Not getting there for Rope Drop?

[BeastsFlower]

I have no desire to be at the parks every morning at Rope Drop. We are night people and would rather stay up late then get up early. No early ADR's in our trip lol

Is it possible to still get rides in if we are not there for rope drop? My kids are 7 & 4.

 

[atwmommy]

If you want to stand in long lines...yes. Some of the ones you want may be 1+ hr wait. TSM was 2hrs all day yesterday and fast passes gone before lunch. We are rope drop people only because we love doing all of our favorite rides without waiting! Waiting in line is not a vacation for us. We take a mid day break and go back after dinner (a first for us) to see all the night time fun.

 

[BeastsFlower]

And you can only get one FP at a time right? So if we get a TSM FP for the evening, we can't get another FP until we use the first?

 

[DisneyRegulars]

And you can only get one FP at a time right? So if we get a TSM FP for the evening, we can't get another FP until we use the first?

You can get a second fast pass under 1 of 3 conditions:
1. The return time of your current fast pass has been reached.
2. If your return time for your fast pass is more than 3 hours away, you can get a second fast pass in 3 hours.
3. There are several 'disconnected' fast pass lines that allow you to hold more than 1 fast pass at a time. In the Magic Kingdom these rides are Barnstormer, Dumbo, and Mickey Town Square Meet and Greet. So you could in theory be holding fast passes for these three rides AND one for Space Mountain all at the same time.

Have you considered trying rope drop one morning and resting in the afternoon? It might be worth it just so you can see the difference in the crowd levels. Also, when are you going? Your ability to skip rope drop and still avoid lines depends heavily on when you are traveling.

 

[amylevan]

No one seems to know when FP+ will be live, and that will affect the answer to your question. If it's live, reserve FP+ for the rides that have the longest waits for times you will be in the parks, and you should be ok.

Otherwise, for regular FP, yes, you can only have 1 set at a time. So, if you have a 4pm return time for TSMM, you can't get another set until 4.

Touringplans.com does have touring plans for late arrivals that would help cut down on wait time. But in general, the best way to avoid lines is to arrive at rope drop.

 

[BeastsFlower]

Ok. Thank you so much!!

I'm a little stressed now. We are going the end of October.

I have 2 later ADR's during the week and no others for breakfast. One at 9:10 at Crystal Palace and the other is O'Hana at 9:40.

Maybe I will keep watching the cancelled ADR thread to see if I can get earlier. The day of O'Hana was going to be an Epcot Day. The Crystal Palace was going to be our 2nd MK day.

 

[Happyjen27]

I'm sure it will be fine. It's your vacation, and you should create your Disney Day to be whatever way you want your Disney Day to be.

Sure, your lines will be longer. But, if you miss a ride or two, is it really going to make or break a vacation? No.

Although your breakfast ADRs do seem early to me! 9:10 at Crystal Palace, depending on your resort you may have to leave your resort at 8 to get there on time. In my family that means you will be up at 7:15 or so. If I were getting up that early, I'd spend my time touring the parks with tiny little lines and rock the CP lunch instead.

Some families find success with late hour touring. If you're going to rock the late hours you can definitely take advantage of the shorter lines at the end of the night, but, the littles might not make it to 10PM if you're having breakfasts at 9AM.

 

[BeastsFlower]

Thank you! I changed our Crystal Palace Breakfast to Lunch instead. I didn't know they had characters all day

I will just keep O'Hana the way it is and maybe use that day as our down day.

Thank you for your help.

I need to relax a bit. lol I am doing all the planning for 3 families and it gets stressful when no one else is helping out.

 

[mm1971]

Ok. Thank you so much!!

I'm a little stressed now. We are going the end of October.

I have 2 later ADR's during the week and no others for breakfast. One at 9:10 at Crystal Palace and the other is O'Hana at 9:40.

Maybe I will keep watching the cancelled ADR thread to see if I can get earlier. The day of O'Hana was going to be an Epcot Day. The Crystal Palace was going to be our 2nd MK day.

October is not as busy as other times. Just use FP and you'll be OK. The longest lines will be the ones that are always long. PP, TSM, Soarin, TT. Crowd calendars are showing late October from 1/2 to 6 crowd levels. No need to stress. The only bad experience we had was wishes on a regular non-party nights. It was so busy due to the limited showings that it was not enjoyable. Go and enjoy!

 

[mssong85]

Now I am stressing. We are night people too. I also did not plan to rope drop. We are going Sept 20? Do I need to switch reservations as well?

 

[RedHeadedFairy]

Now I am stressing. We are night people too. I also did not plan to rope drop. We are going Sept 20? Do I need to switch reservations as well?

I really think it also depends on what is on your Must Do list -if the majority of the big attractions don't appeal to you (like Space & Splash at MK) then you should be able to manuever around the other big attractions like Peter Pan, Little Mermaid, Dumbo, etc. using FP.

And it depends on how late your little one can stay up & happy - we got a lot of riding done during EMH at MK one night in Oct & again in Dec. Easily as much as we would have accomlished at RD, but the kids were rested & older & able to stay active until park closing at like 11pm-12am.

