How important is Epcot rope drop?

[princesslover]

I know there are different opinions on this, but humor me if you would. We are going to be in Epcot for two days, and they are predicted to be a 6-7 on crowd calendar. One of the days, we have an Akershus breakfast at 10:45.

According to TP, Soarin and TT will have waits at about 32-34 minutes by 10:00. So if we get there a bit earlier than 10:00, the waits seem bearable. After that, not much else is going to have a wait at all, and we also have a FP for Soarin one day, and FAE another day (we will RD TT). Would it be horrible to arrive by 9:30-9:45?

The thing is, it is just my two girls and I, and we are definitely going to try to RD MK and DHS, so it would be good to have a couple of days to "sleep in: a bit I just am not sure if it is worth it to drag them out of bed early to save time on one ride.

 

[AMusicLifeForMe]

Out of the 4 parks, I always RD Magic Kingdom and EPCOT. I usually plan to RD the other 2 parks, but I'm not as upset if I don't get there by park opening. I would only RD EPCOT if you are wanting to get Soarin, Test Track, and FEA done within 2 hours of park opening.

 

[Westcoastwild]

If you have 2 days I wouldn't bother with rope drop. I don't consider soaring or test track worth getting up early for, and soaring at least is occasionally walk on. I MIGHT rope drop for Frozen if your kids are big fans. Largely because when I was there it seemed to break down a lot later in the day. Don't know if that's still a problem. I lost my fast pass for Frozen because of the break down, so ended up standing in line for an hour another day. Epcot doesn't have so many attractions that you won't cover it all if you don't rope drop. I didn't, and rode almost everything multiple times- and I probably would have ridden everything at least twice if it hadn't been for the allure of various libations. Other than Frozen, the longest lines seemed to be at the bars!

 

[Tomh]

I think it depends on what you want to do. If you want to ride Test Track, Soarin, and Frozen Ever After, and especially if you want perhaps multiple rides on one or more of those, then I would say Rope Drop is critical.

If you are ok with doing each ride one time, or waiting perhaps 30 to 45 minutes for a ride, then it isn't going to be all that important to get there early.

 

[nkereina]

With the tiered FP system, rope drop at Epcot is necessary for us. With three tier 1 attractions that are important to us, we will either rope drop Epcot on two days or ride Test Track single rider. For example, ride Frozen at rope drop with a Soarin FP and ride TT single rider (if stand by is long) or we will skip TT if we are rope dropping another day. On the second day, we will ride TT at rope drop with a Soarin FP and skip Frozen. We treat DHS the same way. It would be easier to manage without getting there at rope drop if the tiered FP system was not in place.

 

[Disneylover99]

If we're going to Epcot for two days we never rope drop it.
Fp's - One day FEA. One day Soarin. Single rider line TT.

 

[Praying Colonel]

I know there are different opinions on this, but humor me if you would. We are going to be in Epcot for two days, and they are predicted to be a 6-7 on crowd calendar. One of the days, we have an Akershus breakfast at 10:45.

According to TP, Soarin and TT will have waits at about 32-34 minutes by 10:00. So if we get there a bit earlier than 10:00, the waits seem bearable. After that, not much else is going to have a wait at all, and we also have a FP for Soarin one day, and FAE another day (we will RD TT). Would it be horrible to arrive by 9:30-9:45?

The thing is, it is just my two girls and I, and we are definitely going to try to RD MK and DHS, so it would be good to have a couple of days to "sleep in: a bit I just am not sure if it is worth it to drag them out of bed early to save time on one ride.

All of the bolded part are little hints to me that you don't want to do RD that day.

And that's okay! I'm a firm adherent to RD orthodoxy and could give you 3 paragraphs on why we think it's the best way for us, but none of that matters if it's not how you want to vacation. So if you want to sleep in, understanding it probably means you don't do quite as many attractions or maybe have a longer wait in line that you consider "bearable," then do it!

 

[carlymcqueen]

I think it's pretty important. We RD at Epcot so we can get on Test Track without using a FP.

 

[bigtony777]

As others have said, it all depends on what you want to accomplish that day. If you want to ride more than one of the big rides (FEA, Soarin, TT) than you will want to be there for rope drop. Get a FP for one of them and then hit the other ones first thing in the morning.

 

[NYCANC]

We do 2 days at Epcot and we RD both days but that is because my kids want to go directly to TT. We are one of the first on and we can get in about 4 rides without a wait.

 

[Ava]

If you have FP for Soarin and FEA, and aren't that concerned with getting to ride TT, I don't think rope drop is necessary. You could do the Single Rider line for TT if both of your girls are 7 or older, or get in line for it later at night if you're skipping Illuminations. You can also do well if you tour WS in the afternoon and then go back to FW after 5pm. Everything except Soarin & TT should be a walk on.

I'm planning 2 days at Epcot for our trip this summer and am planning a late arrival on both days.

 

[dreiwhit]

We spend two days at Epcot and we arrive before RD. Its been our experience that the CMs will let people in well before RD, so you have to get there early. We use "pre-RD" to ride popular rides, or like last trip, do a character M&G that my daughter was dying to do that didn't offer FPs.

