Our family of 5 is going to WDW for two weeks early April, our first AK day is the second day of our trip - rope dropping EMH. We will keep going as long as feet can last, but equally I don’t want everyone to get over tired, I can see us heading back for a swim and relax at 4pm.
From everything I’ve read we will have no chance of getting a Fast Pass for FOP on this day; I hope we’ll be able to get them later in our stay but it would be great to ride it on our first visit. If I do manage to get a fast pass for much later in the day should I just grab it and hope to modify it to earlier in the day, or is it very unlikely that I’ll manage this, especially for a group of 5?
Would we be better off getting a Navi River FPP for a more suitable time and rope dropping FOP?
If it is a priority to you to get in FoP on your first day at AK, there are several approaches. First, do try to get a FPP, even if it is later in the day. You could try to modify, or you could take a break in the afternoon, and then come back. AKL is VERY nearby – you could go hang out there (which does not help with the swimming, but its an option) and then head back for FoP as your closer. Another option would be to plan for the above, and then be ready to try to get the day-of FoP FPP drops (I forget what times they drop but others here know). ANother option is a variant of the first: I think AK is one of the parks where you actually can chill INSIDE the park by going to Festival of the Lion King and Finding Nemo the Musical: I usually schedule those for right after lunch so we can have time to sit, chat, and re-group. If you had the late FPP, you’d be ready for Round Two of the day after spending time in the shows, perhaps.
There are specific FPP day of drop times for FoP. I think 11:01, 1:01, and 3:01. If you go and keep refreshing (and you have a tier 1 available to modify, haven’t booked a tier 1 yet, or have tapped in to all 3 of your FPs by any of those times), you have a decent shot of getting a FoP FPP. @PrincipalTinker, did I get those times right?
Yes they are right. Also sometimes 5.01. You can modify a tier 2 to get FOP too if you’re still in your first 3 (assuming that you haven’t booked Navi).
Thanks everyone, that’s really helpful, it’s good to know there’s at least a chance of modifying it to earlier! It would be great to have a fpp for fop so we can rope drop Navi but it does sound as though we’re unlikely to get one, particularly as it’s such a busy time of year.
No I wasn’t looking at this but thanks for posting the link, - I love this kind of thing We’re staying onsite which is why we’re going to AK on our second day as we wanted to take advantage of morning EMH as advice has been that early starts are a great way to get lots done. Have also booked brunch at Tusker House that day so not going to switch park days now!
One of the other forums I’m on has lots of talk of it being impossible to get FOP until the 60+3 or 4 mark so I had thought we’d have very little chance at such a busy time of year.
Oh that is good to hear! How big was your group? So if park hours change should I immediately look for more FPPs or are new ones dropped at random times?
I’ve got three FOPs FPPs at 60 days with a family of five for March, which looks about the same busyness as April. I think you’ve got a good chance of getting them, but they’ll be late afternoon or early evening.
The other phenomenon I’ve seen this week (there’s a thread here somewhere) is there appeared to be a 30 day FPP drop on the 1st February, so keep watching that Dibb tool above and if new availability appears get back in and see what you can get. I got a fourth FoP FPP at 31 days this week.
Party of 3 and we will in AK on Saturday of President’s Day weekend. I think the new FP dropped around 11am and the new park times were posted on January 12 for the month of February. Hope this helps!
If FOP FP isn’t available, I would get Navi FP and rd FOP. If you’re early enough in the rd pack, you can probably still ride Navi without too much of a line. Then your FP will be free to modify and try to ride a 2nd time. (You’re going to want to.) Also, I would 100% give up a Navi FP for the SD FOP drop. Even if I’ve already ridden FOP once. There’s no comparison between the two.
Also, for the same day drop, have more than 1 person on their phones so you can try for 2 people FOP instead of all 5 at once.
Thanks everyone for all your tips and words of wisdom!
I’ve just spent an hour or so booking and modifying FPPs - felt like I was waiting to sit an exam this morning, had even arranged my hours so I wasn’t working today!
We got 4 FOP FPs; two were deliberately for the evening (and one of them we may end up having to drop) one mid morning on day 14 and the one I was asking about in this post for day 2 at 6.55pm.
I’ll probably ask for rope drop tips closer to the time in case Disney makes any changes to opening procedures - much as we’d love to ride FOP twice that day those crowds do like somewhat intimidating so we might rope drop NRJ instead and try to modify the FOP FP.
Is there a particular time in advance of the day itself that there’s a chance to modify the FOP FP? Should I check at midday each day or is it just luck of the draw when someone else modifies or cancels the FPs immediately become available?
Same Day FPP drops for FoP are currently:
11.01 1.01 3.01 5.01 as far as my notes tell me.
Get into the app a minute or two before, open up the relevant one you want to modify, and just keep trying to modify by slightly changing the time to refresh what’s available. They seem to be for fastpasses 1-2 hours after the time you get them.
What I was wondering though was whether there are any tricks for when to try and modify it before the day you’re actually in the park? ie go in every day at midday? You mentioned in another post that more FOP fps became available at 30 day mark, do you check at midday for this or could it be any random time?
Or is that only likely if they change the park hours?
Or do people post on chat that they might drop a FP? (I’ve not really looked at chat on the Lines app yet as have never been before.)
We’re staying onsite which is why we’re going to AK on our second day as we wanted to take advantage of morning EMH as advice has been that early starts are a great way to get lots done. Have also booked brunch at Tusker House that day so not going to switch park days now!