I don't get rope dropping a high demand attraction

[JayMass]

To me there are two types of rope dropping:

1. Rope dropping to ride multiple lower demand rides with no wait. (Like at MK doing HM, BTMRR, PoC, SW, etc.)
2. Rope dropping to ride a high demand attraction (Like 7DMT, FoP, and now ROTR)

I get the first one. If you are in there super early you can get a bunch of attractions done with low wait times. What I don't get is the second one, the high demand attraction. Take FoP for example, you wait outside AK for 45 minutes for open. Then you wait 15 minutes at a hold point (like the bridge). You then wait another 5 minutes before you actually get to the pre-show. My math isn't great but that's 65 minutes of wait time. If I saw FoP with 65 min. stand-by wait I'm not riding it. So maybe there's an advantage here if FoP is like 100+ mins all day. However, you still waited a really, really long time for that ride. Also, when someone does this type of rope drop they say "I rope dropped FoP and it was a walk on!" That to me is not entirely accurate--they did wait, it just wasn't in line.

I'm not trying to be disrespectful here. I'm genuinely interested in having someone explain the advantage of it. Is there a piece that I'm missing?

Also, I'm talking about people who visit the parks somewhat regularly--not the once in a lifetime folks.

 

[Schneewittchen37]

I'm with you, I always used rope dropping for volume, not high demand rides. I always save high demand rides for the last hour or so before closing.

I did successfully rope drop Slinky Dog Dash. Once. Never again. Too much silliness and lines.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

To me there are two types of rope dropping:

1. Rope dropping to ride multiple lower demand rides with no wait. (Like at MK doing HM, BTMRR, PoC, SW, etc.)
2. Rope dropping to ride a high demand attraction (Like 7DMT, FoP, and now ROTR)

I get the first one. If you are in there super early you can get a bunch of attractions done with low wait times. What I don't get is the second one, the high demand attraction. Take FoP for example, you wait outside AK for 45 minutes for open. Then you wait 15 minutes at a hold point (like the bridge). You then wait another 5 minutes before you actually get to the pre-show. My math isn't great but that's 65 minutes of wait time. If I saw FoP with 65 min. stand-by wait I'm not riding it. So maybe there's an advantage here if FoP is like 100+ mins all day. However, you still waited a really, really long time for that ride. Also, when someone does this type of rope drop they say "I rope dropped FoP and it was a walk on!" That to me is not entirely accurate--they did wait, it just wasn't in line.

I'm not trying to be disrespectful here. I'm genuinely interested in having someone explain the advantage of it. Is there a piece that I'm missing?

Also, I'm talking about people who visit the parks somewhat regularly--not the once in a lifetime folks.

Using your numbers, it's 65 minutes of total wait time but the vast majority of that time is before the park opens when there's nothing better to do anyways. You're shifting your wait time outside of park hours and thereby preserving the park hours themselves to use more productively.

Using my own family as an example, my kids nap after lunch so we leave the parks at 1:00. That gives us four hours from 9 to 1 to "do stuff." I don't want to use one of those four hours in line for Flight of Passage, so I start my rope drop at 8, essentially expanding my time available to "do stuff" to 5 hours.

 

[ZellyB]

While your total wait time is 65 minutes either way, only 45 of it is with the park open, thus I'm not losing out on any other ride time for those 45 minutes. I always say that RP is not about how long you wait for the high demand ride, but the time you gain for the subsequent rides. If I ride FoP first thing and I'm at the front of the rope drop line, I'm off in 15-20 minutes or so. The lines for other attractions haven't grown much yet as most people are at the high demand attraction so I can then knock out Navi River, Safari, EE and Dinosaur with little wait as well. Within a couple of hours I've ridden pretty much everything and can choose to ride others again.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

Your point is that rope drop doesn't shrink the red. True. But it maximizes the green.

 

[MakiraMarlena]

It works, if you can be one of the first there. If you aren't, you might be better off riding other popular rides while everyone else rushes to the highest demand ride.

But yes, to do that, you will need to get to the park early and wait outside. Want no waiting at all, give it some time and you can buy a lightning lane.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

It works, if you can be one of the first there. If you aren't, you might be better off riding other popular rides while everyone else rushes to the highest demand ride.

This has definitely been true at Slinky Dog up until today with the opening of Rise's standby line. That line was as bad as it was ever going to get first thing in the morning most days.

