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

[Scubee]

Agree that there are several ways. Because we prefer to ride as a family of 5, we rope drop TT, head straight to Soarin', and FP FEA. This past Saturday, we were coming off the Soarin' at 9:50 with a 10:30 FP for FEA.

 

[Trinity88]

I must just have bad luck doing RD for TT. I've always had an hour wait even right at RD (once we even waited an hour and it went down - we did get FPs given to us then) . So my advice is RD Soarin, then go to Frozen, then FP TT. I won't do TT without a FP anymore.

 

[DavidNYC]

I agree with those who say lots of different ways are fine. Key is you need to rope drop something and then I'd do the 2nd right after when standby waits will still be very reasonable. Then FP the 3rd for whenever you want. I've found Soarin (especially at non-peak times) is also not a difficult FP to get as an add'l as well (although last trip over Jersey Week weekend we somehow had a TT FP for 6 people pop up at 12:30 for 1pm!)

 

[HopperFan]

I was thinking Rope Drop Soarin, go to Frozen then FP Test track at 11:00.

What kind of waits should I expect for Soarin and Frozen. It will be the 4th week of January.

End of January? If so you should be able to FP+ all of them. Last few trips we (3) have been able to get FP+ for every single option in Epcot day of. Last trip I woke up and spun the wheel and FEA popped up. While heading to park I booked two more right after. We rode, moved some backwards and in the end we had anything we wanted available.

 

[Scubee]

End of January? If so you should be able to FP+ all of them. Last few trips we (3) have been able to get FP+ for every single option in Epcot day of. Last trip I woke up and spun the wheel and FEA popped up. While heading to park I booked two more right after. We rode, moved some backwards and in the end we had anything we wanted available.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but can't you only pick one tier 1 FP and you have to use the other two before you could possible pick up a 4th and 5th FP for the other tier 1 attractions?

 

[HopperFan]

End of January? If so you should be able to FP+ all of them. Last few trips we (3) have been able to get FP+ for every single option in Epcot day of. Last trip I woke up and spun the wheel and FEA popped up. While heading to park I booked two more right after. We rode, moved some backwards and in the end we had anything we wanted available.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but can't you only pick one tier 1 FP and you have to use the other two before you could possible pick up a 4th and 5th FP for the other tier 1 attractions?

Yes. I book a tier 1 and 2 others - like Living with Land, Imagination and Nemo for proximity and ability to shift times. Once we do one we start trying to back up time on next and repeat. The second tier ones are easier to move. We have at times completed the first three in our first 1-2 hours in park. Then as soon as we use #3 we start to roll #4. We have no issues at Epcot getting every single one including Illuminations .. and this has been multiple trips in the last year.

 

[Cloudless Nights]

Rope Drop Soarin', Single Rider Test Track, and Fast Pass Frozen

This is what we usually do, and it works well.

 

[qman6975]

Rope Drop Soarin', Single Rider Test Track, and Fast Pass Frozen

Agreed

 

[BridgetBordeaux]

The good news is that it should not be hard to do all three early in the morning with or without a FP as long as you are there for rope drop!

 

[5DisneyNuts]

Just wanted to point out that if you single-rider TT I think you will miss the car design. A lot of people don't mind this, but my party enjoys creating the cars.

 

[Beano15]

Just wanted to point out that if you single-rider TT I think you will miss the car design. A lot of people don't mind this, but my party enjoys creating the cars.

There are design stations in the single rider queue, and you can use the ones at the exit of the ride.

 

[5DisneyNuts]

There are design stations in the single rider queue, and you can use the ones at the exit of the ride.

Thanks! Just to be clear, you design the car after the ride? So your car doesn't come up on the board while you are in the car?

 

[Beano15]

Thanks! Just to be clear, you design the car after the ride? So your car doesn't come up on the board while you are in the car?

Nope, you can design prior to your ride at either location. Your latest design will stay on your account until you design a new one. I only designed one car last time and used it on multiple rides.

 

[tlmadden73]

I did this on a Sunday (last Sunday of Food/Wine) just a week or two ago. A decently crowded day.

We did RD Test Track, FP - Frozen, Standby Soarin'.

