What time to arrive for a 8am opening of AK to do FOP Rope Drop

MinnieMom85

Mouseketeer
Joined
Aug 30, 2018
Trying to do Flight of Passage Rope drop on 11/20 which has a regular Animal Kingdom open time of 8 am. We will have 2 strollers with us and will need to do a rider swap. We are staying in Orlando and will have to drive and park. With the small kids though we are pretty early risers. Should we shoot to park by 7 am so we can get the stroller through bag check by 7:15?
 
You could, but you will most likely be behind many other people by then. If it were me, I would get there by 6:45am, maybe even 6:30am. It is the week of Thanksgiving after all. We are actually going to AK on 11/19 for AM EMH. If we decide to do FOP standby at rope drop, then we will get there by 6am.
 
With the park opening at 8, you'd want to shoot for 6:30am especially with strollers and bags to check. For RD, they let people through the maingate into Discovery island a half hour before official opening (so 7:30) but you can't go through bag check before then. you just wait outside the maingate until they start letting people through and checking bags.
 


With the park opening at 8, you'd want to shoot for 6:30am especially with strollers and bags to check. For RD, they let people through the maingate into Discovery island a half hour before official opening (so 7:30) but you can't go through bag check before then. you just wait outside the maingate until they start letting people through and checking bags.

Wait, what time can we go through bag check and ticket scan? Not until about 7:30?
 
Wait, what time can we go through bag check and ticket scan? Not until about 7:30?

Not until they let everyone into the Discovery Island area, which is usually 30 minutes before rope drop time. They might let people through 60 minutes before during busy times, but it really depends on how they decide to manage the crowds and they don't publish the times. Everyone waits outside the ticket scan/bag check area (between the main gate and the ticket booths) until they let people into Discovery Island. Then you wait at the ropes for the lands until "official" rope drop time. For Pandora it's right in front of Tiffins at the bridge.
 
With the park opening at 8, you'd want to shoot for 6:30am especially with strollers and bags to check. For RD, they let people through the maingate into Discovery island a half hour before official opening (so 7:30) but you can't go through bag check before then. you just wait outside the maingate until they start letting people through and checking bags.

I'm curious how recent this was, because every time we have gotten there early for FOP, they had people checking bags really early. Then we lined up at the ticket readers. However, we may have only been when it's AM EMH. We also haven't been since March.
 


Ok, so it sounds like this should be our schedule:

Park 6:30
Get to bag check 6:45
Hopefully by 6:45 they let us through the ticket booths and up to the tapstiles
7:15 enter through tapstiles, line up at Pandora Bridge
7:30 hopefully they open the Pandora Bridge and enter line for FOP
Hopefully get to ride by 8 or 8:30
 
I'm curious how recent this was, because every time we have gotten there early for FOP, they had people checking bags really early. Then we lined up at the ticket readers. However, we may have only been when it's AM EMH. We also haven't been since March.

We were there in September of this year...so two months ago?
 
I'm curious how recent this was, because every time we have gotten there early for FOP, they had people checking bags really early. Then we lined up at the ticket readers. However, we may have only been when it's AM EMH. We also haven't been since March.

From what Im reading on other blogs it looks like we should be able to do bag check before lining up at the ticket booths/tapstiles. This is my hope because we will have a huge delay if everyone can start walking into Discovery Island while we are still doing bag check. With 3 kids and 2 strollers we carry in a lot of gear.
 
Not until they let everyone into the Discovery Island area, which is usually 30 minutes before rope drop time. They might let people through 60 minutes before during busy times, but it really depends on how they decide to manage the crowds and they don't publish the times. Everyone waits outside the ticket scan/bag check area (between the main gate and the ticket booths) until they let people into Discovery Island. Then you wait at the ropes for the lands until "official" rope drop time. For Pandora it's right in front of Tiffins at the bridge.

Just trying to clarify. We want to get through bag check before lining up at the Discovery Island area. I am just hoping we can go ahead and get our bags checked so that when they do open it up at 30 min prior we are already cleared and in line.
 
Ok, so it sounds like this should be our schedule:

Park 6:30
Get to bag check 6:45
Hopefully by 6:45 they let us through the ticket booths and up to the tapstiles
7:15 enter through tapstiles, line up at Pandora Bridge
7:30 hopefully they open the Pandora Bridge and enter line for FOP
Hopefully get to ride by 8 or 8:30

So I might not have explained the layout well, apologies for that.

There's no checkpoint at the ticket booths, the tapstiles (maingate) and the bag checks are together AFTER the ticket booths.

You go past the ticket booths, and they hold everyone at the bag check booths until they start letting people in to Discovery Island. So you can't check bags until they start letting everyone through, then they tap bands/cards/tickets just beyond that. I honestly would leave a little extra time for yourselves and aim to get to the maingate by 6:30, even if you're running a little behind it would put you pretty close to the front. There are people who arrive 2 hrs before RD, specifically to be at the VERY front of the line for Pandora. When we were there in Sept the RD was at 9 and we arrived at 7;45, we still made it on but the crowd had already filled the space between the bag check and ticket booths when we arrived. We also didn't have any kids with us and only one small purse to be checked.
 
