FOP-Rope Drop or Closing?

[DisneyStarWisher]

Trying to decide when to do FOP. I wasn't able to get a FP. If I don't rope drop FOP, I can go over to MK to rope drop some rides, then hop over to AK for the evening. If I try to ride at closing, I will have to hurry over to Pandora right after ROL (should end 15 minutes before closing).

ETA: I'm worried about getting sick on the ride due to motion sickness and vertigo issues. I was wanting to do it after ROL anyway, so that it was my last ride of the day and if I got sick, my whole day wouldn't be ruined. But many are telling me closing my eyes will help with that problem. So I'm willing to try in the morning, if it's better to rope drop. But closing would be my preference if it's even possible.

 

[JenniferinFL]

Neither, perhaps.

Rope-dropping it has been a very unpleasant experience the last couple times I attempted. First of all, you really have to arrive at 6:30 or so to be sure you are at the front on a day that AK opens at 9. That means you can't take the disney transportation, but have to either drive or get an uber or lyft. Then, if you have anything holding you back, slow person in your party, stroller or you just aren't aggressive, people will push past you and you will still have an hour wait. Now, an hour wait doesn't sound bad, but, you have to add that extra 2.5 hours early that you were there, making your wait 3.5 hours. Granted, you weren't paying for that park time, but, time isn't free either.

Okay, so I didn't even really mind that I had an hour wait. I was one of the first people there and ended up an hour behind the front in the stampede BUT I was stuck listening to this really aggressive guy complain and threaten people. He kept trying to start physical confrontations and it was over a half hour of that before Disney removed the guy. He had shown up right before the park opened and bullied his way up a lot farther than he should have been and was still threatening people ahead of him. If I'm being honest, that ruined my morning. It made the people around me anxious, it made me anxious and it just really took away from the whole experience. My spouse though doesn't have anxiety and he wouldn't care at all about that sort of interaction. He would forget it 15 minutes later and it wouldn't ruin his day. If you're more like that, maybe ropedropping FOP is your thing.

I passed the ride again around 2 pm and the end of the line was way up in the normal queue, probably less than a 2 hour wait. The better strategy that day would have been to arrive for rope drop and head straight back to the safari, enjoy the Gorilla Falls trail, ride everest, possibly even do the Dinosaur area and then wander back over and wait in the FOP queue later when it was less hectic. In the afternoon, people expect to wait and you get a bit less of that pushing ahead headache that's so unpleasant to deal with. The wait times for FOP are often quite overstated. If you walk up the queue and the line end is near the painted caves, you likely have around or possible less than a 2 hour wait. The queue is themed very nicely too and really pleasant to stand in as far as lines go. My best wait there was around an hour and a half right in the middle of the afternoon. It was raining anyways and I had stopped and gotten an adult beverage first which I put in my travel mug. The people waiting around me had also expected it to be a long wait and I chatted with some other people it turned out I was familiar with from another Disney forum and overall it was just a nice, chill experience.

I can't offer an opinion on the line at closing, I have yet to do that. I've done rope drop and I've caught it again later in the day, I just loop through there a couple times and as soon as the line is up high where I can't see it from the line entrance, I go ahead and line up.

 

[Darcy03231]

We did it Sunday night. Got in line at 9:20 pm with a posted wait time of 75 minutes. Actual wait time was about 50 minutes. I'd do it at closing.

 

[DisneyWishes14]

If you are worried about motion sickness, I would do it at closing. Just be prepared for a long wait. We did it at closing last Thursday after ROL (we had a pass) and the wait time was still posted around 2 1/2 hours.

 

[NH-to-FL]

I'm worried about getting sick on the ride due to motion sickness and vertigo issues. I was wanting to do it after ROL anyway, so that it was my last ride of the day and if I got sick, my whole day wouldn't be ruined. But many are telling me closing my eyes will help with that problem.

Yes, closing your eyes will solve your motion sickness issue. Another trick that worked for me was to focus my eyes on the ride leader. Part of the story of the ride is that you are going to "follow the leader" on your first banshee ride. I found if I focused my attention on the ride leader it helped me anticipate what was going to happen and calmed my visual overload.

If you are anxious about the ride it might be best if you left it to the end of the day.

That said I voted for rope drop just because I am a morning person. If you decide to do rope drop plan to be at the AK 90 minutes before opening. That worked for me a couple of weeks ago. I was finished both FoP and Navi River by 9:17am. Here is my trip report:

https://www.disboards.com/threads/first-visit-to-pandora-8-4-17.3623699/

 

[Cinderella94]

Can you commit to arriving 90 minutes before rope drop? Arriving as the rope is dropping or even 30 minutes before won't help you. If you can't do that, then go at closing.

 

[srauseo]

I rode at closing on Saturday, August 19 and waited around an hour. But that was during late night EMH for onsite guests. We got in line a little after 11pm.

 

[Babe the Blue Ox]

Lines haven been reported to be much shorter at night recently. For example, Touring plans reported a posted wait of 90 minutes with an actual wait of 35 minutes Saturday night at 9 pm. This may be a more efficient use of your time than trying to fight through the morning crowd.

