Epcot Morning Touring Strategy & Rope Drop Tips
Efficient touring strategy is important for park opening at Epcot. In this post, we offer rope drop tips, including what time to leave your Walt Disney World hotel, which attractions to prioritize, and anticipated wait times. We also answer the question of which popular ride to do first: Frozen Ever After, Test Track, or Soarin’ Around the World.
Rope drop at Epcot has changed dramatically over the years, and that trend is unlikely to stop anytime soon with the Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure trackless dark ride opening in 2020 and Guardians of the Galaxy roller coaster opening in 2021. Both of those are sure to be among the most popular attractions at Walt Disney World, and they’re going to be on opposite sides of the park, which will certainly throw a monkey wrench into Epcot touring plans.
Personally, I still remember the days of rope drop in front of the Fountain of Nations with the Fab Five, when a “Family of the Day” was chosen to ride a Test Track car through Future World. While I’m still a little bitter we were never chosen for that, it was fun to watch a family experience a ‘Magical Moment’ to start the day. Nothing major, but a cute little experience, nonetheless. Unlike Magic Kingdom, there is no Epcot Welcome Show–it’s all about anxiously waiting until you can power walk to the first attraction of your morning…
When you should leave your Walt Disney World resort hotel to arrive at Epcot for rope drop is a common question. If you’re walking from a Crescent Lake resort, leave by 8:15 a.m. If you’re arriving by bus or monorail, be at your monorail station or hotel bus stop by around 7:45 a.m. for an 9 a.m. park opening. Regardless of your hotel, buses are abundant first thing in the morning, so you shouldn’t be waiting long.
This gets you to the park and through security–if all goes according to plan–no later than 8:30 a.m. On a related note, if you want to enter Epcot even earlier and experience an almost entirely empty Epcot, check out our Pre-Park Opening Breakfast at Walt Disney World Strategy post.
Epcot turnstiles open to all regular day guests around 8:30 a.m. Once you’re inside Epcot, you’ll be held at Spaceship Earth if you entered through the front entrance. If you walked to the International Gateway entrance from the Crescent Lake resorts, you’ll be held in World Showcase. Both sets of guests are typically “released” just before official park opening time.
As we cover in our Frozen Ever After Tips post in greater detail, there are ways to ‘hack’ rope drop for a slight advantage on Frozen Ever After. If you are super serious about that attraction and want to shave 10 minutes off your morning wait time, follow one of those suggestions. Otherwise, demand for Frozen Ever After has died down a bit, so those aggressive tips are no longer as “necessary” (not that they ever were).
Once you’re in the park–either via International Gateway or the main entrance, it doesn’t matter–the big question when it comes to morning at Epcot is whether to do Test Track, Frozen Ever After, or Soarin’ Around the World first. As usual, the answer is “it depends.”
In an ideal time-saving scenario, such as the one in our 1-Day Epcot Itinerary, you’ll get a late morning FastPass+ for Frozen Ever After, rope drop Soarin’ Around the World, and then do Test Track via Single Rider. Of course, “ideal” is in the eye of the beholder, so here we’ll assume no FastPass+ and no willingness to use the Single Rider line at Test Track.
In that situation, we favor rope dropping Test Track and then racing over to Soarin’ Around the World. You’re going to encounter a modest wait at Soarin, but our rationale for this approach is that doing Frozen Ever After via standby at the end of the night is a better option than Test Track at night.
Even that artificially-constrained scenario has the drawback of missing IllumiNations, so it’s not perfect. If IllumiNations is a must-see for you (AND IT SHOULD BE!), do Frozen Ever After at rope drop, followed by Test Track, then Soarin’ Around the World. Our rationale for switching things up here is that Test Track and Soarin’ are more time-consuming experiences (designing the car and the load process, respectively) whereas you can get in and out quickly with Frozen Ever After.
The downside to that scenario is that it involves more walking and backtracking, but it’s still better from a time-savings perspective. Realistically, you will almost certainly be able to get a FastPass+ for one of these headliners (unless you’re reading this post on the bus ride to Epcot), so this is all moot.
If you are reading this on the bus to Epcot, we’d implore you to be flexible and use Single Rider at Test Track. That opens the door to rope dropping Frozen Ever After and doing Soarin’ Around the World towards the end of the evening–but well before IllumiNations–when the wait times are dropping. That’s really the most realistic approach in terms of ‘last minute’ Epcot touring advice.
