Best Strategy for 3 T1 Rides at Epcot?

mab2012

DIS Veteran
Joined
Dec 19, 2012
We will be at WDW during March Break. Crowds at this time are generally worse than "moderate", but not completely crazy. We only have a few park days, and my kids want to ride all of Soarin', Test Track, and FEA, as well as headliners at the other parks. We will be staying at Beach Club, so intend to enter through the International Gateway.

I am thinking of using fast passes to do one of these in the late afternoon on our arrival day, and then trying to hit the other two during morning EMH, so that we can use fastpasses in another park later that day.

So two questions: which of the three rides should I fastpass, and of the remaining two, in which order should we plan to do them during EMH?

Suggestions appreciated!
 
Fast pass Frozen, hit TT first thing in the morning (single rider line is there as well if everyone's old enough), then Soarin after TT
 
Fast pass Frozen, hit TT first thing in the morning (single rider line is there as well if everyone's old enough), then Soarin after TT

Thanks. That's what I was leaning towards. Just wasn't sure if I'd be better off to fastpass TT and try to catch FEA at rope drop instead, since it's closer to the gate.

My kids are 8 and 11, so old enough for the single rider line, but they'll want to ride with us.

ETA: actually, I guess it's not really closer. We've only been to Epcot on one trip, and I was thinking Norway was further in. But having looked at the map, they actually look about the same distance.

Will they make us walk around the Future World side of the lake to get to Norway during EMH, or can we walk through the World Showcase?
 
We are staying at the Beach Club in early March. We have a FP for Frozen the evening of our arrival. On our full Epcot day, we have a PPO for Garden Grill so we will hop onto Soarin after that with hopefully no wait. We then have a FP for Test Track later that morning.
 


Fast pass Frozen, hit TT first thing in the morning (single rider line is there as well if everyone's old enough), then Soarin after TT

We're using this strategy next week! We have a FP for FEA at 3, so we'll hit TT at rope drop, then head over to Soarin'. No single rider option for us, but we don't mind the wait if it's reasonable.
 
Thanks. That's what I was leaning towards. Just wasn't sure if I'd be better off to fastpass TT and try to catch FEA at rope drop instead, since it's closer to the gate.

My kids are 8 and 11, so old enough for the single rider line, but they'll want to ride with us.

ETA: actually, I guess it's not really closer. We've only been to Epcot on one trip, and I was thinking Norway was further in. But having looked at the map, they actually look about the same distance.

Will they make us walk around the Future World side of the lake to get to Norway during EMH, or can we walk through the World Showcase?

World showcase will be closed inbetween France and Norway, so you'll take the world showcase path that brings you more toward the front of the park. So in relation to where you're entering at the IG, the rides from closest to furthest would be Soarin, TT, and FEA. FEA still has long waits so if you get there early enough into emh then you could certainly try to ride FEA first thing, then later with a FP.

But I would just FP FEA to avoid that crowd heading straight there. Then TT usually gets pretty long so hitting that first thing would be good. And Soarin still gets moderate waits, but with the 3rd extra theater open, the waits aren't what they use to be. So you should be fine there.

Little bit of backtracking but it won't hurt
 
Worst case (most of the year, not alwats), your looking at about 3 1/2 hours of waiting in line for the big 3 rides at springs. You can probably get a fastpass for 1 of them and hopefully it was FEA so that'll knock about 2 hours from that number if not, about 30-60 minutes for the others. If you don't mind skipping design your car and riding with the group then you can knock another 20-30 from the number for test track single rider.

What I did recently worked out amazing well with friends visiting and almost no fastpasses... We didn't start at rope but we started pretty early and got FEA out of the way (we did fastpass this but the time we did it would have been roughly when we would have rode it if we rope dropped so I think time wise it's comparable to rope dropping it). Then we came back to future world and knocked out test track with single rider, they did mission space (I did not).. Then we hoped into world showcase and did about 1/3 of it getting lunch while doing it. Boated back and did the other half of future world and spaceship earth. Then finished the day with the rest of world showcase, dinner and then hit some places at boardwalk since it was an all adult group. Also to note, we expected to drink that evening so we ubered to a epcot resort and entered epcot from that way.

