Do you HAVE to Rope Drop?

[mi*vida*loca]

For my family RD means arriving about 10 minutes before park open or right at park opening. We don't arrive 45-60 minutes early. We "rope drop" each park once, do midday break and then go to a PM park at the beginning of the trip because we are running on pure adrenaline and just want to be IN the parks. After that we do late starts and shut down the parks. You can get TONS done the last 1-2 hours. Next trip we have 10 day hoppers. We have 4 days of our modified RD and then 6 days of sleeping in and starting a bit later. With FP+ RD isn't as necessary IMO.

 

[ELLH]

There's certainly an advantage to rope dropping during busier times (and the past couple years have shown there isn't really a 'down time' at WDW anymore). But is that advantage important enough for you to change your morning routine? Your call. Plus, what is 'early' to you is sleeping in to others... a 9 am RD would be sleeping in to me. A week full of 7-8am RDs, however, wouldn't be my idea of fun.

I routinely wake up for work at 5:15 am but my natural state is a 'night person' if left to my own devices. If it were up to my wife we'd RD every morning and stay until 3am every night (she lives on very little sleep; how I don't know). But since my daughter and myself like to sleep in sometimes, my family does a mix and we often play it by ear. We usually book our first FP for a park about 1-2 hours after opening. That gives us the luxury of a) rope dropping and getting anywhere from 3 to 6 rides in before the rest of the slacker world shows up or b) being slackers and sleeping in. Our upcoming December trip is a 6-day park trip and we plan to RD three of those days. I know at least one of the remaining days we will be sleeping in because we are doing AH until 1am the night before. The remaining two days are TBD depending on what we feel like doing.

Besides, all things equal, I'd rather wake up early for RD than deal with the mass of exiting crowds at park closing (and we drive our own car to the parks).

 

[TwinkleKS]

We go at the busiest times of the year ... and pretty much never rope drop. We did one time for a last minute July trip right after Pandora opened when we wanted to ride FOP, then maybe another time when we wanted to be the first in line for Frozen in Epcot, but that is about it. It's just not our style anymore. I think the main reason is that we go often enough (at least once a year) that we don't feel the pressure to do everything and see everything every single trip. And when you are one of those corny Disney families, you can be quite happy on the Carousel of Progress and the Tikki House - it's part of the fun.

 

[chelseabun76]

I wish we could sleep in. lol This trip in a few weeks is with my son (8) who is up most mornings at 6:30, even on weekends, even after staying up until after 10pm. I'm hoping Disney wears him out to the point where he will sleep until at least 7am. So, we'll be rope dropping most of our trip just because we'll be up and ready and why not. There are a few mornings it's just not necessary, so we'll just relax at the resort even if we are up early. I'm not doing it every single day.

 

[Forevermarypoppins]

For a week long vacation, I can do it twice. I'm more of a LATE night person. Also, it depends on what time of the year I go, since parks close much earlier in the Fall.

 

[sponica]

I think I was more intent on rope dropping when I was never sure if/when I'd be back. But now that we've settled into an every other year pattern, I don't need it as much. If we make it, we make it, if we don't, we don't.

 

[Pdollar88]

I have been an avid rope dropper for my last few trips, both solo and otherwise. Now that I’ve been quite a few times in the past year, I’m making a point to not RD every day this next trip.

I’m hoping I can keep this trip more relaxed and prove to my RD mind that it isn’t always necessary. I think that would make me a more pleasant travel partner.

 

[Lovetherodent]

I love the RD, and when I go with my girls, we're all about it, although like a couple of you, we arrive as park opens, not an hour or even half hour before. However, especially during the seasons of long hours, one can get a lot done during the evening EMH. I am not a night person and those kill me, but they are often even less crowded than the early morning. If you don't want to RD, spend the am at the pool and hit the parks later.

 

[Babe the Blue Ox]

Here's my favorite Rope Drop story:

I had a co-worker recently telling me about her trip to Disney World. They seemed to be pretty good planners and tried to maximize their time the best they could.

She was very excited to tell me about her experience riding Midway Mania without a Fast Pass. The got up really early, got to the gates about 45 minutes before they opened and waited in a pretty large crowd. Then they hurried as fast as they could to the ride and the wait was *only* 15 minutes. By the time they got off the line was almost an hour long. There were people all over the place.

I rode the same ride 4 times in about an hour late at night and didn't have to deal with the crowds.

 

[soccermom54]

When our children were growing up and we took them to WDW every summer, we would rope drop everyday of every trip. Now that it is just DH and I, and we live close enough to WDW to do day trips, we only rope drop when there is an attraction that I must do and could not get a FP for. We are one of those "corny Disney families" (I love that!) who enjoys the less popular attractions that do not need a FP, loads quickly and you can pretty much enjoy any time of day So, I think rope drop is great if you can manage it but you can still have a wonderful park experience, have your morning coffee, read the newspaper, and then head out.

 

[wareagle57]

I am far from a morning person, except at Disney. But one underrated part of rope drop that I haven't seen anyone mention yet is the excitement and the buildup.

