks ago I got to AK a bit early to get through security and scan my ticket. There was a huge crowd walking to FOP so I just went with the crowd. It was a bit crowded, but mostly kept moving until I rode. If you want to make sure you ride it do it first thing then if you are still at the park at closing you have the option of a second time. I realized I must be getting old, I find I am not making it until closing anymore.....

 

[disny_luvr]

This is my plan right now, but it could change before my trip. We have a 14-day stay coming up the first two weeks of August so hopefully more than enough time to get everything done. Our first AK day is our 6th full day in Disney. The day before we'll be at DHS, and depending on how things have been going in that park, we plan to park hop to AK about two or three hours before closing to grab a quick dinner and then hit Pandora and do the two rides there. We'll get into line to ride FoP right before park closing. We'll just wait it out. Honestly, I think I'll have better success with this strategy than getting my teen sons up at 6:00am to get on the first bus from BC and then rope drop FoP with the masses. If for some reason this doesn't work, I guess we'll have to rope drop it the next day, but our hope for that day is to ride EE multiple times first thing, ride the other rides, and watch Festival of the Lion King, and just take it at a slower pace.

We like FoP but only need to ride it once on our trip.

 

[Nick6300]

This is my plan right now, but it could change before my trip. We have a 14-day stay coming up the first two weeks of August so hopefully more than enough time to get everything done. Our first AK day is our 6th full day in Disney. The day before we'll be at DHS, and depending on how things have been going in that park, we plan to park hop to AK about two or three hours before closing to grab a quick dinner and then hit Pandora and do the two rides there. We'll get into line to ride FoP right before park closing. We'll just wait it out. Honestly, I think I'll have better success with this strategy than getting my teen sons up at 6:00am to get on the first bus from BC and then rope drop FoP with the masses. If for some reason this doesn't work, I guess we'll have to rope drop it the next day, but our hope for that day is to ride EE multiple times first thing, ride the other rides, and watch Festival of the Lion King, and just take it at a slower pace.

We like FoP but only need to ride it once on our trip.

Do you guys use single rider at EE, even as a family, or no need since you go early in the day? We glance at both lines to judge, but even what appears to be a 25 min wait, we do single rider.

That's awesome you get to have a 14 day trip, envious! We once took a 9 night/10 day, but generally 6/7 like the upcoming.

 

[disny_luvr]

Do you guys use single rider at EE, even as a family, or no need since you go early in the day? We glance at both lines to judge, but even what appears to be a 25 min wait, we do single rider.

That's awesome you get to have a 14 day trip, envious! We once took a 9 night/10 day, but generally 6/7 like the upcoming.

We've done it both ways. We try to ride as a family, but if it is too long we'll do single rider. I'm hoping if we go to EE in the morning, not at rope drop, but maybe an hour after park opening, the line will still be short enough because a lot of people will be at FoP.

We've never done a 14-day trip before and we are very excited about it! Our trips are usually 9 or 10 days and we always wish we had more time. Since we cancelled last year, we were able to save a little more to make this year's trip a longer one. I'm glad we'll be there for two weeks because with these waits I've been seeing I think we'll need that much time to get everything done. We also aren't commando and go back to our resort every afternoon to rest and swim. We are hoping the longer trip will allow us to relax a little instead of rushing around trying to get everything done.

 

[DavidNYC]

If you plan on getting there early enough so that you'll be in the first part of the pack - rope drop. If not, end of day will be shorter. Rope drop lines go from shortest of the day to longest of the day fairly quickly so 10-15 minutes arrival time difference can make the difference between a walk on and a 1 hour wait.

 

[DisneyFive]

This is my plan right now, but it could change before my trip. We have a 14-day stay coming up the first two weeks of August so hopefully more than enough time to get everything done. Our first AK day is our 6th full day in Disney. The day before we'll be at DHS, and depending on how things have been going in that park, we plan to park hop to AK about two or three hours before closing to grab a quick dinner and then hit Pandora and do the two rides there. We'll get into line to ride FoP right before park closing. We'll just wait it out. Honestly, I think I'll have better success with this strategy than getting my teen sons up at 6:00am to get on the first bus from BC and then rope drop FoP with the masses. If for some reason this doesn't work, I guess we'll have to rope drop it the next day, but our hope for that day is to ride EE multiple times first thing, ride the other rides, and watch Festival of the Lion King, and just take it at a slower pace.

We like FoP but only need to ride it once on our trip.

