BWV, BCV, screwed for guardians RD?

[Former DVC Owner]

I have rope dropped guardians from the front. It is a mad house. If they release crescent lake people from the friendship entrance at the same time the mass of humanity is released by the Spaceship Earth then the crescent lake people are way behind schedule and by the time they get to guardians there are like 500 people already in line.

So this makes me feel like BCV and BWV don’t actually have a “close to the park” advantage. Heck, you’d be better off staying at Old Key West then Beach Club if rope dropping is your priority.

 

[kilik64]

Front of park people are screwed for remy, win some lose some. And frozen too really.

 

[VGCgroupie]

I have rope dropped Guardians from both entrances. We waited less time when we entered from International Gateway. Could’ve been the day but it seemed to me to be just as hard of a walk from both places.

 

[Cyberc1978]

I know everyone is different but as long as there aren’t more control with the mad house which happens at rope drop I’m not participating.

 

[HyperspaceMountainPilot]

I have rope dropped guardians from the front. It is a mad house. If they release crescent lake people from the friendship entrance at the same time the mass of humanity is released by the Spaceship Earth then the crescent lake people are way behind schedule and by the time they get to guardians there are like 500 people already in line.

So this makes me feel like BCV and BWV don’t actually have a “close to the park” advantage. Heck, you’d be better off staying at Old Key West then Beach Club if rope dropping is your priority.

We haven’t tried it for guardians but we did years ago for Test Track and we hauled (practically jogging with 2 preschoolers in a stroller) across the park, and by the time we got to TT the line said over 50 minutes…it may be the day and general luck, but it has put me off rope dropping at WDW.

 

[808blessing]

remi baby!!

 

[kboo]

I've not bothered trying to RD Guardians when coming from IG - instead, we try to RD Remy, and pay for the Single LL for Guardians.

Indeed, when we aren't bringing first timers, we sometimes won't bother with LLMP at Epcot because:

• RD Remy
• Guardians ILL and/or end of night (8:55 pm)* and/or evening extra hours (10+ pm)
• Test Track single rider
• Frozen - ok to miss now that kids are older, or get in line at 10:55p if we aren't in line for Guardians.

I have a ride picture with my kids on Frozen (they're arms up and yelling, I am pretending to sleep) that has a time stamp around 11:55 pm.

We have managed to ride Guardians 2x during evening hours, after watching fireworks from around the Odyssey building or that side of the park. But then we miss Soarin.

 

[Former DVC Owner]

Thanks everyone. You confirmed that we will never stay at crescent lake. We love guardians and we thought Remy Ratatouille adventure sucked. It was a worse Mickey and Minnie runaway railway.

 

[airjay75]

I actually feel like the key to having the best early entry is to target the rides that other people are not. Then, save your lightning lanes for the ones that people are targeting during rope drop. Yeah, that may mean you have to pay for LLSPs, as those tend to be the more popular rides during EE, but I think it makes for a more enjoyable time personally.

Also, if you have your own car and you're staying at RIV/BCV/BWV, you can always just drive to Epcot if rope dropping Guardians or Test Track is a priority. Could Uber/Lyft too - but, again, I'd probably just pay for the LLSPs.

 

[AstroBlasters]

Thanks everyone. You confirmed that we will never stay at crescent lake. We love guardians and we thought Remy Ratatouille adventure sucked. It was a worse Mickey and Minnie runaway railway.

One less person to compete against. I’ll just pay for a LLSP and enjoy the ability to walk back to the room for an afternoon nap or head into World Showcase for a date night.

 

[Wedgeout]

My experience coming in from back International is focus on Remy or Frozen. From the main entrance Cosmic Rewind & Test Track.

Now this week’s attack plan results for EPCOT (9am regular opening. 8:30am Early) Resort BLT. Goal is Early as possible. Contemporary security 6:50am. The monorail starts running to TTC (7:54am).

Exit for transfer. (Have to go to lower entrance for the EPCOT monorail (7:03am) & stand by for chain opening for first monorail to EPCOT (7:20am). EPCOT station reached this day (7:35am…about 30 seconds too late to beat incoming folks on site).

Scan into park & hit Early Entry line (7:38am & was within first 100). Great part this visit: 4 lines with them prescanning walking the line. About 8:00am they escort and hold at back side of Spaceship Earth (where would exit ride). 8:15am escort moved with branching off to other locations.

They escorted us directly to Cosmic Rewind line, with a short stand by outside. Let into building reaching pre-show by the 8:30am start of your 30min buffer. Had time to then get to Test Track line 8:55am (before the masses released)….enjoy rest of your day!

So goal from your resort is reach EPCOT main security by 7:30am. Whatever that takes or whatever your first mode of transportation running starts.

 

[HyperspaceMountainPilot]

My experience coming in from back International is focus on Remy or Frozen. From the main entrance Cosmic Rewind & Test Track.

Now this week’s attack plan results for EPCOT (9am regular opening. 8:30am Early) Resort BLT. Goal is Early as possible. Contemporary security 6:50am. The monorail starts running to TTC (7:54am).

Exit for transfer. (Have to go to lower entrance for the EPCOT monorail (7:03am) & stand by for chain opening for first monorail to EPCOT (7:20am). EPCOT station reached this day (7:35am…about 30 seconds too late to beat incoming folks on site).

