Not doing a rope drop -is this possible?

[BriarRose924]

We have always been a rope drop family. This year the older teens are asking to please get to sleep a little later. I admit I’m the crazy “at the bus/monorail etc by 7am to rope drop early entry” mom. If we don’t rope drop and don’t buy Genie+ or ILL, realistically is it even going to work to get on much of anything? Any tips from people who go after opening to the parks?

 

[randumb0]

I don't normally enter the park until after 12, don't buy Genie and do just fine. If you want to ride every ride in the park then that is a different story

 

[BriarRose924]

I don't normally enter the park until after 12, don't buy Genie and do just fine. If you want to ride every ride in the park then that is a different story

Thanks. We definitely don’t have to do everything.

 

[kylenne]

When are you going? Which parks? What are your priorities? Your tolerance for waiting in standby lines? It’s “doable” depending on how you define that but it’s going to be much easier and more bearable in some parks than others. You will be walking in during peak heat and crowds.

Personally I would start with doing shows and “filler” attractions if coming in that late and bide my time until after hopping hours. People who were there for EE start leaving around noon for midday breaks and you do see a reduction in waits. And AK in particular sees wait times plummet because most people hop out of it. Epcot is somewhat an exception because people love to hop in to eat.

HS is extremely challenging even if you do EE. Wait times build extremely quickly and don’t really go down until late afternoon. Going in at 10 is far more miserable than just getting up early. But if your family still won’t and you can’t or don’t want to G+ that day, I would just spend the morning at your resort having a leisurely TS breakfast, hanging out at the pool etc and don’t bother going to HS until after 2. It’s not as pronounced as at AK but folk get frustrated by lines and hop out. Waits will still be high at the heavy hitters but you can knock out some shows until things start to calm down later in the afternoon. Tbh everything I’m seeing in my own research of recent crowd patterns says pm at HS is best.

 

[sdk1231]

I do late start for MK, but my family of older kids don't need to ride "everything". Caveat: I do buy G+ and the sometimes ILL. For DHS, agree w/ @kylenne above - Early Entry is almost a "must".

 

[mco65]

I think the later (nightime) You stay the better chance you have of riding a headliner without an excruciating long wait. If you have a can't miss headliner and you don't use Genie+ or rope drop, you just have to plan on queing it. I can handle 1 long wait per day but wouldn't want to do any more than that so planning a long que wait in the early evening after a meal and after the sun has gone down would be my plan.

 

[BriarRose924]

When are you going? Which parks? What are your priorities? Your tolerance for waiting in standby lines? It’s “doable” depending on how you define that but it’s going to be much easier and more bearable in some parks than others. You will be walking in during peak heat and crowds.

Personally I would start with doing shows and “filler” attractions if coming in that late and bide my time until after hopping hours. People who were there for EE start leaving around noon for midday breaks and you do see a reduction in waits. And AK in particular sees wait times plummet because most people hop out of it. Epcot is somewhat an exception because people love to hop in to eat.

HS is extremely challenging even if you do EE. Wait times build extremely quickly and don’t really go down until late afternoon. Going in at 10 is far more miserable than just getting up early. But if your family still won’t and you can’t or don’t want to G+ that day, I would just spend the morning at your resort having a leisurely TS breakfast, hanging out at the pool etc and don’t bother going to HS until after 2. It’s not as pronounced as at AK but folk get frustrated by lines and hop out. Waits will still be high at the heavy hitters but you can knock out some shows until things start to calm down later in the afternoon. Tbh everything I’m seeing in my own research of recent crowd patterns says pm at HS is best.

This is great info. Thank you!! We are doing all parks and do have hoppers. We would want to do the popular rides. But I don’t know about waiting hours for a ride. That’s what I’m worried about. We are going mid July so I also felt going early is best so we can do a mid day break.
The after 2pm tip makes a lot of sense!
Our first park is AK and we were going to have breakfast then head over. But I’m worried we will end up not riding Flight of Passage because I know we won’t want to stand in line for hours.