Just keep in mind that the posted wait times are intentionally inflated at night to discourage late riders. It's not uncommon to see posted times that are 4 times the actual wait.

 

[Dr.Mickey]

My caution is that you stated you don't usually do rope drop. We seldom do rope drop, but we have started doing it one day per trip. But, we have never done it with the insanity of Pandora (we usually do MK and head to space first). Honestly, it doesn't look like much fun to my family of late sleepers. And they are serious. If you are not there in line 75-90 minutes before official opening, you have missed your chance all together. One more thought - you are still waiting in line 90 minutes if you rope drop - but you are just doing it at a different time of day and somewhere other than the line queue. That's my two cents (which is worth about a penny).

 

[ShadowBoxer]

I checked out what Babe the Blue Ox said and there are online reports of the line for the ride being shorter at night close to park closing time. I think I am going to do that instead of trying to do a mad rush to the park in the morning with crowds pushing past others etc. I am also staying at an off site hotel right near Disney Springs so no EMH in the morning for me anyway.

 

[Babe the Blue Ox]

Now, an hour wait doesn't sound bad, but, you have to add that extra 2.5 hours early that you were there, making your wait 3.5 hours. Granted, you weren't paying for that park time, but, time isn't free either.

This is an excellent point - "Time isn't free". The guests that line up at 6:30 in the morning most likely won't still be going at 9 pm when the lines gets short.

 

[elaine amj]

Did both on this past trip.

Sunday August 13: We stayed at Hyatt MCO on our first night in Orlando. My DD and I got up at 5:30am to catch the Disney shuttle from the airport to our resort. Shuttle left at 6:30am and we got to Saratoga Springs Resort at 7am. Checked in and grabbed a quick snack for breakfast and hopped on a bus at 7:30am to Animal Kingdom. DD and I got to Animal Kingdom at 7:45am for a 9am open. There was already quite a few people there. We chose the line on the far right and 5 mins later, they opened two additional bag check lines and we hopped over immediately. This strategy meant we were 3rd in line at the tapstile. They finally let us through and we got caught up in the excitement and half walked/half jogged to Pandora. Ended up being among the first 50 people at the rope on the bridge to Pandora and we easily walked on to FoP. We were done FoP by 9am and waited less than 5 minutes for Na'vi River Journey in standby.

Sunday, August 27: My newbie SIL asked to ride FoP again (her only request for a repeat ride haha - she'd already ridden it twice earlier in the trip! Extra cool because she is not too interested in repeat rides in general). We didn't have FPs anymore so I suggested standby at the end of the night. We watched Rivers of Light and meandered over to Pandora. I figured there would be a rush of people there right after RoL ended so I told them to take their time, get some Starbucks, end enter the line between 9:20/9:25pm. They got in line at 9:26pm, the sign said a 90 min wait. Shortly afterwards, a CM told them it was about a 30 min wait. There must have been some technical stuff later because they ended up getting stuck for 15+ mins in the final areas (where you get scanned, etc). They ended up waiting 45 mins.

I would happily do either but for your situation, I would recommend the end of the night

Like everyone says, the effort is WORTH IT! It was my brother and SIL's first ride in WDW (I had FPs for them) and they said it spoilt them for every other WDW ride lol. My father rode it twice and said he would happily ride it 4-5 times. I ended up riding it 4-5 times and it got even more amazing each time.

This and MK's new Happily Ever After Fireworks were our highlights.

 

[cgattis]

Only thing I'd say is do it early in your trip (whichever you choose) in case there are any issues that close the ride. It would suck to wait until closing on the last night, ride shuts down, and you don't get a second chance. I always factor that in for our big must-do's.

 

[TheSouthernBelle]

We were there Sunday 8/13 and we tried rope drop and it was a disaster. The line wait time was 180 min but people waited over 3 hours. The line was so long that it extended almost into Africa and when we left pandora, (got out of the line) a CM had to put up a rope through pandora as guests waiting in FoP line could walk through the walkway (not intended to be a queue. When we came back that night for the later EMH (10pm-12am), we got in line at 10, wait time was posted as 90 min, we waited about an hour. I would recommend rope drop for early EMH only and if you plan to be there between 6:30am-7am. Which to me is insane!! Evening is my recommendation

 

[elaine amj]

We were there Sunday 8/13 and we tried rope drop and it was a disaster. The line wait time was 180 min but people waited over 3 hours. The line was so long that it extended almost into Africa and when we left pandora, (got out of the line) a CM had to put up a rope through pandora as guests waiting in FoP line could walk through the walkway (not intended to be a queue. When we came back that night for the later EMH (10pm-12am), we got in line at 10, wait time was posted as 90 min, we waited about an hour. I would recommend rope drop for early EMH only and if you plan to be there between 6:30am-7am. Which to me is insane!! Evening is my recommendation

We were there for rope drop that same day We were near the front of the pack though, so that made our RD experience very different. I was off the ride by 9am. I remember seeing the CMs roping off that walkway through Pandora to manage the queue later in the morning. Surprised me as I understand that FoP has a giant indoor queue. But the bottleneck effect must have stretched that queue out well into the center of the land.

