AK EMH Rope Drop Strategy--help!

[Araminta18]

Help me plan my AK rope drop strategy! I've never been to AK before, but on my next trip (March-we're planning on AK on March 18th), my friend and I are planning to go there at rope drop for extra magic hours in the morning, hit the headliners, and then hop over to HS in the afternoon (where we've booked our fastpasses).

We want to ride the Safari, Expedition Everest, Kali River Rapids, Dinosaur and possibly Primeval Whirl. Rope drop for the EMH is at 8--should we head over to Safari first or is EE a better first choice? Or does it really matter? We're ok with doing single rider line at EE, which is why I was leaning towards Safari first.

My thought:
Safari first, then EE, backtrack to Kali, then to Dinosaur and Primeval Whirl before trekking back to Safari to use the Express buses to hop over to HS.

 

[BigredNole]

My philosophy is that the Safari is long. That means the EE lines will grow while you spend 20-30 minutes in the Safari. We always go to EE first 3-5x, then KRR as many times as we can before a line to walk around soaked, then the Safari. After that, head over to Dinoland.

 

[Araminta18]

My philosophy is that the Safari is long. That means the EE lines will grow while you spend 20-30 minutes in the Safari. We always go to EE first 3-5x, then KRR as many times as we can before a line to walk around soaked, then the Safari. After that, head over to Dinoland.

Good point! I guess I was assuming that lines for Safari would get crazy long almost immediately, but is that incorrect?

 

[BigredNole]

I don't know. The lines tend to move quickly in my experience. Plus there are many things to look at in line.

 

[MattH]

We will be there that same day. Last time we did AK rope drop on EMH we went Dinosaur, Primeval Whirl x 5, EE x 3, then made it to Safari right at park opening and had no real wait there. My thought it is you won't have much of a line after Safari for Kahli as the temps will still be cooler than most want to ride it.

 

[nursejackie]

We were there two mornings for rope drop in December, we headed to EE as it's over in no time (if you get there in the first wave of people) and then headed to the safari. By the time you reached the safari, got on, rode around, got off and walked all the way to EE it's entirely possible the regular people will have been allowed in, extending the wait time even further. At least the other way around you are just competing with other magic hour guests. That's just based on our personal experience. Good idea to save your fastpasses for HS though, we generally save ours for a different pm park on AK days.

 

[Harambe]

We went right to the safari at EMH, and we saw TONS of animals. They were all out eating and walking around in the cool morning weather. If animals are your thing, I'd do the safari first. We didn't run over there, either. Just strolled along taking in the sights. We practically walked on the ride! I will also say that the tour guides give the same talk every time they take a truck out, so you get a "fresh" talk first thing in the morning. Our safari guide was coffee-ed up and ready to go! So much fun!!! AK is a beautiful park that you should savor.

 

[GeorgiaHoo]

I can tell you our plan/experience when we went in May 2015 for EMH rope drop at AK. We went to Safari first and were one of the first riders, then walked over to EE and walked right on, then rode again a time or two (single rider line is always really short in the mornings). My experience has been that you can get a ton done at morning EMH at AK. I'd do Safari, then EE, then Dinosaur, then Primeval and save Kali for last -- I got absolutely drenched last time we rode, and it isn't a ton of fun walking around the park soaking wet. And it could be cold in March. In fact, I'm not sure that Kali is open for morning EMH, so you might want to check that.