From what Im reading on other blogs it looks like we should be able to do bag check before lining up at the ticket booths/tapstiles. This is my hope because we will have a huge delay if everyone can start walking into Discovery Island while we are still doing bag check. With 3 kids and 2 strollers we carry in a lot of gear.

It may just depend. I think next week will be busy. We were there during Spring Break, so it was pretty busy. We will just have to wait and see what they decide. I do remember having to wait at the bag check once at AK, but that may have been before Pandora. I remember getting hosed, because they kept changing out the guy at my bag check and the new guy kept skipping me. DH and DS had gotten into a different line that was faster, so I squeezed my way up to them at the tapstiles. I don't think that would be easy with a stroller though. I don't think you are going to be waiting terribly long anyway as long as you get there early. Good luck! Have a great trip! I can't wait to fly out tomorrow morning!
 
This might help you visualize a little better - and please forgive my awful MS Paint skills. The black circle is the bag check/tapstiles area. It is closed until they let the crowds into Discovery Island, and everyone goes through together.

The red area is the ticket booths, people basically gather between the ticket booths and the bag check until they are let in.

The paths to Discovery Island are after the maingate (between the 1 and 3, and between the aardvark and the ibis)

Hope that helps a bit!

upload_2018-11-14_16-46-17.png
 
Ok, so it sounds like this should be our schedule:

Park 6:30
Get to bag check 6:45
Hopefully by 6:45 they let us through the ticket booths and up to the tapstiles
7:15 enter through tapstiles, line up at Pandora Bridge
7:30 hopefully they open the Pandora Bridge and enter line for FOP
Hopefully get to ride by 8 or 8:30

This looks good.
I'm not sure where the PP is confused, but the bag checks are between the parking lot and the ticket booths, and the turnstiles are beyond the ticket booths. So, yes, you can get through bag checks whenever they open, then line up at the turnstiles. When they start letting people through the turnstiles, they'll lead RD people up towards the entrance to Pandora. They may hold you at one or two spots on the way, depending on how they are managing the flow of people.

This is based on a visit in late September 2018.
 
This might help you visualize a little better - and please forgive my awful MS Paint skills. The black circle is the bag check/tapstiles area. It is closed until they let the crowds into Discovery Island, and everyone goes through together.

The red area is the ticket booths, people basically gather between the ticket booths and the bag check until they are let in.

The paths to Discovery Island are after the maingate (between the 1 and 3, and between the aardvark and the ibis)

Hope that helps a bit!

Hmmm We were there in September as well and dont recall it being set up like this. I dont know that there is even enough space for them to do a bag check between ticket booth and turnstiles.

This looks good.
I'm not sure where the PP is confused, but the bag checks are between the parking lot and the ticket booths, and the turnstiles are beyond the ticket booths. So, yes, you can get through bag checks whenever they open, then line up at the turnstiles. When they start letting people through the turnstiles, they'll lead RD people up towards the entrance to Pandora. They may hold you at one or two spots on the way, depending on how they are managing the flow of people.

This is based on a visit in late September 2018.

Thanks. I just dont want to show up super early with the kids and then loose all hope of riding early because we get stuck at bag check. Our only other option would be to try to use our Seven Dwarfs FP at MK on Monday afternoon and then try to hop over to AK for park close to ride this quickly at 8:30-9pm and then maybe hop back over to MK for fireworks by 10 pm.
 
This might help you visualize a little better - and please forgive my awful MS Paint skills. The black circle is the bag check/tapstiles area. It is closed until they let the crowds into Discovery Island, and everyone goes through together.

The red area is the ticket booths, people basically gather between the ticket booths and the bag check until they are let in.

The paths to Discovery Island are after the maingate (between the 1 and 3, and between the aardvark and the ibis)

Hope that helps a bit!

View attachment 365449

I was there about a week ago, and we definitely didn't do bag check at tap styles. We went through bag check, and then lined up before the tap styles. Once they allowed us to go through the tap styles, it went very quickly because all bags were checked. We did have to go through another round of checking, near the entrance to the left hand path, but that's because it was EMH, and they needed to verify we were on-site guests. After that we were held on the bridge, where CMs were lined up across creating a human rope; we were held there and then they walked us back maintaining themselves as a barrier against anyone rushing ahead of the group.
 
Hmmm We were there in September as well and dont recall it being set up like this. I dont know that there is even enough space for them to do a bag check between ticket booth and turnstiles.



Thanks. I just dont want to show up super early with the kids and then loose all hope of riding early because we get stuck at bag check. Our only other option would be to try to use our Seven Dwarfs FP at MK on Monday afternoon and then try to hop over to AK for park close to ride this quickly at 8:30-9pm and then maybe hop back over to MK for fireworks by 10 pm.

I'd go for RD at AK. Save the parkhopping. Of course, the less stuff you can bring, the easier bag check is, but I'm sure you know that. (oh, I'm so happy I mostly go to WDW with adults and don't need to bring a bunch of stuff!)
Have a good trip!
 

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