No more Rope Drop?

[LibrarianBecky]

We're a pretty seasoned Disney family, with several week long trips under our belt. Our last family trip was in 2019, though, and of course, many things have changed since then. We have a trip scheduled for spring break in April. We are staying off property, renting a car for transportation. We've always been a rope drop family. With early morning hours for on-property guests, I'm rethinking this strategy for our family. We'll still arrive at the parks in the morning, since I think that's still a great time to tour, but I don't think it is likely as worthwhile to be at the parks 45 minutes before opening and rush to a headliner ride, because they will probably all have a significant wait time because of early entry. Instead, I"m thinking planning to ride headliners like SDMT or FOP either at the end of the night or with an ILL. Thoughts? Anyone else who was a rope drop family completely change their touring strategy?

For context, we are two adults and a 15 year old, so no small children here. We can go from opening to closing, but may choose to come back to our room (Wyndam Bonnet Creek) mid-day. We don't have park hoppers and don't plan to purchase them.

 

[lfcfan]

@LibrarianBecky, we are asking the exact same question, even though we are staying onsite in May. It is the 2 of us and our college age son. Though I could successfully drag him to early rope drops, I am not sure it is worth all of the hassle, since we will do Genie+, use ILL, and have a lot of park days. Traditionally we are RD/break/evening people, but I am not sure that works anymore. I am doing the research and look forward to the responses here.
I generally hate the parks from like 1:30-5...I hate fighting through the masses everywhere. We will at least take a long lunch. I am very curious what the flow is with everything different these days.
What is unclear to me is what the "entrance" will be like a little after park opening. Is it still a mass of people, or is it more low key? If I am stuck in the mass anyway, maybe better to get there early. This is especially the issue with the back gate to Epcot now that there is the skyliner.
If we do RD, we will not be among the masses to the big headliner (say, SDMT.) We will use that time to do a couple of no wait attractions instead. I definitely think ILL is worth it for your situation (small fam, spring break!)
I am sorry I cannot help, but I am with you in trying to figure this out! Good luck and I hope you have a great trip.

 

[gatorlisa]

At the very least, MK is still a worthwhile park to get to early and rope drop. Early entry only provides access to Tomorrowland and Fantasyland, so you have more or less equal footing to beat the lines at rope drop for Frontierland and Adventureland attractions. SDMT is very doable during fireworks, if that is something you are willing to do.

 

[Orsino]

We gave up on rope drop last week early in our trip. Two EE rope drops (MK and epcot) and both had too many people and broken rides. It was no longer worth it in my opinion. I think the advice to rope drop Frontierland or advanture land at MK has merit. However in our case BTMRR was down at opening anyway. Along with PP 7DMT and pooh. It was a bad morning.

rope drop isn’t what it used to be. We switched to evenings and had a much better time. 7DMT ten minutes to close was a 25 minute wait for us. Rise was also 25 minutes. FoP around that too.

 

[snikki]

I haven't been since G+ but I think RD can work if you have a plan.

My plan on RD days is to get G+/ILL for the headliners and RD tier 2/3 attractions. At MK head to Frontierland/Adventureland at 9 am (maybe try for Space at 8:30 or just do some walk on FL rides), at HS hit ToT and RnRC, AK do the safari, at Epcot do Soarin (not really tier 2 but less popular than Remy and Frozen. When we go Guardians should be open so that'll free up Soarin even more I believe). I've read reports that this seems to work better. This is also what we did with FP+ except it was free back then. We do 9 day hoppers with 4 RD days. The rest of the days we sleep in and hit the pool and go to the parks in the afternoon. On those days I will stack G+ in the evening just like we did with FP+. I also plan on doing headliners at park close.

 

[gharter]

Even with Genie +, we found RD to be worth it.
You still have 30 minutes before the big crowd comes in. We found that was time to do at least 1 major attraction, often 2 and get in line for another. When the crowd comes in, often they are headed for the ones we just got finished riding. So we still have shorter lines for another hour or so.
For us, RD , sometime afternoon, head back to the resort, then enjoy evening hours at a park.

 

[kmrobins03]

We are a RD family and continue to RD. We typically stay on site- so we go to early entry. I understand your concern and depending on the park and crowd level (and what rides you want to ride) - there may not be much benefit to rope dropping for the offsite guest. Wake up early and get ILL$ And genie +, then go back to bed. Lol
When we RD at early entry and walk off the first ride (around park open), the headliner queues are already 45-60min
However… There could be a benefit if you want to hit the non-headliners first.