Touring Plan Testing: EPCOT Early Entry Rope Drop from International Gateway

We tested one of our Premium EPCOT Touring Plans yesterday from the International Gateway. As always, our goals are to follow a set touring plan while taking advantage of Early Entry rope drop in order to save money on Lightning Lanes.

Our tester was able to complete 8 attractions and a 24 minute break by 1:30pm:

• Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure
• Frozen Ever After
• Soarin’ Across America
• Gran Fiesta Tour Starring The Three Caballeros
• Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind
• Meet Anna and Elsa at Royal Summerhus
• Moana, Journey of Water
• Spaceship Earth

EPCOT Early Entry: 8:30 AM to 9:00 AM

Regular Entry: 9:00 AM

The following is a timeline of our EPCOT International Gateway Early Entry:

• 7:20 AM – at International Gateway
• 7:21 AM – Skyliner began running
• 7:35 AM – Security opened for all guests
• 7:36 AM – tester tapped into the park and was held on the bridge to World Showcase. Tapped in for Early Entry.

• 8:12 AM – Early Entry guests allowed to move toward Remy. A Cast Member leads the way and the whole process is very orderly.
• 8:14 AM – Guests allowed to enter the queue for Remy. Reminder: do not start the timer on your Lines app until you stop walking in the queue for the first time!

• 8:22 AM – Remy, actual wait of 48 seconds
• Optimize plan after each step

• 9:12 AM – Frozen Ever After, actual wait of 26 minutes

• 9:37 AM – Soarin’ Across America, actual wait of 8 minutes

• 10:00 AM – Gran Fiesta Tour Starring The Three Caballeros, actual wait of 58 seconds.

• We forgot to stop the timer getting on Guardians! Oops! Our actual wait was 62 minutes at 11:16am!
• 24 minute break, on to the Norway Pavilion

• 12:25 PM – Meet Anna and Elsa at Royal Summerhus, actual wait of 34 minutes.

• 1:03 PM – Spaceship Earth, actual wait of 17 minutes.

A stroll through the beautiful Journey of Water ended our test.

We chose this touring plan because it is designed for parents of children ages 3 to 8 who wish to see the very best age-appropriate attractions in Epcot. Every attraction has a rating of at least 3.5 stars (out of five) from pre-school and grade-school children surveyed by The Unofficial Guide. Special advice is provided for touring the park with small children. The plan keeps walking and backtracking to a minimum.

Which plan do you want us to test next? Let us know!