FoP Rope Drop a Bust Today (Friday 11/8)

[Christine]

Thank you! I will let her know. I forgot about MK closing early. She is at the park with my parents (while I sit here at home in NJ! LOL). They are at dinner at the RF cafe now. I'm not sure if my parents will want to go back in to give it a shot.

it’s worth it but they need to hold out until about 7:45 then go to the entrance of the ride. They won’t get much benefit if they go earlier.

 

[DGsAtBLT]

I understand... I'm a morning person so I don't mind getting to the park early. And I have yet to have any success with day of FP for FoP.

We just got home from a trip where we took full advantage of the EEMH at DHS and MK. We got to DHS at like 540! I’m still proud of us lol.

I can do the very early mornings, I just don’t think FoP (or really, any single ride) is worth arriving 90 mins before opening for us.

 

[Lumpy1106]

Half of 135 minutes was still too much for RD with a 1 hour early arrival. Total wait time would have clocked at over 2 hours. I think I truly prefer a park close ride which has never taken more than 35 minutes.

I get the math, but what were you going to do instead? The park isn't open. * - Sleep? Hah! You're on vacation. you aren't paying to sleep. The line isn't getting shorter and there aren't a ton of rides in AK. You're going to run out of things to do if you don't eventually bite the bullet and stand in a line.

Somewhat kidding of course. EVERYONE RD's FoP, so you could circle the park counter-clockwise and do everything else first - no line for anything. Not a bad strategy.

* - Note that my wife would also rather sleep

 

[Christine]

I get the math, but what were you going to do instead? The park isn't open. * - Sleep? Hah! You're on vacation. you aren't paying to sleep. The line isn't getting shorter and there aren't a ton of rides in AK. You're going to run out of things to do if you don't eventually bite the bullet and stand in a line.

Somewhat kidding of course. EVERYONE RD's FoP, so you could circle the park counter-clockwise and do everything else first - no line for anything. Not a bad strategy.

* - Note that my wife would also rather sleep

I don’t want to sleep. I want to wait the least amount of time in line. Getting up super early and standing in various holding areas obviously isn’t for me when I can wait for far less time at park closing.

 

[gharter]

I'm always amazed what a difference 10 or 15 minutes can make at RD.

 

[Sarahslay]

I've only ever braved RD for FOP once, back in June, when I was solo and happened to wake up at 4:30am for no reason so I went ahead and left around 5:30 for a 7am EMH. I was 12 people back from the front of the line and got off the ride at 7:03, I then went on to ride every other ride in the park, stopped at Starbucks, and was out shortly after 9. Even though I got on early that is the most stressful RD I have ever done, and I won't do it again, I much rather prefer going right before park close if I don't have a FP, so much more chill.

 

[shocker]

OP - I think I would have stuck it out. You are still there before the FP's start to return so the line will go REALLY fast. As other's have stated, the actual line time is generally 1/2 what is being posted for the first hour.

I would have stuck it out too. The OP described the first time the line stopped they were very far away. This plus posting a long wait time are 2 of the line manipulation techniques used at opening.

To anyone reading this thread & planning, if you are held up at all for a rope to drop you are in a good position.

For EMH, they frequently shunt people through to FP entrance & by pass the interior snake lines & lab areas. This allows crowds to build outside where you can see & feel defeated by staying. I've been in line out by the river walkway & bathrooms near Lion King show & still walked off FOP shortly after stated opening time.

I've seen similar techniques used at 7DMT, allowing line to wrap around fence out on sidewalk, but then have huge internal chunks of wait area be bypassed once inside. They know exactly which areas can't be seen from the exterior sidewalks & all you'll see is gobs of people & choose to go elsewhere.

EMH hour has no FP cutting going on & these lines can be very efficient without that.

 

[RADOPT]

You're on vacation. you aren't paying to sleep.

Some of us are because it is the only time we get to. Vacation = more sleep.

 

[krayzie]

So are people running to the rides at rope drop or just walking really fast? I imagine a black friday type scenario.

 

[toolmanjan]

I RD FOP every trip 2-3 times a year. I get there at about 7:20 when the park opens at 8. I’m usually leaving the park at 8:45 after my ride. The line is alway too long for a second ride by that time.

 

[Christine]

So are people running to the rides at rope drop or just walking really fast? I imagine a black friday type scenario.

There was no running, at least where I was, nor was it even an overly brisk walk. I imagine it is faster up at the front.

 

[Christine]

I RD FOP every trip 2-3 times a year. I get there at about 7:20 when the park opens at 8. I’m usually leaving the park at 8:45 after my ride. The line is alway too long for a second ride by that time.

