Has anyone actually tried this yet? I have seen several other posts about people wanting to try it and why it may or may not work but has anyone actually tried this? We have an early ADR at Akershus (810), we plan to be there as early as they will let us in, hoping we can be one of the first in, right at 800. We would like to see some of the princesses of course, but will not be heart broken if we need to miss 1 or 2 in order to be out of restaurant by 845ish. I would like to beet the RD crowd to FEA so we can save the FPP for Soarin. We want to experience the attraction, but are not that interested in meeting A&E.
Furthermoreā¦if the FEA plan works out, and we are done with ride by 910, I plan to bee line back to TT stby before that gets too long as well. Thoughts? Iām thinking (hoping) that with FEA and the new Soarin movie, they will take most of the RD crowd and TT will still be ārelativelyā empty.
Thank you for any advise and/or experience!
I am trying to figure out our Epcot FPP strategy as well, like you these are our must-dos at that park, which we are spending one day at (without an early ADR).
I have been told that the recommendation is FPP for FEA because it is still having occasional ātemporarily closedā issues because it is newā¦and if that happens you will receive an anytime FPP. During the random times I have checked it seems the waits have been manageable for Soarinā and TT compared to FEA.
What is the date of your Epcot visit?
Hi! We actually did this last Friday with an 815 ADR. We made it to FEA at 850 and were done by 910. We had a wait when we lined up at Akershus and the bottleneck seemed to be a photo with Belle. Once I realized that, I asked if we could skip that and we were seated immediately. We asked our waiter to bring the check right away, and we paid that when he brought our drinks. We ate quickly and didnāt visit any princesses or get up for the princess parade. My kids are not into princesses at all, but it was still not the most relaxing meal (esp at TS meal prices), and we still didnāt make it out by 840 as I had planned. 850 was good for missing all but the fastest of rope droppers, though!
This seems like an expensive and risky proposition. You have 50 minutes to eat before official park opening (35 in reality), and many things can slow you down. If you are not at the very front of the line, reports Iāve read are you are going to be in for a big olā wait for FEA, and that puts the rest of you plan at risk. Yesterday was a 1 at EPCOT. At 9:20, Test Trackās posted wait time was 30 minutes. At 9:41, it was 45 minutes, and rising. At 9:43, it was an hour.
Planning for everything to go just right seems like a recipe for disappointment. I think FP+ for FEA if you can get it, and rope dropping TT or Soarinā is a more certain plan. If you only have one day at EPCOT, you will either have to give up one or ride one standby (maybe near the end of the night for a shorter wait, but then you might miss Illuminations).
We have an ADR for 5 Dec. When I booked the trip the crowd level was a 1, it has since jumped up to a 5 for that day. Not sure what caused the huge change, but all parks for the entire week we are going jumped significantly all of a sudden. Thank you for the info.
Thank you or the insight. We will certainly bypass the photo and ask for the check as soon as possible. We are on the DDP so I am not worried about cost, just getting a decent Bfast, the opportunity to walk through a fairly empty park, and āhopefullyā an advantage at FEA. Soarin is much more of a MUST DO for our family so the FPP for Soarin is more important than FEA. If there are any technical difficulties, we will head straight to TT and save the FPP for Soarin later on.
I have a question. This is probably frowned upon at best but I canāt find anything on it on the Internet. Could someone just use an 830 reservation for a 0900 park opening day and just show up at the restaurant but not eat and just use it to get in the FEA line?
You would pay the $10/person no-show fee at the very least, I think.
If you only have 1 day in Epcot then a pre rope drop ADR at Akershus or Garden Grill is a good way to go. We have more than 1 day so I donāt want to rush Akershus and we are doing lunch there instead.
Thatās a good point. But past that, I canāt think of any other reason why it wouldnāt be possible.