How early do we need to be at MK for rope drop?

[mi*vida*loca]

I would get to the bus stop at AKL by 8 am. You should be at the park by 830 am. That's what we do since I like to see the morning show at least once. I don't need to be the first in line. If me getting there an hour behind the first person means I have to wait an extra few minutes for a few rides I’m ok with that. I’ve been at the rope when I’ve had a PPO ADR and I’ve arrived at the gates at 830. I never felt it to be a huge difference and worth torturing your kids if you don’t have to.

 

[BlueFairy]

This is exactly what I do not want to do - congrats to those of you who can pull it off, though. We do have FP+ scheduled for the headliners starting late morning/early afternoon each day.

So, if we are there right at park opening (or maybe 15 min ahead of time), that is really too late for less crowds? Seems crazy. It's our first trip so everything will be new; no need to ride things multiple times. We have FP for SDMT and the mountains - but BTMR is down while we are there. We are staying at AKL so will be taking the bus to MK.

I'm really undecided on the morning show - I would kinda like to see it but not if it means we have to be there a lot earlier. My boys are not that into characters except for Star Wars and baymax...

You will be fine getting there when the show starts or a little after. You have your must-dos planned with Fps. It will not be too late for less crowds. It will be too late to ride 7DMT, Peter Pan, and maybe Space with a super short wait. But otherwise everything will have short lines for at least an hour, especially outside of Fantasyland. Don't sweat it!

Is any of this affected by the fact that we will be taking a bus from AKL? We will not need to take the ferry, correct? We would still need to be an hour early at wherever the bus drops us off?

I don't think you are going to be happy arriving at the MK bus station 1 hour before park opening. As others have said, shoot for 1 hour to 70 min prior to park opening to be waiting for the MK bus and you will be in great shape for what you want to do.

 

[COscrapper]

I would get to the bus stop at AKL by 8 am. You should be at the park by 830 am. That's what we do since I like to see the morning show at least once. I don't need to be the first in line. If me getting there an hour behind the first person means I have to wait an extra few minutes for a few rides I’m ok with that. I’ve been at the rope when I’ve had a PPO ADR and I’ve arrived at the gates at 830. I never felt it to be a huge difference and worth torturing your kids if you don’t have to.

You will be fine getting there when the show starts or a little after. You have your must-dos planned with Fps. It will not be too late for less crowds. It will be too late to ride 7DMT, Peter Pan, and maybe Space with a super short wait. But otherwise everything will have short lines for at least an hour, especially outside of Fantasyland. Don't sweat it!


I don't think you are going to be happy arriving at the MK bus station 1 hour before park opening. As others have said, shoot for 1 hour to 70 min prior to park opening to be waiting for the MK bus and you will be in great shape for what you want to do.

Thank you; this is so helpful. Yes, we do not need or WANT to be at the front of the crowd. We have FP booked for all our must-do biggies. Just wanted to be there early enough to get some shorter wait times on a Sunday.

I also was bummed when they changed opening time to 8:00 a.m. that day! That will be painful for us, but I'm hoping the kids will be excited to get up since it's our very first day. And we can sleep in other days. I've actually been wondering which rides we should go to first thing, since we have FP for splash, space, and SDMT. We also have FP for Peter Pan, jungle cruise, and pirates the next day before our MNSSHP... any suggestions?

So, with an opening time of 8:00, you think we will be ok if we are in line for a bus at AKL at 7? Or should we shoot for 6:45 (yikes) in case it takes a while for a bus to show up? Thank you so much for all the help!

 

[mi*vida*loca]

Thank you; this is so helpful. Yes, we do not need or WANT to be at the front of the crowd. We have FP booked for all our must-do biggies. Just wanted to be there early enough to get some shorter wait times on a Sunday.

I also was bummed when they changed opening time to 8:00 a.m. that day! That will be painful for us, but I'm hoping the kids will be excited to get up since it's our very first day. And we can sleep in other days. I've actually been wondering which rides we should go to first thing, since we have FP for splash, space, and SDMT. We also have FP for Peter Pan, jungle cruise, and pirates the next day before our MNSSHP... any suggestions?

