We’re fortunate to be able to schedule 2 days at Animal Kingdom, this March.
I have a bunch of questions about how to structure our two days.
First, the requirements:
Right now, Day 1 is EMH, with a long midday break. (CL10, at 60+3)
Day 2 is afternoon/evening only. (CL8, at 60+4)
For fastpasses, I hope to get FOP on both of our days. I’d like one evening, one daytime.
I want to ride Everest both days, too. Again, one daytime, one evening.
We’re good with one ride on the Safari. Which leaves 1 more FP to spend.
So, with that in mind, I have a bunch of questions.
When’s the best time to see Na’vi? I expect it’ll be RD of EMH?
If that’s true, and I have FOP FP, what else do I do with my EMH time? This is the biggie question. What we REALLY want to do is far away, or not open that early.
Is it worth going to Dinosaur? DH and DS11 have been, and don’t love it. DD6 and I have not. It seems so far away from everything else. Is there anything else over there anymore? No desire to do the carnival games or Triceratops Spin.
Is it worth getting FP for the shows? Nemo, FotLK, Animation whatever-it-is? For what it’s worth, we’ve seen Nemo and FotLK before. How early do we have to show up to those shows, if we have FP?
I guess, really, I need some help with structure. As I build these plans, I feel like we’re all over the park, both days. Maybe that’ll just be the nature of the plans, but I was hoping to limit our walking a bit, at least.
Thanks for any help! You’d think this would get easier as we go more, but it doesn’t.
If you are going to AK on days #3 & #4 you probably won’t be able to get a FoP FPP. They are more available for people who are scheduling a full week or more to get them on day six of their trip when their 60 day FPP booking window opens. I’m not saying impossible, but unlikely and you should have a back-up plan.
(My back-up plan suggestions - either getting to the main gate for RD 60 - 90 minutes in advance and / or waiting until the last hour of park operations.)
To answer your questions -
#1 - RD is a good time for NRJ if you aren’t going to FoP the overwhelming majority of people in Pandora are running to FoP. As people finish their RD FoP rides they’ll head there next, so you’ll already be done.
#2 - I’d head over to EE. The waits for this will be very reasonable - especially if you do Single Rider on EE. You can get multiple rides in during this time
#3 - I was going to recommend Dinosaur as part of answer #2, but you don’t seems to be interested. I love it, but it can be scary to small children (DD6) There really isn’t much in Dinoland for your kids ages 11 if they don’t want to do any of the rides or games
#4 - Not really - just show up at least 15 minutes early and you’ll be fine. Best part is you’ve got plenty of time to make plans and see how it goes.
Be aware that these CLs are not definite until about 90 days out. (Really until about 45 - 30 days) Right now they are just using historical data for 2018 / 2019. Also, sometimes that far in advance they are just using the historical data from that calendar date and not adjusted for the day of the week.
For example if your trip starts on a Monday, that day was probably a Sat. or Sun. in 2019. So you might see a CL10 because this year that “date” was a weekend. When they update the calendar in 2020 they’ll adjust for that date being on Monday this time.
Basically, start making your plans and seeing what TP suggests is the best plan. However, know that you’ll “real” plan won’t be ready until after you get your FPP booked.
I think you are being overly pessimistic. From my experience and what I have read from others, I think there’s a realistic chance (less than 50/50 but still a legit chance) that the OP could find FOP FP available in the evening of 60+3. And I’d say a pretty good chance (much better than 50/50) for a late morning or later FP for FOP at 60+4. Of course, neither is a guarantee.
We did two days at AK back in February. KRR was closed for refurb as was Rafiki’s. Our first day was PPO Tusker, KS, GFT, FotLK, MJT, EE which was down all afternoon so we rode PW instead, Flame Tree BBQ, Boneyard and FOP (got a mid-afternoon FP on day 62). Second day we arrived around 11, Oasis Trail, Discovery Trail, Creature Comforts, lots of leisurely meandering, pin trading, PW, Dinosaur, Boneyard, Nemo, Yak and Yeti, EE, FOP and Pandora at night to shut down the park.
Two of our kids weren’t tall enough for FOP so they had NRJ FPs both days and I alternated which days the FOP riders rode with a FP or a RS. On their RS FOP days they rode NRJ with their Tier I FP.
Thanks for the suggestions. I’m pretty confident I can get FOP on at least ONE of our days. Agree with @davej that I’ve seen lots of availability at 60+3 and 60+4, looking at the Dibb. It won’t be at 9am, but that’s OK.
@darkmite2 - I didn’t realize that they don’t take the day into account when setting CL… until just a few months out. I’m pretty sure I’m at mostly 10’s the whole week anyway, so that’s what I’m planning for.
So, for EMH morning, it sounds like Navi and then EE would be the best plan?
@DeepInTheHeartofTexas - I forgot about the Boneyard! My kids LOVE the sandbox - yes, even the 11 year old. Maybe we can add that, and make them both do Dinosaur while we’re over there. Pin Trading and WE would also be good to add.
When using “optimize” I think it is also a good idea to set the walking speed to “Very Relaxed”. This will help TP software to work “extra hard” to minimize walking.
Once you have a fairly good ordering of rides, you can change the walking speed back to relaxed or moderate or whatever and re-evaluate (NOT re-optimize) for a more realistic time, but keeping your walking to the minimum.
Oh, I like that trick. I usually use Very Relaxed, but was thinking about moving up to Relaxed this trip, and adding more breaks. DD6 is getting taller and can do small “sprints”.
Our 2 days at AK in December are mapped out like this currently:
Day 1 (11am-5pm): FOP/Navi (RS), lunch at Tiffins, Meet mickey & friends, Up!, Rafiki’s planet watch, Nemo, with option to do TTS & ROL.
Day 2 (8am-2pm): KS, GFT, EE, MJT, Tusker House, FotLK, KRR, FOP, TTS, Boneyard
I think the EMH days are not very helpful honestly. There is not very much open & what is open is quite spread out unless you’re going to Pandora with the masses.
If you keep an eye on the trackers on the Dibb, FPPs come and go on a regular basis. We got FoP on two separate days (for 1420 and 1230) at around 40 days out, it’s just a matter of patience and paying attention. There is an FoP FPP going right now for 20th October for instance!
One to throw into the mix - Primeval Whirl is operating again. I know a lot of people hate it but we have happily added it to our plan.
In terms of an RD plan, assuming an FoP FPP, we are planning on NRJ, D, PW, EE and then in rough order working our way back through Dinoland, DI, Asia, Pandora, RPW, Africa and back via Pandora to an EE re-ride and RoL. Your most critical point is going to be to be there early so you can walk onto NRJ - though most of the crowds will be heading to FoP. Non-Pandora rides should be basically walk ins during EMH, it’s why we have PW between D and EE, it doesn’t affect the EE wait in the slightest.
I’ve gotten FOP at 60 + 3 in the evening, so it can happen (only 2 of us though). But yea that would be the day to do it in the evening, because if you get them for 60 + 3, it will most likely be in the evening
Similar experiences. I got an evening FP to FOP at 60+3 during christmas week (I think 5pm or later was avail for 2 people). I booked within the first 2 minutes of the time slot opening.
There were no FOP FPs at 60+2, and it seemed that they were gone for a couple of days. Then at 57 days every time slot between 8am and 9am and after 6pm showed up at once (I got 8 for 8:05am).
