Flight of Passage in Mid May

Hi all!

This is my first post. My boyfriend and I plan on rope dropping Flight of Passage in mid May. This trip was just planned a couple weeks ago, so no chance of getting fastpasses, which is okay. Most of the trip reports, etc. I can find about rope dropping Flight of Passage are from when the ride was relatively new. Of course it’s still going to be super super busy, but I’m wondering if anyone has an idea of what it will be like when we’re actually there? Are they still letting people through the turnstiles early? We’ll be there May 20th, when there’s an EMH opening at 8. Are we safe getting there a little after 7? How do you think the EMH will affect things?

Thanks everyone!

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I haven’t been yet but we are rope dropping FOP. I saw someone post it’ll still take 90 minutes from line, ride, and exit. I asked a Disney podcast if that’s accurate and they said be there early enough to make sure you are at the front of the rope drop and we will be fine. I can’t do 90 minutes because I have a FP scheduled that wouldn’t work with. We plan to be there no later than 7:45 for a 9am opening. I rather wait in the cool or day than the heat!

I hear you, I just can’t bear to think of being there at 6:45 for an 8 am opening. We’re down to wake up early, but that’s rough. BUT if people think being there at 7 for an 8 am EMH opening isn’t going to get us towards the front of the pack, that would also be hard to swallow and we might just have to suck it up.

Hopefully others will respond so those that have done it can tell us how it went!

I am going to be there just before you for my first trip, so I do not have any info for you but here is what @ChooseJoy wrote in a recent trip report:

Day Three (3/7): AK, DS, EP

Today I woke up uber-early to be at AK pre-RD for FOP. Because I usually stay off-site and have zero luck with FOP Fast-Passes at 30 days out, I’m used to the drill of arriving at AK very, very early in order to try to beat the crowds.

Maybe she will be kind enough to expand on her experience.

Brian from TP has a great FOP rope drop vlog on you tube. It is from over a year ago but it’s thorough and I made my entire family watch it for our upcoming summer trip.
I think there’s some info that FP’s drop at certain times of day too, for FOP I believe it’s 1101, 1301, 1501 and 1701.

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Just did this yesterday. Arrived at park at 7 on the dot. We didn’t have bags, so avoided bag check. There were about 25 people ahead of us at tapstile. They started letting people in at 7:30. A couple of people had problems tapping in( including my son) which cost us time, but line moved quick and we were on and off by 8:10.

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Thank you! This is exactly the kind of feedback I was looking for. What was the crowd level yesterday?

You should try FP4Me.com

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I’d love to help but I’ve actually never RD-ed FOP during EMH since I almost always stay offsite. As an offsite guest attending on a non-EMH day with a 9am opening, I usually try to be there at about 7:30 (no later than 7:45) and am usually exiting the ride shortly after 9am. From what I have read from onsite-ers, arriving more like 60 minutes before opening on an EMH day seems sufficient to put you near the front of the pack, but I’ve never actually done it myself.

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Hi @MayaMarlette - can you clarify if you will be attending EMH? If you are NOT (or can not if staying offsite) attending EMH, then your experience will be different from that crowd as they will be filling up the rope drop queue while you are stuck at the front of the park behind even the EMH stragglers.

Fp4me. It has found me several FOP. We also got one at a FP drop time at AK.

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That is absolutely worth trying. I wouldn’t count on finding a FP, though. I’ve had a search up since March 23 for a FOP FP for my early May trip, and I have yet to see anything.

I went to Animal Kingdom about 4 months ago. It was not an extra magic hour day, so the park was opening at 9. It was in January so it was not a traditionally “busy” time to visit as it was also after the marathon week. I got in line at 7:30 for a 9am opening because I wanted to make sure I was in the front of the front. I was successful in that I was the third person to go through the turnstile. The HUGE problem: everyone…I mean EVERYONE went running. Cast members were shouting for people to stop running, but nobody listened. I did the fast walk thing, as I am big on safety and following the rules. By the time I got to the bridge leading to Pandora, I went from being the third one in the park to having a mob of people in front of me…by the time they lowered the rope to let people into Pandora, the line was AT the bridge and I went from being in a crowd of people, to being in an organized line…without moving a step forward. So yeah…I feel like if you are at the front of the rope drop crowd it works, but as long as people are running when they are not supposed to, they tend to get ahead of you before you can get to the rope to get into Pandora. Maybe things are different on a.m extra magic hours, but that is what I experienced on a regular park opening day. sigh

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That is awful!! If I were a CM, I’d likely meant to kick all the runners out :rofl: so how long did it take you to get on the ride and done from the start of the bridge point when you were in the line?

Well in the end they had let people into the park about 8:30 for a 9am opening but just opened Pandora up and not the rest of the park. Smart move as it got people out of that area and more spread out by 9! I was at the bridge in the line at 8:32am and left the ride at 9:41am. So…it was not horrible compared to some of the stories I have heard and I was still able to get on a few rides while the wait times were still low…but it was just a shame that because people had to become the wildebeests from “Lion King” that it had to work out that way. :joy:

This is exactly why we aren’t doing RD for FoP. DD10 does okay with crowds but once it gets wall to wall she freaks. Do you know how far towards Everest they let ppl before RD by chance?

In their defense it was the marathon weekend :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

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Hahaha true! I guess they were still in the mood to run!
From my recollection, they opened up the front turnstile at 8:30but there were ropes up at the entrance to each of the lands: Dino, Asia, and Africa with all the ropes being at the bridges. The Asia area had people waiting just past Eight Spoon on the bridge. While Pandora opened early, the other lands did not drop the rope until right at 9. That might not be the way it always is, but that was my experience four months ago.
Lesson: The next marathon should be in AK since they have been warming up there anyway…and then maybe they should swing by Epcot!

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Yes, we’re planning on using the EMH as we’ll be staying at Movies.