Hello again everyone. I have a question regarding our RD strategy for AK as that strategy will ultimately effect the rest of my touring plans for the day, depending on what we do at RD. So my question is this: If I have FP+ for FOP should I use RD to knock out some other portions of the park on a Labour Day Monday? It is an EMH day with a crowd level predicted at 4 but I am guessing it will be higher bc of EMH and Labour Day.
Here is some more context. I have 2 DD’s ages 3+5. They are both very big for their age and my oldest DD rode FOP last year at 4 and loved it. My wife who is not into thrill rides rode it and loved it. So we booked 4 FP+ this year and intended to use rider swap for our youngest DD since she is too short. Now my wife is pregnant so we have 4 FP+ and only 2 eligible riders. This means me and my older DD could ride it twice. Only problem is that our FP+ is not until 5:40pm.
What strategy should we use? The way I see it we have a few options and these 2 are appealing to me 1-We could RD FOP and have our whole party queue for the ride and get rider swap, me and DD still get to ride twice and we can cancel our super late FP+ in the hopes we can get more FPs throughout the day(or we can keep it and ride FOP 2 more time). 2- We could just skip FOP at RD and go do something else that our entire party could enjoy(my preference) and just use our FP+ for FOP as scheduled. My big concern is not being able to finish our 3rd FP+ res until 5:45. We typically try to book early FP+ so we can book more throughout the day. I will list my other FP+ selections below so everyone knows what we have.
What should I do? If I skip FOP @ RD what else should I do? What would be a good alternate use of my RD time at AK?
9:15am- Dinosaur FP+
10:30am- Kali River Rapids FP+
5:40pm- Flight Of Passage FP+
We had a similar day in May. Our FOP FPP was at 440 or something so we RD’d Navi walk on, Dinosaur no wait, EEx2 no wait, KS 10 min wait (although it was an 8 am extra EMH where KS didn’t open until 9), got breakfast, and still made the 11 FOTLK show. We showed up for RD maybe 10-15 min before opening. And you get 2x FOP! Depends how many times you want to do the other things if extra FPP are worth it since you have KRR and FOP and can get everything else that needs a FPP done at RD IMO.
I totally agree with @momfourmonkeys advice, Navi first, then other stuff, long lunch and then start using your FPP’s. However, are you hoping to have left AK before 6pm? Given your age group, Navi & Safari are probably the only rides you’ll do together, so I don’t think you’ll need to pick up a 4th FPP.
Not necessarily before 6pm but probably around 6pm. Our FOP FP+ is for 5:40-6:40 and that will probably be our last ride of the day and then leave the park. We have EMM bright and early the next morning so we ware wanting an early night in on our AK day.
I really hope we have a similar day to what you described. I don’t know why but I am stressing about our AK day still and the RD strategy.
Do you happen to remember the crowd level for the day you were able to implement this plan and do this much this early? Do you by any chance remember how long you had to wait for Navi River?
It worked great for us, really According to the historical crowd calendar (I just checked–it was May 15), the CL was an 8. It rained a lot that week and crowds were low in the afternoons but we are talking about RD hours here so I’ll assume the CL is correct. We walked onto Nav’i River–maybe 2 boats loaded before we got on. The line for FOP was out into Pandora when we got there at only a few minutes before official open.
There was basically no wait for either for them. I guess it depends on how many rides on EE you want. DH rode 2x in a row on our morning but that was enough for him. Dinosaur is a longer ride and takes longer to walk thru the queue even if empty.
But, if there is no one waiting - or not enough to fill a car - for Dinosaur, they could (the did in February) give you the option to stay in the car and go again. No guarantees, but the possibility exists.
According to the historical crowd calendar (I just checked–it was May 15), the CL was an 8. It rained a lot that week and crowds were low in the afternoons but we are talking about RD hours here so I’ll assume the CL is correct. We walked onto Nav’i River–maybe 2 boats loaded before we got on. The line for FOP was out into Pandora when we got there at only a few minutes before official open.