Arriving before parks open to minimise the wait for popular rides

[ozliz]

I’ve seen many recommendations to arrive a long time before parks open to avoid being in a long queue for popular new rides such as slinky dog dash or flight of passage. For those of you that do this, doesn’t the wait outside the park before it opens plus a shorter wait inside the park equate to a similar overall wait to if you’d just arrived as the park opened and got in the end of the first long queue? I’m not suggesting that the wait outside the park would be the same as the middle of the day peak waits but rather that I could sleep an extra half an hour and just wait in the morning ride queue rather than outside the park entrance. Has anyone considered this? What have you found the most efficient in total time rather than just considering park hours time? Any strategies and tips I should know about?

 

[SaintsManiac]

I’ve seen many recommendations to arrive a long time before parks open to avoid being in a long queue for popular new rides such as slinky dog dash or flight of passage. For those of you that do this, doesn’t the wait outside the park before it opens plus a shorter wait inside the park equate to a similar overall wait to if you’d just arrived as the park opened and got in the end of the first long queue? I’m not suggesting that the wait outside the park would be the same as the middle of the day peak waits but rather that I could sleep an extra half an hour and just wait in the morning ride queue rather than outside the park entrance. Has anyone considered this? What have you found the most efficient in total time rather than just considering park hours time? Any strategies and tips I should know about?

The idea behind getting there an hour early is that you do not waste valuable park time waiting in line. Tickets are expensive! If you're off Slinky within 10 minutes of park open you are headed to the next ride while the people who showed up AT park open are waiting an hour. Time = money.

It's not for everyone, but the few times I have done it have been well worth it.

ETA: my tip would be get the FP for the big headliners, show up 20 minutes before park open and head elsewhere while the masses run to the big ride.

 

[lynn_s]

If you are in line for SDD or FoP the first hour of park opening, you are missing most other rides being walk on. And if you want to ride the big ones twice, early RD plus a FP is the way to go (or get in line at park close).

 

[Alesia]

If you get to AK an hour before the parks open, FoP will be a walk on. If you arrive 30 minutes later people will already be on the ride when you get there and your wait will be about an hour.

Also, keep in mind that while you're spending that hour in line, all of the other lines are building. That extra 30 minutes of sleep means a few extra hours standing in line through the day

 

[dreiwhit]

We get to the parks usually 35 to 45 minutes before RD. But, i've seen huge crowds at the times we've arrived, and i've also experienced 45 minute waits for rides just after RD.

My advice is to get FPs for the most popular rides, and use RD to knock out a bunch of other attractions.

 

[NickC]

It's not just about one ride. We can ride several popular rides before lunchtime; all with drastically reduced wait times. Then we can slow down and relax a bit.
Also, we are early risers. I get up at 5:30 at home, so sleeping in until 7 is a luxury.

 

[Kamy04]

I think doing this is one of the biggest keys to Disney if you want to ride the headliners. It is soooooooo worth it to show up really early.

DS5 and I showed up at 7:50 to rope drop Slinky. They walked us back at around 8:45...yes, before official open. We were off in less than ten minutes and got in line for AS2. We were done with most of Toy Story Land in 35 minutes (we had already done TSMM). It freed up the rest of the day to do other things. When we walked off Slinky around 9:05 the wait was 120 minutes!

Also...it is hotter than the surface of the sun right now. I’d rather be waiting around before the heat index is 100+.

 

[mrd7896]

as everyone above have said if you don't get there at park open you are waiting (and probably for longer) during valuable park hours. if you get to AK 45 minutes before opening, at phases they will let everyone start walking towards FOP. so even though from the time you get to the park to get on the ride can be about an hour+, you will most likely get off the ride 10-20 minutes into the park opening. and if 80% (random number) of the people entering AK at that time are going to the ride that you just got off of, you will already be heading towards everest or KS with much lower crowds.

i think rope dropping parks and booking the best possible FP's you can is just a great strategy to hit all the big ticket items
but it is personal preference!

 

[mrd7896]

I think doing this is one of the biggest keys to Disney if you want to ride the headliners. It is soooooooo worth it to show up really early.

DS5 and I showed up at 7:50 to rope drop Slinky. They walked us back at around 8:45...yes, before official open. We were off in less than ten minutes and got in line for AS2. We were done with most of Toy Story Land in 35 minutes (we had already done TSMM). It freed up the rest of the day to do other things. When we walked off Slinky around 9:05 the wait was 120 minutes!

Also...it is hotter than the surface of the sun right now. I’d rather be waiting around before the heat index is 100+.

that too-if you get there early in the morning the weather won't be absolutely horrible. when the FOP line gets long they wrap it around the park (and into africa). AK is so humid, sticky, doesn't always have indoor queues or shady spots.

I'll take some sacrificed sleep over having to wait in the blistering temps outside at peak times.

 

[KimK2006]

You might be waiting the same amount of time for the ride if you factor in getting there early to get in the park, but you get through the ride much quicker and have the extra early morning park hours to do other things. You can get SO much done in the first few hours of the park opening while everyone else is asleep!

 

[Anchored]

As others have said, your wait just turns into lost park hours if you show up after rope drop
We did this for AK on Sunday morning. Opening was 8am, we arrived at 7am. We were off of Flight of Passage by 8:10, the line for NaVi was posted at 15 minutes. We were off of that by 8:25. We went and rode Everest twice in a row practically walking on. Then same for Kali. We then walked on to Dinosaur, then waited about 5 minutes for Primeval Whirl. We headed towards Festival of the Lion King and saw the 10:00 show, so by 10:30 we had knocked out most of the attractions except the Safari and shows./characters. If you didn't show up until after 8 and had a two hour line, you would be getting off of Flight of Passage to long lines everywhere.