1) Rope Drop Test track. We were under Spaceship Earth waiting for the rope to drop but we didn't aggressively rush/run for Test Track (small children), but we went there first right after they let people in the park and my family still waited for maybe 45+ minutes. I waited with the 2 yo. They were done near 10:00 am. It just felt like it took a really long time despite being there first thing. I didn't use my rider swap because we needed to get to next ride. While they enjoyed the ride, my parents weren't really excited to start the day with that long of a wait.
2) We had a 9:30 - 10:30 FP for Frozen, so we just went directly there and made it there with time to spare. Not sure what the standby wait time was.
3) After that we went to Journey Into Imagination and the short film festival, after that we went to the Land for lunch.
4) We had a 12:30 - 1:30p FP for Living with the Land. We had a leisurely lunch at the QS restaurant there, and walked into the FP line for Living with the Land right at 1:30 pm.
5) After that we decided to wait for Soaring - listed at 60 minutes .. (it was a long wait for my son and parents, but met some fun strangers to talk with to pass the time (plus that Trivia game you play with Disney Play was fun too) .. my wife took the rider swap spot.
(No 4th Fast Pass was available).
6) While my wife did Soarin' the rest of us went to the Seas and we spent a while there going on Nemo, looking at fishes, and doing Turtle Talk.

So .. despite having 2 little kids (2 yo, and 6yo) and two grandparents .. we did all three Tier 1 rides at Epcot before 4:30 pm (we left Epcot at 4:30 pm for a dinner reservation at Ohana).

 

[gharter]

There are design stations in the single rider queue, and you can use the ones at the exit of the ride.

I've done the single rider several times and they have never had us stop at a station to design a car. In FP and Standby, you do.

 

[Babe the Blue Ox]

I did this on a Sunday (last Sunday of Food/Wine) just a week or two ago. A decently crowded day.

We did RD Test Track, FP - Frozen, Standby Soarin'.

1) Rope Drop Test track. We were under Spaceship Earth waiting for the rope to drop but we didn't aggressively rush/run for Test Track (small children), but we went there first right after they let people in the park and my family still waited for maybe 45+ minutes. I waited with the 2 yo. They were done near 10:00 am. It just felt like it took a really long time despite being there first thing. I didn't use my rider swap because we needed to get to next ride. While they enjoyed the ride, my parents weren't really excited to start the day with that long of a wait.
2) We had a 9:30 - 10:30 FP for Frozen, so we just went directly there and made it there with time to spare. Not sure what the standby wait time was.
3) After that we went to Journey Into Imagination and the short film festival, after that we went to the Land for lunch.
4) We had a 12:30 - 1:30p FP for Living with the Land. We had a leisurely lunch at the QS restaurant there, and walked into the FP line for Living with the Land right at 1:30 pm.
5) After that we decided to wait for Soaring - listed at 60 minutes .. (it was a long wait for my son and parents, but met some fun strangers to talk with to pass the time (plus that Trivia game you play with Disney Play was fun too) .. my wife took the rider swap spot.
(No 4th Fast Pass was available).
6) While my wife did Soarin' the rest of us went to the Seas and we spent a while there going on Nemo, looking at fishes, and doing Turtle Talk.

So .. despite having 2 little kids (2 yo, and 6yo) and two grandparents .. we did all three Tier 1 rides at Epcot before 4:30 pm (we left Epcot at 4:30 pm for a dinner reservation at Ohana).

That does seem like a long wait for Test Track. We like to wait until later when the crowd over there dies down. On a recent visit, we wandered up around 8 pm and found a posted wait of 40 minutes but the actual wait was only 10.

 

[Lisa F]

PPO at garden grill really helps to RD Soarin' too - we were done with our first ride and allowed a second before the RD crowds arrived!

 

[tlmadden73]

That does seem like a long wait for Test Track. We like to wait until later when the crowd over there dies down. On a recent visit, we wandered up around 8 pm and found a posted wait of 40 minutes but the actual wait was only 10.

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).

 

[Lisa F]

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.

the other benefit to having your FP be for TT is that it is the most likely tier 1 to go down (due to weather effects on that ride) and if it goes down during your window, your FP converts to anytime and you can ride it whenever convenient later. I always try to make TT my tier 1 FP in Epcot for that reason.

 

[tlmadden73]

the other benefit to having your FP be for TT is that it is the most likely tier 1 to go down (due to weather effects on that ride) and if it goes down during your window, your FP converts to anytime and you can ride it whenever convenient later. I always try to make TT my tier 1 FP in Epcot for that reason.

That's a good point.
I've found the "anytime" fast passes pretty convenient (whether you get it due to an outage or due to Rider Swap) that I bet it won't be long until Disney starts selling limited "anytime" fast passes to guests. I'm going to miss having that Rider Swap option once my daughter gets too tall for the 'big' rides.

If people are willing to pay $70/person for 3 fast passes you can use in the morning (plus breakfast) during EMM .. what would people pay to have one (or more) "anytime" fast passes?