Pop Century last week report

We arrived around Noon on Monday, and spent the rest of the day at Epcot. We were in the 5000’s building near the pool and it was very convenient to get to Skyliner. Posted wait times seemed overstated. Soarin & Frozen both said 45 minutes but were closer to 25 minutes mid-afternoon. Epcot closed at 10:00, but we left around 9:30. Skyliner was about a 15 minute line by time we were in the air.

Tuesday, we went to Magic Kingdom. Parked opened at 8:00. We were in line for the buses at 6:40, and first buses started around 6:45. We were in the 2nd bus. Park started letting people in around 7:30, and we were able to get 7D, Pan and Big Thunder Mountain completed by 8:15. So a great start to the day. Splash Mountain did not open until after 8:00, and was a pretty consistent 45-60 wait all day, even near closing time.

Wednesday, was Hollywood Studios. We found we had the most bars on our cell phones near the 60’s pool. We had 3 people trying, and a US Cellular service phone beat Verizon to get BG18. We were in line for Skyliner at 7:15, and they started loading passengers around 7:40. We made it to the park before the opened the gates, and they started letting people in around 8:30 for a 9:00 opening. We were able to get both Tower & RnR completed before 9:00. Slinky Dog was a posted 45-60 wait all day, but around 6pm it really only took about 30.

Thursday, was Animal Kingdom. Similar to Magic, it had an 8:00 posted opening. We arrived at bus stop at 6:45, buses started shortly after that, and we were walking in the park by 7:30. We were able to do both FoP and Navi River before 8:00. We then went to Everest and rode it twice with a 5 minute wait both times.

Friday, was Hollywood again. Same approach as above to try to BG. The cell phone on US Cellular was fastest again and we received BG 72. Same as above we arrived at Skyliner at 7:15 and was in the park by 8:30 and again rode Tower and RnR before the official 9:00 opening. One tip we noticed leaving Hollywood was that at closing time, the Skyliner line was very long, wrapped around the corner towards the bus stops. We instead went and got on the bus to Art of Imagination. We were on the first bus and it saved us easily a 30-45 wait for Skyliner.

15 Likes

Great tips! Thanks for sharing your RD strategies!

Great RD tips!! These days it seems even trickier to really plan for that. Your report really helps, thanks!!

1 Like

Thanks for all the great detail! Especially what times parks were actually opening and skyliner info.

Yes, thanks for the report. Very helpful as I will be bus dependent on my next trip.