Basically we just mixed it up so it wasn't overload on the worlds or overload on the waits but in an order that we thought might get around where it's packed at certain times of day and it worked great.. by spreading it out, the waits didn't seem so bad, we hit certain places like the aquarium and spaceship earth when the ride line wasn't there anymore and we had excitement inbetween them.
 


I don't think there's one "right" way to get all 3 with one FP+. What worked for us was:

Soarin' at rope drop (well, we were 5 minutes late)
FP+ TT
Standby FEA

We were done all 3 by roughly 10:30am
 
I don't think there's one "right" way to get all 3 with one FP+.

Excellent point. What I've noticed is fastpass has more and more people learning about rope drop and what to do before getting there so you really need to be light on your feet to be ready to pivot what ride is next depending on where you see the crowd rushing too.

I think the secret to any rope drop is your after the rides that get longer than most lines once the mass crowd trickles in at 10-11am. the same reason why disappearing to the resort for lunch to dinner when they are the longest of the day is beneficial. If you can get the major rides done before 11am, your in good shape for hte rest of the day.
 
Opinion:
Since you said the magic words: Emh and Beach Club, if you make it ON PRIORITY to be there at the gate before they allow entry. I'd do Soarin, twice in a row, then TT, then whatever else in FW, then plan your Fastpass for FEA for when you are planning to hit the WS, or on your way out of the park if you are leaving through the gateway, and not through the front.

TT twice if you like it more. You'll probably have to singe ride TT the second time around. I prefer Soarin.
 
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Thanks for all the helpful suggestions. I have booked fastpasses for FEA, and it sounds like we shouldn't have much trouble getting the other two done during the EMH period. Not sure yet which order we'll do them in. We've never done Soarin' (it was closed for addition of the third track on our last trip), so not sure which we'll like better. I also had ACL reconstruction surgery yesterday and my 60 day window started today, so minimizing walking will probably be a priority.

We are not morning people (me especially), but I make an occasional exception for "fun stuff". I wouldn't plan to do rope drop every morning, but we will make sure to get to the gate before opening that morning!
 
We've never done Soarin' (it was closed for addition of the third track on our last trip), so not sure which we'll like better.

Do. Soarin'. Twice.
I like the speed track at the end of TT, but not all of the herky jerky fake testing crap indoors. Soarin' is EVERYTHING - smooth as silk, and just plain fun. It's one of those rides that several people are going to applaud at the end, and you won't even think they are weird. Everyone comes off that thing with a big smile.
 
Thanks. That's what I was leaning towards. Just wasn't sure if I'd be better off to fastpass TT and try to catch FEA at rope drop instead, since it's closer to the gate.

My kids are 8 and 11, so old enough for the single rider line, but they'll want to ride with us.

ETA: actually, I guess it's not really closer. We've only been to Epcot on one trip, and I was thinking Norway was further in. But having looked at the map, they actually look about the same distance.

Will they make us walk around the Future World side of the lake to get to Norway during EMH, or can we walk through the World Showcase?
You'll have to go on the Future World side, World Showcase is roped off from the WS side of Norway to France
 
You asked pretty much my exact question. I think we're going the exact same time (my FP window opened Saturday too). This is great info for how best to use that rope drop time to get all the headliners in! Thanks!
 
We are staying at the Beach Club in early March. We have a FP for Frozen the evening of our arrival. On our full Epcot day, we have a PPO for Garden Grill so we will hop onto Soarin after that with hopefully no wait. We then have a FP for Test Track later that morning.

This is pretty much our plan! Frozen in the afternoon (or whenever, really!) and hoping to get on Soarin as soon as we're done with our PPO Garden Grill breakfast. Then headed to TT directly after Soarin. :)
 
I would FP Frozen, and do TT at RD and Soarin on standby after TT.

Also, get to Epcot and be in line at security no later than 8:15am. We got to security at 8:40am last time and Disney had let folks in well before we go there.
 
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Pro-tip for Soarin...

Take your shoes/sandals off when you get in your seat for Soarin'. Riding barefoot adds another dimension to the ride.
 
We hit Soarin at RD and rode it twice with little wait. Then we headed off to ride TT single rider, this took about thirty minutes. We used our 2:30PM FP for FEA. Stand by was posted at 100 minutes and we were in and out in about 20 minutes.
 

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