 

[Douglas Adams]

Rope drop + morning extra magic hours = Winning. You can get so much done, and then you feel bad for the people you see waiting in hour lines later. Hit the big attractions at rope drop that you didn't get fast passes for. When you're done cruising through the parks that first hour, start hitting your fast passes and just relax and enjoy your vacation instead of praying your kid doesn't have a meltdown from standing in the same spot for an hour straight.

 

[MomOTwins]

We did this for the first time on SDD last year. The waiting part was actually nice. The weather was nice and cool that early in the morning. We brought breakfast from the hotel quick service in a baggie and ate it while we waited, sunscreened the kiddos, chatted with families nearby to kill time. We were right at the front of the rope drop with probably about 1,000 people behind us when the rope dropped. Then it became an absolute stampede--people shoving our stroller, sprinting around--I nearly lost my husband and older kids about a dozen times because of people shoving through to get ahead. We wound up behind hundreds of people in the span of about a minute. I am never rope dropping a major attraction again. At least when you wait in a line in the park, you are not in danger of having your kids trampled.

In contrast, when we went to AK because of a bus mishap we ended up not getting there until 10 exactly park opening. We walked up to the tail end of a massive crowd entering the FOP queue and moved to the Navi side and we had a pleasant 10-minute wait to ride it and then walked over to Everest where there was a 5 minute. From now on I plan to avoid the popular ride at rope drop every time.

 

[Dis Dragon]

ETA: my tip would be get the FP for the big headliners, show up 20 minutes before park open and head elsewhere while the masses run to the big ride.

That's what we do for FoP, we get in enough Everest to make us sick before we head on to other things. It's a great strategy. Same for SDD, although RnR gets busy pretty fast.

 

[sanibellife]

So if I'm understanding correctly. Best strategy is to get there early, prior to RD or extra morning magic hours AND try and get fastpasses for big ticket rides, SDD or FoP for morning times. Use the early entry time for other rides. Do I have that correct? Or do you go on the big ticket rides without fastpasses since you are there so early?

 

[SillySallySews]

We do not rope drop popular rides. Ever. We rope drop and head away from wherever everyone else is going. Those first 1-2 hours are magic. We also don’t have to worry about being in the front of the pack with this plan. Arriving 20-30 minutes before official park opening has always been sufficient for us.

 

[CheeseheadDave]

So if I'm understanding correctly. Best strategy is to get there early, prior to RD or extra morning magic hours AND try and get fastpasses for big ticket rides, SDD or FoP for morning times. Use the early entry time for other rides. Do I have that correct? Or do you go on the big ticket rides without fastpasses since you are there so early?

If karma smiles upon me and I manage to score a SDD FP+ for near park opening time, then yes, I do the opposite of everyone else: Head to RnRC and ToT and get those out of the way right off the bat before the lines build, maybe even ride multiple times if I can. Then head to Toy Story Land and ride SDD at the tail end of the FP+ return window.

 

[Alesia]

So if I'm understanding correctly. Best strategy is to get there early, prior to RD or extra morning magic hours AND try and get fastpasses for big ticket rides, SDD or FoP for morning times. Use the early entry time for other rides. Do I have that correct? Or do you go on the big ticket rides without fastpasses since you are there so early?

It depends on if you want them multiple times or if once is enough.

 

[ozliz]

Just to clarify when I said half an hour later I meant turning up 10-15 minutes before park open rather than an hour before park open - so still rope dropping but from the back of the queue so I don’t have to wait an hour early in the morning outside the park.

I hadn’t thought about all the other lines building up and missing the morning shorter queues. Thanks to those of you who pointed out that one.

 

[ozliz]

We did this for the first time on SDD last year. The waiting part was actually nice. The weather was nice and cool that early in the morning. We brought breakfast from the hotel quick service in a baggie and ate it while we waited, sunscreened the kiddos, chatted with families nearby to kill time. We were right at the front of the rope drop with probably about 1,000 people behind us when the rope dropped. Then it became an absolute stampede--people shoving our stroller, sprinting around--I nearly lost my husband and older kids about a dozen times because of people shoving through to get ahead. We wound up behind hundreds of people in the span of about a minute. I am never rope dropping a major attraction again. At least when you wait in a line in the park, you are not in danger of having your kids trampled.

In contrast, when we went to AK because of a bus mishap we ended up not getting there until 10 exactly park opening. We walked up to the tail end of a massive crowd entering the FOP queue and moved to the Navi side and we had a pleasant 10-minute wait to ride it and then walked over to Everest where there was a 5 minute. From now on I plan to avoid the popular ride at rope drop every time.

This is exactly the sort of experience that had me questioning the very early pre-rope drop. Last trip I arrived about 20 minutes before rope drop hoping to ride SDD but being at the back of the crowd by the time I got to toy story land (walking solo no kids to keep track of) the line in front of me was already an hour long - so I rode TSMM then AS instead and went back to SDD later in the day where I used the queue as time to eat my packed lunch. Every other trip rope dropping worked for me but this was the first time I was introduced to rope dropping meaning arriving a hour before park open and I’m not sure I find that really counts as less waiting.