FP needed at Epcot if starting at ropedrop?

[donalds friend]

I will be going the second week of May and planning on rope dropping at Epcot. I was thinking I could do the big 3 right away and then tour future world. Would it be reasonable to assume that waits will be ess than 20 minutes in the rest of future world until around 1? We were thinking of taking a break then going to AK around 4:30. I was thinking fp would be better to use there in the afternoon.

 

[Robo]

“ Second week” of what?

 

[donalds friend]

Oops of May, sorry!

 

[Klayfish]

No, I wouldn't assume that. MS can get longer than 20 minutes. SE will spike late morning/early afternoon too.

 

[Cinderumbrella]

It’s doable but you will have some waits.
To avoid a ton of walking, you could do
Soarin, Test Track Single Rider, Frozen, then head back to Future World for the rest.

If single rider isn’t an option, do TT first, then FEA and then Soarin (but be prepared to wait 30 minutes or so).

 

[DavidNYC]

You're a bit overoptimistic with your wait times but your plan is exactly what we do. I just can't justify using my FP at Epcot on a day I want to hop. I'll usually hit up Soarin and TT right at drop (make sure get there a bit early so you're near the front of the pack) and usually get both done in the first hour. The lines build a bit from then on but manageable to get 1-2 more in of either SE, MS or Sea (never done FEA standby this way so can't comment on how that would be if you tried for that during first 90 minutes).

Don't know how long you're going for but you always go hit up Epcot at rope drop another day just for 2 hours to hit anything you missed then hop to your FP park. Or plan a day to head back to Epcot in evening and try to get a headliner FP as soon as you're done with your FP at your prior park.

If you don't mind hopping a bit - lots of options to get around Epcot over a visit that lasts several days with out having to use any prebooked FP.

 

[BridgetBordeaux]

The general strategy for park hopping is to do the FPs in the afternoon park. You will absolutely have lines in EP after the first "golden hour", but you will will be rewarded when you arrive at AK.

 

[vicb]

The general strategy for park hopping is to do the FPs in the afternoon park. You will absolutely have lines in EP after the first "golden hour", but you will will be rewarded when you arrive at AK.

I agree with this. We were in Epcot the first week of May 2018 and I'm pretty sure the wait at Soarin was around 40 min when we got over there for our FP at 11am. I think some will depend on which day of the week, weather etc....

 

[runwad]

You're gonna have some waits, but just pick and choose what you want to do.

I make my fps for the 2nd park of the day too.

 

[PrincessWithABlaster]

I agree with this. We were in Epcot the first week of May 2018 and I'm pretty sure the wait at Soarin was around 40 min when we got over there for our FP at 11am. I think some will depend on which day of the week, weather etc....

Soarin was a little tricky first week of May last year. The lines got to 60 mins in the first 45 mins but they opened the 3rd theater right around that time and waits dropped to 15mins. If you think of it, watch the wait times for that first hour a few days before your Epcot day and see what the pattern looks like. If you can catch the 3rd theater right as it opens or for maybe 20 mins after, you're golden.

 

[Babe the Blue Ox]

The general strategy for park hopping is to do the FPs in the afternoon park. You will absolutely have lines in EP after the first "golden hour", but you will will be rewarded when you arrive at AK.

We always FastPass the morning park, no matter how much hopping we plan for the day.

There’s no point in waiting in those busy morning lines when it’s pretty easy to refresh for additional FPs for the afternoon/evening.

 

[DavidNYC]

The general strategy for park hopping is to do the FPs in the afternoon park. You will absolutely have lines in EP after the first "golden hour", but you will will be rewarded when you arrive at AK.

I don't think that's as much a general strategy as it used to be and is now a lot more situational. With the ability to get extra FP from the apps, it really depends on what two parks you're going to and how long you're going to be there. On an day that starts with either AK or HS and ends at MK or EP I'd say some very good reasons to use at first park.

 

[PrincessWithABlaster]

I don't think that's as much a general strategy as it used to be and is now a lot more situational. With the ability to get extra FP from the apps, it really depends on what two parks you're going to and how long you're going to be there. On an day that starts with either AK or HS and ends at MK or EP I'd say some very good reasons to use at first park.

We don't park hop but if we did, I would do a morning at each park and make sure I could get SSD, FOP, FEA, and 7DMT prebooked as morning FPs. I'd fill in those parks with morning FPs and plan to get whatever I could at the afternoon park for 4th+ FPs. I would not want to depend on same day FP for any of those rides (but I wouldn't be totally surprised to get pixie dusted with any of them as 4th+ either). But if I couldn't get one of them in the morning I would do FPs for the afternoon park on the day that allowed me to get it. I would just try to avoid it if I could. Getting FPs for all the rides gets habit forming and it gets hard to wait even in the lower morning crowds.

