Need advice on touring Epcot

[SpainJ]

Hi all. Family of six (Mom, Dad, Grandma, son12, son10, neice9) going for the second time Oct. 21-28.

On monday we are planning to start out at Hollywood Studios, eat at Sci-Fi at 1:30 then take the boat over to Epcot.

Our last HS fastpass is 11:45. What do you think our chances are of snagging a 4th evening fastpass for Test Track or Soarin' for a party of six?

As this may be our only visit to Epcot. What attractions are possible to do between 3:00 - 9:00 pm?

I would like to do all the main attractions, but I don't think it's possible - My top list:

1. Soarin (This is must for everyone)
2. Test Track
3. Mission Space
4. Spaceship Earth
5. Living with the Land
6. Pixar Films
7. Frozen (unlikely given time constraints)
8. Illuminations

Thank you in advance for any replies.

 

[dwheaton]

I'm sorry to say that with a party of six, your chances are really low for those attractions. You might get lucky by refreshing the app a lot, but I wouldn't count on it. I think the best bet for Soarin' and Test Track would be to do them in the final hour the park is open. Test Track has single rider, but I doubt you'd want to dhtat. The lines usually die down to more manageable numbers near closing time, though. Of course, you may miss Illuminations if you do Soarin' last. You should be good with Mission Space, Spaceship Earth, Living with the Land, and the Pixar films (definitely) in the evening and possibly earlier. Frozen Ever After is the most popular attraction in the park, so that one is a long shot. Still, I'm sure you'll have a great time.

 

[SpainJ]

I'm sorry to say that with a party of six, your chances are really low for those attractions. You might get lucky by refreshing the app a lot, but I wouldn't count on it. I think the best bet for Soarin' and Test Track would be to do them in the final hour the park is open. Test Track has single rider, but I doubt you'd want to dhtat. The lines usually die down to more manageable numbers near closing time, though. Of course, you may miss Illuminations if you do Soarin' last. You should be good with Mission Space, Spaceship Earth, Living with the Land, and the Pixar films (definitely) in the evening and possibly earlier. Frozen Ever After is the most popular attraction in the park, so that one is a long shot. Still, I'm sure you'll have a great time.

Thanks! I'll have the conversation with the family...Test Track or Illuminations...or maybe we split up to try to get fastpasses and single riders.

 

[Tigger's ally]

Where are you going Tuesday? Reason I ask is that is an after hours night at Epcot and the rides are open till 11:00. After the other parks close, you can always make a trip over to Epcot to ride the rides you don't get done on Monday. We have found that between 10:30 and 11:00 you can ride test track or soarin three times as most people have left the park. I think the CM's enjoy getting people through at the end of the night as much as we like to ride.

 

[SpainJ]

Where are you going Tuesday? Reason I ask is that is an after hours night at Epcot and the rides are open till 11:00. After the other parks close, you can always make a trip over to Epcot to ride the rides you don't get done on Monday. We have found that between 10:30 and 11:00 you can ride test track or soarin three times as most people have left the park. I think the CM's enjoy getting people through at the end of the night as much as we like to ride.

We are going to MNSSHP on tuesday night

 

[sharonabe]

Our last HS fastpass is 11:45. What do you think our chances are of snagging a 4th evening fastpass for Test Track or Soarin' for a party of six?

As this may be our only visit to Epcot. What attractions are possible to do between 3:00 - 9:00 pm?

As soon as you scan that last FP at 11:45, get on the app and start grabbing whatever you can, even in groups of one and two. As long as you have a 5 min overlap, you can all get on together. Personally, I would make TT my choice for that FP. Soarin' is not quite as bad with the 3rd theater, so wait times are better there. Except for FEA, all your other wants should be fairly easy. Watch the wait times for FEA the week before your trip and see if there's a time when lines die down. You never know.

 

[poohfriend77]

It might be worth "breaking up" your party into smaller groups, and looking for overlapping FPs for Soarin or TT. For example, if you can get FP for 3 people from 4-5 pm, and another FP for 3 people for 4:30-5:30, you could all ride at 4:30.

I've also heard of people seeing more availability when they're trying to *change* FPs than when they're booking new ones. So take ANY Soarin FP, and keep trying to tweak them for better times. Good luck!

 

[Bete]

I think breaking your group down into smaller groups will be your best chance.

