Help me finalize ALL the details

Okay Liner Team.

I’m at the two week mark (ish) and need help with a bunch of nitty gritty details. Help a girl out.

  1. For bus transportation, we should be at the bus stop 90 minutes before published park opening, right?

  2. For Animal Kingdom day, family of four (me, DH, DD5, and DS2), we all want to do Navi together, I definitely want to do FoP (never done!!) and DH and DD5 may or may not want to do. We will not do Dinosaur or EE (boooo). Should we start with Navi and then do FoP. Or do FoP first (presuming we will be in the park 45 minutes pre opening)? TP suggests NRJ and says only a 10 minute wait for FoP if we do it second. But I’d love your opinions.

  3. We have a split stay - one night at Kidani, then the rest at Beach Club - and we’ll have a car. We check into BC on our AK day. Since the kids will likely need a break midday, should we take the bus to AK, then come back to Kidani for midday pool/break, then drive to AK if we want to do early evening touring and head to BC from there? (Seems like bus is better for rope drop versus just driving in the am?!)

  4. Walking to Hollywood Studios from BC - it’s about 20-25 minutes? (With a relatively slow pace.)

  5. Sounds like most folks are lukewarm on the worth the wait for Gideon’s at DS. Should we bother? (Particularly if we have toddlers in tow.) Since we have a car, we could theoretically stop by the other location on our way to the resort (and I believe they have pre-order).

  6. We have a post-close Oga’s reservation one night (the same night we have Homecomin’ dinner ADR). I presume we have to tap back into the park prior to park close? If our dinner runs long, will they let us in if we have an ADR at Oga’s if we get there right at official park close or a little after? (ADR at Oga’s is 8:20 on an 8:00 park close day.)

  7. Departure day we have a 7:30am Topolino’s breakfast. I didn’t even stop to think that the skyliner might not be running yet. HS opens at 9am that day. I suspect we’ll have to drive over there?

Thanks, all!!

Speaking to #2
I think if you go to NRJ first, the line will be much longer than 10 minutes for FOP when you’re done. When we were just there, they didn’t start running NRJ until official park open. I would say, go to FOP first, but if you do rider switch … the line for NRJ could be long by the time you both get thru. Others might be able to speak to that. DD18 and I were at the bus stop (at Kidani) at 6:36 and in the park at 7:06 and 12th party in line (I can’t type that enough - LOL) for FoP. When we got off, we hopped over to the line for NRJ and had to wait a few minutes for the line to start moving into the official queue at 8:00. Once it started moving, it kept moving until we boarded. Very quick. You could also have one person do FoP in the AM and another in evening at park close?

#3
I think the bus is better for RD, but if you want to hang out at Kidani (not just the pool - be sure to check out the animals too - I love that place) it would probably make sense to drive back to AK for the evening hours. You just won’t have a room. Will you need one for that mid-day break or will the pool suffice?

#7
Just drive to the Riviera for Topolino’s since you have a car. If you want the experience of riding the skyliner, do that another time.

2 Likes

Have they changed rider switch so you somehow have to do the switch immediately? I haven’t done it in a couple of years, but we always had some time to use it so I would suggest FoP for the first shift, then wait to use the rider switch until after everyone does Navi together.

3 Likes

I haven’t done rider switch since 2012! :rofl: So I didn’t know if that was possible or not.

So it used to be you’d get a physical return ticket for the waiter that looked like a paper Fastpass, and it had an expiration on it that was usually that day but was sometimes longer. Now they scan the waiters’ magic bands or ticket, and it shows up as a Fastpass in MDE. You get an hour or two to use it, but I’ve shown up late and it was fine because they don’t expect the waiter and the small kids to just sit there, and they know you may be in a line for something else.

I asked this question recently and was told that you don’t by someone who was there this year. So you can have the first party ride FoP, then do NRJ, then have the second party ride FoP. The caveat is that any individual can only have one RS pass at a time.

2 Likes

I am unsure why you think the bus is a better option than driving. I would definitely consider driving to AK from Kidani if I had a car.

I would ride FOP first, then everyone ride Navi, then do the second ride of FOP for the rider switch.

I’ve heard they hold cars at the parking gates so people getting in by bus get there earlier.

Have you done FOP or a similar VR ride in the past. If not, be wary of the potential side effects and consider riding later in the day so that you don’t walk around feeling bad all day long…

We’ve learned just to do the non-drowsy Dramamine to prevent any issues. Or at least carry some of the chewables to rectify it.

1 Like

Hmm, I have not heard of this. Is this a recent thing? I had family there in January and they were able to get in before official opening.

You get in before scheduled opening, but there are anecdotal reports of the WDW resort buses getting in just a few minutes earlier. All around 45-60 min before scheduled opening.

We asked about the opposite direction for a potential Trattoria ADR and were told they’ll fire it up and run you over on the Skyliner even though it’s not “time” yet if you have a reservation. Check with the attendants and you might be able to save yourself the hassle.

2 Likes

In this case, I would probably still drive. A couple minutes does not seem like a huge deal in this situation.

  1. Yes
  2. A couple of weeks ago, we arrived right at rope drop 7:15ish (first bus left at 6:40) and most of us did FOP right away. A couple of my group did not want to ride and meant to ride NRJ instead. But, it wasn’t open until closer to 8 so they ended up anchoring the front of the line and were still there at podium at line entrance when we got off FOP. So we joined them and were first on NRJ too! I would aim for this scenario after getting rider swap set up, then do the second ride after NRJ.

3.Sounds like a good plan.
4. Yes
5. I haven’t been willing to brave DS much since Covid, but I really like your alternate on-the-way plan. Can’t wait to try Gideon’s someday!
6. See answer to 5. I would bet you have to tap in before park close. I’m sure you have thought about moving Homecomin to another night…I’d much rather enjoy the short end of night lines in HS and head to Oga’s than deal with crowds in DS and have to rush back. But then I’ve never been to Homecomin either so don’t know what I’d be missing!
7. I would plan on driving. Would be so nice if they expanded Skyliner hours for guests to get between resorts rather than only based on park hours. We got stranded at Riviera after missing Skyliner close by a few minutes and had to Uber back.
8. Have a great time!!!

2 Likes

We arrived by early bus and were definitely in the park well before car folks.

3 Likes