 

[BriarRose924]

I do late start for MK, but my family of older kids don't need to ride "everything". Caveat: I do buy G+ and the sometimes ILL. For DHS, agree w/ @kylenne above - Early Entry is almost a "must".

Thank you!! I have to try to convince them to get up early! Haha

 

[sdk1231]

Thank you!! I have to try to convince them to get up early! Haha

My teen / early 20's agreed to do Early Entry for DHS and DAK. In both cases, they got on the early bus, made it to the parks and were back at the resort (GF) by 1:30 pm, having ridden all of the headliners and in the case of DAK, they also saw the Lion King show. They chilled out at the pool and/or had a nap before going back out in the evening. They thought it was a good trade off.

 

[kylenne]

This is great info. Thank you!! We are doing all parks and do have hoppers. We would want to do the popular rides. But I don’t know about waiting hours for a ride. That’s what I’m worried about. We are going mid July so I also felt going early is best so we can do a mid day break.
The after 2pm tip makes a lot of sense!
Our first park is AK and we were going to have breakfast then head over. But I’m worried we will end up not riding Flight of Passage because I know we won’t want to stand in line for hours.

FOP you can actually manage very nicely if you hop in line right at the end of the night like a minute or two before park close. They will still let you ride as long as you are in the line at the time of official close. Usually it’s no more than 45 minutes then and sometimes in slower periods you can catch it at 25 even. This is a good way to do those heavy hitter attractions in general. Over at HS Slinky Dog you can do this way as well. But I would not try this strategy with Rise though, it’s a real gamble because of how much it likes to go down. That one unfortunately if you don’t rope drop and will not use $ILL you may just have to eat the wait time for it. I would probably try during Fantasmic.

 

[musicguy856]

FOP you can actually manage very nicely if you hop in line right at the end of the night like a minute or two before park close. They will still let you ride as long as you are in the line at the time of official close. Usually it’s no more than 45 minutes then and sometimes in slower periods you can catch it at 25 even. This is a good way to do those heavy hitter attractions in general. Over at HS Slinky Dog you can do this way as well. But I would not try this strategy with Rise though, it’s a real gamble because of how much it likes to go down. That one unfortunately if you don’t rope drop and will not use $ILL you may just have to eat the wait time for it. I would probably try during Fantasmic.

A couple of weeks ago the posted wait was around an hour right before close and I walked right into the lab portion of the queue and was sorted into one of the lines past merge within 10 minutes.

 

[kylenne]

A couple of weeks ago the posted wait was around an hour right before close and I walked right into the lab portion of the queue and was sorted into one of the lines past merge within 10 minutes.

Nice! Yeah I have noticed that they intentionally over inflate the wait times towards the end of the night, probably to discourage guests from jumping in line like that, but FOP especially seems to do it a lot. Mine Train is another one notorious for it, I like to ride that at park close. They will post 60 min wait time after fireworks when it’s more like 10-15.

 

[glocon]

Maybe compromise and do some days of rope drop and some days sleeping in like @sdk1231 mentioned.

You won’t really know if you like something different than what you are used to unless you try it.
You might actually like not doing rope drop or the kids might end up deciding rope drop is worth it after seeing what sleeping in does to the schedule and lines.

Just don’t know until you try it.

And since the kids are older teens, maybe you can still rope drop when they are sleeping in if you want!

 

[BriarRose924]

FOP you can actually manage very nicely if you hop in line right at the end of the night like a minute or two before park close. They will still let you ride as long as you are in the line at the time of official close. Usually it’s no more than 45 minutes then and sometimes in slower periods you can catch it at 25 even. This is a good way to do those heavy hitter attractions in general. Over at HS Slinky Dog you can do this way as well. But I would not try this strategy with Rise though, it’s a real gamble because of how much it likes to go down. That one unfortunately if you don’t rope drop and will not use $ILL you may just have to eat the wait time for it. I would probably try during Fantasmic.

