I am currently making my plan for Epcot for this Saturday. CL is a 5. I have FP for TT at 9:20, SE 10:20 and Journey into Imagination at 11:25.
I was planning on arriving by 8? Then riding FEA and Soarin (in that order) before my first FP. TP is saying to do Soarin then Living with the Land, then TT and putting FEA after that?
I have been checking wait times periodically and it seems that FEA always builds much faster than Soarin. I am conflicted.
The way the plans work is by making the total wait time for the day the shortest. That doesn’t always translate to the shortest wait time possible for every ride. So it could be that by riding FEA first, every other wait is longer and it means the total wait for the day is longer - it could be only a minute.
You could copy your plan and see how it plays out if you do it your way.
It is likely that the total time saved by following the TP outweighs the increase in wait time for FEA, even if the wait time for FEA as an individual ride is longer.
I would try putting the rides in the order that you want and evaluate. If the total wait times aren’t much worse, I would go with the order that looks best to you. I have always found that the touring plan estimates are most accurate in the morning. Quite often the afternoon times are a bit optimistic in my experience. They’re still good for planning, but I find they are more likely to be off as the day goes on.
Did you set it to minimize walking? FEA to Soarin’ to TT is a lot of back and forth.
Just my 2 cents, if you are able to get on TT at 9:20, you should be done and over to FEA by 9:40/9:45 and the line shouldn’t be over 20 mins on a 5 CL day -we had the same experience in late May on a 6 CL - went to TT right after riding Soarin; at park opening, but of course TT was down, so we went to FEA and we waited 5 mins in line at around 9:00 AM (this was also on an extra magic hours starting at 8 that morning so that may have helped us a little)
Alright we will do Soarin, TT and then FEA. I am going to trust the TP and all you folks!
Yep otherwise too much walking. Soar in and FEA about a mile apart
Either way will work out ok. You can play around with the Touring Plans settings to “minimize waiting” or “minimize walking” to see if the results change any. I’m usually ok with extra walking if it means less time standing in line, but if I’m traveling with folks who don’t move as fast or get worn down quickly with too much walking, then saving a few minutes isn’t worth all the extra running around.
With Frozen, if you’re close to the front of the pack at RD and walk relatively quickly (so not many other guests pass you on the way), then you can ride with close to no wait at RD. Crowds do build, but after that first wave of guests from the morning rides, then there’s a little break before the attraction gets really busy. For a while (and maybe this is still the case), the attraction didn’t distribute any FPP until 11am, so the standby line would move pretty quickly, even when it appeared to be pretty long (since only folks with anytime FPP from a previous day would use the FPP line).
Soarin also isn’t near as busy as it used to be, since the third theater opened and with a lost of people choosing FEA for their Tier 1 FPP. For now, if you make RD, then most days you can ride all three headliner attractions even without FPP without waiting too long. Just hope that they’re all running at RD, since that’s the only thing that’ll mess up your Epcot morning.
That’s why we decided on TT for our FP as it usually breaks down 