Pandora without fastpasses

[Cortezcapt (Derek) 156]

We will be at the Fort September 14-17 we have not been to AK since Pandora opened. We will be traveling with friends who may check in on Thursday the 14th or Friday the 15th they want to go AK and may 3 or 4 day tickets if there's an chance of riding the 2 rides without overly long waits. Looks like there will be extra magic hours on Saturday, I'm wondering if anyone has any thoughts on the likely hood of getting to ride both rides first thing in the morning with no fastpasses ( tried to book some but they are not available). Which of the 2 rides should we do first? Should we get there early for magic hour rope drop? Would it be best to just wait till we can find fastpasses at a later date?

[weekender 5]

We were there in June this year shortly after the ride opened and we were able to ride Flight of Passage 2 times and the River Journey 1 time all without fast passes.  There will be some waiting, but compared to the potential wait times we felt that we did very well. 

We did go on a morning with early Magic Hours (7 am) and arrived about 45 minutes prior to opening.  Disney staged this very methodically once they opened.  First they opened the security checkpoint about 20 minutes early so the crowd could start flowing through.  Then everyone had to wait at the ticket scanners until about 10 minutes prior to opening to allow on property guest and non property guest to be split.  You will want to stay to the left side of the path upon entering the park.  They will then check your Magic Bands to confirm on property guest.  Once through that you will be queued on the path with cast members at the top of the path.  Once the time comes they will "walk" everyone back to Pandora, but honestly it becomes a fast walk event.  Our group was slower so we got behind a fair amount of the crowd. 

You need to do Flight of Passage first since it will be the longest wait and does not get any shorter for the most part throughout the day.  We waited about 35 minutes to ride it in the morning.  Awesome ride by the way and you need to experience it at least once.  When we finished Flight of Passage we went straight to the River Journey and waited about another 40 minutes or so.  At that point it was about 8:15 or 8:30 so we had the rest of the day to enjoy all of AK.  We watched the wait times throughout the day and they hovered around 3 hours for Flight of Passage and about 90 + minutes for River Journey. 

I did say we rode Flight of Passage 2 times.  We did this upon returning to the park after dinner and went straight to Pandora.  The wait time was at 90 minutes so we decided what the heck.  It was not too bad to wait as once you are inside there are some neat things to see in the queue that we missed the first time we rode.  In the end we ended up waiting only about 75 minutes to ride the second time.  We felt very lucky to have ridden 2 times and not have waited 4+ hours. 

Know that it can be done, but there will be some waiting, but it is worth it.  Trust me!  Good luck.

[h2odivers...Ray 952]

I agree with with Weekender. We were there opening weekend and it was nuts. We did have FPs for both so we didn't have to wait.   I would go to rope drop. But not necessarily on an extra morning hours day.   It's been my experience that the park that has the EMHs is more packed in the morning.   But I would hit rope drop on a regular day.  And head straight to Flight of Passage.   And then immediately to rivers. 

but they're great rides and worth the wait. 

But not 3-4+ hours.  Those were the wait times opening week. 

[Cortezcapt (Derek) 156]

1 hour ago, weekender said:

We were there in June this year shortly after the ride opened and we were able to ride Flight of Passage 2 times and the River Journey 1 time all without fast passes.  There will be some waiting, but compared to the potential wait times we felt that we did very well. 

We did go on a morning with early Magic Hours (7 am) and arrived about 45 minutes prior to opening.  Disney staged this very methodically once they opened.  First they opened the security checkpoint about 20 minutes early so the crowd could start flowing through.  Then everyone had to wait at the ticket scanners until about 10 minutes prior to opening to allow on property guest and non property guest to be split.  You will want to stay to the left side of the path upon entering the park.  They will then check your Magic Bands to confirm on property guest.  Once through that you will be queued on the path with cast members at the top of the path.  Once the time comes they will "walk" everyone back to Pandora, but honestly it becomes a fast walk event.  Our group was slower so we got behind a fair amount of the crowd. 

You need to do Flight of Passage first since it will be the longest wait and does not get any shorter for the most part throughout the day.  We waited about 35 minutes to ride it in the morning.  Awesome ride by the way and you need to experience it at least once.  When we finished Flight of Passage we went straight to the River Journey and waited about another 40 minutes or so.  At that point it was about 8:15 or 8:30 so we had the rest of the day to enjoy all of AK.  We watched the wait times throughout the day and they hovered around 3 hours for Flight of Passage and about 90 + minutes for River Journey. 

