Not doing a rope drop -is this possible?

[Mermaidtails1323]

We don’t attend rope drop, it’s way too crowded and stressful for us. We can always get in multiple rides on the headliners by simply staying until closing time each day. You just have to understand the crowd patterns and know how the inflated wait times work.

We do buy Genie + each day, but don’t buy $ILL as those lines get very short near the end of the day.

I do sometimes feel bad when we see families turn away from an attraction with a high wait time when you just know it’s not accurate.

I good example from early last summer is Rise of the Resistance. The posted wait time about 80 minutes before close was 110. There was hardly anyone milling around, which is usually a pretty good indicator of the wait time inside.

We rode 3 times before the park closed. You can’t do that in the morning no matter how early you arrive.

Probably going to do our first park close this trip with my kids, as they’re old enough to handle this. Any other tips for how to tell if the wait times are inflated so we can take advantage of the late evenings?

 

[Babe the Blue Ox]

Probably going to do our first park close this trip with my kids, as they’re old enough to handle this. Any other tips for how to tell if the wait times are inflated so we can take advantage of the late evenings?

Disney calls this late night process “Line Stacking”. We first read about it in the 1998 Unofficial Guide so it’s nothing new and it is intentional.

What they do is close off some of the switchbacks within the waiting areas to make the lines appear longer than they really are. Then they post an artificially inflated wait time and now you’ve got a pretty good crowd deterrent. The goal is to funnel guests away from the attractions and toward the gift shops and eventually the exits.

The theory is that guests are more likely to make purchases before closing time, even though the shops are open for an hour or so after the park closes.

You can expect the posted times to be up to 4x the actual wait during the last hour or so of operation. We’ve been doing this for years and it always works.

Enjoy your next trip.

 

[Davey Jones II]

Disney calls this late night process “Line Stacking”. We first read about it in the 1998 Unofficial Guide so it’s nothing new and it is intentional.

What they do is close off some of the switchbacks within the waiting areas to make the lines appear longer than they really are. Then they post an artificially inflated wait time and now you’ve got a pretty good crowd deterrent. The goal is to funnel guests away from the attractions and toward the gift shops and eventually the exits.

The theory is that guests are more likely to make purchases before closing time, even though the shops are open for an hour or so after the park closes.

You can expect the posted times to be up to 4x the actual wait during the last hour or so of operation. We’ve been doing this for years and it always works.

Enjoy your next trip.

I think I've noticed the switchback thing in the past. Instead of weaving left and right, the indoor queue will tend to follow a long, straight line, correct?

 

[Babe the Blue Ox]

I think I've noticed the switchback thing in the past. Instead of weaving left and right, the indoor queue will tend to follow a long, straight line, correct?

The best example is Toy Story Mania. They close off all of the switchbacks inside the building and the line goes directly to the box where you pick up the glasses. They let the end of the line spill out into the courtyard, post a 100 minute wait time and now you’ve got the perfect line stack.

This worked even at the height of its popularity when guests were waiting 2 hours plus throughout the day. We would wait until about an hour before closing time and be able to ride at least 4 times.

A former poster here Robo gave me some tips on how to play multiple times without wearing out your hand or wrist. Those family tournaments were a lot of fun.

 

[musicguy856]

The best example is Toy Story Mania. They close off all of the switchbacks inside the building and the line goes directly to the box where you pick up the glasses. They let the end of the line spill out into the courtyard, post a 100 minute wait time and now you’ve got the perfect line stack.

This worked even at the height of its popularity when guests were waiting 2 hours plus throughout the day. We would wait until about an hour before closing time and be able to ride at least 4 times.

A former poster here Robo gave me some tips on how to play multiple times without wearing out your hand or wrist. Those family tournaments were a lot of fun.

ToT does it too. There is a large section of queue that can be closed off to limit the number of people needed to make the line spill out of the entrance.

 

[bluezy]

...

A former poster here Robo gave me some tips on how to play multiple times without wearing out your hand or wrist. Those family tournaments were a lot of fun.

I was just thinking about Robo the other day and realized I hadn't seen posts from him in probably years. Do you know what happened to him? And I'd love to hear those TSMM tips....my hand is always killing me after riding that.

 

[Mermaidtails1323]

So am I understanding that it’s best to just get in line at the end? I guess how can I gauge that the wait time is inflated when the line is spilling out vs the line actually being that long? Someone mentioned that people weren’t standing idle, and they took that as a sign that the wait time was inflated. I just don’t know that I’d want to wait in a 100 minute end of day line if it’s truly around 100 minutes.

 

[Sunelis]

So am I understanding that it’s best to just get in line at the end? I guess how can I gauge that the wait time is inflated when the line is spilling out vs the line actually being that long? Someone mentioned that people weren’t standing idle, and they took that as a sign that the wait time was inflated. I just don’t know that I’d want to wait in a 100 minute end of day line if it’s truly around 100 minutes.

The advantage of the 100 minutes(id it's trully that)) at the end of the day is that you're not losing park time if you hop in line at the end of the night, most of the waiting time will be after park close.

 

[Babe the Blue Ox]

So am I understanding that it’s best to just get in line at the end? I guess how can I gauge that the wait time is inflated when the line is spilling out vs the line actually being that long? Someone mentioned that people weren’t standing idle, and they took that as a sign that the wait time was inflated. I just don’t know that I’d want to wait in a 100 minute end of day line if it’s truly around 100 minutes.

And that’s what makes it work so well. Guests tend to believe what they see posted, turn away and head out. If the sign says 100, the actual wait is most likely less than 30.

