Is rope drop advantage dead/shorter?

[ArwenMarie]

Wow, is the rope drop advantage dead/shorter?

Just reading this blog post on easywdw

http://www.easywdw.com/uncategorized/disney-world-summer-wait-time-trends-june-3-2014/#more-13581

It looks like rope drop advantage is down to about an hour, hour and a half in MK and Epcot (didn't look too closely at the other two parks)

 

[DisneyFive]

I'd like to hear about this too, from those that visit enough to know how it used to be, and how it is now that FP+ is allowing FP's to be chosen so early.

While rope drop was never "dead", it was certainly a nice couple of hours to get in some nice stuff.

I remember one day at MK when we went straight to Tomorrowland and hung out with Stitch for a good 15 minutes before we really saw anyone in that whole area around Space Mountain/Carousel of Progress. The whole Tomorrowland area was dead, and just felt really different without anyone there! Like we had it all to ourselves, and we did!

Dan

 

[FLchick415]

For me personally, not really. But I travel solo quite a bit, and it's easier for me to move at a faster pace from one ride to the next by myself than worrying about dragging X amount of people with me. If I had a family, then yeah, it'd probably be different.

 

[margaret07013]

It looks like rope drop advantage is down to about an hour, hour and a half in MK and Epcot (didn't look too closely at the other two parks)

I would say you are right about "an hour, hour and half in MK" based on my experience during May trip. You can get a little bit more in MK if you add morning EMH since only FL and TL is open early. so you if plan it right - you can do counter clock with almost 2 rope drops

 

[PEC]

I still see a couple of good hours. Maybe I am looking at it wrong or have a different standard of acceptable wait times. I think I would use the first couple of hours of riding say POTC, Jungle Cruise, HM in first couple of hours. Have FP+ beginning No earlier Than 11. Last one around 3ish and then try to get a couple of more.
As far as RD at EPCOT, I believe it has always been you pick either TT or Soarin and then FP the other one at RD. The wait time has always gone up fast for them. I remember tracking wait times and FP- return times pre FP+ last year. Many times in early June 2013, if you waited until 12ish for a FP for Soarin or TT, you could quickly find yourself waiting in a 90 minute standby line if you wanted to do it on that day.

 

[JimmyV]

No.
At the MK, there are so many rides, you can enjoy the RD advantage for quite a while. Crowd dispersal keeps things manageable for two hours or so.

At Epcot and DHS, because of tiering, RD is perhaps even more important than before. If you get a FP for RnR and want to also ride TSMM, you had better do the mad dash at RD. Same for Soarin'/Test Track.

At AK, RD was never that critical unless you favor riding the Safari in the cooler first hour. No change there.

 

[ArwenMarie]

No.
At the MK, there are so many rides, you can enjoy the RD advantage for quite a while. Crowd dispersal keeps things manageable for two hours or so.

At Epcot and DHS, because of tiering, RD is perhaps even more important than before. If you get a FP for RnR and want to also ride TSMM, you had better do the mad dash at RD. Same for Soarin'/Test Track.

At AK, RD was never that critical unless you favor riding the Safari in the cooler first hour. No change there.

Even at MK, the length of time before the wait times really start ticking up seems to be shorter to me.

 

[ArwenMarie]

I still see a couple of good hours. Maybe I am looking at it wrong or have a different standard of acceptable wait times. I think I would use the first couple of hours of riding say POTC, Jungle Cruise, HM in first couple of hours. Have FP+ beginning No earlier Than 11. Last one around 3ish and then try to get a couple of more.
As far as RD at EPCOT, I believe it has always been you pick either TT or Soarin and then FP the other one at RD. The wait time has always gone up fast for them. I remember tracking wait times and FP- return times pre FP+ last year. Many times in early June 2013, if you waited until 12ish for a FP for Soarin or TT, you could quickly find yourself waiting in a 90 minute standby line if you wanted to do it on that day.

Acceptable to me is about 20 minutes I guess.

 

[jeffbear]

Based on our experience two weeks ago, the rope drop advantage has shrunk by about a half an hour, depending on the Park and the attractions you are trying to click off first thing in the morning.

 

[PEC]

Acceptable to me is about 20 minutes I guess.

Sounds close to mine. I think the ride itself does dictate that some. Example I did a qucik glance and currently Peter Pan is only 35 minutes mid afternoon. That was unheard of in the past. I might would consider that stand by. Now if the Carousel hit even 15 minutes I would wait it out for a more doable time.

 

[MaryKatesMom]

My past Easter experience compared to other years was yes although we did not do RD at AK.

