FOP during EMH?

[Dinglehopper626]

Morning!

DH and I are planning on hitting FOP for EMH on 9/17. We are staying at POFQ and plan on trying to get to AK before the 8:00 AM open time, so we can head straight to FOP when they open.

Can someone help me determine what time we should be lining up for the bus? I am thinking 7:00 AM, but should we plan on earlier? Later?

I anticipate we will have to wait, but will we be waiting super long if we go straight to FOP? We have Safari FP with a 9:30 - 10:30 window.

Thanks!

 

[sharonabe]

Morning!

DH and I are planning on hitting FOP for EMH on 9/17. We are staying at POFQ and plan on trying to get to AK before the 8:00 AM open time, so we can head straight to FOP when they open.

Can someone help me determine what time we should be lining up for the bus? I am thinking 7:00 AM, but should we plan on earlier? Later?

I anticipate we will have to wait, but will we be waiting super long if we go straight to FOP? We have Safari FP with a 9:30 - 10:30 window.

Thanks!

Actually, you want to be AT THE GATES of AK around 7:15, 7:30 at the very latest if you want a shortish wait for FoP. They will open the gates and start you towards Pandora around 7:30 or so. I would be out at the bus stop around 6:30-6:45.

 

[Dinglehopper626]

Actually, you want to be AT THE GATES of AK around 7:15, 7:30 at the very latest if you want a shortish wait for FoP. They will open the gates and start you towards Pandora around 7:30 or so. I would be out at the bus stop around 6:30-6:45.

Thanks for the info! I didn't realize they started around 7:30. We VERY RARELY do RD at any park, but we are very motivated for FOP, so I am a bit out of my element with planning a RD morning.

 

[sharonabe]

Thanks for the info! I didn't realize they started around 7:30. We VERY RARELY do RD at any park, but we are very motivated for FOP, so I am a bit out of my element with planning a RD morning.

It's only AK with Pandora that opens that early right now due to the continuing popularity of FoP. HS was also opening early for the Toy Story attractions, but I'm not sure if they are still as I haven't kept up with that one lately.

 

[Dinglehopper626]

Thanks - we will plan on being at the bus stop at 6:30 that morning. In the meantime, I will be stalking FP.

 

[nursejackie]

I tried this last December. It was EMH so got to the bus stop 90 minutes before EMH at 8am but when I got to AK the queue was unbelievable. They actually opened FOP around 7.15am instead of 8am, so I joined the queue around 7am, walked with the masses into the park to the long queue that had already formed, and the estimated wait for me at that point was over 2 hours! That was 45 mins before EMH even started!

 

[Dinglehopper626]

So how early do they typically start running buses for an EMH 8:00 AM time?

Maybe we will plan on being at the bus at 6:00 AM. I don't mind waiting in line to experience FOP (I fully expect to), I just don't want to be in line all morning long and miss our other FP.

 

[DisArmyWife215]

This may be unpopular opinion... But I wonder, isn't it still just waiting 2+ hours if you're waiting an hour outside the park to even get to the queue of 45 minutes or more. I'd rather take my chances in the evening or a FP open up than be herded in with a big crowd all rushing to the same spot. Not how I want to start my mornings.

With that said, Good luck on whatever plans work for you. And have a great trip! Pandora is beautiful and FOP is amazing.

 

[Dinglehopper626]

This may be unpopular opinion... But I wonder, isn't it still just waiting 2+ hours if you're waiting an hour outside the park to even get to the queue of 45 minutes or more. I'd rather take my chances in the evening or a FP open up than be herded in with a big crowd all rushing to the same spot. Not how I want to start my mornings.

With that said, Good luck on whatever plans work for you. And have a great trip! Pandora is beautiful and FOP is amazing.

Typically yes, I would agree with you, which is why we hardly ever do RD at any parks. But, we are only planning a half(ish) day at AK this trip (there is not a ton there we LOVE). We have an ADR at 1:00 and then we are leaving the park after to go back and relax/swim at the hotel. We are planning a late night at Disney Springs that evening.

 

[DisArmyWife215]

Typically yes, I would agree with you, which is why we hardly ever do RD at any parks. But, we are only planning a half(ish) day at AK this trip (there is not a ton there we LOVE). We have an ADR at 1:00 and then we are leaving the park after to go back and relax/swim at the hotel. We are planning a late night at Disney Springs that evening.

Gotcha. I'll keep my fingers crossed a FP opens up for you. Grab any time if it does and just modify it later.

 

[gharter]

Agree with the others, you want to be at the gate at least an hour before the park opens and there will still be a huge crowd.
Last time, we had a FP for FoP, got there 30 minutes before park opened to head toward Navi, they let us into Pandora and the FoP line was 90 minutes. Navi was walk on. When we got off, the FoP line was 2 hours.

 

[NavyDad]

Morning EMH has been the worst days to try to RD FoP in our experience. Everyone else has the same idea. One morning we got to AK lot around 6:30 for 8:00 AM EMH open. We thought we would be first in line but to our surprise there were already hundreds of people there with more streaming in. We did get in and were about 15 rows deep at the bridge. We just followed the queue and basically walked through and got on pretty quickly. We were actually off the ride and in a pretty short line for the river journey before 8:00 so that was nice.

I still think rope drop is the best way to do FoP but you have to get there EARLY. Then you can be off the ride before park open time usually and head to other areas of the park while the rest of the crowd is still pouring into Pandora. Basically you are standing in line early when nothing is open instead of standing in line later when the rides are operating and the park is filling up. More efficient use of time IMO.

 

[DisReno]

Morning!

DH and I are planning on hitting FOP for EMH on 9/17. We are staying at POFQ and plan on trying to get to AK before the 8:00 AM open time, so we can head straight to FOP when they open.

Can someone help me determine what time we should be lining up for the bus? I am thinking 7:00 AM, but should we plan on earlier? Later?

I anticipate we will have to wait, but will we be waiting super long if we go straight to FOP? We have Safari FP with a 9:30 - 10:30 window.

Thanks!

We are in a similar situation. I'm thinking of taking a minnie van that day so we arrive early and I don't stress on the bus.

 

[BradChristian]

Shocked to hear of such a long line for EMH! You would think that would somewhat limit the number of people, but I guess when every single person in attendance is set on a single attraction... My crowd level on the day I'm looking to do EMH is 1of10 - would that be of any help?!

 

[BradChristian]

Apparently TouringPlans is predicting over an hour wait at 8am for FoP even on the '1' crowd day... Wow!

 

[mi*vida*loca]

Ive heard great reports of doing it right at closing. Very short waits.