Hello - We’ve never done AK and have no FOP fastpasses and was thinking the plan below could work with a crowd level projected of 5.
I checked today with a expected crowd level of 4 and the wait times in the afternoon for FOP were almost a hour more than the 90 minutes reflected here.
We don’t mind a 90 minute wait if we can run through most of the items this touring plan has but 2ish hours would be tough and we have no interest running to Pandora at opening.
Do you think the amount of attractions/events are a bit aggressive with 7/8 year old and can a Valentine’s Day FOP line really exceed 2 hours in the afternoon? Appreciate any suggestions!
I understand wanting to avoid Pandora at opening but if you could be there early you could do FOP before park opens and then continue your touring plan as schedule. Or try for same day FP as I can’t imagine standing in line for 2 hours. Then you would have the afternoon for repeats or more exploring. 7 and 8 year old may enjoy wilderness explorer.
90 minutes for FOP in the afternoon sounds on the light side to me. Did you look at what the wait was last year in the afternoon on that day? You can try to modify your River Journey while you are at AK at the times of the same day FP drops for FOP (I don’t know the times of the AK same day FP drops offhand, but you can likely find those times if you search the forum). And even better if you are able to modify the River Journey into FOP before your visit,
Your plan looks good to me for the most part. I assume you wanted to ride EE twice, correct? I would drop Discovery Island Trails. It’s fine for filler, but I don’t think you left enough time for lunch in case there is a line for food so I would allocate that time for additional lunch time or unanticipated extra time in ride lines in the morning (you could always add it back later if you make great time). I also think that you should have in your mind that Triceratops Spin can be eliminate if you are running behind schedule. It’s a less themed version of Dumbo. My 3.5 y/o nephew enjoyed Triceratops Spin, but my 5.5 year old nephew had no interest in riding (he went on Dinosaur while the little guy took a few spins on Triceratops Spin).
They will love the Dino Dig, so if you don’t want them to spend 30 minutes (or 6 hours) digging and running around, I suggest finding it on a map and avoiding it if possible. My daughter was 5 when we went, and she is now 7, and it is one of the only things she remembers from AK, and what she most looks forward to for our April trip. It can easily eat 30-60 minutes. A good place for you to rest, however. My daughter loved Triceratops spin at 5, but she will want to ride (the dreaded) Primeval Whirl this time around.
As for FOP, check for those same-day drop times (11:01, 1:01, 3:01). I didn’t ride it in 2017 and it wasn’t the end of the world, tbh. The line was usually at least 2 hours, all day, and sometimes 3.
Couple things: First, Disney inflates their wait times. So if you saw 2 hours in My Disney Experience, the actual wait time was probably less - typically the wait is somewhere in the range of 50-85% of the posted wait time. So a 2 hour wait in My Disney Experience will likely result in an actual wait time of 60-100 minutes. If on the other hand, you see an “expected” wait time of 120 minutes in the Lines app, then yes, that would be higher.
Second - AK has been acting very strange lately. The crowd levels for AK have been consistently much higher than predicted (whereas the other parks haven’t had this issue as much). It could be that the park is just that much more crowded than it’s ever been. Or, the other possibility is that Disney is messing with their wait times far more than they normally do. @len has posted on it, and the TouringPlans team is doing some experiments to find out. That probably won’t help for your trip in two days though.
I agree with what others have posted - you should either try to RD FoP, or try for one of the day-of FP drops (11:01, 1:01, 3:01). If neither of those work, you need to decide if FoP is worth it to you depending on the ride wait time. Do use the lines app though - I’ve found it’s expected wait time to be far more reliable than Disney’s posted wait time.
@briangal1 - I don’t think 13 attractions in a day is aggressive for a 7/8 year old.
If you can be at the front of the line for FoP when the park opens, then I’d suggest doing that first. If not, follow the plan as-is. As @onceabird says, also check for FastPass+ drops at those times listed.
Thanks for the advice all - may need some more. My 6 year old ended up at urgent care so I had to go solo with my son. After Uber getting lost and our 15 minute ride taking 45, we arrived at 9:15. We managed to get Expedition Everest in 3 times in a row, Safari via FP around lunchtime, some dinoland arcade and playground time and scored one of the same day FoP FP you had pointed out(THANK YOU), we got a 1:40 which was perfect as were on our way home by 3 after trying out primeval whirl and a couple others.
Question time - 2 days later, daughter is feeling better and my wife and daughter have a couple of unused tickets. She wants to go back to Animal Kingdom Monday or Tuesday and do all the rides her brother did. With crowd levels being insane and no Fast passes, I was wondering if there were any tours we could pay up for or if anyone had any experience with the late night vip event I saw they had this Tuesday. Not sure I am prepared to roll in with zero fast passes pre-booked on a super busy day. Thanks!