But yes, to do that, you will need to get to the park early and wait outside. Want no waiting at all, give it some time and you can buy a lightning lane.

Early entry for resort guests will help too.

 

[js]

I rather wait at the park for 65 minutes prior to the park opening and using "my own time" instead of sitting in my hotel room, than waiting on line for 65 minutes for one attraction and putting me more and more behind the crowds once the park is open. I usually am off FoP and Navi even before the actual posted park opening time.

 

[MainMom]

But I couldn’t be riding other rides in those 60 minutes. Nothing is open. I’m in the park being held back. I’m not missing anything. So 5 minutes for FoP right away or 45+ later when I could be riding other things.

 

[Jennasis]

It preserves that 65 minutes to be used for other stuff during the day.

Also...not as hot waiting in the morning vs middle of the day.

 

[ENJDisneyFan]

Using your numbers, it's 65 minutes of total wait time but the vast majority of that time is before the park opens when there's nothing better to do anyways. You're shifting your wait time outside of park hours and thereby preserving the park hours themselves to use more productively.

THIS!!

 

[VandVsmama]

Your point is that rope drop doesn't shrink the red. True. But it maximizes the green.

View attachment 606854

I agree.

When we go to DL, we rope drop the "slow loader" rides. This means everything in Fantasyland. I've used this strategy for years there based off of recommendations from Ride Max and it's always worked out really well. We've often been able to get on 5 attractions within the 1st hour, for example:
- Dumbo
- Mr Toad
- Matterhorn
- Pinocchio
- Snow White

After that, we head straight to Indiana Jones and go on that, followed by Jungle Cruise, Pirates, HM, Splash Mtn, and then BTMRR.

At WDW, we try for super-popular headliner rides at rope drop.

• At MK, we'd try for 7DMT and if the line was already >1 hr right at park opening, then we'd wait until just before closing to get in line for it.
• At AK - we rope drop FOP
• At HS - Slinky Dog Dash or Millennium Falcon for rope drop (this was before ROTR went to all standby queue)
• At Epcot - we'd try for Test Track, but so far, we haven't been very successful with getting there at rope drop.

 

[skippytx]

To me there are two types of rope dropping:

1. Rope dropping to ride multiple lower demand rides with no wait. (Like at MK doing HM, BTMRR, PoC, SW, etc.)
2. Rope dropping to ride a high demand attraction (Like 7DMT, FoP, and now ROTR)

I get the first one. If you are in there super early you can get a bunch of attractions done with low wait times. What I don't get is the second one, the high demand attraction. Take FoP for example, you wait outside AK for 45 minutes for open. Then you wait 15 minutes at a hold point (like the bridge). You then wait another 5 minutes before you actually get to the pre-show. My math isn't great but that's 65 minutes of wait time. If I saw FoP with 65 min. stand-by wait I'm not riding it. So maybe there's an advantage here if FoP is like 100+ mins all day. However, you still waited a really, really long time for that ride. Also, when someone does this type of rope drop they say "I rope dropped FoP and it was a walk on!" That to me is not entirely accurate--they did wait, it just wasn't in line.

I'm not trying to be disrespectful here. I'm genuinely interested in having someone explain the advantage of it. Is there a piece that I'm missing?

Also, I'm talking about people who visit the parks somewhat regularly--not the once in a lifetime folks.

Like others have mentioned it's all about maximizing park time when its open. For us there's also a sense of relief of getting that big A list attraction out of the way, it relaxes the rest of the day. AK has some of the shortest hours of all the parks, so it makes a good example. We tend to visit at very busy times, so I rather wake up early, spend an hour waiting before park opens, get on FOP early and be walking off early than spending 120 to 180 minutes in line for FOP. We can usually be done with FOP and Safari within 60 to 75 minutes of official park opening. We used to hit the first FOTLK show of the day, walk over to Everest, hit dinosaur, then bugs life and we were done for the day. Back in the FP+ days we would sometimes get to ride FOP twice, once at drop and once with FP+.

We're park hoppers, we rope drop one park in the morning and leave around 2, take an afternoon siesta, and then usually head to MK until close. We'll rope drop a ride in the AM, and then usually jump in another line right before park close.

Everyone has their own touring style, there's no right or wrong way to do things. I'm not sure how our old touring style is going to work without FP+, our next trip will be an adjustment for sure.

