FoP at park close - better than at rope drop?

[shack69]

Going at the end of the day holds a risk if the ride goes tech, but they will likley give a FP for another day if it does.
check out this video from a guy who did the line at opening

[bigbear]

If you miss out at 60 days keep trying. I had a load open up at 59 days, in the evening,

[Lillie]

I haven’t been able to get FoP either.
Do you check MDE throughout the day to see if anything becomes available, or would it be a particular time eg midday that more would open up?

[orlandoamber]

We successfully did this at the start of May.

It was an EMH day with the park 'opening' to Disney onsite guests at 8. We got up at 6.45, were on the bus from All Star Music by 7.10 and were through the gates and waiting at the 'first rope' by 7.30. It was not too crowded at this point, but queues started building behind us. They dropped the first rope around 7.40, and took us to the next waiting point (rope), presumably to fit more people through the gates. The first waiting point was the furthest point back from the tree, and the next one was a lot closer to it but still in the same section.

Around 10 minutes later the second rope was also dropped and we were escorted in a pretty orderly, but pushy, manner towards Pandora. Anyone who tried to skip the queue by going past areas which were clearly blocked off got shouted at - not sure if they were stopped.

All in all I think we were around 70-100 people back in the queue by getting there when we did. They started letting us on FOP from around 7.50 and we were off by 8.10 and could enjoy the other 50min of EMH and the rest of our day.


Although it sounds like faff, I would recommend it. It is undoubtedly an amazing ride, and the queues were still at 180 mins on park closing.

If you aren't staying onsite and it's an EMH day, DO NOT even attempt to in effect rope drop at park opening to standard guests. The queue was already at 200 mins by this point. We specifically booked a night in Disney for the EMH and it was well worth it - it made the rest of our day stress free not worrying about FOP or wasting hours in a queue

Hope this helps anyone thinking of doing it!

[elliecjno1]

We were there April into May this year and did both. Rope drop during EMH & non EMH getting there at park opening was approx 45 minutes from joining the queue to being off the ride. At park close we watched ROL & headed straight for FOP once it finished - standby time was showing 180 minutes but I'd read else where its often kept high to put people off - from joining the the queue to being off the ride was approx 30 minutes So ignore the time they show if you're taking that approach.

[bigbear]

Originally Posted by Lillie

I haven’t been able to get FoP either.
Do you check MDE throughout the day to see if anything becomes available, or would it be a particular time eg midday that more would open up?

See more...

I checked throughout the day. On day 59, in the evening, a load of times opened up where there had previously been none. I got another a couple of days later at noon.

[toonmadlad]

Originally Posted by toonarmani

Surprised people are struggling at 60 days out, I booked ours a couple of weeks ago and got all the new rides (FOP, Navi, Slinky, TSMM plus others like 7DMT, Test Track etc) on all days of our stay (including morning slots).

Arrival day we are hitting AK in the evening and can't wait to see Pandora at night 👍🏻

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Maybe its because it’s August, I would imagine if you are staying onsite for a week or so, it would be easier to get FOP at 67,66,65 days out, at 61 days out the FP seem to be rare.

[Lillie]

Originally Posted by bigbear

I checked throughout the day. On day 59, in the evening, a load of times opened up where there had previously been none. I got another a couple of days later at noon.

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Okay dokes thank you, I will try checking at noon - as well as the 50 other times of the day

[prthomas]

Josh had a good article on park close riding of FoP, as he said

First, there are no FastPass+ returners, so the ride’s entire capacity goes to standby. That means as many as 1,400 standby riders will ride over the course of an hour compared to the 300 that would ride during the same length of time earlier in the day.

[MJ6987]

My friend in work did it while people were waiting for Rivers of Light (this was a couple of weeks ago). He queued less than an hour and still got to watch ROL!