You have a beautiful family! Thanks for sharing your trip with us!
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Good morning, liners!
It’s 6:36 am and we are now waiting for our bus. Don’t you just love to wait 1 hour to get to a ride, so that you don’t have to wait 1 hour in line for a ride?
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This is the BW bust stop at 6:32 am: packed with fresh air!
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It took us 10 min to walk from the Dolphin to the Boardwalk bus stop. It’s beautiful in the morning.
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The bus showed up at 6:44 am!!! Right when I finished my good morning post. We didn’t wait at all! And we have the bus to ourselves!
Note: masks are required in the bus, and although I brought a bunch, I forgot them in the room. Masks were provided to us, no problem.
The bus driver was very nice.
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You never told us why the 45 minutes wait but it seems that it was a technical issue?
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I was too tired yesterday and didn’t want to type too much
But yeah, well, first: I didn’t know that after you get to Oga’s, there is still a wait so I didn’t check in until I was at the door (my first mistake). They told me it would be about a 30 min wait 
I also thought the CM would scan something and check me in, but they said, no, you do it yourself on the app.
Then when I checked in on the app, I thought I was done, but there was a 3rd page about accessibility that I should have clicked and didn’t. So the “check in” was never finished and they marked us as”no show” (2nd mistake)
After 40 min I went to ask how much longer and found out what happened.
They were very nice and had us sit asap. So we waited only another 5 min.
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Not really a technical issue, but a lack of technical knowledge on my part 
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Stampede at 7:21 am (my least favorite part of RD AK)
Online dictionary:
Stampede: (/stæmˈpiːd/) is a situation in which a group of people or large animals such as horses suddenly start running in the same direction, especially because they are excited or frightened or a situation in which a lot of people are trying to do or achieve the same thing at the same time.
Very fitting for “Animal Kingdom” isn’t it?
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Good work on the morning bus plan – and thanks for posting the time it arrived – that helps so much in planning!
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Having had the experience of no stampede in April, I especially hated the return of the stampedes during our trip. But I guess “rubbin is racin”.
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Hiding from the heat and the crowd. It’s wild out there. I’m secretly hoping for 10 min of pouring rain to get an empty park afterwards (selfish, I know)
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That looks lovely! How did you get an outside seat? Luck of the draw? Or there at opening?
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Luck of the draw.
We showed up to Nomad lounge 5 min before it opened and put our name on the wait list hoping for any seat.
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If you’re there when it opens you’ll have your choice whether to be seated indoor or outdoors. On my last two visits I arrived 20 to 30 minutes before they opened and I had my pick up tables as well as indoors or outdoors. So I could have the very table that I wanted. When I was there the one time before that with @FOMOm_VA I had about a 90 minute wait and was able to state my preference for indoors outdoors or first available when I put my name on the list
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My pleasure! Someone in the Lines app posted a Google doc with bus times. I will make sure to enter my times as well.
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Can you link that spreadsheet here?! That sounds super helpful.
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Review of our day @ AK (7/10) (part I)
All day there from rope drop to park close
Rope drop FOP:
- 6:21am: left the Dolphin lobby
Yikes, that’s early! Family cooperated and we got out of the room on time, thankfully. It helped that they all really love the AK and were excited to ride FOP and Everest (DD11) or see the animals (DD8)
- 6:32: arrived at the bus stop, as planned
Asked a CM at the BW the day prior and they said first bus arrives 1 hour prior to park open.
- 6:44am: the first bus at arrived the BW
- 6: 59 am: dropped off at the entrance of AK
- 7:25 am: tapstiles open
That’s the part when my family gets behind because we don’t run and we can’t walk as fast. DD8 stopped couple of time along the way to the bridge “mom, look, I see a bird” that kind of thing. We still got to the bridge and seemed to be in a good position. We were held on this bridge, packed like sardines, shoulder to shoulder
- 7: 35 am: We are walked to FOP and got to the entrance of at 7:45 am. We were out of the ride at 7:55 am.
There was massive crowd that showed up for RD, far larger (based on my impression) than the crowd to SDD at DHS. The line kept moved continuously . At some point we were attacked by a squirrel 
(not really, but the squirrel jumped from one side of the path to another and scared us to death lol)
Morning Rides
- 7:45 am FOP, 10 min wait:
When we went to FOP in 2020, DD (7 at the time) freaked out right after the pre show and didn’t want to ride anymore. She stayed with the CM waiting for us. This time, she said she wanted to go and was excited about, but when passed the pre show, she got scared again and didn’t want to ride. We were a little disappointed because we were all looking forward to have her ride for the first time.
I think it’s when the CM says “you will be restrained and the floor will be moving” she gets scared and doesn’t want to go. She was a bit upset afterwards, didn’t want to talk about this, announced that she plans to never ride FOP. 
Anyone’s kids here scared of FOP?
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Posted time when we entered FOP was already 60 min at 7:45. When we left the ride at 8 am we heard the CM shout to people entering the line “wait is 3 hours!!! Or 180 min if that makes you feel better”
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- 8:00-10:00 : Rode Everest 2x, Dinosaur 2x and Kali 2x with minimal wait (5 -10 min)
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The best thing about getting to AK for RD is that Pandora retains all of the initial crowd for the first few hours, so you essentially have the park to yourself during that time. So worth it!!!
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As I was leaving Everest, DD11 goes “Did you see the flashing Yeti in the dark?” “I have never seen it, I always close my eyes” She goes…” what? Mom, you have to ride again, and this time you keep your eyes open!” We rode it again, and I made a great effort to keep my eyes open to see the flashing Yeti. Here is proof
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The queue to Kali river rapids is so beautiful. Easier to appreciate it when it’s empty
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Dinosaur: DD11 was genuinely scared; I was just being dramatic
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That’s a great idea! I will try to find it in the chat
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