As an example, we visited DHS for two evenings early last summer. We rode Rise of the Resistance a total of 5 times and the posted wait was between 80 and 90 minutes each time. Our longest actual wait was 20.

We’ve been doing this for a long time and it does work really well.

 

[Babe the Blue Ox]

I was just thinking about Robo the other day and realized I hadn't seen posts from him in probably years. Do you know what happened to him? And I'd love to hear those TSMM tips....my hand is always killing me after riding that.

Per Robo, hold the rope between your index and middle finger and simply do the “come here” motion with those two fingers only. It’s that easy. We try to ride 4 or 5 times in a row as it is a pretty fun game.

I don’t know whatever happened to Robo. Hasn’t been around in a long time.

 

[HerzerHerrick]

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?

I'm just like you. I'd kicked those kids out of bed for some forced fed magic dust.

 

[GoofyDad_4427]

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.

A couple of people have mentioned this already, but the best play for FoP is definitely to get in line 1 minute before the park closes. We have done this several times over the last few years and it has always worked out for us. Just don't be late, they will close the line at exactly the park closing time.

 

[Babe the Blue Ox]

A couple of people have mentioned this already, but the best play for FoP is definitely to get in line 1 minute before the park closes. We have done this several times over the last few years and it has always worked out for us. Just don't be late, they will close the line at exactly the park closing time.

Flight of Passage is another good example. I checked the stats from yesterday just for a current example.

The wait time got up to 105 minutes shortly after the park opened. It was down to 25 minutes about a half hour before closing time.

The actual wait was most likely 10 minutes or less.

 

[sheilafri]

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.

This! If by some chance the ride you want isn’t moving to a late enough time, remember you can easily modify the return time. So grab the ride you want as soon as your booking window opens, this restarts the countdown to your next booking window, then keep modifying until you get the time you want.

 

[Wdwfan2016]

We never rope drop or buy the genie and still ride everything we never have a problem doing everything we want either.

 

[parasail_of_congress]

So am I understanding that it’s best to just get in line at the end? I guess how can I gauge that the wait time is inflated when the line is spilling out vs the line actually being that long? Someone mentioned that people weren’t standing idle, and they took that as a sign that the wait time was inflated. I just don’t know that I’d want to wait in a 100 minute end of day line if it’s truly around 100 minutes.

The best times to hit the main attractions are at the beginning and the end of the day. Rope drop is a great way to ride with low waits because not as many people like to get to the park early.

There is no guarantee of anything at the end of the night despite what some people on here seem to claim. It is not easy to see the "true" wait times because of the inflated wait time postings (which, while intentional, it's likely they just stop updating the times a few minutes before official park close). You could plan to get in line right before park close, but the ride could close early, the line could be really long, the ride could be down, etc.

Personally, I love riding rides at both rope drop and at park close. Sometimes they are not always the rides I plan to ride at those times, but I'm flexible and know that if an attraction is already at capacity when the park is closing and I'm too late for it, the CMs have already worked a full day and need to get home eventually, too.

 

[disneydreamer1980]

We have always done rope drop until our most recent trip. Kids wanted to sleep in so we got to parks around noon each day and even with 10 day tickets (2 days in each park and 4 in MK) we didn’t get to see/do everything we wanted. I already told my older kids we’re starting early next trip, if they don’t like it they can meet us later. I feel like we missed so much and the teens still complained just as much as they do when we start early lol.

 

[Babe the Blue Ox]

There is no guarantee of anything at the end of the night despite what some people on here seem to claim. It is not easy to see the "true" wait times because of the inflated wait time postings (which, while intentional, it's likely they just stop updating the times a few minutes before official park close). You could plan to get in line right before park close, but the ride could close early, the line could be really long, the ride could be down, etc.

These are the very best reasons why a late night plan works so well.

Even after doing this for over 25 years, guests still believe that the posted times might be accurate. The ride attendants do have access to both numbers (the posted and the actual wait). Ask nicely and sometimes they will give you the real number but sometimes they won’t.

I’ve never seen a ride close early unless it was for a special event like fireworks or an after hours event. In those cases, the updated closing time is posted well in advance.

I’ve done this hundreds of times and have only had a ride shut down unexpectedly at closing time once, and that was at Universal. They gave us free one-day passes for the inconvenience.

It’s much more likely that a ride won’t fire up in the morning. I do feel sorry for guests that arrive early and wait a long time just to find out that their favorite attraction is broke.

 

[Babe the Blue Ox]

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?

How did your trip turn out?

 

[Angeliki19]

So for those that sleep in but buy Genie + or ILL, how does that work? Do you get up at 7, make your reservations, and then go back to sleep?

I too am trying to figure out a new plan because I am also dealing with several family members protesting against RD. I am an early riser and don't really mind RD at all... I feel like that early morning energy is one of my favorite times at WDW!!! The parks are less crowded, it's less hot, and there is just this whole excitement about the upcoming day that I love.

But what I hate is getting up at 6:45 for the whole Genie/ILL thing. I am the one in my family who always has to do it, and its not the same feeling to me as waking up to go to the parks. It feels stressful. That might just be me... if I could roll back over and go to bed maybe it would be different but so far it hasn't worked that way. Once I am up, I am up. So then I am just hanging in the room trying not to wake up the others and wishing we were just rope dropping.

Fingers crossed they begin to offer some "early booking" option. I thought there was a rumor of that based on something Bog Iger said? I would pay more for that because I really miss the old FP system.