Suggestions to ride Avatar's Flights of Passage at AK?

CableKC

DIS Veteran
Joined
May 20, 2002
I tried to book my FP+ reservations for Avatar's FoP at AK, but ( like everyone else ) couldn't get one at all for the day that I was planning on going to AK.

I assume that the wait time could be up to 2+ hours if my family ( me, DW, DS and DD ) just try to wait in the Standby Line ( which is a huge negative for them in the August Orlando heat and humidity ).

I am guessing that the best option to reduce the wait time if we try to get to the Standby Entrance by rope drop or as early as possible to wait in line. For those that ended up doing this, how long did you have to wait?

I had already booked my FP+ reservations for Expedition Everest and Dinosaur between 9am to 11:30am. I have the option to push those back later in the day and am wondering if I should try to get to FoP once we get to the park and allocate maybe a 90 minute window to try to get into the ride and then start FP+ reservations after 11am.

Thoughts and suggestions?

I really want to ride FoP but need to figure out a way to cut down the wait time.
 
Your options are to rope drop or ride at night. You can try for a FP day of but I wouldn't bank on that happening. If you're willing to get there early then do that and maybe change your first FP just a bit to 9:30, then you have until 10:30 (technically 10:45) to ride your first one. Plan to get there at least an hour before park opening to be closer to the front.
 


When we went in May, I was able to get a FP the day of (week before Memorial Day) by constantly refreshing the app. It took a while, but I got one. Also, my recommendation is to get in line close to closing time. We also rode at the end of the night, but the line dragged until all the FP allocations were done for the day. Once done, the line moved pretty quick.
 
Two weeks ago, we got in line about 90 minutes prior to park closing. Posted stand-by wait time was 2 hours; it actually took about 1hour and 20 minutes
 
If you try to rope drop FoP, know that its "real" rope drop is earlier than park open. They will walk folks to the bridge a little after an hour before park open and then start walking to the queues at least 30 minutes before park open. We did this in June since we didn't have a FP. We arrived at about 8:15 for a 9:00am park open, waited at the bridge briefly, and then we were through the queue and off the ride by about 9:15 or so.
 


if you arrive at rope drop you will likely be looking at a 90 minute wait which is not much different from hopping in line at park close. Arriving an hour earlier will result in a much shorter wait but then you are waiting 45 minutes for the rope drop.
 
We did rope drop in early May to ride FoP. Walked to the ride and basically walked right on, very little wait, it just took some time to move through the walkway. Once we got off we decided to ride it again. They said it was an hour wait but it was actually closer to about 35 minutes.
 
Keep checking for fastpasses when you are there. There were a few that popped up during our last trip.
 
We rode twice on RD mor ings. Both times we were there early enough to be the first ones through our tapstyles. First ride we were fast enough to be on seco d showing and it was at least 2 hour posted wait when we got off. Second time we were in the first showing and it was posted 60 minutes when we got off. However, we left Pandora to head to safari and the line actually went all the way dow. that back sidewalk by the QS to FOLK. Hard to believe that was 60 minutes!
 
For people who have done rope drop and got right on the ride - what time did you get there? - If it's EMH, and the park opens at 8 - is the recommendation to be in line by 7:00, or would it need to be sooner? (Cause I couldn't get a FP either 60 days out at 7:06AM.) :guilty:
 
I did EMH before and rode the ride twice before park opening for real. That was last May (2018)
 
We aim for 90 min before park open, there’s some speed walking involved and we’re first or second group in. If Rope dropping, stay to the right on the path to have the closest access once entering the queue. We get off the ride around park open and head to NRJ as a walk on. We don’t try for a second ride but usually see posted 60 to 90 that will likely be less. We always have FP for a second ride later because we plan our days around which days we were able to get FoP FPs. Typically 60+3 or 4.

At night, we aim for 15 min before close, and hope for something like a 45 min actual wait (posted higher). And it’s neat to experience at night with the glowing vegetation.
 
Same issue here, our planned AK day AFoP was not even an option to even try to get a time........But we did have "Circle of Flavors: Harambe at Night " scheduled on the Wed of our trip and was able to get a FP @ 8:30PM, but CoFHaN is scheduled to go till 9PM......We have not been to WDW in 10 years, how long does one stand in line waiting for your turn?
 
