Rope drop at parks vs. "official" park opening times

[shampton50]

In the past I've had a difficult time in determining the "true" opening times for the WDW parks - especially the Magic Kingdom. We've taken super early transportation from our hotel - usually the Yacht or Beach - and then been shocked to find that the park had opened earlier than stated. I would love any suggestions as to lock down the "official" rope drop times. Thanks!

 

[Jestocost]

The main gates usually only happens 10-15 minutes before the park's official opening time and then in most cases you are "held" at a secondary location for the actual rope drop activities. Rope drop generally happens right at about the schedule park opening time, but if you are just getting to the gates then you will be behind anyone who was there when they let people into the park earlier.

On rare occassions they do just open things up early, but there's no way to predict that and in my experience it doesn't happen often.

Is it possible that you may have hit a morning EMH day at the park's scheduled opening time without realizing it? In that case, resort guests would have been allowed in an hour early and you definitely would see people in the park and active if you arrived at the scheduled opening or just before.

Unless we're doing a morning EMH, we're typically at the park at least 30 minutes before scheduled opening and I've never arrived to find the park open and operating.

 

[Alesia]

Unless we're doing a morning EMH, we're typically at the park at least 30 minutes before scheduled opening and I've never arrived to find the park open and operating.

Same here.

 

[CR Resort Fan 4 Life]

Is it possible that you may have hit a morning EMH day at the park's scheduled opening time without realizing it? In that case, resort guests would have been allowed in an hour early and you definitely would see people in the park and active if you arrived at the scheduled opening or just before.

That's exactly what I was thinking.

Unless we're doing a morning EMH, we're typically at the park at least 30 minutes before scheduled opening and I've never arrived to find the park open and operating.

I have had the exact same experience when going to the parks which didn't have AM Extra Magic Hour.

 

[KeroKero]

Just make sure to check the with front desk (there's usually a posting somewhere in the lobbby) the night before to see what the park hours are for tomorrow before you head to your room for the night, so you know what time you need to be out and ready in the mornings.

What we do before weeks before we leave is get a spreadsheet together of park times and EMH times and print it and bring it with us, so we have a pseudo schedule in our hears before we even get to WDW. The hours and EMH can be found on the WDW website well in advance. Select the park you're inquiring about, the calendar, find your dates and you'll see the hours.

 

[iheartdisney]

I found this extremely annoying on our vacation, especially at MK!
We went on the EMH morning, arrived 20 minutes late (so still 40 minutes before the park should be opening) and they were letting the general population in the gate- no room keys required.