Best strategy for Test Track, Soarin, and Frozen in one day?

[Babe the Blue Ox]

ya . .I was a bit shocked at the length of line that early. We didn't "rush" to it . .and we spent a few precious minutes figuring out who would go and who would stay .. so maybe if we "bolted" there, we could have maybe had a 30 minute or less wait (which still feels long for rope drop).

It's just a slow loader, that is pretty popular (because .. well there really is only one other "good" ride in the entire park (or two others, if you count Frozen). Throw in the awful tiering system and you basically encourage the entire rope drop crowd to beeline towards either Soarin' or Test Track. Ratatouille and GoG should help that a bit. hopefully the Tiering system will be dropped altogether after they open or Test Track and/or Frozen will drop from Tier 1.


Just don't have a lot of luck with Test Track. last time I tried to RD it (march 2017), it was broken down and we had to catch it an hour or so later (and again .. a 45-60 minute wait). We almost missed our Soarin' FP window because of it.

Next time, I'd probably FP test track (though frankly, it just isn't that great of a "do again" attraction in my opinion (like Soarin or Frozen (for kids). I really didn't mind missing it while waiting with my daughter (we spent the time heading over to the old Wonders of Life pavilion to get our AP magnet).

We try to avoid rope drop, it's just too crowded and unpredictable for our taste. I prefer a plan that allows for multiple rerides on the headliners with minimal wait and without having to get up early.

I agree on Test Track, it's a one-and-done for us too. We liked the original version and would hit it several times each visit. Interestingly enough, Soarin is now the opposite. We didn't care to much for the original but really like the new version. Frozen is nice if you have a FP or can wait until later in the evening.

 

[tlmadden73]

We try to avoid rope drop, it's just too crowded and unpredictable for our taste. I prefer a plan that allows for multiple rerides on the headliners with minimal wait and without having to get up early.

I agree on Test Track, it's a one-and-done for us too. We liked the original version and would hit it several times each visit. Interestingly enough, Soarin is now the opposite. We didn't care to much for the original but really like the new version. Frozen is nice if you have a FP or can wait until later in the evening.

Agreed . .the "rope drop" secret is out and if I had older kids, I would probably avoid it in favor of the evenings.
My philosophy is "go where the people ain't" ..and it seems more people are willing to get up super early (even doing things like PPO breakfasts or EMM).

I had a train tour at MK. I was there at 6:45 (on an EMM morning). I was shocked how many people were there that early waiting for security to open. (though everyone was there for a tour, a breakfast or EMM).

While it isn't hard getting to the parks before 9:00, the mob getting through security and ticketing and then just waiting for rope drop isn't fun. We then found that the lines for those "high demand" attractions were so long that it was actually better to avoid them. While tons of people were waiting in the SDD line (that snaked out past "Walt Disney presents"!), we walked on TSM and could have done it twice in a row had we wanted.

Heck, on our last trip we opted to do a morning at MK, but even though it was an EMH morning, we were in no rush to get to the park (because we had fast passes on the 3 attractions we wanted to do) - so after we packed the car, checked out of our hotel, we took the bus to MK at got there at 9:30 AM. Easy in .. and it wasn't that crowded (as the crowds had dispersed, but a lot of the late comers hadn't shown up yet) (until about 10:30 - 11:00). We had 3 fast passes for the morning in Tomorrowland and we had a fun, relaxing morning doing quite a few attractions there (including several runs of Buzz for my son) before grabbing lunch at Casey's and heading out.

 

[Lisa F]

Agreed . .the "rope drop" secret is out and if I had older kids, I would probably avoid it in favor of the evenings.
My philosophy is "go where the people ain't" ..and it seems more people are willing to get up super early (even doing things like PPO breakfasts or EMM).

I had a train tour at MK. I was there at 6:45 (on an EMM morning). I was shocked how many people were there that early waiting for security to open. (though everyone was there for a tour, a breakfast or EMM).

While it isn't hard getting to the parks before 9:00, the mob getting through security and ticketing and then just waiting for rope drop isn't fun. We then found that the lines for those "high demand" attractions were so long that it was actually better to avoid them. While tons of people were waiting in the SDD line (that snaked out past "Walt Disney presents"!), we walked on TSM and could have done it twice in a row had we wanted.

Heck, on our last trip we opted to do a morning at MK, but even though it was an EMH morning, we were in no rush to get to the park (because we had fast passes on the 3 attractions we wanted to do) - so after we packed the car, checked out of our hotel, we took the bus to MK at got there at 9:30 AM. Easy in .. and it wasn't that crowded (as the crowds had dispersed, but a lot of the late comers hadn't shown up yet) (until about 10:30 - 11:00). We had 3 fast passes for the morning in Tomorrowland and we had a fun, relaxing morning doing quite a few attractions there (including several runs of Buzz for my son) before grabbing lunch at Casey's and heading out.

Actually RD is fantastic if you go where everyone isn't in the park.

My favorite RD strategy for MK is to go to frontierland and you can get two of the 3 mountains done in less than 45 minutes. We stayed on splash and then did BTMRR 2x and were done in an hour. Then I hit adventureland and you can pretty much get half the park done before ever unloading a single fastpass - then i fastpass Space (which I prefer to do after dark if I can, I LOVE tomorrowland after dark) and 7DMT and peter pan (which will be closed on my next trip so I grabbed HM instead). If you go where the people aren't, it's lovely. I would never RD 7DMT.

Ditto for Epcot, Soarin' is the least popular I think of the 3 Tier 1's (although the best of all 3 I think) and it is really easy to RD over there. You can probably even ride it a couple of times before lines get too crazy. I like to RD Soarin' and FP+ the land because it gets a tier 2 out of the way to free up looking for tier 1's later. My FAVORITE though is the 8am garden grill PPO breakfast which we love to do anyway, and which puts you right there without being in the fray of the crowds.

We loved doing dinoland first upon RD at AK - a great strategy is to go there first then hit Everest which will still have minimal waits the first hour or two of park opening. Then FP+ things like safari and FoP.

I don't know about HS, not much to draw me there right now early in the AM - we'll be doing EMM for Toy story land and another evening there with FPs and that's it.

I am not a fan of RD where everyone else is going but done right with an early riser kid, it is the best part of the day.

 

[tlmadden73]

Actually RD is fantastic if you go where everyone isn't in the park.

We loved doing dinoland first upon RD at AK - a great strategy is to go there first then hit Everest which will still have minimal waits the first hour or two of park opening. Then FP+ things like safari and FoP.

Good point .. definitely go where everyone isn't.

We RD'd AK by going to Dinoland -- unfortunately I didn't realize the Boneyard wasn't open until 10 and Dinosaur broke down .. so wasn't much for us to do there.

But it is a good strategy ... IF you can get a FP for FOP.

I wonder how many people who are RDing things like Test Track, Soaring, SDD, or FOP are ones who simply cannot get FPs for it (because they are offsite).

 

[iujen94]

My vote is rope drop TT, FP FEA, and book your FPs relatively early so you can book Soarin as a 4th FP. It’s pretty easy to get as a 4th.