We aim for 90 min before park open, there’s some speed walking involved and we’re first or second group in. If Rope dropping, stay to the right on the path to have the closest access once entering the queue. We get off the ride around park open and head to NRJ as a walk on. We don’t try for a second ride but usually see posted 60 to 90 that will likely be less. We always have FP for a second ride later because we plan our days around which days we were able to get FoP FPs. Typically 60+3 or 4.

At night, we aim for 15 min before close, and hope for something like a 45 min actual wait (posted higher). And it’s neat to experience at night with the glowing vegetation.
Agree. For RD, it seems you're having to get there even earlier. It used to be 60 minutes before, now that still gives you a long wait.
Really enjoy riding at the end of the day. Pandora at night is when it really shines.
 
For people who have done rope drop and got right on the ride - what time did you get there? - If it's EMH, and the park opens at 8 - is the recommendation to be in line by 7:00, or would it need to be sooner? (Cause I couldn't get a FP either 60 days out at 7:06AM.) :guilty:

When we were there in May, posted opening time was 8:00 am. I was in front of AK at 6:45, and wasn't alone. We were led in about 7:30 or so, and I'd ridden FoP and Na'vi RJ by about 10-15 min after 8.
 
Agree. For RD, it seems you're having to get there even earlier. It used to be 60 minutes before, now that still gives you a long wait.
Really enjoy riding at the end of the day. Pandora at night is when it really shines.
We've always done the at least 90 min before for Pandora. That's because with 90 min before, we're typically 2nd - 15th in line at the shortest taps, typically AP line. We split up at the taps sometimes in case people in front of us are saving spots, and keep an eye out for last min. opening of initially roped off taps to jump in. There's usually a group of people coming in just between 60-90min. I pass the few people ahead of me at the taps so that I'm 1st at the rope.

A lot of people like to target 60 min, and I get that you wait 30 min. less, and even the first 200 people ahead of you at the bridge by Tiffins doesn't translate into a 30 min extra wait. In fact, given there are 8 riders per row, 6 rows per theater, 4 theaters = 192 riders can be on the attraction at once (if all are running). The actual ride film is about 4.5 min. and the 2 pre-shows take about 10-12 min., but while there's a group on the attraction, the group on deck is in the 2nd pre-show, and the group on double deck is in the 1st, longer show. If you estimate 1.5 min for load and 1.5 min for unload, 8 min. total You'd cycle 1,440 guests per hr. And even bumping that up to 10 min per cycle, that's 1,152 guests per hr., meaning you could get there 60 min early and be the 575th guest on FoP before you start to lose ground on that strategy.

I just like to be 1st. personally rather get up early and not be crammed in with people. And I like having minimal wait times for every ride after FoP (NRJ, Safari, Kali, Everest, Dino), because you're at the front of the pack of people who are mostly going to the same rides, in the same order. So if you're waiting about 30 min on FoP, you're also waiting 15 min more (20 total instead of the walk on) incrementally for NRJ, maybe 20 min more for Safari, and so forth.

The night time entry into FoP seems to vary a ton. We've done it to see the entire queue, since they expedite the queue in the early am to get the initial people through quicker, and to see the glowing luminescence. Few people claim to have only 20-30 min. if you enter just before the line closes at night. I'd be happy with something like 45-60 given the waiting at rope drop, and the ride typically reaches 2-3 hrs during the day.

The same day FPs seem to be more and more frequent as this ride becomes less new. I don't think there's been a trip where we didn't get at least one SDFP between FoP and SDD, but you have to be willing to constantly drain your battery refreshing while in lines - bumping into people... or that's just me.
 
Have ridden it 3 different days on 3 different trips in the past 8 months. For all of them, we got in line 2-3 minutes prior to park close, and waited the following times before getting into the first preshow, 28 minutes, 38 minutes, and 53 minutes. I highly recommend getting in line right before park closing.
 
Have ridden it 3 different days on 3 different trips in the past 8 months. For all of them, we got in line 2-3 minutes prior to park close, and waited the following times before getting into the first preshow, 28 minutes, 38 minutes, and 53 minutes. I highly recommend getting in line right before park closing.
living on the edge with the 2-3 min. before park close! :) not bad wait times. Did you run over from RoL, and did you notice the posted times being much higher than actual each day?
 

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