Thanks! This is a big help! We may have to do the ILL for rise I think then. This is stressful haha

 

[BriarRose924]

Maybe compromise and do some days of rope drop and some days sleeping in like @sdk1231 mentioned.

You won’t really know if you like something different than what you are used to unless you try it.
You might actually like not doing rope drop or the kids might end up deciding rope drop is worth it after seeing what sleeping in does to the schedule and lines.

Just don’t know until you try it.

And since the kids are older teens, maybe you can still rope drop when they are sleeping in if you want!

Thanks! That’s what I keep trying to tell myself! We did debate just having them meet us later but I know if I do that they will sleep till noon if im not there to nag them awake haha

 

[BriarRose924]

Nice! Yeah I have noticed that they intentionally over inflate the wait times towards the end of the night, probably to discourage guests from jumping in line like that, but FOP especially seems to do it a lot. Mine Train is another one notorious for it, I like to ride that at park close. They will post 60 min wait time after fireworks when it’s more like 10-15.

Oh good to know! Thanks!

 

[kylenne]

Thanks! This is a big help! We may have to do the ILL for rise I think then. This is stressful haha

I hope it works out. Personally I agree with @glocon that it’s worth it trying to get them to agree to a mix of rope drop and later starts. Trust me I know how hard it is dragging teens out of bed on vacation from my nieces and nephews. Last time I went with any I had a 14 yo who had us rolling into MK at 10am Saturday of Memorial Day weekend. When she saw the lines for the mountains she changed her tune very quickly about getting up early. It’s just me and my partner this time but we are mixing in with some later afternoon starts, albeit we do plan to stack LLs.

With how hot it is in the summer I feel like EE is essential just to cope with the heat. It truly gets surface of the sun hot in that 10-4pm period on top of it being crowded and it’s why we always take midday breaks.

 

[robinb]

Are you staying at a Deluxe resort? We have started to do the Deluxe Extra Hours (or whatever they are called) at night and then we plan a late morning the next day.

In any case, I would suggest that you rethink buying G+ ... if only for those days that your teens sleep in. It will give you an outlet for your frustration on missing rope drop and allow you to start planning your day. One method is to grab a hard to get ride like Jungle Cruise or Slinky Dog LL late in the day (easy to do when the return times click by pretty fast at 7:00 am) and then start building around that LL 2 hours after the park opens. You'll have 2-3 LLs in your back pocket before you even enter the park.

 

[BriarRose924]

I hope it works out. Personally I agree with @glocon that it’s worth it trying to get them to agree to a mix of rope drop and later starts. Trust me I know how hard it is dragging teens out of bed on vacation from my nieces and nephews. Last time I went with any I had a 14 yo who had us rolling into MK at 10am Saturday of Memorial Day weekend. When she saw the lines for the mountains she changed her tune very quickly about getting up early. It’s just me and my partner this time but we are mixing in with some later afternoon starts, albeit we do plan to stack LLs.

With how hot it is in the summer I feel like EE is essential just to cope with the heat. It truly gets surface of the sun hot in that 10-4pm period on top of it being crowded and it’s why we always take midday breaks.

Hahahha yeah maybe after day one they will get their butts up! Haha

 

[BriarRose924]

Are you staying at a Deluxe resort? We have started to do the Deluxe Extra Hours (or whatever they are called) at night and then we plan a late morning the next day.

In any case, I would suggest that you rethink buying G+ ... if only for those days that your teens sleep in. It will give you an outlet for your frustration on missing rope drop and allow you to start planning your day. One method is to grab a hard to get ride like Jungle Cruise or Slinky Dog LL late in the day (easy to do when the return times click by pretty fast at 7:00 am) and then start building around that LL 2 hours after the park opens. You'll have 2-3 LLs in your back pocket before you even enter the park.

Yes we are at Polynesian but of course we did a test day on Wednesday so only have one night for the extra evening hours. Yeah I might have to rethink genie. I’ve heard so many complaints about it. I thought it wouldn’t be worth the cost