Even though the time spent waiting there for the park to open seems to go so slow, I love the anticipation. There is just something about being one of the first people there, walking to your car or the bus stop in the quiet of the morning, sometimes not even seeing another person. Magic Kingdom is my favorite park to RD for the same reason. At the other parks I'm always heading for a high priority attraction so there are tons of people around. But at MK the first hour or so in Frontierland and Adventureland is as good as it gets. I just love feeling like I have Disney to myself.

 

[QueenElinor]

I am far from a morning person, except at Disney. But one underrated part of rope drop that I haven't seen anyone mention yet is the excitement and the buildup.

Even though the time spent waiting there for the park to open seems to go so slow, I love the anticipation. There is just something about being one of the first people there, walking to your car or the bus stop in the quiet of the morning, sometimes not even seeing another person. Magic Kingdom is my favorite park to RD for the same reason. At the other parks I'm always heading for a high priority attraction so there are tons of people around. But at MK the first hour or so in Frontierland and Adventureland is as good as it gets. I just love feeling like I have Disney to myself.

I was a SW fan before SW was cool ( Trekkies laughed at me 'cuz 'It's not REAL scifi'- who's laughing now, huh? ) and was surprised by the Stormtroopers who showed up at the EPCOT while we were waiting in line. This was probably over a decade ago, well before Disney bought the franchise. I didn't even know they'd be there. Made my whole week!

I am a morning person, super early- I make myself stay in bed if it's not 5 am yet.... as I have gotten older I just don't need to sleep that much. That is not true for DH or any of my kids. They all understand the utility of RD, so we compensate with long afternoon breaks and come back to the parks in the evening. Even so, about 3 days into it, I schedule a late start just to avoid a mutiny.

 

[goofyernmost]

I have been going to WDW since 1983, at least once a year (total 45 times). That's over 35 years. I have been to one MK Rope Drop, one Epcot RD and one DHS RD (to get my grandson in to Jedi training). So I guess that Rope Drop isn't necessary. You do need to get there early if you want to take advantage of the morning smaller lines. I have found that after 10 am people start to show up in larger quantities and that makes the lines longer and puts waiting in queues a bit longer.

 

[PracticallyPrincessPeyton]

Lots of people don't rope drop and still do everything they want to. I'm a rope drop person but others swear by getting in line for popular rides right near closing. There is a strategy for everyone.

Totally agree with this! I like doing rope drop (particularly at MK), but my mom and I actually get the most rides in on our favorite attractions (i.e BTMR) right before the park closes. In the hour before the park closes, we are often able to ride Big Thunder at least 3 or 4 times. So I don't think it necessary at all to be at the parks for rope drop- just a preference

 

[b5sgqueen]

I think it comes down to "once in a lifetime trip" vs. "go regularly." I will have a shot to go to WDW in Spring for the first time in decades. I intend to RD because it's the only way to get stuff done.
If I went once a year, or even once every few years I would probably take a different approach, but it's expensive and I want to get as much done as I can so RD it is.

 

[captaindavidhook]

just my two cents but I very rarely do rope drop anymore. I rather sleep in a little bit and get to the parks when I can

 

[PetePanMan]

We don't do as many RD's as we used to but even the non-morning people in our fam like going to 2-3 each trip - normally MK and AK. The lower wait times are great but we also like the cooler, quieter, less chaotic atmosphere. It can be similar before close as well but we prefer morning.

 

[Mikey15]

This may shock some people here but in 5 separate trips over the last 8 years, I can only think of once where we entered a park before noon. Mind you, these were adult, offsite trips, but to our group the mornings are for swimming, leisurely breakfast at the unit, or Dunkin, IHOP, wherever on the way to a park. We get there when we get there.

...And we still get everything we want done. We like the Party nights at MK especially for being able to do multiple rides late night on things we like. Rope drop works well for others for the same reason that closing out the parks works for us.

 

[slpeters]

We rope-dropped every day. Actually we did EMH every day as well. For us the first hour or two was by far the best part of every day. On the other hand we arrived somewhere between 10 minutes before park opening and 5 minutes after park opening every day (no standing in lines to avoid lines for us) and never followed the crowd to the rope drop ride. You certainly don't have to rope drop and many people don't--frankly if everyone did it wouldn't work...

 

[Redbudlover]

I have been to WDW over 40 times in the past 10 years and have RD and not RD and mixed it up. I am naturally a night person and love the parties for the rides without lines. With FP I stopped doing RD, with still getting to the park by ten, but have had two interesting trips that now have changed my strategy.
First I ROpe dropped AK because I couldn’t get an FP for FOP. Literally waited in line for 2 hours. Then we tried riding it at park close and waited for 30 minutes! I was stunned. But still was not totally convinced later was better until my last trip with a late nite veteran girlfriend. We stayed late every night, had nice breakfasts, and rode more rides than I ever have before. With FP and being able to refresh you can get additional FPs later in the evening easier than you can late afternoon. It was incredible. No more RDs for me!