So, with an opening time of 8:00, you think we will be ok if we are in line for a bus at AKL at 7? Or should we shoot for 6:45 (yikes) in case it takes a while for a bus to show up? Thank you so much for all the help!

I think 7 am is perfectly fine. I find 8 am opening has less people than 9 am. You can get a lot done in those first 2-3 hours.

My kids are also excited on that first day and get up without a problem. By day 3-4 it's not so easy. We did MK AM EMH on our first full day last trip and my kids were up and ready and excited...including a teenager.

It really depends on the ages of your kids. When my kids were younger we would do Fantasyland and try to get it done in those first 2-3 hours. Now that they are older we head to Adventureland first. I would do PP standby because the queue is so cool (we did this as our first ride last trip before heading to Adventureland). Then on our next MK day we head to a different land first.

Maybe try Pooh, Buzz and the Speedway. Dumbo is always a favorite and lines can get long some days.

 

[biondagirl]

I can always do SDMT and Peter Pan multiple times. I would get on Peter Pan, Pooh and Dumbo for sure.

 

[snoopy352]

AKL bus stop at 7 is optimum but not mandatory - this isn't DHS or Epcot where you HAVE to be ahead of the masses. You can walk into MK at 8:15 and accomplish your goals of short lines for 2.5 hours. Just make sure you have a FP+ for 7DMT and PP.

 

[Tomh]

Is any of this affected by the fact that we will be taking a bus from AKL? We will not need to take the ferry, correct? We would still need to be an hour early at wherever the bus drops us off?

No, you don't need to arrive at the MK an hour early. You DO need to allow about an hour to get to the MK, so I would say be at your resort bus stop around an hour to an hour and 15 minutes before park opening, that should get you to MK in plenty of time. It only takes a couple of minutes to walk from the bus stop to the park entrance, nothing like what it takes to walk from the parking lot to the TTC, and then deal with the boat, or monorail to get to the MK, much faster process when you are staying on site.

 

[Tomh]

Thank you; this is so helpful. Yes, we do not need or WANT to be at the front of the crowd. We have FP booked for all our must-do biggies. Just wanted to be there early enough to get some shorter wait times on a Sunday.

I also was bummed when they changed opening time to 8:00 a.m. that day! That will be painful for us, but I'm hoping the kids will be excited to get up since it's our very first day. And we can sleep in other days. I've actually been wondering which rides we should go to first thing, since we have FP for splash, space, and SDMT. We also have FP for Peter Pan, jungle cruise, and pirates the next day before our MNSSHP... any suggestions?!

Other rides that can get long lines include Big Thunder, Haunted Mansion, Pooh, Tomorrowland Indy Speedway, Buzz Lightyear. Perhaps start at Pooh, then head over to hit the speedway, and Buzz, and you've got a good start to your day. From there, you can work your way back around through Fantasy Land, Liberty Square, and on through Frontier Land and Adventure Land.

Honestly, when I plan my FP+, I already have a solid idea in my head of what way I am going to tackle the park that day, so that my FP+ locations fall in line with where I will tour. In other words, I would start say with Tomorrowland, and move into Fantasy Land, where my first FP+ might be from 10:00 - 11:00 SDMT. While there I would try to hit Pooh before the line got too long, then do Ariel, and Small World, with my 2nd FP+ perhaps for Pan between 11:00 and 12:00, from there I would head over to Liberty Square where I would grab lunch, and hope to catch the Haunted Mansion with a short line, before working my way into Frontier Land. My final FP+ may be Splash or Big Thunder between 12:30 and 1:30, and from there I could select FP+ number 4 which might be the other mountain, or Pirates. The rest of Liberty Square, Frontier Land, and Adventure Land usually has short enough lines to do standby. I guess what I'm saying is, I don't wait until I've already made my FP+ selections to try to figure out what order I will hit the rides in, I figure that out first, then make my FP+ selections so that they fit in with my overall plan for touring the park.