 

[DSNY4ever]

Thank you! I changed our Crystal Palace Breakfast to Lunch instead. I didn't know they had characters all day

I will just keep O'Hana the way it is and maybe use that day as our down day.

Thank you for your help.

I need to relax a bit. lol I am doing all the planning for 3 families and it gets stressful when no one else is helping out.

When traveling with multiple families definitely split up at times if you can. It will be soooo much easier to tour the parks without have to accommodate what everyone wants to do and it's hard to move as a large group. And I highly suggest rope drop a couple times, but if you really aren't morning people then stay as late as you can during the evening extra magic hours. After the families leave after the fireworks/parades you can get on some rides quickly from like 9pm-midnight. Or ride during the fireworks and night time shows. We are morning people anyway so rope drop is a no brainer.

 

[1000HappyWishes]

Now I am stressing. We are night people too. I also did not plan to rope drop. We are going Sept 20? Do I need to switch reservations as well?

September is also very low crowds, so you don't really have to.

 

[lazer]

September is also very low crowds, so you don't really have to.

Just my experience! We've gone the past four Octobers and have never used a fast pass and have ridden everything. The only really really long waits were Soarin and Toy Story Mania. Our kiddos are young, so some of the roller coasters we do single riders.

 

[Belleandtinker]

If you want to stand in long lines...yes. Some of the ones you want may be 1+ hr wait. TSM was 2hrs all day yesterday and fast passes gone before lunch. We are rope drop people only because we love doing all of our favorite rides without waiting! Waiting in line is not a vacation for us. We take a mid day break and go back after dinner (a first for us) to see all the night time fun.

100% agree with this post!

Rope drop, no waiting, break in afternoon and go have some more fun at night.

 

[MSSANDRA]

Really, getting to rope drop will save you so many hours later in the day. Those first few hours are so much less crowded that if you can possibly get there, it will help so much. One thing we do is to let our 6 year old sleep as late as he can. We always go winter so we let him sleep in the sweat pants and t-shirt he will wear the next day. I do everything I can the night before and we get up and get ready really quietly and let him sleep till the last minute. We have a cereal bar and juice box to eat while waiting for the bus and we get there right at 9:00. Not quite as good as being first in line but it sure beats an hour or so later. We do get him to bed early. We find that often the crowds really do not go down much till very late and that is too late for him. Now if you know your kids and getting them up for rope drop is going to create grumpy kids, then do what you need to do to keep them happy and just deal with the lines later on. Try not to stress. It will all work out! Do you have a time change adjustment? That can make a huge difference.

 

[EagleScout]

You should be fine, assuming you get there at a "REASONABLE" time. We go every fall (sept or oct), and we have literally NEVER done rope drop, yet we always have a super time. Our son is now 3.5, and last fall's trip we had him and also his "cousin twin" (our nephew who is only a few months older), and we saw basically everything, and each day we got to park between 9 and 10 (usually closer to 9). The only exception was we did not see tsm b/c the wait was too long. Don't forget that disney resorts generally have super pools, beach areas and playgrounds (which the kids LOVED b/c up north we had already long ago had to put away outdoor swimming), so a typical day for us would be get to park around 9 or 9:30, go for 3 or 4 hours or so (or a little longer if parks not yet too crowded), then back to resort for pool/playground and/or rest/nap, then either have dinner at resort or more typically walk over to epcot for some sort of international cuisine (we always stay dolphin or beach club). And on one or two days, the kids just wanted swimming so we did that, and only did a little bit of park in late afternoon and had dinner in park. And for the first two trips, it was even easier to avoid rope drop, because really young kids can do two hours MAX at park, so even arriving at 9:30, meant two hours of park, then lunch, then he would fall asleep in stroller and we would use his nap time to walk back to resort and maybe stop to do a ride or two or just literally "stroll and smell the flowers". I know many on here disagree, but there is a happy medium between complete non-planning and crazy super planning, and by visiting during one of the slower times, you have also given your family the great gift of being able to go at a more relaxed pace and still probably enjoy a comparable amount of activities (or maybe even more) than a super planner/rope drop person would enjoy who goes during a peak time.

 

[MommaBearof4]

I didn't know these fast passes weren't connected. Thanks for the fabulous tip!

 

[JVig]

You can get a second fast pass under 1 of 3 conditions:
1. The return time of your current fast pass has been reached.
2. If your return time for your fast pass is more than 3 hours away, you can get a second fast pass in 3 hours.
3. There are several 'disconnected' fast pass lines that allow you to hold more than 1 fast pass at a time. In the Magic Kingdom these rides are Barnstormer, Dumbo, and Mickey Town Square Meet and Greet. So you could in theory be holding fast passes for these three rides AND one for Space Mountain all at the same time.

Have you considered trying rope drop one morning and resting in the afternoon? It might be worth it just so you can see the difference in the crowd levels. Also, when are you going? Your ability to skip rope drop and still avoid lines depends heavily on when you are traveling.

Is it 3 hours definitely? I read somewhere else 2 hours (but I can't remember where I read it!)