After you get done with your third fastpass immediately try for that 4th fastpass. It might be early enough; so, you can get at least that fastpass as a group of 6 for one of the attractions you want.

I'm not being mean, but you are unrealistic in your goals for Epcot. Don't have your expectations ruin your trip. Maybe, take in some shows like American Adventure and such. You'll be able to do that together. Visit World Showcase and see the countries. There are live acts at many of the countries. Disney is not just rides.

 

[gatorlisa]

Have you considered saving your 3 pre-booked fast passes for your second park of the day (Epcot)? I find wait times to be very manageable from park opening until about lunchtime, even at Hollywood Studios. When hopping, I have pretty much always done stand by at the first park of the day with my pre selected fast passes beginning in early afternoon for park number two. By doing this, you can get one of the tier ones and two tier twos guaranteed and then begin looking for more as soon as you tap in at the third fast pass.

 

[999_Happy_Haunts]

Have you considered saving your 3 pre-booked fast passes for your second park of the day (Epcot)?

I would echo this. If you don't mind a fast-paced morning, hitting the "must-do's" over at DHS at Rope Drop without FPs will cost you far less time in line than the time you will spend in line at Epcot in the afternoon without FPs. You want to maximize the length of line that you are bypassing with your FPs. If you go to TSMM at RD, you will have a 0-25 minute wait depending on how close to the tapstile you get before the park opens. If you then immediately head to RnR, you are looking at a wait of 15-40 minutes depending on how crowded the park is. Same at ToT if you go right after RnR. After that you can go over to Star Tours and your wait will be around 30 minutes or so. I have done that route many times with a total wait time of 60-75 minutes for all four rides. Convresely, if you get to Epcot in the afternoon without FPs, your wait time at Test Track will be 75+ minutes just for that one ride. Better to wait 75 minutes for four rides at DHS and then cruise onto Test Track with a FP than it is to use your FPs at DHS and have to wait 75 minutes just for Test Track.

 

[Princess_Lisa]

^^^ This. For Epcot, the Tier 1 FastPasses (minus Illuminations as I don't know how hard that is to get) are (from Hardest to Easiest to Get)

1. Frozen Ever After (This is by far the hardest of these to get)
2. Test Track
3. Soarin'

I just hopped on MDE and they still have times for both Soarin' and Test Track for this afternoon and evening, so you could luck out and get one as a 4th, but I wouldn't count on it.

A couple extra notes:

1. Soarin' typically has the shortest standby waits of the three. For this reason, I would pick FEA or TT for a FP+ over Soarin' if I wanted to ride all three.

2. Frozen typically has short wait time very early in the day. Unfortunately, by afternoon when you'll be there they get very long. One option if you want to ride it is to come back one morning and ride it at RD, then head to a different park for the rest of the day.

 

[Tigger's ally]

We are going to MNSSHP on tuesday night

 

[Gehrig1B]

Have you considered saving your 3 pre-booked fast passes for your second park of the day (Epcot)? I find wait times to be very manageable from park opening until about lunchtime, even at Hollywood Studios. When hopping, I have pretty much always done stand by at the first park of the day with my pre selected fast passes beginning in early afternoon for park number two. By doing this, you can get one of the tier ones and two tier twos guaranteed and then begin looking for more as soon as you tap in at the third fast pass.

This is spot on...

Scheduling Fastpasses in the morning is not the best use in my opinion. I would rope drop DHS and Fastpass Epcot although you are well within 60 days now and may not be able to get what you're looking for at Epcot.

We don't schedule FP+ until the day gets crowded...usually no earlier than 11:00. We often rope drop or am EMH one park and then hop to our FP+ park.

 

[Davey Jones II]

Hi all. Family of six (Mom, Dad, Grandma, son12, son10, neice9) going for the second time Oct. 21-28.

On monday we are planning to start out at Hollywood Studios, eat at Sci-Fi at 1:30 then take the boat over to Epcot.

Our last HS fastpass is 11:45. What do you think our chances are of snagging a 4th evening fastpass for Test Track or Soarin' for a party of six?

As this may be our only visit to Epcot. What attractions are possible to do between 3:00 - 9:00 pm?