I know we used to be able to do TT and Soarin' twice before 11 AM and this trip we did not. We walked on Soarin' and at 9:22 and when we got off the wait time was 65 minutes. Normally we would have had the earlies FP for that gone and done TT twice back to Soarin' but we fit one in TT single rider (we usually ride once as a family and once single rider) and skipped the Soarin' wait the second time.

We walked over to Maelstrom for opening. I love Maelstrom. We wandered over at 11 when it opens as we usually do. We've done this dozens of times then go to lunch at Noon. I've never seen a long line at opening and it is almost a walk on there because it moves pretty quickly. I truly thought that at that time FP+ wouldn't affect Maelstrom because who would pick it over the other Tier 1 options (no fourth FP+ at the time)? We ended up waiting 36 minutes and I was shocked to see people coming in the FP+ line at a steady clip and since they get right on, the SB line moved slower than normal. Why were people using there Tier 1 pick for Maelstrom? I checked the MDE app while in line. Guess what? Only Maelstrom and a M&G were left. So Maelstrom at opening moved slower than usual.

 

[baler31]

Even at MK, the length of time before the wait times really start ticking up seems to be shorter to me.

This and my acceptable time is 15 minutes. We are down in the number of attractions we can get done in 2 hours at rope drop. There are more people at rope drop and FP+ being available first thing increase wait times.

I don't think all of the blame lies with FP+ though as there seems to be significantly more people in the parks at rope drop.

 

[southernfriedmom]

We were at rope drop at Epcot last Sunday. We are normally front of the line people but were running later than I wanted and were at least 50 people from the front. I was very doubtful but ended up being pleasantly surprised. We rode Soarin and then Test Track and were done with both an hour & fifteen minutes after park opening with no speed walking.

 

[PEC]

This and my acceptable time is 15 minutes. We are down in the number of attractions we can get done in 2 hours at rope drop. There are more people at rope drop and FP+ being available first thing increase wait times.

I don't think all of the blame lies with FP+ though as there seems to be significantly more people in the parks at rope drop.

The numbers were released and displayed in another thread for MK and 2013 had almost a million more visitors than 2012. I wouldn't be surprised with A&E and 7DMT numbers are not up significantly more in 2014. We are now looking at probably 2000 to 5000 more people in the park on any giving day. I know this gets divided amongst the rides and some spend 3 hours waiting for A&E but they are doing other attractions as well. I do not want this to turn into a what needs to happen to the other parks thread but at some point they will have to take the crowd pressure off of MK. FP+ probably added some but more people = longer waits as well.

 

[kmv]

RD is still a MUST!

We were just there last week and walked on and off rides at MK for over an hour after RD, same with AK!!!! Didn't need FP+ until at least 11am. Longest wait before 11am was like 10 minutes!

 

[redc]

We were there Memorial Day weekend and arrived at each park about 10 to 15 minutes AFTER RD. It was wonderful. Walked on so many rides and still used the early FP+s that we had arranged in advance. And then added at least the 4th every day. All the moaning about FP+ was a waste of breath. It is great relaxing way to tour the parks.

 

[Momoftwins+1]

RD is still a MUST!

We were just there last week and walked on and off rides at MK for over an hour after RD, same with AK!!!! Didn't need FP+ until at least 11am. Longest wait before 11am was like 10 minutes!

This is what we found last week as well. Even in peak afternoon hours the lines weren't all that long except Mine Train (which kept breaking) and Splash on Tuesday because it was so hot. 30 mins or less to me isn't a wait but I'm from the old school of park goers who remembers no FP and ride lengths being much longer at everything.

 

[Day-Day]

Still has some value at least. We visited May 10-16 and entered MK late one morning after intentionally sleeping in late and taking our time with breakfast at the resort. I was amazed (once again) at the massive amount of people entering the park with us around 1.5 hours after 9am park opening. People continue to fill the parks past noon.

When we visited the parks at rope drop we experienced short waits for what seemed like a couple of hours; maybe knock 30 minutes off of our experiences prior to FP+??

We did not try a morning EMH. Wonder about that since FPs aren't active during that time period.

 

[mslhb]

Just back from a week at Disney. On our full MK day we did rope drop. Rode standby from 9-11 and then had an early lunch. Everything was walk on/short lines till about 10:30.. But even up till 11/11:30 it wasn't bad. You can still get A LOT done even in that 1st hour. Definitely made a difference following the easywdw park calendar. We popped by MK late morning on a non-recommended day for a couple of specific fast passes and it was way more crowded.

 

[trishadono]

We had a great time. Rope drop in the morning and FP+ evenings. We rode so many things!

Before our nights were pretty boring. Now we ride one park at RD and another with the passes

Also loved seeing A&E on the train at MK during opening show

(6/2 and 6/3)