RD Waits for FEA, NRJ, TSMM in TP - Accuracy?

Walt Disney World
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Heading to WDW in mid-November, wondering if my personalized touring plans don’t account for arriving early for RD. All plans were built with a relaxed walking pace. We may walk faster than relaxed, but I wanted to build in a general level of conservatism. If I change the walking speed to average, it reduces walking time by about 20%. But I’m mostly concerned about the wait times TP is coming up with. Also, I’ve never done EMH before. I’ve generally avoided EMH parks, because I don’t have a park hopper, but I’ve read with lowish crowds, they are worth a try. (Anyway, no going back on them now, I’ve booked my FP+s and I’m locked in!) Here are details on times I’m seeing:

EP (Thurs, Nov 14, CL 3, 8/9a-9p) Arriving at IG entrance on an EMH morning, planning to get there at 7:45, TP says I’ll get to Frozen at 8:21, waiting 9 minutes, riding for 5, and then a 25 min to walk to Soarin, arriving at Soarin at 9:00. So, the entire EMH will boil down to a single attraction?! Seems like we should be able to get more done in that first hour.

AK (Mon, Nov 18, CL 4, 8/9a-9p) Another 7:45 arrival for morning EMH. TP says I’ll get to Navi at 8:13, wait 20 minutes, ride for 5, walk 17 to Dinosaur, arriving at 8:55. Again, an entire EMH for 1 extra attraction?! I was at AK in April 2018, did RD on a non-EMH and we walked right on to NRJ and were off of it by 8:20, so I’m puzzled about a 20 minute wait RDing on an EMH morning.

HS (Tues, Nov 19, CL 6, 9a-9p) Maybe an 8:30 arrival for a regular, non-EMH morning. TP says I’ll get to TSMM at 9:12 and be facing a 70 minute wait?! In April 2018, we RD’d HS and went straight to TSMM, and I think we waited 20-30 minutes… this was when FP+ wasn’t available for the ride due to construction and they were down to a single track! And now with SWGE open (and SDD, and triple capacity due to TSMM tracks, I figured the TSMM RD waits would be much less than I’m seeing.

I would love some input/thoughts! I’m sure I’m over thinking this… the reality is the wait will be what it will be. But obviously as a member of this community, I have a strong desire to know to the minute what my day will look like!!!

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The general advice is to not trust the wait times for the first attraction of your plan if you plan to RD. TP assumes you will be in the back of the RD pack with lots of people ahead of you.
EP: the wait time for frozen first thing seems right, it can also be a bit less than that. The walk between frozen and soarin seems very very overestimated to me. 25 minutes maybe if you’re walking on your knees (it’s less than 0.5 miles). More like 10-15 minutes, depending on your walking speed.

AK: never RD na’vi but i’ve always read that if you arrive just before official park opening the wait is usually very very short. Here i think TP assumes you will enter the park at 8, but more likely you will be already in front of the attraction if you arrive 10-15 mins early. And again, 17 minutes between na’vi and dinosaur seems too much to me.

HS: almost everyone will RD slinky or galaxy edge, so 70 minutes for TSMM seems very unlikely if you RD it.

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To me, the walk time from Frozen to Soarin is in line with the walk time from the entrance to FEA, so maybe it’s a combination of the speed set in the TP and the fact that they will be walking against the flow.

Remember all the walls up at Epcot - you may find you’re funnelled into a particular route.

For example, just now if you’re coming from the Canada pavilion to the monorail after Illuminations, everyone is funnelled along the widened Rose Walkway and then through the breezeway in Innoventions West.

For AK, again the walk from Pandora to Dinoland will be against the flow, and you may even have to go out via Harambe first. And by then they may be allowing non-EMH guests to gather, which will impede people trying to cross over.

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Awesome, thanks for the feedback! Yeah, i guess it makes sense that TP can’t account for where in the RD pack you will be, since it can vary greatly.

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We’ll be there RDing AK that morning with you! Our TP has us arriving at NRJ at 8:10 with a 20 min wait, then wandering to KS an 8:44 arrival and 15 minute wait. See ya there! So excited :grin:

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TP tip that usually lowers your arrival time at your first attraction and lowers estimated wait time. Use this if you plan to RD.

Add a QS restaurant as stop #1 for 1 min. See if that helps. For AK… Use satu’li canteen doing this has me arriving at FOP at 8:03 on an 8:00 open.

The others… Find the closest one to your RD target.

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Or just use a 1 min break at opening.

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Great tips! Now, any thoughts on my arrival times? Will an 8:30 arrival for TSMM be sufficient?