Since you have FPs for Soarin' and FEA, you have to ask yourself how bad you want to go on TT and are you willing to wait a long time? If you don't want to, or can't wait, RD it. If it doesn't matter, then use that day to sleep in a little bit.

 

[Klayfish]

To us, rope drop is for the birds, at least from the perspective of showing up 45 minutes early. No thanks. You've already got FP+ for Soarin' and FEA, which is awesome. So it's only TT. Just show up at park open time, no need to be 45 minutes early. Line for TT will still be well under 30 minutes if you head right to it.

 

[rwdavis2]

If you have FP for Soarin and FEA, and aren't that concerned with getting to ride TT, I don't think rope drop is necessary. You could do the Single Rider line for TT if both of your girls are 7 or older, or get in line for it later at night if you're skipping Illuminations. You can also do well if you tour WS in the afternoon and then go back to FW after 5pm. Everything except Soarin & TT should be a walk on.

I'm planning 2 days at Epcot for our trip this summer and am planning a late arrival on both days.

This should work. I would not put too much faith in the wait times projected by TP as mentioned by the OP.. If they are correct then great.

 

[cubed]

Can I hijack this thread for a bit? We are spending two days at EP and have a Pre-RD reservation at Garden Grill. We have a FP for Soarin' right after the breakfast and we have a FP for TT the next day. Since we have a 2yo who can't ride TT, I was able to book FEA at the end of the second day. However, think we will have a shot at FEA in between our breakfast and Soarin'? If not, I might as well move the breakfast to a lunch so we don't have to wake up so early. DS5 isn't interested in Frozen anything but I am pretty sure he will love the ride and without a FP I don't want him to miss out. Maybe I do a Rider Switch? Thoughts?

 

[AMusicLifeForMe]

We have a FP for Soarin' right after the breakfast and we have a FP for TT the next day. Since we have a 2yo who can't ride TT, I was able to book FEA at the end of the second day.

This doesn't make sense to me. This sounds like you got a FP for TT on the 2nd day, but you also said that you booked FEA for the 2nd day. That is not possible since both TT and FEA are Tier 1 attractions. So, which FP do you have?

About your breakfast...What time is your breakfast? What time does the park open that day? Soarin, with my experience, has been having 30 minute or less waits in the first 30-45 minutes of park opening. This can always change though.

 

[cubed]

@AMusicLifeForMe There's four of us, me, DH, DS5, and DS2. DH and DS5 have FP for TT. I do not have a FP for TT. I used that Tier I FP for FEA for DS2. Sorry if I wasn't very clear. I am trying to decide if we can do standby on FEA that morning we have the pre-rope drop breakfast, which is for 8:35am on a 9am open. I've heard we can be let in as early as 8am for our reservation.

 

[Shandy1121]

Just speaking from my own personal opinion... We were at Epcot Sunday before last (the 5th). It was a 6 crowd level day. Since we were staying off site we couldn't get fast passes for everything in time. Soarin being one of those things we couldn't get. So we decided to go there first at opening. After making our way through security (as I had a bag) and walking quickly to the back where Soarin is, there was already a 20 minute wait. We went on the ride in about that time. As we exited and went back to the front entrance area to go to living with the land, we looked at the wait time for Soarin as we passed by it had already jumped up to 70 minutes from park opening till the time it took us to ride it and get back to the entrance. So if that's a way to gauge how busy then I would say yes if you really want to ride something you don't have fast passes for, in my opinion, I would be there early. Hope this helps

 

[AMusicLifeForMe]

@AMusicLifeForMe There's four of us, me, DH, DS5, and DS2. DH and DS5 have FP for TT. I do not have a FP for TT. I used that Tier I FP for FEA for DS2. Sorry if I wasn't very clear. I am trying to decide if we can do standby on FEA that morning we have the pre-rope drop breakfast, which is for 8:35am on a 9am open. I've heard we can be let in as early as 8am for our reservation.

That's ok. Now I understand what you were saying. If you are ok with waiting up to 45-60+ minutes for FEA, then you can do that. FEA seems to be the ride that people are now RD at EPCOT. If you are able to adjust your Soarin FP, then you might be able to do it. I don't know what time your Soarin FP is, but that is a lot of walking just to try and ride FEA. If there is an evening EMH at EPCOT during your trip, I only waited 45 minutes after Illuminations to ride FEA last week during the evening EMH. That could be another option for you.

Another thing to think about is that FEA doesn't have FP times until 11 a.m. People have reported that is still happening. So, that is why I made the projected wartime 45-60 minutes. Once FP are allowed in, that line will become longer quickly.

 

[cubed]

Oh man, I didn't even realize FEA doesn't start FP times until 11am. Geez. Ok maybe we will stick to the current plan and switch breakfast to lunch then. This should give us a much easier pace rather than trying to get on two rides ASAP. Eek! Thank you for the feedback, this is very helpful.

Edited: And as soon as I posted my response I realize that DS2 isn't tall enough for this ride, so we need to do a Rider Swap pass. Maybe we will stick to breakfast so we can use DH and DS5's FP first thing and then I can go wtih DS5 immediately after. Man this is getting complicated.