Post by drwadadli on Dec 11, 2018 17:12:40 GMT
PART 1:
My wife and I went to WDW in November mainly to do Epcot International Food & Wine Festival but instead of spending all 3 days in Epcot, we decided to spend the middle day in Animal Kingdom. For us, this part has always been a half-day part for us. We would typically go in the morning, get FastPasses for Kilimanjaro Safaris, Expedition Everest - Legend of the Forbidden Mountain, and usually DINOSAUR (because I will like the ride even though it greatly scares my wife). Then we would head to another park for lunch and the rest of the day.
Like I said earlier, we decided to spent the entire day at Animal Kingdom and do things we hadn't experienced in the past at the part. We ended up getting FastPasses for Na'vi River Journey, Kilimanjaro Safaris, and Expedition Everest - Legend of the Forbidden Mountain. There were NO FastPasses available for Avatar Flight of Passage for any time slot throughout the day. I usually don't do "Trip Reports" but I figured I would do one today and include what we learned and how we did it to include Avatar Flight of Passage even though we had do FastPass for it.
As my typical self, I did some research on how to do Avatar Flight of Passage without a FastPass and all the reports I found said that you have to Rope Drop if you don't want to waste the entire day standing in line. We had never done Rope Drop at any of the parks in the past. Usually when we went to Animal Kingdom, we always scheduled out entry for the time when the park just opened, but this time we did Rope Drop.
I found a very detailed video by TouringPlans that showed / talked about how to do Rope Drop and Avatar Flight of Passage. Below is that video:
We were staying at Port Orleans Riverside so the night before, I called Guest Services to see what time the buses started for Animal Kingdom. The CM told me 45 minutes prior to park opening but if you had a breakfast reservation for Tusker House, then there was a bus that run 90 minutes prior to park opening. I mentioned that I didn't have breakfast reservations and he said that if I wanted to get there early and stand in line, just hope one of the earlier buses to Animal Kingdom as the drivers never check to see the guest has a dining reservation or not. That is what we did. The park was opening at 9:00 a.m. the day we were going so we caught the bus at 7:15 a.m. which got us to the park at 7:30 a.m.
We were about 10 people back from the gate when we got there. At about 8:15 - 8:20 a.m., the gates opened and just about EVERYONE was headed to Pandora - The Land of Avatar. We followed the crowd. As the video mentions, there are CM throughout the walk to Pandora that make sure guests aren't running or cutting through the shops to try to get ahead. When we got to the bridge for Pandora, there was another rope that stop guests from proceeding further.
It was funny to watch groups try to get back together. What I mean, one member of their group would walk faster than the rest and get up to the bridge closer than the rest of the group and then the rest of the group would try to squeeze their way through the crowd to get back together. What made it (kinda) funny was watching other guests not allowing people through to catch up with their "leader". One guy held his hand in the air as his party tried to catch to him the entire time we were standing at the bridge. At this point, we were about 10 feet from the rope and right before this rope dropped, we turned around and couldn't see the end of the line.
At about 8:45 a.m., a group of CMs two-rows deep (the first row of CMs were arm-lengths apart and directly behind them were another set of CMs arm-lengths apart but staggered so that the second row of CMs were standing behind where the first row of CMs hands met) slowly walked people to the entrance to Avatar Flight of Passage. This was to make sure no guests squeeze betweenthe CMs or walked faster than the CMs. As the path got narrower, some of the CMs would vere off to stand as barriers along the walkway. The CMs lead the guests all the way up to the entrance of the ride (where it tells you how long the standby wait is and where you scan if you had a FastPass).
Remember that guy I mentioned earlier about his hand in the arm trying to get his party to catch up to him. Well, he walked this entire past with his arm in the air still waiting for his group to catch up to him. Right before he walked through the entrance to the ride, he finally stepped aside waiting for his family or friends.
We ended up walking straight through the queue and had to wait like maybe 10 minutes prior to getting on the ride. I will talk about our opinion of Pandora - The Land of Avatar under that thread. We exited Avatar Flight of Passage at 8:55 a.m. which theoretically 5 minutes prior to the park opening and we had already ridden the most popular ride at this park. Our FastPass for Na'vi River Journey wasn't until 9:15 a.m. so we walked about Pandora and ended up seeing the Pandora Utility Suit and watching Pandora Drummers – Swotu Wayä prior to our FastPass.