I did say we rode Flight of Passage 2 times.  We did this upon returning to the park after dinner and went straight to Pandora.  The wait time was at 90 minutes so we decided what the heck.  It was not too bad to wait as once you are inside there are some neat things to see in the queue that we missed the first time we rode.  In the end we ended up waiting only about 75 minutes to ride the second time.  We felt very lucky to have ridden 2 times and not have waited 4+ hours. 

Know that it can be done, but there will be some waiting, but it is worth it.  Trust me!  Good luck.

Thanks, great to know it can be done. I have never done a rope drop before or morning magic hours I'm more of a night person but figured that rope drop with magic hours would be the best chance of getting on both rides with minimum wait times.

45 minutes ago, h2odivers...Ray said:

I agree with with Weekender. We were there opening weekend and it was nuts. We did have FPs for both so we didn't have to wait.   I would go to rope drop. But not necessarily on an extra morning hours day.   It's been my experience that the park that has the EMHs is more packed in the morning.   But I would hit rope drop on a regular day.  And head straight to Flight of Passage.   And then immediately to rivers. 

but they're great rides and worth the wait. 

But not 3-4+ hours.  Those were the wait times opening week. 

Unfortunately unless the other part of our group comes up on Thursday (which still may happen) Saturday would be the only day we can or would want to do AK. 

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

I wouldn't rely on reports of what happened at Pandora on opening weekend or during the summer as a guide for what to do in September.

Things have changed substantially in that there are currently no more evening EMH's going on at Pandora.  Also, the early morning EMH's have been cut back.

Josh at EasyWDW just posted a pretty detailed article about how these changes may impact things: http://www.easywdw.com/easy/blog/animal-kingdom-wait-times-in-a-post-pandora-emh-world/

This article discusses his recent rope drop experience there: http://www.easywdw.com/easy/blog/animal-kingdom-pandora-rope-drop-with-9am-open-72517/

TCD

[Cortezcapt (Derek) 156]

On 8/24/2017 at 9:42 AM, Tri-Circle-D said:

I wouldn't rely on reports of what happened at Pandora on opening weekend or during the summer as a guide for what to do in September.

Things have changed substantially in that there are currently no more evening EMH's going on at Pandora.  Also, the early morning EMH's have been cut back.

Josh at EasyWDW just posted a pretty detailed article about how these changes may impact things: http://www.easywdw.com/easy/blog/animal-kingdom-wait-times-in-a-post-pandora-emh-world/

This article discusses his recent rope drop experience there: http://www.easywdw.com/easy/blog/animal-kingdom-pandora-rope-drop-with-9am-open-72517/

TCD

Thanks I hadn't seen those 2 yet. 

[Specularius 102]

FastPasses are almost impossible to get. I was only able to get FP's for the day we check out and that was trying to get them at the 60 day mark first thing in the morning. By 9 am there were none available. What is the trick to getting them? Make a dummy reservation for 30 days at a value resort, make the FP's and then dump the value resort reservation 30 days out?

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

6 minutes ago, Specularius said:

FastPasses are almost impossible to get. I was only able to get FP's for the day we check out and that was trying to get them at the 60 day mark first thing in the morning. By 9 am there were none available. What is the trick to getting them? Make a dummy reservation for 30 days at a value resort, make the FP's and then dump the value resort reservation 30 days out?

1.  Believe it or not, same day FP's for FOP and NRJ have been popping up.  Usually it's only one at a time,  but they are not impossible to get.  My daughters and their friends have been snagging them all summer.

2. You don't need to make a fake 30 day reservation. Only 10 days.  Resort guests get 60 days plus 10 days in to their reservation.  If you want to do it, it works.

TCD

[h2odivers...Ray 952]

12 minutes ago, Specularius said:

FastPasses are almost impossible to get. I was only able to get FP's for the day we check out and that was trying to get them at the 60 day mark first thing in the morning. By 9 am there were none available. What is the trick to getting them? Make a dummy reservation for 30 days at a value resort, make the FP's and then dump the value resort reservation 30 days out?

It's 60 days plus 10 days for resort guests. 

[h2odivers...Ray 952]

TCD  beat me to it. I was busy sending you a PM 

[Specularius 102]

So the trick is to make a dummy reservation for 10 days prior to my intended arrival date to cover my actual dates? Not 30 days?

 

yep that's it. I'm not proud of it but I've used that trick once or twice.  

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

5 minutes ago, Specularius said:

So the trick is to make a dummy reservation for 10 days prior to my intended arrival date to cover my actual dates? Not 30 days?

I believe that's how it's done.

TCD