A final wrinkle to all of this is that two of the three attractions break down with regularity. Frozen Ever After’s reliability has improved more recently after a rocky debut, but it’s still an issue. Test Track, on the other hand, has been unreliable since it opened two decades ago, and goes down close to every day.
This is significant because there are still days when Test Track or Frozen Ever After do not open with the rest of Epcot. The feeling of disappointment to race across the park only to find a ride down at rope drop is deflating, and not exactly the ideal way to start your morning at Epcot.
On the plus side, these rides being down at park opening is relatively uncommon and you should not adjust your morning touring plan for Epcot. Breakdowns are still common enough that this bears mentioning, though. We’re not entirely sure what you can even do with this information, but they say knowledge is power. Perhaps awareness that these rides break down will help temper your expectations or disappointment if it impacts your morning in Epcot?
Now that we’ve presented like 37 different combinations of doing the three high-priority rope drop attractions at Epcot, perhaps the main takeaway is that so long as you do any of these 3 rides at the very beginning or very end of the day, you’re in a good position. Doing at least 2 of these attractions first thing in the morning is huge, and can enable you to have a leisurely day at Epcot.
As you might’ve surmised, we’ve tried several different Epcot rope drop scenarios. Now that Frozen Ever After’s popularity has subsided a bit (coupled with it becoming more reliable), this has become a lot easier. On a light or moderately-crowded day at Epcot, it’s entirely possible to get the big 3 done within the first 90 minutes Epcot is open.
With no other attractions that have consistently long waits, this enables us to do what we love: slowly stroll around Epcot soaking up the ambiance. This approach allows us to do Epcot’s “second rope drop” at World Showcase, and also enjoy the back part of the park devoid of crowds. As we stated in our Magic Kingdom Morning Strategy & Rope Drop Tips, pausing to soak up the atmosphere and experiencing those moments of whimsy are as–or more–important to us than the rides at Walt Disney World.
Ultimately, what we love about Epcot is the atmosphere. By having laser focus and rushing from popular ride to ride efficiently first thing in the morning, we get those “out of the way” and are able to enjoy Epcot on our terms. Commando tourists may take a go-go-go approach the entire day, and that’s fine, but we love to use mornings at Epcot to get attractions done, and then spend the rest of the day basically doing nothing.
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Your Thoughts
What is your Epcot morning strategy? Which ride do you do first: Frozen Ever After, Test Track, or Soarin’ Around the World? Or do you prefer to savor the low crowds and have a leisurely experience? Do you agree or disagree with our park opening strategy for Epcot? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing feedback about your experiences is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
Has anyone tried the early morning Toy Story breakfast at Hollywood?
I know this isn’t really a question, but all of your pictures are sensational, what kind of camera do you use?
Am I the only one who doesn’t care for Illuminations? The horror, I know. I think it’s because when I saw it last, I was trying to entertain a 4 year old running around and we didn’t have the best viewing. Maybe I’ll try again.
But anywho… you may have a post about this that I haven’t come across, but how do you chose which park to visit on what days? I’ll be making ADRs in a month and I have no idea how to pick. Especially with not knowing park hours or evening events. I’m thinking just pick and then get park hoppers if I end up choosing a day they close early or turns out to be super packed. But I was wondering if you had any rhyme or reason to daily park planning.
I use Undercover Tourist Crowd Calendar. It tells you which park opens early, closes late, special events and actually highlights which is the best park to visit that day. It also rates each day as to what kind of crowd to expect. I have scheduled my parks visits this way for years and it hasn’t failed yet.
Here is a link for park hours and events https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/calendars/five-day/
Re: International Gateway entry. Are they allowing entry from there at 8:30AM? (If not, at what time?) Last time I rope-dropped entry at the IG (one year ago July), they did not allow entry until 8:55AM. We immediately went to Norway at that point and walked on Frozen, since they did not allow entry from Future World until that also. By the time the guests from the front of the park made it to Norway, we were ahead of the pack. We are going next week, and I want to make sure I am there at the earliest available entry time from the IG. Thanks !!
We were there in June and they let us in around 8:30 and then held us at the top of the hill until ~8:55. We were among the first on the Frozen ride that morning (but would have been behind those form the front if we wanted Soarin’ or Test Track, likely).
