Is Hitting Rope Drop Still The Best Strategy?

[jhaig]

We are going to WDW from Sept 9-19. I have all of my FP's set up already. Most of them are for later in the day or evening as I am hoping that I will be able to do most of what I want at MK in the first 2-3 hours of opening without much of a wait.

Does this strategy still hold true? Used to be, but with stories of long early waits for Pirates, HM, etc makes me wonder. I am hoping lower Sept. crowds will offset early standby wait times for non-headliners like Pirates and HM.

So can I still ride things like BTM, Space, Buzz, Splash, etc in Sept at RD with minimal waits, or will there be a flood of FP+ ahead of me?

 

[Nohal]

We are rope drop people and have always gotten on the "E" rides early sometimes multiple times. After reading some of the threads about long lines shortly after rope drop I am wondering the same thing.

 

[Robo]

We are going to WDW from Sept 9-19.

1. I have all of my ADR's set up already.

2. So can I still ride things like BTM, Space, Buzz, Splash, etc in Sept at RD with minimal waits, or will there be a flood of FP+ ahead of me?

1. Do you mean FP+?

2. Regardless, arriving early will still beat arriving at, say, 11AM.

 

[jhaig]

1. Do you mean FP+?

HA! Thank's for catching that, not properly caffeinated yet today

And by 11am, we are having an early lunch then heading back to the hotel to swim and rest, so getting stuff done in the first 2-3 hours has usually not been a problem before FP+.

 

[DisneyLvr55]

What we are doing is getting to every park at RD, and we have our FP+ selection for that time as well. After we use all 3, we are able to select more either on your phone, or at kiosks - At least thats what I've heard, the kiosks weren't up when we were there last in Oct/Nov.

 

[MrsDuck]

Simply put, earlier is always better.

 

[pepe of ohio]

We've been several trips after FP+ was started.... And we tour no different than our other 51 trips..

We're early risers, get to the parks before rope drop....do our favorites with and without FP's and are usually out of the parks by noon...same deal back to resort for pool picnic, swim....

Later in evening we may go back for a few hours hardly ever staying to close... we get our fill in these abbreviated park hours without getting overheated, crowd stomped and enjoying our resort...

 

[csm101]

depends time of year, if your onsite or not. etc. Well I feel RD @ MK is worth it. the other parks by 11 is fine. Have a nice breakfast and snacks instead of lunch to power through the day.

 

[surferdave]

Getting there at rope drop will always be more beneficial than not; the question is when changes by Disney makes the benefits drop below the point of diminishing returns.

If you have young children, you want to participate in nighttime activities, or any number of other legitimate reasons makes rope drop harder, then the point of diminishing returns may occur much sooner for you.

 

[redsbe]

We are going to WDW from Sept 9-19. I have all of my FP's set up already. Most of them are for later in the day or evening as I am hoping that I will be able to do most of what I want at MK in the first 2-3 hours of opening without much of a wait.

Does this strategy still hold true? Used to be, but with stories of long early waits for Pirates, HM, etc makes me wonder. I am hoping lower Sept. crowds will offset early standby wait times for non-headliners like Pirates and HM.

So can I still ride things like BTM, Space, Buzz, Splash, etc in Sept at RD with minimal waits, or will there be a flood of FP+ ahead of me?

Right now (Fri Aug 1st at 950a) Pirates has wait of 20 minutes, so yes I would say RD still has it advantages, even more so when crowds are not as busy as today (8/10 crowd level), I suspect when you are in WDW in mid Sept, RD waits are going to very small (1-4 crowd levels), even with some people now booking early day FP+.

 

[ArwenMarie]

It seems the length of time there is a RD advantage is shorter now, but its still there.

 

[redsbe]

It seems the length of time there is a RD advantage is shorter now, but its still there.

Keeping in mind if you are referring to times for today (Aug 1st) with crowd level of 7+, yes more crowds will even impact RD, but the OP is talking about mid Sept with crowd levels under 5 when RD will be huge advantage for at least the first two hours will low waits for all but the top few attractions at WDW.

 

[CTDisneyfan816]

I just got back last week and I found rope drop is great and if at MK, whenever a parade is going on is great, especially the ones near the end of the day.

 

[guinness408]

We've been several trips after FP+ was started.... And we tour no different than our other 51 trips.. We're early risers, get to the parks before rope drop....do our favorites with and without FP's and are usually out of the parks by noon...same deal back to resort for pool picnic, swim.... Later in evening we may go back for a few hours hardly ever staying to close... we get our fill in these abbreviated park hours without getting overheated, crowd stomped and enjoying our resort...

Exactly how we normally spend the day , so I'm happy to hear FP+ hasn't changed your timing.

 

[guinness408]

Keeping in mind if you are referring to times for today (Aug 1st) with crowd level of 7+, yes more crowds will even impact RD, but the OP is talking about mid Sept with crowd levels under 5 when RD will be huge advantage for at least the first two hours will low waits for all but the top few attractions at WDW.

I noticed the crowd level of 7, but am confused as Lines shows pretty reasonable wait times for this time of day. Been checking Lines every once in a while since my trips in 3 weeks. Wonder if Lines is off?

 

[kohlby]

No, it's not worth it. Stay at your hotel so there are less people for me to compete with.

We haven't been since FP+ but I'm really thinking it's still a yes. For example, we want to do TSM twice in a day. So we need to be there at RD and use a FP+ in order to do so. Since we don't know what we'll be able to get for the 4th FP+ at MK, we can plan some of the more crowded rides right away to get them taken care of. At EP, it's the Soarin' vs TT issue. So one day we'll do one at RP and FP+ the other. Another day, we'll do TT twice using RD and FP+. We're not using our FP+ at AK, we're hopping out later. I figure we better get to AK at RD to get our favorites taken care of before hopping out.

 

[jhaig]

No, it's not worth it. Stay at your hotel so there are less people for me to compete with. We haven't been since FP+ but I'm really thinking it's still a yes. For example, we want to do TSM twice in a day. So we need to be there at RD and use a FP+ in order to do so. Since we don't know what we'll be able to get for the 4th FP+ at MK, we can plan some of the more crowded rides right away to get them taken care of. At EP, it's the Soarin' vs TT issue. So one day we'll do one at RP and FP+ the other. Another day, we'll do TT twice using RD and FP+. We're not using our FP+ at AK, we're hopping out later. I figure we better get to AK at RD to get our favorites taken care of before hopping out.

We have most of our FP's set up for evening, except for Peter Pan, A&E, and the Mine Train. I just don't wanna wait 45 min for things like Pirates in September.