Rope drop for FOP is a mob be warned

[buzzrelly]

100% agree with OP's description. I was there on Friday, 11/3 and it was crazy mobbed! If anyone has ever seen the Running of the Bulls on tv, that's what it reminded me of. I was one person, walking briskly, but there were tons of people full out RUNNING past. I was actually VERY surprised that they were allowed to do that. I did see CMs along the way but they weren't stopping the runners.

All told, I was on and off the ride by 9:05 and loved it, but not sure I would go through that again. I am heading back in April with my 74 year old mom and I wouldn't dream of subjecting her to that. Hopefully we'll be able to FP it.

 

[Cornish Lad]

It was just a lot of I would say Millenial aged people that were without kids or older family members so they were fairly spry and were doing the running along the sides and then pushing in ahead of the people that were there first.

Then my husband had a man pushing a child in a wheelchair that kept trying to get between him and us and cutting our family off from each other. My husband was trying not to get cut off without being aggressive back toward a child in a wheelchair. He was using it like a battering ram almost. Then a middle aged woman tried to cut around me on the side and I kept telling her to not do that and she kept trying to squeeze past anyway.

Then my mom whom was not even trying to get to the ride just trying to move with the crowd to catch up with us later- had a guy smack her in the face with his backpack and shove into her and she got elbowed.

Millenial aged says it all - the self entitled generation who only care about themselves and believe that they have the right to do whatever they please regardless of rules or common decency.

 

[Dumbo7]

A good way to handle it is go ahead and let the super early birds like us go ahead and walk to the ride and wait in an actual ride line. All they would have to do is staff a few CMs to just keep an eye on it. Then that prevents a mass mob.[/QUOTE Did they take you half way into the park. Then bring you down to two across?

 

[ilovetotravel1977]

Honestly...nothing. I'm not a fighter. Plus, what type of example is that for my DD9.
But I'd have words.

Hmmm, maybe we'll just forgo Pandora until later in the day.

 

[ShadeDK]

I'm wondering if there is a "sweet spot" to doing RP. Time it so that you are there early, approx. when the park opens, but not so early that you are infighting the initial entry mob that's been building up for the hour previous. Something to think about for sure.

There is. I RD'ed FoP twice over a few days. The second time I showed up around 8:25 for a 9 am open - which meant that they'd already opened the gates, let guests over the bridge to Pandora and formed the standby line for FoP. I was back some ways in line and had to wait for an hour, but I skipped the actual RD craziness. In contrast, the day I actually did RD I was at the gates by 7:50 for a 9 am opening, let in at 8:15, stopped on the bridge until 8:30, and on the ride by 8:55. I had total wait times of about an hour in each case, but Day 2 was much less stressful. Conclusion: the sweet spot is showing up about 5-15 minutes after the gates open and the line has formed. [Clarification: this means after the gates actually open, not the "official" park opening time which is later - if you show up 5-15 minutes after the latter, that wait will be much longer]

As for my Day 1 RD experience, I'll just repeat what I've said before when someone asked what to expect:

I would ask myself the following questions: do I like being smashed together with hundreds of other people in what feels like the starting gate of the NYC marathon where the goal of the race is to trample everyone in your path to "win" your objective of standing in yet another line? do I feel that personal space is overrated? what is the maximum population density you can achieve for a one square acre plot of land? how ruthless can people be when dealing with the old, the young, the weak and anyone silly enough not to be moving as fast as they are? is it better to go around or leap over that stroller that someone in front of you is foolishly trying to use as a moving blockade? just how claustrophobic am I? do I think that people yelling and screaming at their families and friends to hurry up is an entertaining part of the pre-show? to refresh myself for the ride, can I watch the entirety of the 2.5 hour Avatar movie while waiting in line (I'm going to start calling this the "Avatar" rule - if the wait in line is longer than the actual movie on which the ride is based, I will have to say no)?

 

[KimBean]

Yes, and based on this, sounds like this is still what's happening here.



So sounds like the pushing/shoving is happening at the back, as I understand it. Which is why I put the behavior squarely on the shoulders of the people behaving badly. There are no excuses for their behavior. None whatsoever. Disney shouldn't be the one to do something to stop it. I venture to guess every last one of us learned not to do that in Kindergarten for goodness sakes. It's never ok.

Well then yeah. Not much else they can do.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Millenial aged says it all - the self entitled generation who only care about themselves and believe that they have the right to do whatever they please regardless of rules or common decency.

Millennials..eh?

Guess you missed this part of the post: "a man pushing a child in a wheelchair that kept trying to get between him and us and cutting our family off from each other." "Then a middle aged woman tried to cut around me on the side and I kept telling her to not do that and she kept trying to squeeze past anyway.""Then my mom whom was not even trying to get to the ride just trying to move with the crowd to catch up with us later- had a guy smack her in the face with his backpack and shove into her and she got elbowed."

