We plan to arrive at 730am for the morning line up, next Wednesday. I understand that the current process is we'll be through the ticket turnstiles and held around Seuss for sometime before opening. Then there will be a disorganized running to the ride when the "rope" drops.
My 3 teens will stay at the beginning of the pack unless they literally get mowed down. There is no conceivable way I will be able to keep up with them. When the line forms at Hagrid, is there a general reshuffling as people reunite with their groups? Will I be able to join them?
I'm kind of leaning towards just skipping the ride and being the bag holder. I find this kind of start to the day stressful, not fun.
I understand how you feel. I also just saw your additional post of how it gives you anxiety and I'm right there with you. It's the reason why I always use no bags and go as early as possible, so I do not have to deal with the bag security crowds. I never do "rope drops" at Disney. As they are essentially what you describe as it being like all the time
period. I am surprised they have not found a way to contain the guests at this point. Typically this is not an issue.
I know in the past for guests at IoA during EE (which has been ages) they would have ropes around the area guests were to walk in when heading to WWOHP, which made things more narrower, which seemed to contain the guests. However, as I said, typically it's not an issue regardless of that being there, or not, as I've never seen this method used at USF and guests are quite chill as well typically.
However, it's just something I noticed that would be useful in today's time, as it would be pretty nearly impossible for someone to get ahead of you unless they purposely tackle you to the ground in order to get you out of the way. As the space was roughly 4, maybe 5 people across, that would be if all those people were standing in line next to each from one rope to another. So, it naturally kind of moved as if you were walking through a queue that had no wait time (steady pace, but no running, or stopping).
Most of the time I suggest people wait until a little prior to closing to hop on the ride to avoid crowds and avoid higher wait time, but unfortunately, that is not do-able at the moment for this ride, since Hagrid's is unpredictable at the moment and they close mid-afternoon (typically 5).