 

[jhop321]

To me there are two types of rope dropping:

1. Rope dropping to ride multiple lower demand rides with no wait. (Like at MK doing HM, BTMRR, PoC, SW, etc.)
2. Rope dropping to ride a high demand attraction (Like 7DMT, FoP, and now ROTR)

I get the first one. If you are in there super early you can get a bunch of attractions done with low wait times. What I don't get is the second one, the high demand attraction. Take FoP for example, you wait outside AK for 45 minutes for open. Then you wait 15 minutes at a hold point (like the bridge). You then wait another 5 minutes before you actually get to the pre-show. My math isn't great but that's 65 minutes of wait time. If I saw FoP with 65 min. stand-by wait I'm not riding it. So maybe there's an advantage here if FoP is like 100+ mins all day. However, you still waited a really, really long time for that ride. Also, when someone does this type of rope drop they say "I rope dropped FoP and it was a walk on!" That to me is not entirely accurate--they did wait, it just wasn't in line.

I'm not trying to be disrespectful here. I'm genuinely interested in having someone explain the advantage of it. Is there a piece that I'm missing?

Also, I'm talking about people who visit the parks somewhat regularly--not the once in a lifetime folks.

I rope dropped FOP and was one of the first 50 people on the ride, very much well worth it I'm very consciously done, as I did not ever want to wait in line for that one. I suppose I agree with you if you are a casual rope dropper, it makes more sense to do low demand rides. But if you want to do a high demand ride and got your **** together so you are one of the first person there, makes a lot of sense.

Couple days before that, I did the same thing at the magic Kingdom and was on the very first train on seven dwarfs mine train.

Well worth it

 

[Jonfw2]

Mathematically, it does make sense to rope drop major attractions- IF you are early and/or enough to avoid the line already being built up in front of you.

The guarantee is less in demand rides: at Hollywood, we "go right": Tower and RRC can be done at least twice each before lines are over 15 minutes. At MK, we "go left" and do Pirates, Splash, HM, etc- again, with no line.

So I'm in camp A as per this post- but camp B can work too if done properly.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

Mathematically, it does make sense to rope drop major attractions- IF you are early and/or enough to avoid the line already being built up in front of you.

The guarantee is less in demand rides: at Hollywood, we "go right": Tower and RRC can be done at least twice each before lines are over 15 minutes. At MK, we "go left" and do Pirates, Splash, HM, etc- again, with no line.

So I'm in camp A as per this post- but camp B can work too if done properly.

When do you ride Slinky?

 

[Jonfw2]

When do you ride Slinky?

Never! Haha!

No, seriously, I will just skip it outright if the line never dies down during the day. I have gotten on it a couple of times with a fastpass and once on the "Day of Thrills" tour. Going forward, I suspect I'll buy a Lightening Pass.

 

[BrotherCraig]

No reason to rope drop for one popular ride. Hit the ride at the end of the park day. Rarely any wait time for most. We hit Everest 3 times in a row towards closing. Twice - we were the only ones on it.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

Never! Haha!

No, seriously, I will just skip it outright if the line never dies down during the day. I have gotten on it a couple of times with a fastpass and once on the "Day of Thrills" tour. Going forward, I suspect I'll buy a Lightening Pass.

My goal is to never buy an IAS. My trips are usually 8 nights so I should be able to rope drop each IAS attraction and then pay for Genie+ to ride the rest.

No reason to rope drop for one popular ride. Hit the ride at the end of the park day. Rarely any wait time for most. We hit Everest 3 times in a row towards closing. Twice - we were the only ones on it.

It's much easier to get my family to the parks a 8am than keep them up past 9pm.

 

[JayMass]

Using your numbers, it's 65 minutes of total wait time but the vast majority of that time is before the park opens when there's nothing better to do anyways. You're shifting your wait time outside of park hours and thereby preserving the park hours themselves to use more productively.

Using my own family as an example, my kids nap after lunch so we leave the parks at 1:00. That gives us four hours from 9 to 1 to "do stuff." I don't want to use one of those four hours in line for Flight of Passage, so I start my rope drop at 8, essentially expanding my time available to "do stuff" to 5 hours.

Your point is that rope drop doesn't shrink the red. True. But it maximizes the green.

View attachment 606854

BRILLIANT! These two posts (and those similar) spell it out very clearly and concisely. It's less about reducing wait time and more about not using that wait time when you could be doing something else.

Thank you, it's something that has bugged me for awhile but now it makes much more sense!