 

[MomOTwins]

Another vote for FPs at EP. With the Epcot tier system, nobody can get FPs in advance for more than one of the Tier 1 rides, and so everybody plans to rope drop them. After the first ride of the day, the lines have already grown fast for those three. I would rope drop TT, FP spaceship earth, something other future world, and then do a late morning FP at Frozen, and have lunch in the world showcase. After you tap into frozen you can book your 4th FP for Soarin for you to stop by on the way out of the park since you have to go back to Future World anyway to get back to your resort for the afternoon break (assuming you are not in an epcot area resort).

 

[Klayfish]

We always FastPass the morning park, no matter how much hopping we plan for the day.

There’s no point in waiting in those busy morning lines when it’s pretty easy to refresh for additional FPs for the afternoon/evening.

Yep, totally agree. I don't see any reason to "save" FP+ for later. Why not use them later AND now?

 

[BridgetBordeaux]

I don't think that's as much a general strategy as it used to be and is now a lot more situational. With the ability to get extra FP from the apps, it really depends on what two parks you're going to and how long you're going to be there. On an day that starts with either AK or HS and ends at MK or EP I'd say some very good reasons to use at first park.

Agreed.
Since they were going to AK at 430pm, I was suggesting to get the FPs for that park.................otherwise I envisioned nothing but medium to long standby lines for that entire AK park visit.

 

[Cinderumbrella]

Yep, totally agree. I don't see any reason to "save" FP+ for later. Why not use them later AND now?

Generally I agree, but since the OP is finishing at AK, I understand their logic.

I still think they can accomplish what they want at Epcot, with some waits, if they commit to being at park 45 minutes to an hour before opening to ensure they are at the front of the rope drop pack.

 

[ClapYourHands]

Yep, totally agree. I don't see any reason to "save" FP+ for later. Why not use them later AND now?

Generally I agree, but since the OP is finishing at AK, I understand their logic.

I still think they can accomplish what they want at Epcot, with some waits, if they commit to being at park 45 minutes to an hour before opening to ensure they are at the front of the rope drop pack.

I was on a 5-day trip in November, and did what OP is planning. It was day 4 of the trip, and I wanted to make sure I had FoP fast passes for our afternoon at AK. I know there are people on here who swear they can refresh their way into any fast pass at all within 10 minutes, but after we used our 3 booked FP at AK, I spent A LOT of time refreshing that afternoon to try for NRJ or a second go on FOP, and neither popped up at all for any time.

We got to Epcot for EMH at RD, but definitely still faced lines. I'm going to quote myself from another thread I wrote in November, "As we were coming from the IG, we were pretty far back at the TT entrance just because we had so much farther to walk than those who came through the front. We were towards the head of the IG crowd, but it was posted 30 minutes by the time we got there. It was maybe a little less for us, but only because we were first out of the design room. My app is showing a 15 minute wait for Soarin, but 45 for TT now. I’m typing this at 8:59 near the front of the single rider line (15 minutes so far, posted 5 minutes when we entered for a second ride)."

So, if OP enters the main entrance at the front of the RD pack (arrives EARLY) and goes to TT, I think it would be possible to get off early enough to make it to FEA followed by Soarin' with reasonable (though not super short) waits. I thought we'd have shorter lines, given that it was EMH, but it was also Jersey Week, so crowd levels played a role, too.

OP, I don't know how long your trip is, but since you have hoppers, you might consider hopping to Epcot at some other point in the trip and using the refresh strategy to pick up what you don't get on that morning. We lucked into a FP for FEA late in the evening when we were at HS, so we hopped over and rode it and stayed for Illuminations. We also went a different night, and rode Soarin twice (crowd level 9, Jersey Week, Marathon, and Food and Wine, but Soarin popped up 3 times for me). Soarin is especially easy to get as a same-day FP, so I'd definitely prioritize TT and FEA at RD.

 

[runwad]

Different strokes for different folks

 

[Lisa F]

if you don't want to do EVERYTHING then you can do a bunch of things. The tier 2 Future World rides seem to fluctuate wildly on standby. sometimes nemo is 5 mintues sometimes it's 50. it's crazy. an hour apart. Hit spaceship earth on your way out, that is busiest right at RD