We have two Animal Kingdom days planned, one RD until mid-afternoon on an EMH morning, and the other a late start where we will stay until ROL. Would you:
(1) Get a fastpass for NRJ one day and FOP the other, and avoid the Pandora rope drop crush altogether? If we did this, we’d head over to EE/Dino/etc. during EMH (based on what others have reported, I expect that we could pretty much knock out all of the rides on that side of the park before the crowds catch up with us).
(2) Get a fastpass for FOP for both days and RD NRJ on the EMH morning? This would give us two rides on FOP with fastpass, and we could also jump in line right before park close on our second day to ride a third time if we want.
Is getting the second ride on FOP worth having to fight the Pandora crowds at rope drop?
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We are doing #1 Day one EMH fast pass for NRJ around 3 then leaving for the day. Day 4 very late day fast pass for ROL then 9:30 fast pass for FOP for DW and DD, fast pass for NRJ for me (I won’t fit on FOP). We wanted to see Pandora at night and they extended closing time for AK to 10:30.
We’re planning two days at AK as well. On our first day, we hope to rope drop NRJ during EMH and fastpass FOP. I’m hoping that we can knock out NRJ quickly and head over to Dinosaur and EE.
On the second day, we are only going for the afternoon and hope to fastpass FOP again.
That would be exactly my plan if we decide to RD NRJ and do the two fastpasses for FOP . . . I just really dislike being packed into crowds so I’m wondering if I wouldn’t rather just avoid Pandora at RD altogether. I know NRJ isn’t anywhere near as bad as FOP, but won’t everyone be all together at least until they let you off the bridge into Pandora?
This will be our first time in Pandora, so I’m just hoping for the best as far as crowds are concerned. I would rather get NRJ done early since there are other things we would like to do in the evening.
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The RD madness heads to FOP. We arrived at exactly RD time–like got off the bus at 755 on an 8:00 EMH morning, walked through security, tapped in, walked to NRJ behind the masses, walked on waiting for maybe 2 boats to load (and we got stuck at the shaman for what seemed like forever) and made it to Dinosaur, EEx2 before KS at 915-930ish. We had mid-afternoon FOP FPP and only 1 AK day. This was mid-May–average CL day. Definitely FPP FOP for both days. We will be trying that for our next trip for sure.
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I got to AK around 8:50 for a 9:00 opening. The mad dash to FOP had already happened. Walked easily to Navi and got right on. Was out of Pandora by 9:05. I’d FP FOP 2x.
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@momfourmonkeys and @JenniferB1975 – that’s music to my ears! When would you say to show up to make sure the running of the FOP bulls has already happened? 5-10 min before RD it sounds like based on what you’ve both said? My DM is coming this trip, and one of the very few things she’s asked for, planning-wise, is two rides on FOP, so I want to FPP FOP both days if at all possible . . . I just also came very close to having a panic attack last time just squeezing along the walkway in Dinoland try to edge past the crowd waiting for the Nemo show, so I know I couldn’t come close to handling the FOP RD crowd.
That sounds good–no more than 15 minutes before. Based on reports here, they let people walk to the bridge to Pandora before actual RD so you should be good by then.
That sounds like it’ll work, then – and get mom her 2 rides on FOP (yay!). Though, it’ll be very strange to have a day on our trip where we’re deliberately trying to arrive right at park open (or 5-10 minutes before) – my liner-trained brain wants to see arriving at 7:50 or 7:55 for an 8am open as running disastrously late! 
Ha! I’ve been having this same debate with myself… “you mean, I NEED to sleep in, and not get there crazy early? I’m not sure I can handle that”
Exactly! For some reason it feels very different from a deliberate late start day where we don’t hit the park until 11/12 (which doesn’t trigger the same “oh no that’s too late!” knee-jerk response).
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