Animal Kingdom - 8 am rope drop

Hello, i will be at animal kingdom on thursday march 8. Crowd level is 5 and park opens at 8

I have a fastpass for FOP at 8:15-9:15.

My question is : Does the park open before 8 ? if so, will FOP start operating earlier also ? and what about Navi river ?

I am wondering what is the best strategy ? Would i be able to ride FOP doing normal line, followed by navi river with normal line and then FOP with fastpass before 9:15 ?

If not, i guess i should just head straight to navi river followed by FP for FOP,

@sbonnevi Have you seen Brian’s video? It is for a 9:00 AM opening, but I would guess the same would hold true for an 8:00 AM opening. Seems like it might be possible if you are close to the front of the line when they start letting people in. If experiencing FoP twice (it is amazing) is more important to you than seeing Navi (which I didn’t think was a big deal) you could try it and forget seeing Navi if you run short on time. Here is the link:

1 Like

For an 0800 rope drop we arrived at 0650 on our day. We were second through security and only 5-6 back from taps. We were in the first group of 50 to ride FOP that day. We were definitely walked to Pandora well before 0800, and we rode BOTH FOP and NRJ by 0820. Getting there early is the best way to do FOP without FPP (or as a first ride with FPP for a 2nd ride later on).

@poohfanclub you seem to say that fop is far better than Navy?
I realize that getting to the park early is the best, but i am wondering if i want to be part of the opening frenzy! I am not sure i want to be there at 6:50…
i think i will try to get there for 7:15 and go with the flow. If the line at FOP is not too bad, i will do that and experience the stand by lane, and if it is insane, then i will try navy river.

It really depends on what you like. If you love Soarin’ at Epcot, and you don’t have major problems with dizziness or equilibrium, then you will find FoP to be thrilling! I can’t ride attractions that spin in a circle, but I was fine with FoP. Navi River Journey is relaxing and pretty, but it kind of reminds us of Pirates of the Caribbean at MK (slow moving boat ride), only prettier with more visual effects. (I will tell you though, the whole Pandora experience will be much more meaningful to you if you have actually watched the movie.) It’s great that you got FP’s for FoP. Enjoy!

If I was in your situation I would get there as early as I thought reasonable and head straight for navi whilst nearly everyone else heads for FOP.

As it’s still a nice ride to do and will mean you walk out and can go straight to FOP for your fastpass

I’ve got there early for FOP on an EMH day as a Hotel guest and still queued for 1hr 20 mins plus

Everybody gets there early and so I would just take advantage of the vast majority going to FOP and get Navi off your ticklist

I think you’ve done well to get that fastpass at that time as well. You can have done both Pandora rides so early

Unless you really want to get there really early forget FOP first thing without the fastpass

Although you will definitely want to ride it again. If you get the chance

1 Like