I would like to do all the main attractions, but I don't think it's possible - My top list:

1. Soarin (This is must for everyone)
2. Test Track
3. Mission Space
4. Spaceship Earth
5. Living with the Land
6. Pixar Films
7. Frozen (unlikely given time constraints)
8. Illuminations

Thank you in advance for any replies.

As others have mentioned, the basic strategy, when planning to park hop, is to schedule your FPs for your second park of the day. Wait times climb during the day, peaking in the afternoon. If you rope drop DHS, you should be able to do a lot of rides there in the morning. I would book your FPs for Epcot. And then, if there's anything that you didn't get a chance to do (or want to do again), get in line for them shortly before closing time.

 

[SpainJ]

It might be worth "breaking up" your party into smaller groups, and looking for overlapping FPs for Soarin or TT. For example, if you can get FP for 3 people from 4-5 pm, and another FP for 3 people for 4:30-5:30, you could all ride at 4:30.

I've also heard of people seeing more availability when they're trying to *change* FPs than when they're booking new ones. So take ANY Soarin FP, and keep trying to tweak them for better times. Good luck!

Thanks! We'll give it a try

 

[SpainJ]

I think breaking your group down into smaller groups will be your best chance.

After you get done with your third fastpass immediately try for that 4th fastpass. It might be early enough; so, you can get at least that fastpass as a group of 6 for one of the attractions you want.

I'm not being mean, but you are unrealistic in your goals for Epcot. Don't have your expectations ruin your trip. Maybe, take in some shows like American Adventure and such. You'll be able to do that together. Visit World Showcase and see the countries. There are live acts at many of the countries. Disney is not just rides.

I appreciate your comment. We're taking it pretty loose with all of the other parks and taking mid-day breaks almost every other day than the HS-EP I was discussing. We actually have Thursday morning open and may return to Epcot, but may not. I was just hoping if we didn't return we could hit the attractions everyone enjoys.

 

[SpainJ]

Have you considered saving your 3 pre-booked fast passes for your second park of the day (Epcot)? I find wait times to be very manageable from park opening until about lunchtime, even at Hollywood Studios. When hopping, I have pretty much always done stand by at the first park of the day with my pre selected fast passes beginning in early afternoon for park number two. By doing this, you can get one of the tier ones and two tier twos guaranteed and then begin looking for more as soon as you tap in at the third fast pass.

Interesting thought...I could fastpass Test Track on tier 1 and hit Soarin' about 8:00 before Illuminations and fastpass Mission Space and Pixar or Spaceship Earth on the second tier...Hmm.

 

[SpainJ]

This is spot on...

Scheduling Fastpasses in the morning is not the best use in my opinion. I would rope drop DHS and Fastpass Epcot although you are well within 60 days now and may not be able to get what you're looking for at Epcot.

We don't schedule FP+ until the day gets crowded...usually no earlier than 11:00. We often rope drop or am EMH one park and then hop to our FP+ park.

This is great idea! Thanks.

 

[Disneymom1126]

Hi all. Family of six (Mom, Dad, Grandma, son12, son10, neice9) going for the second time Oct. 21-28.

On monday we are planning to start out at Hollywood Studios, eat at Sci-Fi at 1:30 then take the boat over to Epcot.

Our last HS fastpass is 11:45. What do you think our chances are of snagging a 4th evening fastpass for Test Track or Soarin' for a party of six?

As this may be our only visit to Epcot. What attractions are possible to do between 3:00 - 9:00 pm?

I would like to do all the main attractions, but I don't think it's possible - My top list:

1. Soarin (This is must for everyone)
2. Test Track
3. Mission Space
4. Spaceship Earth
5. Living with the Land
6. Pixar Films
7. Frozen (unlikely given time constraints)
8. Illuminations

Thank you in advance for any replies.

It looks like you'll be at Disney for a week. Is this the only time you will be spending at Epcot? If so, I echo what others have said about making your original FP+ selections at Epcot and then rope-dropping HS.

If you do that, I have heard that lines for Frozen aren't terrible right before Illuminations and because of where it is located, maybe you would get off the ride and still catch some of it (if you time it right). If that is the case, you could either FP+ Soarin and use single rider for Test Track (though you won't be able to design a car or ride together as a group), or as other people have said, the line for Soarin moves faster now that there is a third theater, so you could FP+ Test Track and wait in the line for Soarin.

Good luck!