Everything Rope Drop

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I’ll be staying at Pop Century next week and have park tickets for Epcot. I haven’t been to Disney here in the US in 7 years (have been to Tokyo DisneySea since) so I don’t really have any strategy per se. I’m a total newb!
—The main “big ticket” and/or long wait attractions we want to ride are Soarin’ and Frozen Ever After. The others (Spaceship Earth, etc.) don’t require running at road drop.

—Our plan was to take the skyliner from Pop Century to Epcot before the park opens. However, I see that the SkyLiner drops off in the International Gateway, which is a bit far from Soarin. Would it make more sense to take a different mode of transportation (does another form of transportation drop off at the main entrance, and would this be a faster location from which to head to Soarin’?)

—If not, is entering from the Gateway, walking to Soarin, and then trying to head to Frozen feasible?

thanks!!
As scrappinginontario said, the way to use Disney transportation to get to Epcot's main entrance is to walk to Art of Animation and take the bus from there. However, that is not what I would do in your situation. I would take the skyliner to Epcot's International Gateway and go first to Frozen Ever After at rope drop. While people entering from the main entrance have a slight edge on getting to Soarin', those entering from the IG have an edge (again slight) in getting to FEA. The wait times later in the day aren't too much different between the two rides, although I saw that Frozen had longer average times over the Memorial Day weekend. (See the article here.) With the late opening time, so many people arrive at Epcot for rope drop that it will be hard to go on multiple headliner rides before the lines build either way.
 
We will be staying at Wyndham Bonnet Creek. If we wanted to rope drop Magic Kingdom which opens at 8:00 the day we're going. Also, what would the best way to get there be. We will have a car.
 
If MK is officially opening at 8am, expect it to actually let people in and have many rides operating 30-50 minutes earlier. So you want to target being ready at the park tapstyles no later than 7:15am to be in front of the ropedrop crowd.

During the pandemic they started only letting cars into the lot about 60 minutes prior to opening, not sure if they’ll continue with that as they used to let cars in earlier. You’ll also need to factor in the time to cross the lagoon on the ferry or monorail to get to MK entrance.

One other thing to consider is starting around Oct 1st MK 50th celebration the early entry will only be for onsite guests. Nobody really knows exactly how that’ll work.
 
For Animal Kingdom, with an 8am opening, staying at Pop, does it make sense to be in line for the bus to AK at 6:30am (or sooner)? Also, is there a good app to use to track the buses?

Also, does Pop ever serve breakfast earlier than 7 or does it make more sense to grab a bite in the park?
 


For Animal Kingdom, with an 8am opening, staying at Pop, does it make sense to be in line for the bus to AK at 6:30am (or sooner)? Also, is there a good app to use to track the buses?

Also, does Pop ever serve breakfast earlier than 7 or does it make more sense to grab a bite in the park?
I would totally do this. In February, we went to Pop's bus stop at 7:40 for a 9 a.m. opening at MK and saw there was still a fairly long line on the AK bus line (I think they had an 8 a.m. opening but not sure...could have been 9). MK we made it on the 5th bus going at that time.
 
I would totally do this. In February, we went to Pop's bus stop at 7:40 for a 9 a.m. opening at MK and saw there was still a fairly long line on the AK bus line (I think they had an 8 a.m. opening but not sure...could have been 9). MK we made it on the 5th bus going at that time.
Great context, thanks! So for MK, there were enough people to fill four buses before you? Wow. I've heard that the lines are a lot. Thanks for sharing.
 


As scrappinginontario said, the way to use Disney transportation to get to Epcot's main entrance is to walk to Art of Animation and take the bus from there. However, that is not what I would do in your situation. I would take the skyliner to Epcot's International Gateway and go first to Frozen Ever After at rope drop. While people entering from the main entrance have a slight edge on getting to Soarin', those entering from the IG have an edge (again slight) in getting to FEA. The wait times later in the day aren't too much different between the two rides, although I saw that Frozen had longer average times over the Memorial Day weekend. (See the article here.) With the late opening time, so many people arrive at Epcot for rope drop that it will be hard to go on multiple headliner rides before the lines build either way.
Thank you so much, and thank you to all who have responded! I think that’s a great idea!
 
Great context, thanks! So for MK, there were enough people to fill four buses before you? Wow. I've heard that the lines are a lot. Thanks for sharing.
At Pop they are quick - bus after bus - and it truly ran like clockwork when we were there. We still arrived well before the MK official opening. I was pretty impressed considering the number of people there and 6-ft social distancing, those lines were snaking! Yet very organized, much better than our CSR experience (and I love CSR but erg on the bus situation which hopefully has improved).
 
