Can a plan w/ no rope drops work?

[NYEmomma]

Family of 5 (DH, I, kids 13/9/9) and are not early risers. While we COULD haul ourselves out of bed to be at rope drop, we just don't WANT to. We're staying on property and will have G+ but don't plan on doing any $ILL. Could a later arrival (10ish) with plans to close out the park work? I plan on waking at 7 every morning (absolutely NOT looking forward to it - I hate the new system) to get our first G+ booked every morning but we likely won't be up and moving until 8 or 9 if we don't have to be.

 

[Meglen]

Yup it can work.! Also if your family are not early risers don't force it.

 

[CarolynFH]

Since you're willing to take one for the team in order to book that first LL at 7:00 AM, yes, I agree that it will work! Just don't book any LL for earlier than you expect to arrive at the park, of course.

 

[T.G.I.Friday]

I think it works for MK for sure. It seemed like rope drop had all of the families with very young kids, but then they headed out around mid-afternoon. I also think it would be fine for AK since there isn’t a whole lot of headliners there.

Epcot might be a little rough, but you should be ok with stacking to help a little.

The one I would consider rope dropping is HS. We went Thursday morning around 10, and all of the lines were bad. Slinky dog, tower of terror and Rise were all well over 100 minutes - like 105, 120 and 150, respectively. Railway and Smuggler were 60+ and even Star Tours was 40. If you are planning to do standby for Rise and only get one main LL, it seems like it would make for a long and frustrating day. Maybe relax the other days and try to get everyone moving that morning?

 

[NYEmomma]

I think it works for MK for sure. It seemed like rope drop had all of the families with very young kids, but then they headed out around mid-afternoon. I also think it would be fine for AK since there isn’t a whole lot of headliners there.

Epcot might be a little rough, but you should be ok with stacking to help a little.

The one I would consider rope dropping is HS. We went Thursday morning around 10, and all of the lines were bad. Slinky dog, tower of terror and Rise were all well over 100 minutes - like 105, 120 and 150, respectively. Railway and Smuggler were 60+ and even Star Tours was 40. If you are planning to do standby for Rise and only get one main LL, it seems like it would make for a long and frustrating day. Maybe relax the other days and try to get everyone moving that morning?

Did you close out HS that day? I'm wondering what lines were like at close. I was thinking of going for Smuggler's Run, MMRR & ToT using G+ for whatever times we could get, doing shows and the lower wait time rides in the afternoon/early evening and then focusing on ROTR and SDD closer to close. Only my husband & oldest have any interest in ROTR so I could take the twins with me to do SDD while they wait for that (since they also have no interest in SDD).

 

[T.G.I.Friday]

Did you close out HS that day? I'm wondering what lines were like at close. I was thinking of going for Smuggler's Run, MMRR & ToT using G+ for whatever times we could get, doing shows and the lower wait time rides in the afternoon/early evening and then focusing on ROTR and SDD closer to close. Only my husband & oldest have any interest in ROTR so I could take the twins with me to do SDD while they wait for that (since they also have no interest in SDD).

We didn’t on that day, but we did on Sunday. Wait times definitely came down into the evening. I think the fact that there isn’t any nighttime entertainment helps people leave in waves rather than waiting for the show.

We did G+ for SDD right around 8:30. I think the posted standby was like 35, maybe? Not sure how inflated it was, but there must have been some small issue with the ride because they had to run a few empty cars so the LL line and standby were moving a little slower. We got off around 8:50 and DD and DH beelined for Smuggler’s Run. They made it in plenty of time and the ride was basically a walk on. They were off by 9:05.

With only half of the elevators working, Tot wait times seemed like a mess all day. Maybe try getting that as your first G+?