Just booked second set of FPPs (week of March 14-18). Generally did well with super tight timing for them (even at HS, where we will try to rope drop SDD), but at Animal Kingdom the earliest I could get FOP was 3:00, which leaves a five hour gap between FPPs on a very high crowd day. So if you were me, would you keep your FPP at 3 or would you drop it and take what you can get at 11, aiming to pick-up same-day FPPs (even if not for FOP) at AK or somewhere else? Should I be patient and wait for another window to see if earlier FOP FPPs become available or is that unlikely to happen?
I’m torn as everyone really likes FOP but my girls also really dislike large crowds and hanging around for hours for one ride might be too great a test of everyone’s patience.
So we had a similar dilemma last year - but our FOP was 6 pm. At a drop (the one closer to 1 pm) we were able to get it moved down to 3 pm. I had moved our evening TH reservation time to 4pm to fill that space, which turned out to be a great fit for recharging us after FOP as well - so we ended up staying later than when I thought we’d be done for the day. This meant that we also still had a biggish gap without FP, but we had great luck with watching shows and just enjoying what I think of as the street entertainment across the park.
There is also no guarantee there will be FPPs available at every drop. We looked again at the last drop and none appeared.
I’d never been to AK and loved it, and was sad we didn’t have a second day.
Hang onto that FP. I was on AK on Monday, and found nothing (for a party of one) at the drop times, which happens. Last July, I was able to snag them for a party of three at every drop time, so you just never know.
Could you return to your hotel for a break? Or hit up the shows? Maybe find a quiet spot for snacks and chill time?
I would keep the FPP and book lunch at Saana - it’s a great restaurant and if you look round AKL and the animals will easily fill 2.5 hours in a low crowded environment.
The lines for FOP when we were there last Friday were ridiculously long all day, so keep that FP if you want any chance to ride it. We rope dropped Navi River and used advance FP for Safari and Everest. The shows don’t really need FP (we did dining pkg for Rivers of Light) and we got an extra FP that we used for Dinosaur (giraffe blocked Safari for 30 min). That pretty much covered everything we wanted to do.
I agree with everyone else, do not drop that FPP. I would keep trying to modify it to find an earlier time, but if you cannot just find a show or somewhere to chill in between.
We just did our fastpasses for March 15-19 this morning. Got FOP (for 6 people) at 2:30. We will try for the same day drops to move it up but there is a lot to do in AK without a fastpass (trails, shows) to fill the time if we can’t change it. Just hoping it’s cooler than during our August trip!
Thanks for all the great advice! I’ll hold onto the FPP and watch for a possible drop, day of. Sanaa for lunch is brilliant as I currently have an evening reservation on the Sunday evening after a CG Brunch at lunch, which just feels like too much. Not to mention that I love Sanaa (the bread service is something to behold).
I think we’ll play our day by ear (pardon the pun). We’ll see how things go visiting around the parking, dropping into shows and go from there. Many thanks, again! We are off for our two week adventure in early March. I keep checking the countdown almost hourly to see if the days have somehow become compressed and move quicker…
