How important is rope drop?

[carolnog]

As an early bird, I used to support the idea of rope drop 100% and plan heavily based on it. However, the last couple trips led to such frustration whenever I couldn't accomplish it (for several reasons, mainly people in my party being slow and moody at 6 or 7 in the morning), that I no longer try to do it. Early is still important, but not mandatory rope drop. If the parks are not that crowded, there's still plenty of time to enjoy all the rides and attractions you wish to!

 

[GaryDis]

I've never done rope drop, ever. Our experience is that it's easier to arrive a bit later and avoid the crush of the crowd waiting for the bus, waiting for bag check, waiting at the turnstiles etc. We get on the bus around 9:00 on a 9:00 open day and avoid all the craziness and still don't wait forever in line. But we also never do princess meet and greets, 7DMT first thing in the morning, and will never plan to do FEA without a FP.

I think you make an excellent point. There's a huge difference between arriving before 10 versus after 11. The difference between hitting a 9am rope drop and 9:30, not so much except perhaps for the top drawing ride or two (FEA, 7DMT).

 

[anniemae]

we are not rope droppers. we like to sleep in a bit.

 

[momof2gr8kids]

We usually do rope drop the first few days of our trip. Everyone's excited to get going early then. Usually I point out the wait times starting around 11 and that usually makes up their mind about getting up early the next day too! lol We've never done MK rope drop though - usually take advantage of EMH in evening. I hope to this time to experience the welcome show.

You should be fine at the end of your trip to be more flexible if you need to be. Rope drop isn't fun if you've got a couple cranky kids that need their sleep! Your first few days do rope drop and get your must do's out of the way, then be more flexible. At least now with FP you can be guaranteed some of your favourite rides without getting there at rope drop!

 

[famy27]

We've found that we don't miss RD at all. We much prefer to close out a park than to open one, especially when we travel in the summer. I am very fair and burn really easily, so being out when it's dark is so much better for me. We love evening EMH and will stay until 2:00. On July 3rd, we were able to ride BTMRR three times in a row at the end of the night. We've rarely had that kind of success at RD.

For our Labor Day trip, I doubt we'll be in the parks before 10:00 any day, unless everyone happens to get up early. As it stands, I don't even plan to set an alarm. We've done this our last two trips, and it's made a world of difference in our enjoyment. I feel like we're still getting the same amount done, but we are much more relaxed now.

 

[jrt1176]

It all depends on how you want to visit Disney.

I have nothing against rope drop, but it's not for us. I know many enjoy it, but different strokes...

 

[stephmarty]

My family never does rope drop for any park, and we always are able to do it all during a 7 day visit. That includes during spring break when crowd levels were high. If we had only one day at each park, I may approach it differently. But we like to sleep in, enjoy a leisurely breakfast, swim for awhile, then head to the parks around lunch time. I schedule all of our FP+ to start at the 12-1:00 hour--ne earlier! We close down the parks (with 4 kids ages 2-15) every night and enjoy similarly short lines the last couple hours. I love the park at night all lit up. I do feel that there is so much talk about "rope drop" that it can cause you some anxiety if you let it. Almost like there's an assumption that everyone does it, so you start to feel like you're really doing it wrong if you don't. If you're not morning people and like to start your vacation days at a leisurely pace like us, I promise you can have a great time and still do it all.

 

[carcam51]

In my opinion there is only 1 park that's worth doing for RD..........that would be the MK, and only because the Welcome Show is so cool ..........oh yeah and 7DMT can be had for under 40 minutes.........is that good?

RD at the other parks is all about doing the BIG attractions/rides in those parks............and we only do that when we haven't got a particularly popular FP..........like the new Frozen ride........but everyone has that same plan. In Epcot since the 3rd theatre opened for Soar'in the lines have been better..........our only reason for arriving early would be Test Track. In AK you've got KS and EE............now you can do multiple rides on EE if you get to the park at RD but if you get in by 9am you can probably get 2 rides. At HS the only reason to do RD (IMHO) is to get your youngling on the list for Jedi Training TSMM has a new track that has reduced the lines there in a big way. ToT and RnR can be gotten early too............but you have to want to do both for it to make sense (again in my opinion).

THIS. Puts my mind at ease! Thank you. I haven't been to WDW in 8 years, for my boys it's been 10 years and my DH it's been 38 years! Needless to say, none of them know a thing about planning all the details! I've obviously haven't used the new FP+ but it sounds like with this in place, RD may not be as necessary as it once was - DH and I are early risers so I'm sure we will RD a few days, but this is great info regarding TSMM, ToT, and RnR...I just love TSMM...it's one of my faves!

 

[mindeola]

I am a rope drop fan. We usually do short ( 4 day) trips, so rope drop is a must. I am also a morning person. On a longer trip, we will do some rope drop days and some sleep in days. WE close out parks as well, so that RD can be hard to get up for sometimes.

