Late night vs. Rope drop

[Dallas_Lady]

How doable are some of the new super-headliners (FOP, Slinky) at the end of the night? I'm not looking forward to the craziness of rope drop, and since we're staying offsite I doubt we'll be able to get fastpasses at 30 days. I've accepted that we'll need to wait in line for these rides, I just want to optimize the wait as best as I can without having to fight other guests at daybreak. We're night owls anyway. What are those lines like near park closing? How close to close can you get in line?

 

[tinkerbelletreasure]

I haven’t been since either of those attractions opened, but if you are in the line when the park closes, you still get to ride. There’s been a lot of discussion on here that Disney May inflate the wait times close to closing to discourage people from getting into line for headliners. Last year I was in Disneyland and the posted wait time for Radiator Springs Racers at close was an hour, we were through the line in 20 minutes. The nice thing about this strategy is you are literally missing out on nothing. You couldn’t have done 3 other rides as walk on during your wait. The parks really do clear out after fireworks and shows. I can usually do all of fantasyland in an hour after fireworks with the exception of 7DMT. And you just have to be in line when it closes. Like 1 minute before and you are golden.

 

[Cinderumbrella]

FOP will be about an hour (give or take 15 minutes either way).

Slinky will be about 30 minutes (maybe less). TSL is very manageable as Fantasmic & Star Wars fireworks start time near.

 

[PlutoFan10]

I know it’s extra cost, but we are treating ourselves on our upcoming trip to Early Morning Magic at HS (Toy Story Land). Admittance at 7am, rides from 7:30 - 9am then access to the included all you can eat breakfast until 10am. Skipping the stress of an overcrowded TSL, the difficulty getting Slinky Dog fastpass, and the chance to ride the TSL rides multiple times seems worth it to us.

 

[Dallas_Lady]

I know it’s extra cost, but we are treating ourselves on our upcoming trip to Early Morning Magic at HS (Toy Story Land). Admittance at 7am, rides from 7:30 - 9am then access to the included all you can eat breakfast until 10am. Skipping the stress of an overcrowded TSL, the difficulty getting Slinky Dog fastpass, and the chance to ride the TSL rides multiple times seems worth it to us.

I'm seriously considering this. Over $300 for our family is nothing to sneeze at, but I just don't want to start my vacation running and elbowing.

 

[Tigger's ally]

I just don't want to start my vacation running and elbowing.

Heck, my family used to do that in the van on the way down before we even got there! My boys called it practice.

 

[Babe the Blue Ox]

On our last visit in June, the posted wait at FoP one evening was 110 minutes but we were in the first preshow in 17 minutes. A few years back, we rode 7DMT twice in less than a half hour during the week it opened. Those are just two examples.

You can get in line up until a moment before the park closes and will be allowed to ride. And yes, Disney does intentionally exaggerate the wait times at night to discourage late riders.

 

[Disxuni]

I do not have experience with Slinky, but for FOP I've twice gone later in the evening and waited until the last showing of ROL to get on. Once it was 45, the other was little over an hour. That's including the preshows.

An added bonus to that is the fact that since the park is either closed, or practically closed by the time you get into the queue is if you do it that way is that there is no FP queue since it's the end of the day.

 

[Cinderumbrella]

I'm seriously considering this. Over $300 for our family is nothing to sneeze at, but I just don't want to start my vacation running and elbowing.

If you are night owls, there’s no way I would pay to get up early (meaning an early night before) unless riding Slinky 4 or 5 times is a priority.

We went to DHS over the busy Presidents Day weekend and rode TSM and SDD in the last hour of park opening (we did TSM first).

 

[Pamela M]

I'm a fan of hitting a popular rides right before closing. You never know what you'll see when the park is "closed". My friends and i usually hit Haunted Mansion at DL when it's got the Nightmare overlay up. We get in line 5 minutes before closing and the line usually goes really fast because there is no fast pass at this point. We maybe wait 1/2 hour it usually goes pretty quickly. One time when we got off it was really late (We were the last people on the ride). As we were walking out we saw Mickey and Minnie holding hands and skipping along (to get back stage I assume) without handlers. Another time we also got a picture infront of the castle with almost no one in our picture.

 

[Dallas_Lady]

We also love nighttime for the weather. We'll be there in June and it's so much more pleasant once the afternoon rainstorm passes.

I never thought about the "no fastpass" benefit to riding late at night! I bet that does make the line go faster.

I'm in a bit of a quandary about Hollywood Studios cause we do want to see Fantasmic. It's at 9 and the park closes at 9.

 

[PrincessWithABlaster]

I think the answer on which approach to use depends a lot on your group's approach to the parks. If you're night owls, it's definitely a good strategy. I think it's a strategy that benefits from having an AP or park hoppers though. We don't have either and only plan 1 day in AK and DHS so I wouldn't use closing as my only strategy to ride SDD or FOP because rides do go down at night (TT as often as 1 in 5 days). If I did have hoppers I'd be much more about using that as a main strategy (if my kids were older and could stay up later that is).

There are pros and cons to all the strategies. You just have to find what works for your situation.

 

[GoofyDad_4427]

Just writing to caution that they will close the line exactly at the time the park closes. In November we got in line for FoP at 8:59 on two different days, and the CM was along to close the line at exactly 9:00. Took us between 40 and 50 minutes for everything (including ride and pre show) both times. Was showing 120 minutes or more for the entire day, and was showing 100 minutes when we got in line.

 

[anorman]

This sounds like a really good strategy. I'd love to give it a go on our upcoming trip. We are also staying offsite. The only trouble is we are rope drop people and trying to get my family to return to a park to do this would be like pulling teeth!

 

[gharter]

SDD lines were much shorter at the end of the night as the large crowds are in Fantasmic or waiting for Star Wars. TSL is really nice when it is lit up at night. It gives TSL an entirely different feel.
We have done FoP near closing several times and waited 10-30 minutes, never worse than that.

 

[angierae]

My favorite was when the Tinkerbell meet in Magic Kingdom said 30 minutes at the end of the night, and DD and I stopped, looked at each other and went to keep moving, and the CM called us over and said "It's not that long". We went in and walked straight in to see her, with one group ahead of us.

 

[Babe the Blue Ox]

We learned about the inflated wait times in the 1999 Unofficial Guide so this is nothing new. Disney intentionally exaggerates the waits at night in order to funnel guests toward the gift shops and eventually out the gates. We've often found the posted waits to be around 4x the actual waits late at night for the headliners.

A couple of summers ago, we challenged ourselves to see how much we could do in MK over the last 4 hours of the evening without any FPs. I think it turned out ok, and probably better than could be done in the morning:

Big Thunder 3x
Splash Mtn 2x
Space Mtn 2x
Mine Train
Pirates
Jungle Cruise
Haunted Mansion
Pooh
Peter Pan
Speedway
Barnstormer 2x

We also watched the fireworks and had a couple of Dole Whips.

 

[TotallyTink]

I tried the get in line at park closed strategy this past August for the first time and it worked great! I didn't do Slinky or FOP but I did do SDMT and Splash Mtn. The line really moved fast as soon as the park closed since no more Fastpasses were returning.

 

[GPC0321]

Big Thunder 3x
Splash Mtn 2x
Space Mtn 2x
Mine Train
Pirates
Jungle Cruise
Haunted Mansion
Pooh
Peter Pan
Speedway
Barnstormer 2x

We also watched the fireworks and had a couple of Dole Whips.

That's 4 hours well-spent right there!