Current state of Rope Drop

[Orsino]

As I stand here waiting for a non-operational Rent’s Rat Ride to open, I’m contemplating the current state of Rope Drop at Walt Disney World. Over the years we have had great mornings at Disney. Getting up early had been so worth it in the past. The last two days have not been good. And the people around me are sharing stories of what was down for them on previous days too.
Yesterday we were at MK and 7DMT was down at EE open. Pooh was down too. At 9am regular open, PP went down and big thunder did not operate. It was a bad morning.
Today Remy has been down. Looks like it is going up at 10:40. Also not a good morning. We ended up waiting two hours to ride Remy if you count the getting up early. All that for one ride and not in position to take advantage of low crowds after. It just isn’t what it used to be which is okay, just reality.

Think rope drop is a risk. It could work out or it could be a mess. I’m trying to figure out if I should bother later this trip to try again or not. I think the benefits of rope drop are less now, even if you are there really early. Add in the risk and the fact that so many more people show up early… I think nighttime might be the new rope drop.

 

[Rm4OneMore]

We've been discussing this in our house as well. We rope dropped Splash Mt. in June and waited 45 minutes in line until a CM was allowed to tell us it wasn't opening anytime soon. It does seem that evening hours during the week have the best low wait times.

 

[Bahamontes]

I also noticed a change on my last two visits (August and November) I’m a RD devotee for lots of reasons - I’m up anyway, so I may as well drink coffee in the parks - but many of those are fading.

To wit, I used to RD AK to ensure a FoP ride without a wait. I’ve been able to walk on at park close and with ILL, so that motivation has waned. I assume that RotR will go down at some point in the day, and RD doesn’t help much in GE anyway.

So part of it is the new processes - restricted hopping and G+/ILL. And a lot of it can be attributed to the staffing issues that the world is enduring now. I’ll still get there early, but if I walked in once the park was open-open, I no longer feel like I’m missing out.

 

[LA Poolboy]

I also noticed a change on my last two visits (August and November) I’m a RD devotee for lots of reasons - I’m up anyway, so I may as well drink coffee in the parks - but many of those are fading.

To wit, I used to RD AK to ensure a FoP ride without a wait. I’ve been able to walk on at park close and with ILL, so that motivation has waned. I assume that RotR will go down at some point in the day, and RD doesn’t help much in GE anyway.

So part of it is the new processes - restricted hopping and G+/ILL. And a lot of it can be attributed to the staffing issues that the world is enduring now. I’ll still get there early, but if I walked in once the park was open-open, I no longer feel like I’m missing out.

I understand your point, but for us last week if we had not rope dropped we would not have ridden much at all. We rode Remy on Day 1 at rope drop. Without that we would never have waited in that line and I am just NOT paying for ILL. We rope dropped RotR at HS and they let us in about 7:30 for an 8:30 early morning and 9:00 actual opening. We thought we had won the lottery until we stood in the queue cave for literally an hour. Line started moving at 8:30. 7DMT at MK same thing except we weren't in a cave. FOP for my wife same thing. Without the rope drop at early entry we would have done a lot of atmosphere absorption and that's about it. We were fortunate that the rides were broken down.

 

[Bahamontes]

Totally get that. I am a sucker for ILL - I see a ton of value for me, but I’m always solo or with one other person. In November, walking right on to Remy amidst huge crowds of virtual queue folks was well worth the $8.

I stayed offsite, hit all 4 parks, and managed to ride almost two dozen rides. The only time I spent all day in a queue was at MMRR. I can’t recall a time in the RD/FP days where I got close to that little waiting.

 

[gharter]

RD, if you stay onsite can work well if you are there early and the ride doesn't breakdown (such as happened to us with 7DMT)
But as a PP noted, you need to know which rides are open early. Sadly, Splash is one that is usually closed at EE.
Evening hours worked really well for us, but currently, its only 2 parks.

 

[DisneyFive]

Honestly, it's hard to call it "rope drop" anymore. It's more like, we'll open the park 1+ hours early so that you can funnel in and stand in line outside waiting, then after waiting outside you will be allowed to wait again in your first ride queue.

I'm not sure how ETPE is helping this for those that can "rope drop".

I guess my point is, standing around is standing around. This past summer we needed to be at the park about an hour early to ride a headliner with "low wait" After getting to the park 1 hour early, they would then typically let you into a queue 30 minutes early. So the waiting in the park, and then waiting in the ride queue was typically about 45 minutes anyway. ...and by the time you got done with that ONE ride, the other queues were mostly full already. Before these recent changes by Disney we could be at the park about 10 minutes before open and still get at least a couple of rides with truly low waits. That typically lasted about an hour after park opening.

G+ HAS to help versus this past summers situation. At least I can book a few headliners in a day without having to be in the park an hour before open.

I'll be curious how much ETPE is really helping Disney resort guests too. Will it feel just as swamped in the morning if you show up 1 hour before official open like this past summer, or will it be improved.

Either way, thing now a huge step change from pre Covid years.

Dan

 

[stinkpickle]

We had rides down at both rope drop and extra evening hours last week. Can't win.