 

[DVCcurious]

MK sees short lines for 90% of its rides until 10:30 or so. The earlier you arrive, the more rides you can get in.

But if you don't like short lines then I recommend the 10:30-10:30 schedule. Arrive at 10:30 AM and leave at 10:30 pm after wishes and MSEP.

 

[patdoc98]

We are morning people with early-rising young kids, and we still don't do rope-drop all the time.

We usually do legit rope-drop at MK - try to arrive 40-45 minutes prior to park open, then hustle to ride 7-8 rides during the first two hours before the crowds build. Then we stick to FPs and any-time rides.

At the other parks, we show up right around opening time, or a little after, and it works out better for us. Or last year, with park hoppers, we did some late-afternoon arrivals, and it worked out well with FP.

 

[RLGNC]

We never made it exactly at rope drop but I would say about 15-30 minutes after, which was enough time to not feel like we were running with the bulls but still be ahead of the masses.

This is us as well. Might have been nice to see what RD is like, but just proved too difficult to achieve with my sleepy crew. However, arriving right around opening time still worked well and allowed us to get on several rides with short lines before our FPs kicked in.

 

[Canooknic]

I've been 6 (7?) times and have only done rope drop once!

We have early risers so are always there around opening, but the lining up for RD just dampens my day!

 

[ekarlberg]

If making normal rope drop helps get a lot done before the crowds arrive, is AM EMH even better since the pool of potential guests is that much smaller? Thx!

 

[smiths02]

I've never done rope drop, ever. Our experience is that it's easier to arrive a bit later and avoid the crush of the crowd waiting for the bus, waiting for bag check, waiting at the turnstiles etc. We get on the bus around 9:00 on a 9:00 open day and avoid all the craziness and still don't wait forever in line. But we also never do princess meet and greets, 7DMT first thing in the morning, and will never plan to do FEA without a FP.

We aimed to be there for rope drop or EMH several times and got there right at park opening or a few minutes after. I felt like we still got a lot done when we did this. When we go to "front of rope drop crowd," we ended up waiting a LONG TIME in a very crowded area (felt less secure, more germs, more strollers at your ankles, etc.) just for the park to open.
Toddlers in strollers get impatient doing this, they are easier to entertain in cool ride queues than in a stroller staring at somebody's backside.

Now, in the summer, they did open the park a few minutes early sometimes, so if you were at the front of the rope drop crowd, you had an advantage.

 

[smiths02]

If making normal rope drop helps get a lot done before the crowds arrive, is AM EMH even better since the pool of potential guests is that much smaller? Thx!

It is if you REALLY get there before the park opens. Be honest with yourself and be honest about transportation time.
HOWEVER, if EMH is 8-9, by 10 or so that park will be MORE crowded than usual, so utilize FP+ or parkhopping

 

[Julie M.D.]

I'm not familiar with the rope drop. How early is it necessary to arrive? What is the advantage (other than first in the park) to doing it? Does anything "special" happen during rope drop?

 

[MHSweb79]

At MK there is a welcome show, but they've eliminated those at the other parks. It's a good show, but not worth getting up early just for that, IMHO. The real draw is the significantly lower crowds.

We are rope droppers for a few of our days, but I am at the point where I can't/ won't do them back to back. My DH is an early riser even on vacation, so he's all for it. The downside is that by 8pm he is ready to crash and he gets pretty cranky too. LOL We rarely do nighttime shows, although he'll take a nap for Fantasmic.

Deciding whether to do rope drop really comes down to what works best for your family. Dragging a bunch of miserable, half asleep people to the park far earlier than they want to be there doesn't make for a fun day.

Edited to add: We always have park hoppers, so if we hit a park for morning EMH we will always leave before lunch as the crowds really build up by around 11am. If you don't have hoppers, I recommend hitting the park that had evening EMH the night before instead.

 

[Julie M.D.]

At MK there is a welcome show, but they've eliminated those at the other parks. It's a good show, but not worth getting up early just for that, IMHO. The real draw is the significantly lower crowds.

We are rope droppers for a few of our days, but I am at the point where I can't/ won't do them back to back. My DH is an early riser even on vacation, so he's all for it. The downside is that by 8pm he is ready to crash and he gets pretty cranky too. LOL We rarely do nighttime shows, although he'll take a nap for Fantasmic.

Deciding whether to do rope drop really comes down to what works best for your family. Dragging a bunch of miserable, half asleep people to the park far earlier than they want to be there doesn't make for a fun day.[/QUOTE

 

[Julie M.D.]

Thank you for that info. How early would you suggest getting there? We have four adults in our group so I'm hoping we can do it at least once.