We may do something similar. Our upcoming stay is 10 nights and our fourth full day is animal kingdom. The night before is Epcot and I am guessing that we will have everything done in Epcot by dinner time, so we could scoot over to animal kingdom if we wanted to and hit flight of passage the night before. It helps free up in the morning a little for our animal kingdom day. That’s not a bad idea. Thanks for suggesting it

Dan

 

[disny_luvr]

We may do something similar. Our upcoming stay is 10 nights and our fourth full day is animal kingdom. The night before is Epcot and I am guessing that we will have everything done in Epcot by dinner time, so we could scoot over to animal kingdom if we wanted to and hit flight of passage the night before. It helps free up in the morning a little for our animal kingdom day. That’s not a bad idea. Thanks for suggesting it

Dan

Good luck! From your signature, it looks like you'll be there before me or right around the time I'm there, so if you get the chance, post your experience. I hope it works for you.

 

[harleyquinn]

You could go on Kali right before entering the FoP line at night, so you don't catch on fire from the outside section of the queue.

On the occasions we've had longer than 45 min wait at night at FoP, the majority of the waiting was inside.

With my luck we'd get drenched and end up inside shivering our butts off! lol Definitely not a bad idea!!

 

[Nick6300]

With my luck we'd get drenched and end up inside shivering our butts off! lol Definitely not a bad idea!!

I think last year, to my dismay, they did things like turning off the water cannons near the end of the ride, somehow related to the pandemic. Saving $? I'm not sure. Spectators could no longer spray you. That's obviously for not touching the buttons. Not sure if back to norm. Often going in Sept., we always want to get wet, and only get significantly wet on about 1 in 6 rides.

I've definitely had more than expected waiting in the outside queue for FoP at last ride before. But even then, it was cooler being evening, most of the waiting was inside. There aren't fans like there is for Slinky or 7D, but I've never felt like it was unbearable.

 

[DisneyFive]

Good luck! From your signature, it looks like you'll be there before me or right around the time I'm there, so if you get the chance, post your experience. I hope it works for you.

Our first full day in the parks is July 26 and our animal kingdom day is the 29th, so the evening of the 28th is when we might try to Park Hop over to animal kingdom and try for a late night ride. I will try to remember to report back.


Dan

 

[Nick6300]

Our first full day in the parks is July 26 and our animal kingdom day is the 29th, so the evening of the 28th is when we might try to Park Hop over to animal kingdom and try for a late night ride. I will try to remember to report back.


Dan

Thanks Dan. Hopefully a little better luck given the 28th is a Wed. as well. Have a good trip. Nice that it's so soon.

 

[thingaboutarsenal]

I think last year, to my dismay, they did things like turning off the water cannons near the end of the ride, somehow related to the pandemic. Saving $? I'm not sure. Spectators could no longer spray you. That's obviously for not touching the buttons. Not sure if back to norm. Often going in Sept., we always want to get wet, and only get significantly wet on about 1 in 6 rides.

I've definitely had more than expected waiting in the outside queue for FoP at last ride before. But even then, it was cooler being evening, most of the waiting was inside. There aren't fans like there is for Slinky or 7D, but I've never felt like it was unbearable.

It's about half on. You can get kinda wet but If be really surprised if anyone got drenched. It's nothing like Infinity Falls at SeaWorld.

 

[Nick6300]

It's about half on. You can get kinda wet but If be really surprised if anyone got drenched. It's nothing like Infinity Falls at SeaWorld.

at least the cannons are back on, if half way. I'm the fool who will put my hands up to try to get more wet when the cannons spray. Seems like we run into less and less rafts with poncho-less 1st timers too; not as fun.

 

[thingaboutarsenal]

at least the cannons are back on, if half way. I'm the fool who will put my hands up to try to get more wet when the cannons spray. Seems like we run into less and less rafts with poncho-less 1st timers too; not as fun.

The fountain (?) or whatever it was that was at the end of the lift hill was amazing, you were getting wet if you pointed that way. The bridge with sprinklers needs to get back to full spray too.

 

[cmarsh31]

Do you guys use single rider at EE, even as a family, or no need since you go early in the day? We glance at both lines to judge, but even what appears to be a 25 min wait, we do single rider.

That's awesome you get to have a 14 day trip, envious! We once took a 9 night/10 day, but generally 6/7 like the upcoming.

Watch Single Rider now... people are using it in place of FP. My daughter IS a single rider. 65 min wait for RR, she did single rider (I went in line with her to keep her company, she's 13). Entire SR line was families & groups. She waited 70 minutes to ride.