Ride Queues & Timing

I’ve been reading about rides like 7DMT , Peter pan etc and their queues and realizing we’ve never seen them because we always rope drop or have a FPP. My daughter pointed out that when we RD Pooh last time my son who had never ridden it never got a chance to play and I felt bad. Now, I don’t want to be stuck in the queue forever, but would like to take a decent walk through. I was thinking rope dropping one or two things and then hitting these rides OR just not worrying about being in the head of the pack and actually enjoy the opening show? When do they start moving people through the regular queue versus the FPP queue at RD. Any other ideas from those that have done this?

FPP lines sometimes cut out part of a queue, but if you’re going through the regular queue at RD, nothing says you can’t stop to look/play and let others go past you. I do this frequently if I am trying to photograph views from the queue.

In my experience at RD 7DMT used the regular queue. Wish we had stopped to play instead of rushing. PP was regular queue at rope drop as well, but we were behind the RD pack, back when I thought RD meant official park opening time.

Our DD pointed our last trip that she’d never been “allowed” to play in the Pooh play area…we’ve never been on it without Fastpass and it hadn’t occurred to me that she was missing out! So we went in through the standby entrance and let her play for 15 minutes or so before exiting again and using our Fastpasses! :rofl:

We’re planning our first trip, so I can only parrot what others have told me when I asked a similar question. Someone suggested going into the Pooh line to play and then exiting (through the entrance) and said they’d done it before. I was planning to RD Under the Sea and then hit Pooh to allow for a little bit of play time and so I wouldn’t feel too guilty moving him on quickly. I’m also considering it for a 2nd go if the wait time is 20 minutes or under.
I’ve heard PPF builds a line very quickly, so RD one ride first may or may not give you a short wait.

I second @bswan26’s comment above. Still RD to get the shortest wait possible, but take your time and let other’s pass you if you want to stop for a look or play around.

If it’s your first trip I would also recommend building in some extra time on Dumbo - there’s a great play area in the inside queue area where our daughter happily spends half an hour. There’s also a small play area in Epcot at the Mission:SPACE exit which is nice if you want to get out of the sun for a while. You get there through the gift shop entrance to the left of the ride entrance, so there is no need to ride first. The largest play area in Epcot is behind the Mouse Gear store , on your way to Test Track from the main entrance. That one’s outside, but there is some shade for adults to hang out in. In Magic Kingdom there is also a play area in the tunnel under the train tracks by Splash Mountain, to the right of the entrance to the attraction itself. And of course Animal Kingdom has the Boneyard which is brilliant - don’t miss the big sand pit across the bridge. :slight_smile:

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