We were at WDW President's Week Feb 14-21 - we had two lucky breaks that we estimate saved us at least an hour -
First, on our Epcot day (Sunday 2/15) - we arrived 20-30 minutes before opening. There were CMs at the middle 4-6 turnstiles - the others were unmanned. I am always watching for new lines to open up - at turnstiles, at check outs, etc. Anyway, I got this feeling that the CMs milling around were going to end up at the turnstiles on the outer edges. So I got in line at the outermost line near empty turnstiles and kept my eyes open - I even said outloud several times to anyone who was around "I think they are going to open some other lines" - just to be fair so that others could move too, but no one was paying attention - so I watched this one CM and when she moved towards a turnstile, so did I and we ended up being the first family to go in that line - it meant that we were the front of the next rope nearest Soarin' and we had no problem riding and then getting FP. That was our plan all along, but I wasn't going to break my neck - my DH was so impressed!
Second, on our Studios day, we arrived 20-30 minutes before opening but all of the turnstiles already had fairly long lines - it surely would have taken 15-20 minutes for all of the families ahead of us to get through - so we just settled in and watched people do preliminary auditions for AI, which was fun. A waitress from 50's PTC came up and down our line asking if anyone was there for an early ADR - she had a clipboard, but no one from the line was there for breakfast. Anyway, she came up to us and said "come with me" - and took our tickets, put them through the turnstile and said "head on in, go wait outside of the 50s PTC" - so off we went, feeling a little sneaky - but we hadn't even asked for it! When we rounded the corner, the next CMs we saw assumed we had just come from breakfast and set us at the rope facing the Sorcerer's Hat where we had a great view of the characters coming out to greet everyone - we were in a great position to be led (ahead of all of those other people we had been behind) to TSM (our first time!) We were the 4th family on TSM!
First, on our Epcot day (Sunday 2/15) - we arrived 20-30 minutes before opening. There were CMs at the middle 4-6 turnstiles - the others were unmanned. I am always watching for new lines to open up - at turnstiles, at check outs, etc. Anyway, I got this feeling that the CMs milling around were going to end up at the turnstiles on the outer edges. So I got in line at the outermost line near empty turnstiles and kept my eyes open - I even said outloud several times to anyone who was around "I think they are going to open some other lines" - just to be fair so that others could move too, but no one was paying attention - so I watched this one CM and when she moved towards a turnstile, so did I and we ended up being the first family to go in that line - it meant that we were the front of the next rope nearest Soarin' and we had no problem riding and then getting FP. That was our plan all along, but I wasn't going to break my neck - my DH was so impressed!
Second, on our Studios day, we arrived 20-30 minutes before opening but all of the turnstiles already had fairly long lines - it surely would have taken 15-20 minutes for all of the families ahead of us to get through - so we just settled in and watched people do preliminary auditions for AI, which was fun. A waitress from 50's PTC came up and down our line asking if anyone was there for an early ADR - she had a clipboard, but no one from the line was there for breakfast. Anyway, she came up to us and said "come with me" - and took our tickets, put them through the turnstile and said "head on in, go wait outside of the 50s PTC" - so off we went, feeling a little sneaky - but we hadn't even asked for it! When we rounded the corner, the next CMs we saw assumed we had just come from breakfast and set us at the rope facing the Sorcerer's Hat where we had a great view of the characters coming out to greet everyone - we were in a great position to be led (ahead of all of those other people we had been behind) to TSM (our first time!) We were the 4th family on TSM!
