A&E strategy got us 1st in line

[SplashMo]

Even though there is not a special bag check line. It is a bit faster not having a bag.. Just a tiny bit

 

[mickey61607]

If anyone has photos of the signs they are holding, I'd love to see them!

I'd also love to hear reports of whether A/E are both there at rope drop most days. I know there have been reports of occasionally only seeing one or the other. I'm trying to get a feel for whether that's just sporadic and can't be predicted, or if it's more likely at certain times of day.

I have a picture but I have never posted one here before. If I can figure it out when I get home later today I will post it.

 

[mickey61607]

Even though there is not a special bag check line. It is a bit faster not having a bag.. Just a tiny bit

Yep! We sent our no bag people by themselves because especially with our book bag with lots of pouches, it can take a minute.

 

[mickey61607]

These are the signs that all the CMs have to guide you to the line and once your in line, these signs guide you to where you are heading!

 

[disneygogetter]

So wait what happens for the 10AM entry? What time is the best time to get in line so you can get in the A/E line to get in?

 

[mom2rtk]

These are the signs that all the CMs have to guide you to the line and once your in line, these signs guide you to where you are heading!

Thanks! It helps to know what to look for.

 

[ZJRClutter]

Can you post the picture again? It doesn't come up for me.

 

[ktlm]

Be sure it is an actual CM with an actual sign. Also, know that there are mornings that they do not have the sign and do not lead you to the meet and greet. We did it last Monday (7/14), a non EMH morning. They did not lead a line down to the meet and greet that morning. There was a guest down at the rope by the castle that everyone thought was a CM who was holding up an "Anna and Elsa line starts here sign", so people were lining up behind him. A real CM saw what was going on and came out and announced that there was not going to be any organized line that day, so the crowd got irritated at the guest who they thought was a CM and he put his sign away.

There does not appear to be any rhyme or reason to whether Elsa is there at rope drop (or during EMH). Some mornings she is, some mornings she comes out 30 minutes later, and some mornings she comes out an hour later. I still think it is best to make the morning run and gamble on it, and then just let people go in front of you until she shows up if it is a priority and she isn't there yet.


Making the run was easier than I expected, but just FYI we thought DL had fairly low crowds that Monday, so we might have gotten lucky and just picked the right day. We did A&E Monday morning for regular hours, thinking that if it was too packed and we didn't make it before the line ballooned up to 2 hours or more, that we would try again during early hours the next day. DH got to the park a few minutes after 7 and was the first person at gate 14DD and I arrived just after 7:30 and were only a few people behind him in line, and the people between us were nice and told us to just go up there with him. Once they opened the gates, DH booked it down to the castle with some Dads making the run (go to your left- the side closest to adventureland etc.). DD and I did a fast walk and we were not far behind him at all. They have been doing a line up behind a CM, but our morning they did not as set out above. After the announcement there was no line was made and everyone realized the guest with the sign was not a CM, we disbursed along the rope. DH, DD and I were all at the front of the rope. They drop the rope (at least our day) from the inner side which a CM told DH so we knew right where to stand. When the rope dropped everyone raced to the meet and greet. DH could have been first in line, but he decided to let a few of the running dads in front of him as he knew DD and I were not going to run. DD and I did a pretty fast walk, and even just doing that we would have been within the first 10 groups in line, not far back at all. DH was about 3rd or 4th. Unfortunately, Anna started out by herself (the previous morning, it had been Anna and Elsa together we heard from another guest who had done the run- and from yet another guest we heard that another morning Elsa had come out 30 minutes after opening). We just stood back and let people go in front of us. We hear that she usually comes out either 30 minutes or an hour after Anna if she is not there at opening. Unfortunately for us, it was an hour, but we stuck it out as DD wanted to meet both of them and we weren't doing it again. If we had not waited for Elsa, we would have been in line probably for 5 minutes. I would say that most people that were there before rope drop and even just walked to the meet and greet did not have much of a wait. It was a low crowd park day, and the line didn't really build up for about half an hour. It was an hour or even less for at least the first half hour the park was open. Not too long after that, it hit 2 hours and hovered there the rest of the day. It was a lot easier than I expected (other than having to wait for Elsa, which we knew was a possibility), so I guess we just hit it on the right day maybe. We kept an eye on the line as we wandered by the days we were there (if it had been short as a fluke, DD probably would have wanted to stop by), and it pretty consistently stayed at 2 hours most days and times. I was surprised it didn't go higher, as I have heard lots of stories of 3, 4, and 5 hours lines, although more from WDW than DL.

 

[nervous1sttimer]

There was a guest down at the rope by the castle that everyone thought was a CM who was holding up an "Anna and Elsa line starts here sign", so people were lining up behind him. A real CM saw what was going on and came out and announced that there was not going to be any organized line that day, so the crowd got irritated at the guest who they thought was a CM and he put his sign away.

