Rode FOP 3 times, barely any wait. My tips!

[Miffy]

I had the same experience, getting my 4th FP+ for FOP twice during my stay, once with refreshing only a couple of times. I was also able to score a day-of FP+ for FOP only a few hours ahead of time. Be persistent.

To the above poster, I believe your refresh description is correct. The reason FOP shows up at the top is that it's Avatar FOP and is first alphabetically, whereas FEA isn't at the top of the alphabet. AFAIK, there's no more efficient way to do FEA. Maybe someone else will know.

 

[larie21]

How many people were you searching for?

5

 

[larie21]

I was also able to get 7DMT, ToT, TSM, Soarin using the same method during our week. The only one I never saw pop up was Frozen. It almost became a game to see what I could get.

Yes I was pleasantly surprised by 4th FP+ availability too. We got Soarin several times, FOP, Everest, RnR, Toy Story, Star Tours, Pirates, Space, Splash. There were lots of options at MK. I never saw one for SDMT or FEA though.

 

[Wubar]

Here right now. Rope dropped FoP, would have been off the ride by 9:05am except something was wrong with my wife's bike so they made us get off and wait for the next round (received an anytime FP for it). After FoP ride #1, standby was already 175 at 9:20am. Headed to navi, standby was already 80 min. So much for doing both quickly, so we used our anytime FP on NRJ, then headed back to FoP to use our FP at 9:55am. Off FoP ride #2 by 10:15 and by then standby for FoP was 195 min and the line stretched all the way back to Africa.

 

[Haley R]

5

Wow that's surprising for that many people.

 

[Rjw615]

Wife and I decided last min to do adults only trip this weekend, I searched for FOP for two but couldn't find anything, then changed the search to 1, and got several options and after some persistence with modifying was able to get us two in the same time frame just last night. So keep that in mind with searching for FOP as well.

 

[shocker]

You did spend an hour of time without doing anything (waiting for the park to open), so I consider that wasted time, don't you? You can do a lot at WDW in an hour!

I see this a little differently than you do. The OP was quite clear that there was "little" wasted time, not "no" wasted time. In the case of FOP, waiting 1 hour before park opening does indeed waste less time than arriving at the park at 10am and waiting 3 hours. I do agree with you that when someone posts arriving at opening and then riding "without" waiting, that indeed they did their waiting before park opening and not after, but did indeed wait.

But arriving before opening for a wait does a few things:

1) Per your post, you cannot do a lot at WDW during that hour, because it's not open. Nothing else is moving or being done, so your not idle for that hour, everything is idle for that hour. For us who arrive early, this is a bonus, no one is doing anything. When you arrive at 10am and go to wait for a ride, you are idle in line while others are riding, eating, shopping, seeing a show, etc. etc. etc.

2) Your not taking any park time to wait and are extending potential ride time for the day. If a park is open for 12 hours and I wait 1 hour before it opens and am effectively riding my first ride at opening, I get a full 12 hours out of a park. If I arrive 30 minutes after the park opens and wait 1.5 hours to ride my first ride, I now only get 10 hours of potential park time.

3) I can do a lot in my hour of waiting before a park opens. I have no problem carrying in breakfast if we'll be eating it immediately and dropping the weight. So, bananas, yogurt, individually wrapped muffin, and a juice bottle for each of us, trash everything when done. We also put on sunscreen during this time, review the map and any show times, ordering lunch on the MDE app, taking pics, searching for new FP times, etc. etc. etc.

 

[Donalyn]

I'm with PP. You are spending an hour, but it isn't a wasted park time hour. And other than sleeping, what are you wasting?

 

[Princess_Lisa]

I have found if you are fortunate enough to ride multiple times, make sure to request different areas of the theater. The screen is so big that you really can’t take in all of the details from one spot. We got 4 rides in, and each one was a little different because of our location.

I've done FoP three times (on both the 1-8 and 9-16 sides) and noticed on the last ride (Bike #8) seemed more intense than the first two rides (Bike #16 and ??). I'm guessing now that maybe it had to do with where I was positioned.

 

[julezdisney]

Have been refreshing several times daily and have been able to rebook Navi for 9:05am in a 9am opening day after originally having it at 7:50pm! Definitely going for FOP at rope drop and then using the FP as the plan and am now soooo excited. I'm so grateful for the DIS, I never would've known to "refresh" and to always keep trying.

 

[Sepo]

One prevailing theory of biosocial evolution is that we have different bio-clocks bc our early ancestors needed to be on watch for threats at all hours. Best if we were all programmed a bit differently. Some of us were ‘built’ to rise and guard earlier and later than others. 70,000 years later, the descendants of the early risers get to ride FoP.

 

[Babe the Blue Ox]

One prevailing theory of biosocial evolution is that we have different bio-clocks bc our early ancestors needed to be on watch for threats at all hours. Best if we were all programmed a bit differently. Some of us were ‘built’ to rise and guard earlier and later than others. 70,000 years later, the descendants of the early risers get to ride FoP.

That's an interesting theory, but I noticed on Touring Plans recently that the wait for FoP was up to 240 minutes within 10 minutes of park opening and down to 30 minutes within 10 minutes of park close. I seems like the early risers could be waiting in line 8 times longer than the night owls.

I think I'll sleep in and go with the shorter line.

 

[CrankyDad]

We just got back last week and while FOP was solid, NO way is it worth more then an hour wait. This was Jan and the wait time was always hours long

I got us the FP at 60 mark and it was solid but that was it.. the best fun was watching the queue, the signs about no bathroom breaks and how Disney had to shut down paths in/out to handle the queues. Plus ALL the rude people in line..

We zipped in with the FP, rode, grabbed a drink and people watched the cluster $^$^ of the non- FP people..

but the ride, solid, but rather do Big Thunder, test track etc. Now if you are pandora fan, I get it.. We saw the movie and was ok. So not the target audience I guess..

We love AK so nice that it peeled off lines and safari and EE was must shorter waits. Heck we did single rider EE like 4 times this trip!

 

[Haley R]

We just got back last week and while FOP was solid, NO way is it worth more then an hour wait. This was Jan and the wait time was always hours long

I got us the FP at 60 mark and it was solid but that was it.. the best fun was watching the queue, the signs about no bathroom breaks and how Disney had to shut down paths in/out to handle the queues. Plus ALL the rude people in line..

We zipped in with the FP, rode, grabbed a drink and people watched the cluster $^$^ of the non- FP people..

but the ride, solid, but rather do Big Thunder, test track etc. Now if you are pandora fan, I get it.. We saw the movie and was ok. So not the target audience I guess..

We love AK so nice that it peeled off lines and safari and EE was must shorter waits. Heck we did single rider EE like 4 times this trip!

Good to know about ee! We go in 38 days and have a FP for fop. I’m glad we won’t be waiting in line for it.