Scan into park & hit Early Entry line (7:38am & was within first 100). Great part this visit: 4 lines with them prescanning walking the line. About 8:00am they escort and hold at back side of Spaceship Earth (where would exit ride). 8:15am escort moved with branching off to other locations.

They escorted us directly to Cosmic Rewind line, with a short stand by outside. Let into building reaching pre-show by the 8:30am start of your 30min buffer. Had time to then get to Test Track line 8:55am (before the masses released)….enjoy rest of your day!

So goal from your resort is reach EPCOT main security by 7:30am. Whatever that takes or whatever your first mode of transportation running starts.

I am happy for you but all I can think of is “OMG you had to leave your room before 6:45 and stand around for an hour from 7:30-8:30….this is validating my decision not to rope drop!”

Seriously though I think it’s great— I’m one less person you’re competing with at rope drop, and the OP is one less person I’m competing with to snag a 7mo reservation at the Beach Club of Broken EE Dreams.

 

[Wedgeout]

I am happy for you but all I can think of is “OMG you had to leave your room before 6:45 and stand around for an hour from 7:30-8:30….this is validating my decision not to rope drop!”

Seriously though I think it’s great— I’m one less person you’re competing with at rope drop, and the OP is one less person I’m competing with to snag a 7mo reservation at the Beach Club of Broken EE Dreams.

Yep…mentally it’s a lot of time but it’s not standing in one spot time. When accomplish it, you have a jump the rest of the whole regular park time hours, already 1-2 rides in.

 

[JackosinDIS]

Yep…mentally it’s a lot of time but it’s not standing in one spot time. When accomplish it, you have a jump the rest of the whole regular park time hours, already 1-2 rides in.

Totally with you here. We always rope drop for the first few days of our trip (we have jet lag anyway coming from Europe so usually awake at 4am). IF it works, then it is a massive jump on the day and you can easily have everything done by lunch time in most parks.

However, we have also had some epic fails… particular HWS when Rise does not open on time and in the same day Slinky also down. Nothing worse than feeling like you’ve spent 2 hours queuing for nothing!

Same at MK this year when we were in the first bunch for SDMT but it didn’t open until well in to EE period. Ended up abandoning the queue and doing tea cups!

This seems to happy about 30% of the time now, maybe I’m just unlucky.

 

[HyperspaceMountainPilot]

Yep…mentally it’s a lot of time but it’s not standing in one spot time. When accomplish it, you have a jump the rest of the whole regular park time hours, already 1-2 rides in.

I get it. We sometimes rope drop in China and Japan and it’s an incredible feeling, but I also think that the new generation of rides with long preshows (and only 30 extra minutes) has made the tradeoff (of my precious sleep) less rewarding.

Totally with you here. We always rope drop for the first few days of our trip (we have jet lag anyway coming from Europe so usually awake at 4am). IF it works, then it is a massive jump on the day and you can easily have everything done by lunch time in most parks.

This is the way to rope drop. Maybe one month I’ll do the parks around the world always traveling West and try to hit all the rope drops.

However, we have also had some epic fails… particular HWS when Rise does not open on time and in the same day Slinky also down. Nothing worse than feeling like you’ve spent 2 hours queuing for nothing!

…This seems to happy about 30% of the time now, maybe I’m just unlucky.

The operational uncertainties are a huge bummer—with rope drop it’s especially painful but it’s also a nightmare when your first LLMP is a double tap (looking at you slinky dog) and they just pause operations for a while so you can’t get a new LL while good return times vaporize.

 

[DCL58]

Just did rope drop from the Poly. We arrived right at 8:30, so we were a little behind already. We went straight to TT, which said it had a 50 minute wait, but we were done riding in about 20 minutes. We went straight to Guardians after and were out in 30 minutes. This worked out great for us.

 

[Wedgeout]

Just did rope drop from the Poly. We arrived right at 8:30, so we were a little behind already. We went straight to TT, which said it had a 50 minute wait, but we were done riding in about 20 minutes. We went straight to Guardians after and were out in 30 minutes. This worked out great for us.

Nice!! When we got over to Test Track (EE period about to expire) after Cosmic Rewind and it too was a posted 50. We caught line in the second room before the elevated switchback to boarding & also took just the 20 to complete.

 

[crazycatlady]

When we enter through the IG, we make sure we line up early for RD so that we get on Rat as soon as it opens and then hoof it back to Guardians before the non EE people are let loose. Most times we only wait about 20 minutes for Guardians, which works for us. We use LLMP for TT, Soarin', and SE and since I try to get those at early times, we use them early and start collecting for our evening park early. The other rides in FW are fairly easy to get on without LL and if the times are unsatisfactory by the time we get there, we just wait for a different day for those. We eat lunch in the parks, take the afternoon off to rest and cool down, and then go to our 2nd park of the day in the late afternoon with the 3 LLs we collected early in the day. This has been a good strategy for us.

Since we don't travel with kids, Frozen is not a priority for us.

 

[ShaneDJ]

LLPP solves these problems. And we can sleep-in.

 

[atthebeachclub]

The benefit of Crescent Lake resorts isn’t for rope drop; it’s so you can wander into Epcot for a nightcap of fireworks and food and you don’t have to deal with any traffic going home.