I will post more later but I have to run....
My wife and I went to WDW in November mainly to do Epcot International Food & Wine Festival but instead of spending all 3 days in Epcot, we decided to spend the middle day in Animal Kingdom. For us, this part has always been a half-day part for us. We would typically go in the morning, get FastPasses for Kilimanjaro Safaris, Expedition Everest - Legend of the Forbidden Mountain, and usually DINOSAUR (because I will like the ride even though it greatly scares my wife). Then we would head to another park for lunch and the rest of the day.
Like I said earlier, we decided to spent the entire day at Animal Kingdom and do things we hadn't experienced in the past at the part. We ended up getting FastPasses for Na'vi River Journey, Kilimanjaro Safaris, and Expedition Everest - Legend of the Forbidden Mountain. There were NO FastPasses available for Avatar Flight of Passage for any time slot throughout the day. I usually don't do "Trip Reports" but I figured I would do one today and include what we learned and how we did it to include Avatar Flight of Passage even though we had do FastPass for it.
As my typical self, I did some research on how to do Avatar Flight of Passage without a FastPass and all the reports I found said that you have to Rope Drop if you don't want to waste the entire day standing in line. We had never done Rope Drop at any of the parks in the past. Usually when we went to Animal Kingdom, we always scheduled out entry for the time when the park just opened, but this time we did Rope Drop.
I found a very detailed video by TouringPlans that showed / talked about how to do Rope Drop and Avatar Flight of Passage. Below is that video:
We were staying at Port Orleans Riverside so the night before, I called Guest Services to see what time the buses started for Animal Kingdom. The CM told me 45 minutes prior to park opening but if you had a breakfast reservation for Tusker House, then there was a bus that run 90 minutes prior to park opening. I mentioned that I didn't have breakfast reservations and he said that if I wanted to get there early and stand in line, just hope one of the earlier buses to Animal Kingdom as the drivers never check to see the guest has a dining reservation or not. That is what we did. The park was opening at 9:00 a.m. the day we were going so we caught the bus at 7:15 a.m. which got us to the park at 7:30 a.m.
We were about 10 people back from the gate when we got there. At about 8:15 - 8:20 a.m., the gates opened and just about EVERYONE was headed to Pandora - The Land of Avatar. We followed the crowd. As the video mentions, there are CM throughout the walk to Pandora that make sure guests aren't running or cutting through the shops to try to get ahead. When we got to the bridge for Pandora, there was another rope that stop guests from proceeding further.
It was funny to watch groups try to get back together. What I mean, one member of their group would walk faster than the rest and get up to the bridge closer than the rest of the group and then the rest of the group would try to squeeze their way through the crowd to get back together. What made it (kinda) funny was watching other guests not allowing people through to catch up with their "leader". One guy held his hand in the air as his party tried to catch to him the entire time we were standing at the bridge. At this point, we were about 10 feet from the rope and right before this rope dropped, we turned around and couldn't see the end of the line.
At about 8:45 a.m., a group of CMs two-rows deep (the first row of CMs were arm-lengths apart and directly behind them were another set of CMs arm-lengths apart but staggered so that the second row of CMs were standing behind where the first row of CMs hands met) slowly walked people to the entrance to Avatar Flight of Passage. This was to make sure no guests squeeze betweenthe CMs or walked faster than the CMs. As the path got narrower, some of the CMs would vere off to stand as barriers along the walkway. The CMs lead the guests all the way up to the entrance of the ride (where it tells you how long the standby wait is and where you scan if you had a FastPass).
Remember that guy I mentioned earlier about his hand in the arm trying to get his party to catch up to him. Well, he walked this entire past with his arm in the air still waiting for his group to catch up to him. Right before he walked through the entrance to the ride, he finally stepped aside waiting for his family or friends.
We ended up walking straight through the queue and had to wait like maybe 10 minutes prior to getting on the ride. I will talk about our opinion of Pandora - The Land of Avatar under that thread. We exited Avatar Flight of Passage at 8:55 a.m. which theoretically 5 minutes prior to the park opening and we had already ridden the most popular ride at this park. Our FastPass for Na'vi River Journey wasn't until 9:15 a.m. so we walked about Pandora and ended up seeing the Pandora Utility Suit and watching Pandora Drummers – Swotu Wayä prior to our FastPass.
I will post more later but I have to run....
