Is rope drop advantage dead/shorter?

[Planogirl]

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.

Thanks for reporting your Maelstrom experience. That is bizarre and will take some different planning I think.

 

[ZoZo]

I'd say that since many vacationers don't like to get up early, there will always be an advantage to getting to the parks at rope drop.

 

[tootallsheart73]

We are going on our first trip to Disney World September 17-24. We are going to Chef Mickey's at 8:15 am on Friday, Sept. 9th. How bad is this likely to mess us up at MK that morning?

 

[disney meema]

Kinda of off topic but I want to do a rope day so badly ... We come from West to East and so we are lazy I guess, we never make it there. But we rock it at night and in the parks until we absolutely have to leave. Aka Night Owls : )

 

[SplashMo]

We come form the west coast. Rope Drop and close out the park... (no breaks except Lunch and Dinner).

 

[sbrost13]

I still believe RD is key to my family's touring style. We did it for every morning of our 5 days at the parks in April. We got a lot done, but we also go to the park that has the AM EMH, so I think that makes a huge difference, especially at EPCOT. On the AM EMH day we were able to get on the first flight for Soarin' then went directly to TT with about a 15-20 minute wait (which we enjoyed). My DH & DS did RD later in the trip on a non-AM EMH day and got on the first flight for Soarin', but by the time they got to TT, it was a 40 minute wait. For HS & AK you could potentially get all your rides done in the first 90 minutes since there aren't too many of them.

 

[ckelly14]

Thanks for reporting your Maelstrom experience. That is bizarre and will take some different planning I think.

I echo the Maelstrom experience. I would strongly recommend getting Maelstrom as your fourth FP+ selection. I picked up a time immediately after our first 3 selections and there was plenty of availability. However, standby was around 30 minutes. Glad we had FP+ as I would never wait 30 minutes for Maelstrom!

 

[ArwenMarie]

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.

That's good to hear, at least there is still a good hour. Seems shorter to me than it used to be, but if you move fast you can still get stuff done.

 

[southernfriedmom]

I still believe RD is key to my family's touring style. We did it for every morning of our 5 days at the parks in April. We got a lot done, but we also go to the park that has the AM EMH, so I think that makes a huge difference, especially at EPCOT. On the AM EMH day we were able to get on the first flight for Soarin' then went directly to TT with about a 15-20 minute wait (which we enjoyed). My DH & DS did RD later in the trip on a non-AM EMH day and got on the first flight for Soarin', but by the time they got to TT, it was a 40 minute wait. For HS & AK you could potentially get all your rides done in the first 90 minutes since there aren't too many of them.

We did something similar at Epcot and I noticed something that could be a fluke or maybe a trend. My husband took 3 of our kids to ride Soarin while I waited with our non-rider outside of TT. I watched the wait at TT jump up to 45 & then just a few minutes before my family got back it went down to 30 (and I saw the line outside visibly get shorter) and when we rode it, it was in fact only 30 minutes. Thinking maybe the wait time dips just a bit once the huge rush of RD people get through but this is just my thoughts & maybe just a fluke that day.

 

[jedi jen]

I love this thread. We do RD and you all are giving me great ideas and intel!!

 

[helenb]

Kinda of off topic but I want to do a rope day so badly ... We come from West to East and so we are lazy I guess, we never make it there. But we rock it at night and in the parks until we absolutely have to leave. Aka Night Owls : )

Night Owls has its own valid strategy!

We come from the West Coast too. What we do is we don't go straight to Disney/Universal. We spend a couple of days after we get off the plane doing something else and adjusting to the different time zone. We used to go spend a couple of days with the in-laws (ugh) but now I've convinced my husband that it's more fun to go on a cruise. We're actually doing this in about a week: flying in, taking a cruise, then afterward going to Universal and WDW.

 

[MaryKatesMom]

We used to do AM EMH RD for many years (including before they even had PM EMH) and then I took the advice of a tour guide and did RD at a park that had EMH the day before and it was like we found a magic crowd repellent! Truly remarkable difference.

Now I am rethinking that strategy. So could someone let me know if they have noticed a change in the crowd level or SB lines during morning EMH?