Thank you! This is exactly the information I was looking for!
We were “Family of the Day” once at Epcot. In addition to the super-fun ride in a Test Track car…
*First riders of the day on Test Track (And they ran us through twice)
*Ride photo
*Popcorn vouchers
*Ice cream vouchers
*All-day Fast Pass
*Priority viewing for Illuminations
We have never been the same. Lol.
Being the Family of “anything” at WDW is always special. This May, we were selected as the Family to “open” the Boma restaurant at AK Lodge, and received special treatment and several nice extras with our meal (along with a certificate…suitable for framing, of course). We always enjoy Boma each trip, but this made it feel extra special for the whole family.
Interesting tip that may apply to some here: If you are a General Motors employee (and there are tons) you can show your badge at the desk inside the Test Track attraction exit/showroom area and receive a free FastPass for the ride for everyone in your party. You can do this as many times as you want. I’ve found that many GM employees who regularly visit WDW aren’t aware of this, and it’s an incredible way to save time and definitely helps relieve some rope drop stress.
15807 Autumn Glen Avenue
I have been going to Disney World since 1971 when the park first opened. I spent my Honeymoon (2weeks) between contemporary and Polynesian in 73. When my daughter was born we went every year from 1994-2010 for her birthday. We always took advantage of the early access and late night. One year my daughter was picked from the crowd to open the Magic Kingdom. Another year my daughter was asked to be in the grand Marshal for the parade in the magic kingdom. A few years later she was asked to open the gate for animal kingdom. The following year she was picked out to be the grand Marshal for the animal kingdom parade. She now works for Disney. I have learned that you always take advantage of the extras that are available
So if a ride is closed on the day you are going and you have a FastPass for that ride, what happens to your FastPass?
If a ride in not operational during your FP window, the FP will convert to an “anytime FP” that can be used for (nearly) any other ride in the park. In AK, Pandora attractions are excluded from the anytime FP. I’m not sure if anything is excluded in Epcot.
Thanks!
“I’m not sure if anything is excluded in Epcot.”
Frozen Ever After
One thought – Test Track is the only Epcot attraction that closes in rain. During the summer, it rains most afternoons at some point. Thus, it is very important to always get to Test Track at least once as early as possible to protect from missing it due to weather.
Very true!
We are going to EPCOT on Friday August 24th. We have no FASTPASS + booked as we used them for MK before the Halloween party that night. What is your best strategy for a no FP+ morning at EPCOT?
I will hang up and listen.
We did a no-FP morning at Epcot recently, doing most of what is described in this post. We rope dropped Frozen from the IG and even did the M&G in Norway, then still rode Soarin’ with a fairly low wait. After that we did single-rider on Test Track.
Agreed
Question, why are you planning to go to EPCOT in the morning, then switch over to MK when it has a 6 pm closing? Are you attending the Halloween party that night? If not, I would spend my morning at MK that day too.
Original poster indicates that they are going to the MK after Epcot and attending MNSSHP. They used their FPs in the MK.
Ride waits during MNSSHP are generally low, so if it were me, I would cancel the MK fastpasses and try to book something for Epcot earlier in the day.
This of course all depends on what you want to spend your time doing during MNSSHP.
“If IllumiNations is a must-see…” If?? What is this sacrilege you are typing? 😀
One note about single rider on Test Track is that you will not be able to design your own car. For some people (my daughter, maybe even me) designing the car and seeing your scores is just as important as the ride so that’s worth noting. (There is a car design station in the exit area, so I think you can do the rides backwards and design your car in there and it will store on your magic band for a few hours if you then ride single rider and skip the car design.)
My bad. Sometimes in writing generic planning advice posts like this, I become overly deferential to consensus. The offending line has been fixed!
You’re correct about entering through the post show to design a car and then doing Single Rider. That’s an excellent idea and an extra step that is worth it, I think. It makes Test Track a more engaging, quasi-educational experience, instead of just a thrill ride.
Great tip! We always do single rider on Test Track and going in I think, “Designing the car isn’t that big a deal; I just want to ride.” And then once I’m on the ride and seeing scores, etc., I always find myself wishing we had designed our car instead of “sharing” the design of someone else. I know it’s all just magic and pixie dust, but it’s still a fun aspect of the ride.