 

[gtpoohbear]

We've never gotten to the gates more than 30 minutes before opening, usually it's more like 15-20 minutes. We like to watch the show, then enjoy our walk down Main Street. We can usually ride what we want with minimal waits for the first hour or so. Unless you were counting on a major headliner, but getting a FP for those is better.

I would have to awfully desperate to fit in a certain number of rides in a day, to make it worth waiting an hour or more at the gates, so I could wait less once in the park.

 

[BlueFairy]

Use easywdw.com for tips on how to build your plan for the day.
http://www.easywdw.com/easy/magic-k...s-rope-drop-wait-times-and-fastpass-priority/
http://www.easywdw.com/easy/magic-k...s-rope-drop-wait-times-and-fastpass-priority/

 

[jvz82]

So what happens at Christmas when MK opens at like 7 am?! Do people leave at like 5:30 in the morning? We have a time change so our bodies will be an hour earlier, so seriously waking up at 6 am Florida time is 5 am our time and I don't think I could do it.

Honestly, the last couple times we've been to MK (last was a couple days before Christmas, and the time before that was spring break) we did NOT make it to rope drop because we were tired and jet lagged. We did get there as close to opening as possible but it was definitely after rope drop. We walked on every ride with hardly any wait for the 1.5 hours after that. So I'm not totally sure I understand the appeal of getting to the parks an hour before opening! Rope drop kind of sounds like a huge pain to me. That being said, I want to see the opening show this time around so we do plan to get there early. But I think I'll let everyone else run to their rides and we will take it easy. We will probably not go straight to some super popular ride like Peter Pan. We have fast passes for all the really popular rides so I'm not too concerned about being the first ones out of the gate. Especially not with 4 young kids!

 

[GrumpyDad1974]

So what happens at Christmas when MK opens at like 7 am?! Do people leave at like 5:30 in the morning? We have a time change so our bodies will be an hour earlier, so seriously waking up at 5 am Florida time is 6 am our time and I don't think I could do it.

Honestly, the last couple times we've been to MK (last was a couple days before Christmas, and the time before that was spring break) we did NOT make it to rope drop because we were tired and jet lagged. We did get there as close to opening as possible but it was definitely after rope drop. We walked on every ride with hardly any wait for the 1.5 hours after that. So I'm not totally sure I understand the appeal of getting to the parks an hour before opening! Rope drop kind of sounds like a huge pain to me. That being said, I want to see the opening show this time around so we do plan to get there early. But I think I'll let everyone else run to their rides and we will take it easy. We will probably not go straight to some super popular ride like Peter Pan. We have fast passes for all the really popular rides so I'm not too concerned about being the first ones out of the gate. Especially not with 4 young kids!

Yes we have rope dropped at Christmas Time and it was still dark. I think we got to the park around 6:30 am, it was kind of surreal entering in the dark we were definitely ready for a break by lunchtime.

 

[TheFloatingBear]

Yes we have rope dropped at Christmas Time and it was still dark. I think we got to the park around 6:30 am, it was kind of surreal entering in the dark we were definitely ready for a break by lunchtime.

I can imagine you'd be ready for a break! (OP, sorry to hijack the thread!) I'm curious about the 7am rope drop - our next trip is Easter week and I'm thinking we may see one...is it a lot less crowded than an 8am, or similar? I would think you'd get a nice chunk of time with low crowds, yes?

 

[jacksonsmom]

So what happens at Christmas when MK opens at like 7 am?! Do people leave at like 5:30 in the morning? We have a time change so our bodies will be an hour earlier, so seriously waking up at 5 am Florida time is 6 am our time and I don't think I could do it.

