FP Strategy Help!

[NRW2016]

So here's the scoop:

We're planning a Tues-Thurs trip in the parks in November for our family of 4. Our priorities are SDD and 7DMT. I'm looking at theDIBB website and Touring Plans FP availability to get an idea of what to expect when I book FP tomorrow morning.

Our plan was to do:
Tuesday: MK (MVMCP day but we're not attending the party)
Wednesday: HS
Thursday: Epcot

I'm seeing that SDD appears to be gone for all days of our trip according to theDIBB. And 7DMT is gone for the MK day we had planned. But 7DMT is available in the evening on Wednesday and the afternoon on Thursday. I don't really want to switch the park days up that I had in mind but would consider if rope dropping 7DMT will eat up a lot of time.

My questions:
-How "bad" is rope dropping 7DMT in the morning? We will have a 3 and 5 year old. Or is it a better idea to switch to another day where 7DMT is available in the afternoon or evening (but really ties up our ability to get additional FPs).
-How "bad" is rope dropping SDD in the morning? Any tips on that?
-Best strategy to deal with strollers in the madness of getting to your attraction and dealing with stroller parking in the rush?

Thanks all

 

[TheSouthernBelle]

You may be asking the wrong person but RD MK isn't that bad IMO. I prefer to rope drop MK over any of the other parks. We have rope dropped 7DMT many times and as long as your in the front of the pack waiting at the hub, you'll be fine and will have a fairly short wait. However, if you're in the back of the hub crowd, you may end up hitting longer wait times. November is a busier time at WDW but we love that time of year. With a plan, you will have a great time.

We have rope dropped SDD and it's not enjoyable but it's manageable. Same strategy is needed to successfully RD SDD, as MK, you need to be at the front of the pack so you'll want to be at the park no later than 45 min prior to park opening. Most days at MK you can get in 30 min before opening and same for DHS but times do vary from day to day. Just give yourself time to get through security and time for the kiddos.

As far as the stroller parking, if one of you parks the stroller and other heads to the line, it will only be a matter of a minute or so before your partner makes it back to the line so it's really not going to make a huge difference in where you are in line. The stroller parking is right in front of 7DMT so you won't be far from the line, I can't recall where it was at SDD since we are out of our stroller days.

Rope dropping may take some lead time and some "extra" time out of your morning, but by getting to the parks early, I feel like you free up the rest of your day to be more relaxed. At least that's our approach.

Have fun.

 

[NRW2016]

You may be asking the wrong person but RD MK isn't that bad IMO. I prefer to rope drop MK over any of the other parks. We have rope dropped 7DMT many times and as long as your in the front of the pack waiting at the hub, you'll be fine and will have a fairly short wait. However, if you're in the back of the hub crowd, you may end up hitting longer wait times. November is a busier time at WDW but we love that time of year. With a plan, you will have a great time.

We have rope dropped SDD and it's not enjoyable but it's manageable. Same strategy is needed to successfully RD SDD, as MK, you need to be at the front of the pack so you'll want to be at the park no later than 45 min prior to park opening. Most days at MK you can get in 30 min before opening and same for DHS but times do vary from day to day. Just give yourself time to get through security and time for the kiddos.

As far as the stroller parking, if one of you parks the stroller and other heads to the line, it will only be a matter of a minute or so before your partner makes it back to the line so it's really not going to make a huge difference in where you are in line. The stroller parking is right in front of 7DMT so you won't be far from the line, I can't recall where it was at SDD since we are out of our stroller days.

Rope dropping may take some lead time and some "extra" time out of your morning, but by getting to the parks early, I feel like you free up the rest of your day to be more relaxed. At least that's our approach.

Have fun.

Thank you greatly for your input! We love to get to the parks early so hopefully we can get near the front!

 

[tlmadden73]

So here's the scoop:

We're planning a Tues-Thurs trip in the parks in November for our family of 4. Our priorities are SDD and 7DMT. I'm looking at theDIBB website and Touring Plans FP availability to get an idea of what to expect when I book FP tomorrow morning.

Our plan was to do:
Tuesday: MK (MVMCP day but we're not attending the party)
Wednesday: HS
Thursday: Epcot

I'm seeing that SDD appears to be gone for all days of our trip according to theDIBB. And 7DMT is gone for the MK day we had planned. But 7DMT is available in the evening on Wednesday and the afternoon on Thursday. I don't really want to switch the park days up that I had in mind but would consider if rope dropping 7DMT will eat up a lot of time.

My questions:
-How "bad" is rope dropping 7DMT in the morning? We will have a 3 and 5 year old. Or is it a better idea to switch to another day where 7DMT is available in the afternoon or evening (but really ties up our ability to get additional FPs).
-How "bad" is rope dropping SDD in the morning? Any tips on that?
-Best strategy to deal with strollers in the madness of getting to your attraction and dealing with stroller parking in the rush?

Thanks all

That's really the problem with the current FP system. If you want a high demand FP you need to have a trip of 5+ days to even have an attempt at getting a FP for things like SDMT or SDD.

I would rope drop them .. which (since it sounds like you will have a stroller) is hard to do since you have to navigate them through the crowds.

Get there early (like an hour before park opening) . be near the front of the pack .. and go straight there . just drop the stroller off first at the drop off behind the carousel in Fantasyland and the one right next to TSMM. Both are "on the way" to those attractions. Just know that as long as you get there somewhere in the first 30 minutes of the park opening, you will have a lot less wait than any other time of day.

So .. unless you are hoping for a "walk-on" .. going at Rope Drop and just going straight there should be fine. In other words . .no need to run/sprint there .. you'll get there. Don't exhaust everyone first thing!

 

[DavidNYC]

Rope dropping with a stroller or toddlers isn't fun for the headliner ride. It's a bit of a mad rush at times but as long as you set expectations that you may have a 20-30 minute wait as opposed to being right at the front of the pack and being off in 5 minutes, it'll be fine. I'd still aim to be in the front of the pack at the drop, but expect you're going get a bunch of people passing you along the way. If you're able to snag a 7DMT FP by any chance, I highly recommend rope dropping Peter Pan instead - the walkthrough of the Darling house (which you miss if you use FP) line is really fun for kids. And that is a much more relaxed rope drop than mine train!

 

[MaxSkywalker]

I was checking this morning, and 7DMT was at 20-30 minutes until 9:30am, which is pretty manageable I think.