Seriously?! What a jerk/loser. I would be so upset if I lined up behind him only to find out he was trying to make sure his family was first. Where do people come up with this stuff??

 

[mom2rtk]

There was a guest down at the rope by the castle that everyone thought was a CM who was holding up an "Anna and Elsa line starts here sign", so people were lining up behind him. A real CM saw what was going on and came out and announced that there was not going to be any organized line that day, so the crowd got irritated at the guest who they thought was a CM and he put his sign away.

What the HECK? Who does that sort of thing? I mean, they would have had to make that sign up ahead of time bring it in. Who does that?

 

[ktlm]

What the HECK? Who does that sort of thing? I mean, they would have had to make that sign up ahead of time bring it in. Who does that?

Seriously?! What a jerk/loser. I would be so upset if I lined up behind him only to find out he was trying to make sure his family was first. Where do people come up with this stuff??

Oh don't worry- there was a toddler stroller mom making the A&E run that had gotten in line behind him that totally let him have it. Giving him the benefit of a doubt, it may be that he knew that there usually is a line and where it starts and that people are always asking were it starts so he made a sign to show them (behind him though ). He did have to make the sign in advance though (which I can't imagine doing), and clearly he was hoping to be at the front of the line!

Honestly, we observed quite a bit of bad guest behavior last week, and I usually don't think the guests are significantly worse at DL/CA than they are at WDW even though there is usually large local crowd. We always run into and chat with several nice locals, as well as the tourists. I was a bit surprised at how much bad behavior we saw this trip- a ton of very blatant line cutting and pushing other guests out of spots etc. We had twice where the family directly behind us in line to see a character rushed in front of us when it was DD's turn. Once I'm pretty positive it was because they were getting ready to switch out characters and they were worried their kid wouldn't get to see the one they wanted as they had been repeatedly warning us the switch was about to happen. The other time, I have no idea why they did it. Both times the CMs appologized heavily to us. Even worse though was one time we saw a family totally bypass the character line as we were a few back in line. They waited for the CM to turn his back to tell the next family to go on up, and shoved their kid, probably 3, to the character. The kid was already hugging the character and they were already snapping photos before the CM could stop them. The CM tried to tell the parents to stop, but they ignored him. The character obviously and rightly was not goingto ignore or not interact with a small child that was hugging it already- it wasn't the child's fault. They did not take any photopass pictures of them, but I don't think they cared. All of these instances were clearly intentional- these weren't newbie mistakes. We also had an instance where we had been waiting for the fireworks for awhile, and right as they were starting a guy clearly wanted mine and DD's spot standing up against the cross rope on main street for his family, so he squeezed in front of us and brought his family with him- and by squeezed I mean he told his family to come on and physically knocked into DD and I pushing us back and taking our spot. He then proceeded to pull his IPAD out and hold it over his head to video totally blocking DD and my view of anything. But the absolute worst guest behavior I saw unfortunately happened to DD at a pin board in a shop on Main street as we were leaving the park one night. I can't remember what place it was, but it was on the left side as you are walking out and the board was positioned on a counter where you could see it from the sidewalk outside. DD, 8, spotted a Cruella pin she wanted as we were walking by but there was an adult male trading, and an adult couple behind him waiting to pin trade at the board. I told DD to get in line and if they did not trade for the pin, then she could. After she had been waiting a couple of minutes an adult male in his 20s came up behind us. The couple was just finishing up and I told her it was about her turn. She was so excited and loudly said she was going to get the Cruella pin because they had not taken it and it was her turn. The ADULT behind her heard her and obviously it was the pin he wanted because as the couple was moving out of the way, he shoved in front of DD, shoved his hand right in front of her face grabbed the Cruella pin and shoved another pin in the board with one hand and then quickly walked away. DD was so upset she was in tears. She could not believe an adult had done that to her. It's one thing when it is a kid that does something like that, but totally another when an adult who should know better treats her like that. I'm pretty sure the CM at the board had to have seen what happened and she didn't even say anything to DD or me- she turned her head the other way and didn't look at us as I guided DD away I'm guessing so she wouldn't have to interact with us. DD was upset all the way out of the park and through Downtown Disney. I know that it is a lesson for her in human behavior and that not all adults are nice or fair, but I still hate it. We were walking through World of Disney on the way back to the resort, and ran into a very nice CM that we had chatted with the night before as she was helping us find something. As we were saying Hi and talking to her, what happened came up, and she was so sweet that she gave DD a pin to make up for what happened to her and told DD how sad it made her that someone had acted like that. That made DD feel better. Gotta love Disney CMs. Although we saw quite a bit of rude behavior, don't let that impact anyone. There were still a ton of nice, friendly, fun polite guests, and 99.9 percent of the CMs we ran across were terrific