Rope drop vs. Staying late

[xipotec]

I just go to the Tip Board. It lets me see the current times even on days we aren’t in the parks.

We have MKs so maybe that makes a difference?

nah, I was just a moron….and didnt see the times right in front of my face…..

 

[Pluto468]

Does Rope drop matter as much at DCA? We might be switching hotels on one of those mornings.

If we try hard we could probably pack up and get out of the hotel by 9:30. Then we're dropping luggage off at Disneyland Hotel, so maybe getting to DCA by 10:00/ 10:30.

OR... we could Rope drop DCA, hang out for 2 hours and then go back to the hotel to check out. This sounds more stressful but if it's important to be in DCA first thing we could do it.

 

[sophy1996]

Does Rope drop matter as much at DCA? We might be switching hotels on one of those mornings.

If we try hard we could probably pack up and get out of the hotel by 9:30. Then we're dropping luggage off at Disneyland Hotel, so maybe getting to DCA by 10:00/ 10:30.

OR... we could Rope drop DCA, hang out for 2 hours and then go back to the hotel to check out. This sounds more stressful but if it's important to be in DCA first thing we could do it.

Go to the park for rope drop. You’ll get so much done in those first couple of hours.

 

[NorthernCalMom]

Pre-COVID-19 experience, so I’m not sure if the patterns are the same (we’ll know more end of July when we’ll be there). We’ve always been there in July or August, when it’s extremely hot. So, we would go back to the hotel to wait out the midday heat. Whenever we would go back into the park, the lines would be bad. When we visited DW, I was extremely surprised to see that the pattern there was different and the lines would get substantially shorter. Not sure if the difference is locals with magic keys, who may come after work? So for us rope drop has always been an absolute must. To waste that golden hour and half for sleeping in seems utterly inconceivable to me and my family.

 

[Brandonius]

I'm late, but here's the pros and cons:

3 days of this month I've stayed the full 16 hours of the day - our family arrived at about 6:15 AM outside bag check, rope dropped rise each day, and we left after midnight. No breaks. Yes, we are crazy. Point is, I've experienced both in the same day multiple times recently.

Rope Drop:
Pros:
- Every ride will be empty at the start of the day. Every ride, not just some.
- Rise of the resistance is actually open. And it probably won't break down because it just came off of a whole night of maintinence.
- There is a longer window once the park opens of short lines. Probably about 1 hour of significantly shorter lines than the rest of the day, then another hour of moderately shorter lines. Night time will give you an hour and some change of actually short lines.
- Once you get past rope drop, the park is very open and everyone has lots of energy.

Cons:
- You end up spending 1 hour or so not actually doing anything but waiting before the rope drops at all. If time out of bed is a problem, this might lead to grumpy campers.
- Up Early
- Rope drop isn't pleasant - lots of crowds all feeling rushed to get to the first thing.

Night (Meaning 10:45 PM - 12:00 at Disneyland - Anything earlier doesn't make much of a difference honestly. Lines at DCA only die down a little bit towards the end of the night, if at all for the big rides.)
Pros
- Disneyland at night. Need I say more?
- The lines are very short. Some major rides like Indiana Jones and Smuggler's Run are completely empty for the last 90 minutes of the day a lot of the time.
- Many rides are much better at night! Roller coasters speed up as the day gets longer because the oil in the wheel bearings heats up. Outdoor rides take on a whole new character at night. (Matterhorn at night is a whole different experience!). And getting soaked on splash mountain is much more... memorable.

Cons:
- Parades and Shows can be a huge nuisance to navigate around at night. The walkways get all crowded AND some walkways close entirely which makes getting around complicated.
- Not every ride is empty (or open!). Rise closes at 9 PM. Space mountain never empties out - it usually holds on to an hour or so line all the way until midnight. Most everything else is basically a walk on by about 11:30 though. Everything but the biggest E ticket rides and like Peter Pan are walk-ons(ish) from 11:00 onward.
- If you have young kids in your group that can get tired, by 11:30 many people are ready to go home. That's why the park empties out so much in the last 30-45 minutes of the day.

For your group, if getting up early is that big of a deal, do Rise of the Resistance via rope drop one time and leave it at that. Night times will still get you short lines on pretty much everything, and if you're getting Genie+, you wouldn't want to start booking lightning lanes until about 2 hours into the day anyway because they don't really get booked much until about 9:45 AM and the lines are so short before 10 AM that using them is kind of a waste. Especially on the Disneyland Park Side, even if you don't start booking LLs until like 4 or 5 PM, you'll still be able to ride everything. If you're park hopping, start by 10:30 or 11 and you should still be able to work your way through most of the rides on Genie+ in a day using a smart order of reservations.

Hopefully I wrote this in time for you to see it before you drag everyone out of bed every day Have a great trip! Rope drop isn't worth it if everybody hates the morning lol.

 

[violina]

Whenever I have gone, my group(s) over the years prefer to stay late, so I've never done a rope drop. It worked out best for the people that I've been with since they can't or won't get up early, but they definitely didn't mind closing out the park when possible.

I don't know how Genie and/or LL's factor into this now but I know that with my best friend, she's gonna prefer a late start and staying late.

 

[longboard55]

Disneyland is always better early morning, later the APs roll in and the crowd just grows. WDW is just the opposite

 

[DontSpamMe]

Rope drop and staying late is the only way to beat Lightning Lane. We just go back to the room and nap in between. Overall though, rope dropping is far more effective though.

 

[ktlm]

I've been there both pre and post covid. The first two hours in the morning are by far the least crowded time of the day. The bulk of the local crowd will arrive later. DD hates mornings, but we try to get there as early as possible- usually 15 minutes after rope drop or so (we have done the really early back in the RSR run, and AnnaElsa run days). We are open to close people. Post covid last October, we did not see a big drop off late at night-- it was still crowded. The only exception was Galaxy's Edge-- it was pretty empty and Smuggler's Run had a very short line. The rest of the lines stayed pretty long up until closing-- longer than we had seen on prior trips. But even pre-covid, it is typically a lot less crowded the first two hours of the day than it is the last 2 hours of the day.