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Thanks for the reply! I didn't know that about the buses, so I'm glad I asked! AoA was almost $300 additional per night, and truthfully for a short trip thats just not worth it to me. Maybe if we were going to go to HS more than once, but its only one day for us! I guess we will just cross our fingers that the CBR line isnt horribly long! Could also consider an uber to HS as well I guess!
I have the same question about Pop! I wish I was staying at CBR so I could avoid the transfer. Does anyone have any experience w this?
also, how far is the walk from Pop to Art of Animation to try to catch their buses?
 
I have the same question about Pop! I wish I was staying at CBR so I could avoid the transfer. Does anyone have any experience w this?
also, how far is the walk from Pop to Art of Animation to try to catch their buses?
Sorry, I'm not understanding your first question re, 'Does anyone have any experience with this?' Can you please clarify?

Re: walk from Pop to Art of Animation is very short, just across Generation Gap bridge. Walk from Pop buses to AoA buses is probably 6-8 mins.
 
Sorry, I'm not understanding your first question re, 'Does anyone have any experience with this?' Can you please clarify?

Re: walk from Pop to Art of Animation is very short, just across Generation Gap bridge. Walk from Pop buses to AoA buses is probably 6-8 mins.
Sure! I meant does anyone have experience transferring at CBR, either good or bad
 
Sure! I meant does anyone have experience transferring at CBR, either good or bad
Thanks. I'm guessing this is about Skyliner?

There are a lot of experiences in this thread. Longer lines to transfer at park openings and closing. Virtually none any other time of the day.

At park opening and closing the lines can be long but on constantly moving so people don't seem to find it too bad.
 
The Epcot park opens at 11 but they were letting people go as far as they wanted to go around 10ish. When the park officially opened at 11 yesterday (Tuesday) the line for TT was all the way to the corner where you turn to go down the stretch to get to World Showcase (105 min). We were in line for Frozen and the line ended on the other side of China and was around 60 minutes but the line constantly moved. Figment at one time had a line that was out the door. We did AK today (Wednesday) we walked in the park at 7:45 and did Navi first (25 min) wait then the line for Pandora was all the way next to the theatre for the Lion King show and was a solid 105 min wait but once again the line felt like it was moving but very slowly. Everest line at one point was almost all the way to Nemo and Kali River Rapids was at times almost an hour wait.
 
Anyone know what time they are allowing cars into parking lots these days? What time should I aim to arrive at the AKL and Epcot lots to be among the first few cars in?
 
We have 2 days at DHS the first week of September (first time trip) and I'm wondering what to rope drop on the second day. The first day we plan to rope drop Slinky Dog followed by the rest of Toy Story Land, then hit most Star Wars later in the day after an afternoon break. (Hoping to get Rise this day too.) I considered Mickey & Minnie's Runaway Railway for the second day rope drop, but I read that gets shorter later in the day. Now I'm thinking about heading to Sunset Blvd for Rockin Rollercoaster and Tower of Terror for rope drop. I don't think my kids (8 & 4) are going to tolerate the long lines for those later in the day. We all can ride Tower of Terror, but my youngest isn't tall enough for Rockin' Rollercoaster so we will need to do rider swap. If we do Tower of Terror first, then rider swap with Rockin' Rollercoaster next, is the Lightning McQueen show open first thing in the morning for me to do with my youngest while we wait for our first swap group to finish? Is there anything else I can do with him on Sunset Blvd. while we wait? He is 4.5 years old and about 43" tall.
 
What is everyone's #1 rope drop (RD) priority attraction nowadays for each parks. Has it changed since covid began to what you used to RD. For example, do we make a beeline now to jungle cruise?! And at DHS, do you go first to slinky dog dash (sdd) or do try mmr new attraction? Where do you all go first and is it different from what you used to rd?
We're heading down this weekend so I'm laser focused on our RD plans. I've asked the family for their top priorities this trip because nothing is guaranteed so I want to make sure we hit everyone's must-dos.

For DHS, SDD is one of my boys' #1 to do. We were there 3 years ago and our last day was one week before TSL opened so we missed it. We have 3 DHS park reservations, so I'm going with the masses on our first DHS day to hit SDD first. Another day we will prioritize ToT and RnR. Hoping by the thirds DHS day, we can avoid RD.

For MK, I've been really worried about these JC times - but since it seems like it doesn't open early, I think we'll head to Frontierland and hit BTMR and Splash and then back to JC and POTC. Out second MK day we will head to Tomorrowland.

For AK, I think FOP is the obvious choice. But I'm hoping to hop to AK one day earlier in the week and hit some of our favorites in the last two hours of the day, just to make sure we can get multiple rides in.

I anticipate that the schools-out crowd will really be packing the parks next week with us, so it will be interesting to see how the later hours of the day work out compared to RD.
 
We usually drive to Animal Kingdom from OKW. It's the only park we don't catch a bus. Are buses still being let in before cars? If so, how long are buses held?

Thank you!
 
Can someone remind me which way to go at HS while waiting to get in first thing in the morning? I know I read it several times (stay to the right or stay to the left), but for the life of me, I can't remember which. :) Thanks!
 
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