Rudeness, inconsiderate behavior, etc comes in all ages and all 'generations' even if all the OP ever did see was so-called 'millennials'. But sure blame is all on the Millennials

Besides I didn't know people were able to quickly judge the ages of people especially in a mob or crowd situation because as you know millennials can be as old as early to mid-30s at this point.

 

[CeruleanMoon]

Would you say that this RD experience is only true for AK right now? How is it at the other parks? None of them have any recently opened "must do" attractions, so I hope it would be better.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

We did the opening/rope drop method on our trip last June. When we arrived a the entrance gate there were about 20 people waiting, and they opened the gate about 5 minutes later. Everyone walked (yes, walked) behind the CM leading the way. And stopped at the designated stopping points along the route.

Yes, by the time we got to the actual ride, there were people in front of us who weren't when we went through the entrance gate, and the crowd was a bit bunched up (mostly due to the smaller space we were traveling through). But everyone seemed to behave themselves.

I think the "mob mentality" "I gotta be first" group, once it evidences itself, stirs up the rest of the crowd to some degree. I don't think it's necessarily a normal thing. Depends on the people.

 

[Roxyfire]

Millenial aged says it all - the self entitled generation who only care about themselves and believe that they have the right to do whatever they please regardless of rules or common decency.

Same was said about the Boomers as well. Sorry if us 30 year olds are actually just doing what everyone else does.

 

[mickeyluv'r]

I don't think we can blame a specific generation on this issue. The RD rush is nothing new at all. I've been posting about it for years. I remember when Test Track was new, when EE was new. I even remember when Space Mtn was new. Folks rushed there as well.

I daresay, the problem's more or less as old as the Disney theme parks.

There were all kinds of crowd problems the day Disneyland first opened, including a 7-mile traffic jam. Disneyland expected 15,000, but over 28,000 entered the park thanks to counterfeit tickets.

Further, in Disneyland's first few weeks, nearly all the Autotopia cars were wrecked by aggressive drivers who crashed into other vehicles.

And that's a just a few of the early mishaps caused by crowds and misbehaved customers.

 

[megs1313]

I just can't imagine any ride being worth this. Personally, even my favorite ride in all the "world" (PPF) wouldn't be worth fighting a mob to get to. People need some chill.

 

[Nole95]

If Disney cared, the solution to this is fairly simple, and I swear it was something they used to do.

For a normal 9am opening, if they start letting people through the tapstiles at say 8:30, instead if stopping everyone at a staging area, let them trickle in towards the ride of their choice. Even if the ride will not open until 9 on the dot, let people start forming in the queue. Nothing else in the park needs to be open and have a few cast members manning the standby queue. Problem solved.

Much easier to control a slow trickle of 20 people coming through the tapstiles at once than a herd of people in a rush to get there. Everyone is naturally spread out.

 

[Wubar]

If Disney cared, the solution to this is fairly simple, and I swear it was something they used to do.

For a normal 9am opening, if they start letting people through the tapstiles at say 8:30, instead if stopping everyone at a staging area, let them trickle in towards the ride of their choice. Even if the ride will not open until 9 on the dot, let people start forming in the queue. Nothing else in the park needs to be open and have a few cast members manning the standby queue. Problem solved.

Much easier to control a slow trickle of 20 people coming through the tapstiles at once than a herd of people in a rush to get there. Everyone is naturally spread out.

Probably still wouldn't work. In this case, probably 90 percent of people would still be heading toward FoP, so even though you're letting them into the park slowly, there's nothing to stop the willy-nilly sprint to the FoP line queueafter they've gained entry into the park, or the all out mad dash by kids, parents with double-wide strollers, teenagers, trolls, ogres, and kangaroos, which could certainly create an unsafe scenario for those in front but walking at a slower pace in that direction.

I think we have to resort to electric cattle prods.

 

[tlmadden73]

So it feels that because the rope drop crowds are so big, they:

1) Let people into the park way before the actual park opening time (up to a certain staging area).
2) Start up a popular ride up before park opening since a queue has already formed?

So they are doing something .. I am just not sure what they can do besides starting a queue right at the gate (which would take either a lot of CMs or a lot of rope ).

If Disney cared, the solution to this is fairly simple, and I swear it was something they used to do.

For a normal 9am opening, if they start letting people through the tapstiles at say 8:30, instead if stopping everyone at a staging area, let them trickle in towards the ride of their choice. Even if the ride will not open until 9 on the dot, let people start forming in the queue. Nothing else in the park needs to be open and have a few cast members manning the standby queue. Problem solved.

Much easier to control a slow trickle of 20 people coming through the tapstiles at once than a herd of people in a rush to get there. Everyone is naturally spread out.

But then people will learn this and you'll just get people ready to run at 8:30 am to sprint towards the most "popular" ride so they can be first in line.

I mean this is nothing new .. I remember doing this back in my teenage years at the local Six Flags park. You get there when the gate opens and job/run/sprint straight to the newest ride (along with everyone else having the same idea). But the difference is at Six Flag parks, mostly are teenagers, not families that are there that early.
And the reason people do it --- it works. Having a 5 minute wait on a ride (or even being able to go twice in a row) that will easily have a 60-120 minute wait later in the day saves you a ton of time.