Honestly, the last couple times we've been to MK (last was a couple days before Christmas, and the time before that was spring break) we did NOT make it to rope drop because we were tired and jet lagged. We did get there as close to opening as possible but it was definitely after rope drop. We walked on every ride with hardly any wait for the 1.5 hours after that. So I'm not totally sure I understand the appeal of getting to the parks an hour before opening! Rope drop kind of sounds like a huge pain to me. That being said, I want to see the opening show this time around so we do plan to get there early. But I think I'll let everyone else run to their rides and we will take it easy. We will probably not go straight to some super popular ride like Peter Pan. We have fast passes for all the really popular rides so I'm not too concerned about being the first ones out of the gate. Especially not with 4 young kids!

We have a 7am EHM opening when we are there, we plan on leaving our resort around 5:45! We are early birds anyway and I am excited for an opening that early.
Last summer we did a 8am regular opening, we were at the bus stop at 6:30, one of the first groups in the park. We did every thing in Fantasyland (including meeting the Princesses) all before 9am! It was awesome. When 9am came we moved over to haunted mansion and BTMMR, all walk ons still, then was on the first group to meet Gaston. We then had a 10:30 ADR for Crystal Palace. It was the perfect morning. After our ADR we had FPs scheduled for Tomorrowland attractions.

So it was definitely worth it to us to get to the park very early. Looking forward to next month for a 7am opening!

 

[GrumpyDad1974]

I can imagine you'd be ready for a break! (OP, sorry to hijack the thread!) I'm curious about the 7am rope drop - our next trip is Easter week and I'm thinking we may see one...is it a lot less crowded than an 8am, or similar? I would think you'd get a nice chunk of time with low crowds, yes?

It will seem crowded at the rope but it wasn't as busy for a longer amount of time. It was worth the effort.

 

[TheFloatingBear]

It will seem crowded at the rope but it wasn't as busy for a longer amount of time. It was worth the effort.

Good to know - thanks!

 

[Duck143]

Getting into MK is insanity lately. The monorail isn't working often, so everyone has to take the Ferry. Baggage check, metal detectors and scanning to enter take triple the time you expect it too. I would get to the Ferry about an hour and a half before the park opens.

 

[isabellea]

Personally, waiting 1h+ at the gate to save a 45 min line is kind of nonsense to me. We usually book a PPO ADR at CP on our MK days or arrive around rope drop (I never saw the opening show but might try to see it this spring just to say I saw it). Even when we got out of our breakfast after the rope drop crowd passed thru, we NEVER had to wait more than 10 minutes for Space Mountains or Speedway. Usually, both are walk-ons. In the first two hours we are usually about to do Space twice, speedway, Pooh, Ariel, Dumbo, Carrousel and the tea cups. We use our FP+ on 7DMT, Splash and BTMR (we don't really care about Peter Pan).

 

[jvz82]

Personally, waiting 1h+ at the gate to save a 45 min line is kind of nonsense to me. We usually book a PPO ADR at CP on our MK days or arrive around rope drop (I never saw the opening show but might try to see it this spring just to say I saw it). Even when we got out of our breakfast after the rope drop crowd passed thru, we NEVER had to wait more than 10 minutes for Space Mountains or Speedway. Usually, both are walk-ons. In the first two hours we are usually about to do Space twice, speedway, Pooh, Ariel, Dumbo, Carrousel and the tea cups. We use our FP+ on 7DMT, Splash and BTMR (we don't really care about Peter Pan).

Yes!! This is how I feel. I can't imagine how cranky my kids would be waiting around the entrance of the park for an hour when they're tired from being woken up super early. I'd rather wait in a line in the park.

 

[thelittlemermaid2]

My family is also not early risers. We try to get to RD, but have no desire to do the hour early strategy to get a perfect "0" wait time. We arrived at the park by bus about 15 minutes before park opened, got through security and in just fine (although the park officially opened during our wait at security), and thought the wait times were very reasonable. Again, they won't all be walk-on but they will be much better than later in the day! Especially since you have more than one day in MK I personally would want to have a little less stress first thing in the morning. It's all about what works for you!