I’m sure this has been asked somewhere before it I didn’t see it. How early and how does a family of four line up for RD at AK 9am opening. We have a 1215 FOP so want to do Navi rope drop or don’t bother?
Opinion seems pretty divided on whether it’s worth doing NRJ or not! If you’re doing it, RD is the best time. Most of the people heading for Pandora will be going to FOP, but I’d still be there for 8 personally, though you’ll probably be ok arriving a bit later.
I agree with @missoverexcited. I would be there about 8:00 too. If you RD NRJ, you should be able to get in and out fairly quickly. I think it’s worth seeing at least once. Based on some of the comments, I had low expectations for it, and I was pleasantly surprised.
However, you might also consider hitting FOP first and then doing NRJ. That’s what we did recently on two separate days, and it seemed to work out well. NRJ ended up being about a 20- to 30-minute wait after FOP. Then you could do FOP again later. FOP is worth doing a couple times if you can, IMO.
I’m with the other responses - but I would say to insure your place in the pack a little, I’d shoot for maybe 10 or 15 minutes earlier than 8AM if at all possible.
I had watched all of the AK Pandora reports on chat since it opened until we were there in the beginning of August, plus have continued to watch since then out of curiosity how the waits are playing out over time. It appears they have been fairly consistent since soon after we were there.
For some reason our EMH AK day had a longer wait for FoP that almost everyone else has reported since then. Still wasn’t too bad, but we opted to pass on NRJ because the wait by the time we got to it after FoP was more than we wanted to try. Our experience seems to be the exception to the rule and the NRJ wait is not that bad normally.
So, I can’t give first hand opinion on the NRJ experience, I can say that I’d bet that once you go on FoP you’d wish you had another shot at it.
With that in mind, I’d suggest you get there early as planned, RD FoP and then go to NRJ after. These days people seem to be reporting that using that technique they are on and off of both rides by 15-30 minutes after normal scheduled open. So, if you got there a bit before 8AM for a 9AM open, you can probably expect to be done with those rides by 9:15 or so. And then you’d still have your FPP to ride FoP again later - which is exactly what we did and everyone was glad for it!
I included our experience in my trip report awhile back, and it includes a map with timeline how our wait went. Again, it took us longer on our day than is reported now, but maybe some of the info in there will help you too:
What does everyone think about the after ROL approach for Pandora/river journey and another try at FOP
I wouldn’t press myself to be there an hour ahead of RD for Navi. I might plan to get there 30 mins ahead, knowing the vast majority are heading for FoP. On our RD day, we rode FoP in the first ride of the day, spend some time looking around the shop, and rode Navi with no wait about 20 minutes later.
I’m not quite understanding your question. Can you rephrase?
I think it means ‘what would the waits be like if we went to Pandora to do NRJ and have a second ride on FOP after seeing ROL?’
If I wanted two rides on FoP - and I did 
- I would RD FoP, then ride NRJ with no wait (or minimal wait) right after. I would use my FPP later in the day for another go at it. I don’t think the lines are at all reasonable yet for FoP
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