Your idea would be fun, but I think the problem with that is essentially you are opening the park 30 minutes earlier and they may not have staff in position for things like food and shopping or even queue control. The rides aren't "on", but essentially the park is open for business.
They don't want the kiosks and stores closed if people are in the park, that is missed sales. If this was the norm, obviously they could staff for it, but that means they need to pay staff an extra 30-60 minutes per day (which adds up).

 

[disneyseniors]

This behavior is really scary and dangerous. I know first hand. 2 years ago I had to use a wheelchair for plantar fasciitis. I had never used one before and hated having to use one. My husband pushed me on the day we went to MK. We waited near the back to proceed as we wanted to get out of the way of the rush. Going down Main Street we kept to the right side of the road to stay out of people's way. This was when 7dmt was much more popular and everyone rushed to it. We went close to the right turn past the bakery on the corner , to tomorrowland, when a huge man (think football player) pushed right over my footrest with a double wide stroller. He just cut across me to get to the tomorrowland entrance before us, and to 7dmt. He ran over my footrest and broke it. Thankfully I had just lifted my foot up or it would have been broken, and that was my good foot!!!! We both looked at him as he continued pushing people out of the way with no regard for anyone. I caught the name on his stroller, though. We continued with the broken rest and wheel until my husband had to backtrack and get a different w/c. He told the CM what had happened, and he said it was sadly a common occurrence with those strollers. We made it to 7dmt and happened to see this huge man with his stroller, but could not get to him, too crowded. I was amazed that anyone would do this just to get to a ride, and with his children in the stroller to boot! just crazy.
I do shudder to think what will happen when ST opens and all those star wars crazed fans rush madly to that area. I know that I will be far, far away from that scene.

 

[mickeyluv'r]

Would you say that this RD experience is only true for AK right now? How is it at the other parks? None of them have any recently opened "must do" attractions, so I hope it would be better.

GOOD POST!

As I said just above, the problem is nothing new, but you are correct - the newest ride is always the worst. Though...a few years ago the Epcot running-of-the bulls was for the Anna/Elsa character greet. It doesn't have to be a ride that drives folks nuts.

The A/E wait used to jump from zero to 4hours in less than five minutes. Think about that.

When the gates open, the adrenaline rushes.

And that went on for months. Disney could have fixed it by adding more, er, supply, but they didn't.

Why? I assume WDW likes high demand.

Further, aggressive rushing is highly rewarded. Folks who run get on the ride first don't wait, and our culture more or less worships winners, right?

Plus, maybe I'm conflating, but RD isn't the first aggravation of the WDW day. By the time we get to the parks we've already navigated multiple queues/lines: the food court order line, the food court cashier line, the bus/monorail queue, the security line, maybe the ticket window/GS line, the bathroom line. People are already a bit wound up and caffeinated by the time they arrive at RD.

As I said, my general solution is to arrive just after RD at WDW. Most of the day, we strive to zig whenever the crowd zags. If you see a throng in one area, move to a different area.

 

[melanielll]

Dealing with this lies totally on Disney. People misbehaving is a problem that every business faces. The business needs to adequately deal with it. If the VIP tour guides are calling it "the running of the bulls" then they are aware of it and are choosing to allow it. That is not acceptable.

 

[mickeyluv'r]

Your idea would be fun, but I think the problem with that is essentially you are opening the park 30 minutes earlier and they may not have staff in position for things like food and shopping or even queue control. The rides aren't "on", but essentially the park is open for business.
They don't want the kiosks and stores closed if people are in the park, that is missed sales.

You seem to be forgetting that Disney already does this...on the other end!

At least WDW used to add park hours when they expected larger crowds. And they aren't limited to opening the park earlier, they also have the ability to add later hours!

All you need is something like a special night-time show to keep people out later.

 

[kniquy]

Thank you so much for posting. Very sorry you had such a bad experience. I wish others would tell the real truth to rope drop of FoP. Everyone seems to push this is what you have to do if you don't have a FP. I'm traveling with our (active) 70 yo in laws and 4DD with other in between those ages. I am planning on going in the opposite direction heading toward dinosaur and EE. We will try to get the FOP FP but if not we will have to decided if we wait until next trip or brave the lines.

Maybe disney needs to handle the crowds a little better and not allow the mad rush -- probably easier said then done, maybe two cast members with a rope to guide people to entrance of FoP to set the walking pace. It really isn't fair that people are rushing, pushing and running to head to the ride.

If you got on the ride a 9am then getting there at 7am really didn't save you any time. You could have shown up at park opening hit the other part of the park and then stood in line for the ride for 100 minutes -- I just looked at the app and it is a 105 minute wait at 2:30pm- so a little less than 2 hours. I don't think there is any easy way to get on with a short wait.