One day at EPCOT help?

[mrsgthatsme]

Would anyone be willing to help me with planning for a one day visit to EPCOT? We are going there for one day prior to a Disney cruise. We have two kids, ages 8 and 11 and will be there in late April (NOT close to Easter). We plan to arrive at rope drop, possibly leave for a midday break (if needed) and be there in the evening for sure. Here are the family priorities:

1) Ride Soarin', Test Track (at least once in the dark if possible! , and Frozen

2)We also want to ride Spaceship Earth at some point, but didn't find that to be an issue last time we were at Disney.

3) We have no desire to do Mission Space.

The tiered FP system at Epcot makes things less clear cut to me in terms of what we should do at Rope drop, get FP for, etc... Would we have time to ride two of the headliners (maybe Soarin and TT) at Rope drop before lines get too long or is that overly ambitious? Would you suggest getting all of our FP for morning in hopes that we could get the evening FP for TT? (My son ideally would love to ride that at RD and then again in the dark, as it is his very favorite disney ride! Any suggestions would be welcomed! Thank you!

 

[Cinderella94]

Would anyone be willing to help me with planning for a one day visit to EPCOT? We are going there for one day prior to a Disney cruise. We have two kids, ages 8 and 11 and will be there in late April (NOT close to Easter). We plan to arrive at rope drop, possibly leave for a midday break (if needed) and be there in the evening for sure. Here are the family priorities:

1) Ride Soarin', Test Track (at least once in the dark if possible! , and Frozen

2)We also want to ride Spaceship Earth at some point, but didn't find that to be an issue last time we were at Disney.

The tiered FP system at Epcot makes things less clear cut to me in terms of what we should do at Rope drop, get FP for, etc... Would we have time to ride two of the headliners (maybe Soarin and TT) at Rope drop before lines get too long or is that overly ambitious? Would you suggest getting all of our FP for morning in hopes that we could get the evening FP for TT? (My son ideally would love to ride that at RD and then again in the dark, as it is his very favorite disney ride! Any suggestions would be welcomed! Thank you!

It sounds like TT is the most important of the 3, so I would get the fastpass for that one. Also, because if you run there first at rope drop and TT isn't operating right away (which is fairly common), you'll have wasted prime time. FP'ing TT allows you to avoid that. I would then FP Spaceship Earth and one other of your choosing. I would probably ride Frozen first at rope drop and then go back to ride Soarin - this involves backtracking but I think makes the most sense in terms of riding things before the line gets too long.

 

[DWillowBay]

Fast Pass your TT as it ensures you a ride / time when you want it (night). Rope Drop Soarin' unless you really want to see the Frozen ride, then Rope Drop Frozen and backtrack to Soarin' Stand by as PP said. SE is an easy 'get' and since Mission Space is not on your list of must do's...maybe Livin' with the Land (which USUALLY doesn't need a FP, but sometimes does) or Figment (which doesn't need a FP very often). Hope you have a great day and a great cruise!

 

[PrincessWithABlaster]

We have rope dropped both TT and Soarin. We have also gotten an early evening Soarin FP as a 4th. It looks like TT is doable as a 4th so if you want to ride it twice I would recommend getting all your FPs in early and try for that. I would decide if you definitely want to do FEA. If so I would FP that, RD Soarin and TT, get SE and something else as your tier 2 and try for a night time TT as your 4th.

EDITED to add that I just went in and pulled an FP for TT for 4 for tonight at 5:30 with less than 5 refreshes. It’s probably busier today than it will be when you go (assuming you mean late April) so it seems likely you’d be able to pull it later. But if you want to be absolutely sure you get it after dark, then pre book it.

 

[larie21]

If you get there early, you should be able to rope drop TT & Soarin with minimal wait. Also, both were easy 4th FP+s to find when we were there last week. I never saw Frozen pop up as a 4th FP+ though.

 

[chloelovesdisney]

I would not fastpass TT, your kids are all old enough for you to use the single riders line. One parent go first, then the kids, then the second parent so someone is there when they get off and you know they boarded okay. I'd rope drop Soarin and FP Frozen. You might get lucky with a 4th FP for TT.

 

[Summer2018]

Would anyone be willing to help me with planning for a one day visit to EPCOT? We are going there for one day prior to a Disney cruise. We have two kids, ages 8 and 11 and will be there in late April (NOT close to Easter). We plan to arrive at rope drop, possibly leave for a midday break (if needed) and be there in the evening for sure. Here are the family priorities:

1) Ride Soarin', Test Track (at least once in the dark if possible! , and Frozen

2)We also want to ride Spaceship Earth at some point, but didn't find that to be an issue last time we were at Disney.

3) We have no desire to do Mission Space.

The tiered FP system at Epcot makes things less clear cut to me in terms of what we should do at Rope drop, get FP for, etc... Would we have time to ride two of the headliners (maybe Soarin and TT) at Rope drop before lines get too long or is that overly ambitious? Would you suggest getting all of our FP for morning in hopes that we could get the evening FP for TT? (My son ideally would love to ride that at RD and then again in the dark, as it is his very favorite disney ride! Any suggestions would be welcomed! Thank you!

Don’t miss out on Turtle Talk with Crush & Nemo. Pretty cool.

 

[Cinderella94]

I would not fastpass TT, your kids are all old enough for you to use the single riders line. One parent go first, then the kids, then the second parent so someone is there when they get off and you know they boarded okay. I'd rope drop Soarin and FP Frozen. You might get lucky with a 4th FP for TT.

This assumes the OP and family want to use the single rider line, though In over 20 trips and many many TT rides, my family and I have never once ridden single rider. Just doesn't seem like fun to us. But that's for OP to decide, maybe she will do that instead.

 

[mrsgthatsme]

This assumes the OP and family want to use the single rider line, though In over 20 trips and many many TT rides, my family and I have never once ridden single rider. Just doesn't seem like fun to us. But that's for OP to decide, maybe she will do that instead.

Yes, our kids are not single rider fans, so we will be riding TT as a family.

 

[chloelovesdisney]

We ride as a family also, just about a minute apart and with a 5 minute wait compared to an hour. To each their own.

 

[Cinderella94]

We ride as a family also, just about a minute apart and with a 5 minute wait compared to an hour. To each their own.

We usually wait 5 (or 10- it’s a long queue to walk through!) minutes too, with FP and rope drop .

 

[Zachary Friess]

I think the easiest way to ride everything you want is to hit Garden Grill for an 8:00am breakfast (as long as Epcot doesn’t have extra magic hours that morning). You can get on Soarin at 8:50 and head over to ride Test Track Standby (probably still a relatively short wait). Then I would use FPs for 2 future world rides you want to go on and get them out of the way in the AM and ride Frozen after that. Then you are positioned to have lunch in the world showcase and have the rest of the day to get 4th, 5th and 6th FPs.

If Test Track had a long wait earlier that day you could get it as one of the subsequent FPs.

If you don’t want the 8:00 breakfast or if Epcot has EMH I would Rope Drop TT, FP FEA and get Soarin as a 4th or 5th FP.