I do agree - evening would be much less stressful. Especially if you are not into the craziness of the rope drop crowd. Part of my group entered the standby line 5 mins before closing and it was great - just a 45 min wait. It would likely only have been 30 mins but there seemed to have been some technical difficulties near the end.

 

[DisneyStarWisher]

My caution is that you stated you don't usually do rope drop. We seldom do rope drop, but we have started doing it one day per trip. But, we have never done it with the insanity of Pandora (we usually do MK and head to space first). Honestly, it doesn't look like much fun to my family of late sleepers. And they are serious. If you are not there in line 75-90 minutes before official opening, you have missed your chance all together. One more thought - you are still waiting in line 90 minutes if you rope drop - but you are just doing it at a different time of day and somewhere other than the line queue. That's my two cents (which is worth about a penny).

Not sure where you read that I don't rope drop. I actually rope drop everyday that I go into a park. What I had stated is that if I don't rope drop AK, I would rope drop MK.

Did both on this past trip.

Sunday August 13: We stayed at Hyatt MCO on our first night in Orlando. My DD and I got up at 5:30am to catch the Disney shuttle from the airport to our resort. Shuttle left at 6:30am and we got to Saratoga Springs Resort at 7am. Checked in and grabbed a quick snack for breakfast and hopped on a bus at 7:30am to Animal Kingdom. DD and I got to Animal Kingdom at 7:45am for a 9am open. There was already quite a few people there. We chose the line on the far right and 5 mins later, they opened two additional bag check lines and we hopped over immediately. This strategy meant we were 3rd in line at the tapstile. They finally let us through and we got caught up in the excitement and half walked/half jogged to Pandora. Ended up being among the first 50 people at the rope on the bridge to Pandora and we easily walked on to FoP. We were done FoP by 9am and waited less than 5 minutes for Na'vi River Journey in standby.

Sunday, August 27: My newbie SIL asked to ride FoP again (her only request for a repeat ride haha - she'd already ridden it twice earlier in the trip! Extra cool because she is not too interested in repeat rides in general). We didn't have FPs anymore so I suggested standby at the end of the night. We watched Rivers of Light and meandered over to Pandora. I figured there would be a rush of people there right after RoL ended so I told them to take their time, get some Starbucks, end enter the line between 9:20/9:25pm. They got in line at 9:26pm, the sign said a 90 min wait. Shortly afterwards, a CM told them it was about a 30 min wait. There must have been some technical stuff later because they ended up getting stuck for 15+ mins in the final areas (where you get scanned, etc). They ended up waiting 45 mins.

I would happily do either but for your situation, I would recommend the end of the night

Like everyone says, the effort is WORTH IT! It was my brother and SIL's first ride in WDW (I had FPs for them) and they said it spoilt them for every other WDW ride lol. My father rode it twice and said he would happily ride it 4-5 times. I ended up riding it 4-5 times and it got even more amazing each time.

This and MK's new Happily Ever After Fireworks were our highlights.

This is great information! It's good to know that riding at closing is a possibility. I don't mind waiting a while at the end of the night. I'm sure Pandora will be beautiful then. I just hope not to have to wait 2+ hours. But I'm starting to lean toward that as opposed to waiting that long in the morning. It sounds like I can rope drop MK AND get to ride FOP. It's a win-win! Oh and we are doing the HEA dessert party the next night. I can't wait!

 

[ThornXBL]

On Wed 8/23 (9AM park open), my party of 7 did Rope Drop FOP pretty smoothly. Got thru bag check at 7:30am, and waited about 25 people back in the leftmost line near the Tusker House/breakfast reservation entry.
Right before they began letting rope droppers in, they opened up that breakfast line to everyone and we moved over to those tapstiles, and were in very quickly.

We walked quickly (letting runners pass us), and we were still one of the first groups on FOP. By the time we got off the ride, it was only 9:03AM.

 

[Gr8t Fan]

We did both last week, we rope dropped a few times and got in line near park closing. My preference is near park closing. It was super crazy during rope drop with people pushing past us and using elbows to fan out while standing. One evening the wait time said 180 minutes and we waited about 100 because the ride was having technical difficulties. Next time we rode it we waited about 50 minutes when the line said 120. It's a much nicer experience when the sun isn't beating down and people aren't jockeying for position.

 

[Babe the Blue Ox]

I checked yesterday's stats for another example.

At 9:30 am, the posted wait was 210 minutes with an actual wait of 240.

At 9:30 pm, the posted wait was 60 minutes with an actual wait of 30.

 

[DisneyStarWisher]

I checked yesterday's stats for another example.

At 9:30 am, the posted wait was 210 minutes with an actual wait of 240.

At 9:30 pm, the posted wait was 60 minutes with an actual wait of 30.

Awesome!

This is all great information! I really wanted to do FOP at park closing since I was worried about motion sickness, but I was going to ride whatever time I was able to get a FP. Maybe it's a blessing in disguise that I didn't get a FP. If I do decide to go with park closing, I just hope I can get over there in time to get in line. Do they close the line right at park closing? Or is there a chance they won't let me in line even if I get there before closing? I've never tried this before. ROL is at 7:30. Closing is 8:00.