My park opening was at 9:00 and I was there at 8:00. I think it was just a strange day. A few hours ago, my son sent me a screenshot that showed FoP with a 225 minute wait. I haven't seen that in a very long time. I was also talking to someone late yesterday who also did rope drop and had done it several times and had never seen the crowd/queue be pushed in the direction that it was.

 

[wilbret]

I want to play Devil's advocate, or just devil here. The only problem with hoping for short lines at closing, is that if the lines aren't short... you have run out of time and missed it completely.

As others said, AK has so few rides, it's really a half day park for most people. You may have to suck it up and plan to spend 1 to 1.5 hours in the line if you really want to ride FOP. I think it's "worth" it if you've never done it before and want to ride all the rides... but as a repeat rider, I'm here to say... it's not worth waiting much more than an hour. I'm sorry, it's just not... I've seen the lines hold out until the end of the night, because so many people are trying the same trick.
ProTip #2. It's okay to miss NRJ, it's really only worth it if you have a FP or the wait is suuuuuuper short. You'd be better off spending 1 hour in line for FOP and missing NRJ completely. Catch it on Youtube...

You might see wait times ebb and flow. We caught a break at 10am on a weekend last week.

 

[DGsAtBLT]

I want to play Devil's advocate, or just devil here. The only problem with hoping for short lines at closing, is that if the lines aren't short... you have run out of time and missed it completely.

It’s kind of the same perspective as rope drop. Your time invested isn’t park time, it’s either before (waiting for opening with RD) or after, because you hop into line right before closing. So from that perspective it doesn’t really matter if the line isn’t as short as anticipated, although it’s basically guaranteed to be significantly shorter than the daytime without FP cutting in.

The biggest concern planning to ride right before close IMO is a ride unexpectedly going down and no time to ride later like if it did that during the day.

 

[wilbret]

It’s kind of the same perspective as rope drop. Your time invested isn’t park time, it’s either before (waiting for opening with RD) or after, because you hop into line right before closing. So from that perspective it doesn’t really matter if the line isn’t as short as anticipated, although it’s basically guaranteed to be significantly shorter than the daytime without FP cutting in.

The biggest concern planning to ride right before close IMO is a ride unexpectedly going down and no time to ride later like if it did that during the day.

True, you make a good point. My point is really that you may wait until the end of the day, hoping to get a short wait... and instead, you find it's still a 2 hour or greater wait. I'm not waiting that long, especially at the end of the day. We saw that with FOP on our last visit. Will be back in 2 weeks, maybe I'll test both theories?

 

[wilbret]

Here's a fun strategy... get FPs on rides that always break down, and get a generic FP to use on FOP, lol.
Dinosaur was down for us. I'm sure there are probably people that do this... if you like a challenge.

 

[DGsAtBLT]

Here's a fun strategy... get FPs on rides that always break down, and get a generic FP to use on FOP, lol.
Dinosaur was down for us. I'm sure there are probably people that do this... if you like a challenge.

Lol we used this strategy with TT on our last trip on a rainy day. Grabbed a day of FP knowing it was going to probably go down, sure enough it did so our 1 hour window turned into a whenever we felt like it TT FP .

I bet at AK anytime FP from any attraction except FoP probably don’t allow use there. A fun game to play though lol.

 

[DavidNYC]

My park opening was at 9:00 and I was there at 8:00. I think it was just a strange day. A few hours ago, my son sent me a screenshot that showed FoP with a 225 minute wait. I haven't seen that in a very long time. I was also talking to someone late yesterday who also did rope drop and had done it several times and had never seen the crowd/queue be pushed in the direction that it was.

We were there today and luckily had a fast pass for flight of passage. But we saw it at 250 minutes when we got off the ride, which I have not seen since the very early days or Christmas time. I am from Jersey, and have been here the last five or six jersey weeks, so it’s not just that. The parks it felt crowded, but to me not noticeably more crowded than usual.

 

[Christine]

We were there today and luckily had a fast pass for flight of passage. But we saw it at 250 minutes when we got off the ride, which I have not seen since the very early days or Christmas time. I am from Jersey, and have been here the last five or six jersey weeks, so it’s not just that. The parks it felt crowded, but to me not noticeably more crowded than usual.

Yeah, I just couldn't believe that one. I think the holiday weekend might have has something to do with it? Who knows anymore!

 

[DisneyOma]

True, you make a good point. My point is really that you may wait until the end of the day, hoping to get a short wait... and instead, you find it's still a 2 hour or greater wait. I'm not waiting that long, especially at the end of the day. We saw that with FOP on our last visit. Will be back in 2 weeks, maybe I'll test both theories?

The thing is, while it says it's a 2 hour wait, it really isn't. They inflate the time to discourage people from jumping into line at the end of the day. Since they don't do FP+ after the official park closing time the standby queue loads much faster as well.