Rope Drop...Why Bother?

[wenrob]

In all of our visits we've done rope drop less than a handful of times and ended up with very cranky children (and sometimes parents ) for our efforts. We realized we were getting up early and waiting in line for 45-60 mins so we didn't have to wait in line for 45-60mins. I would say the only time this was worth it was when Cars Land was still new and it was the only way to get a FP. I can only see myself doing it again if the Anna & Elsa FP thing is still going and my youngest DD is still obsessed.

What has worked for us is grabbing a quick in room breakfast/snack and leaving our hotel room (usually a five minute walk) at park opening. This has us breezing through the turnstiles and walking onto most rides. We also make sure to hit the park that does not have early morning hours that day. We get a LOT done in just under two hours. Then the kids and a parent hit Jolly Holiday or Flo's to order a real breakfast while the other parent goes and gets fast passes. It's not for everyone but it works for us and gives us a very mellow, non stressful morning. We probably get more done in three hours then we do the entire rest of the day.

 

[Blue32]

Rope drop is important for one certain attraction at Disneyland. That one attraction is Peter Pan.

+1

 

[emacat]

We did one rope drop at WDW, but at DL, we just always arrange our Minnie and Friends breakfast so we plan to be done about the time the park opens. We love being able to slowly walk up to the restaurant and take pictures while it's quiet, and then just walk right over to the ride when finished eating. No rush at a rope then.

 

[larryz]

No, there isn't an opening show at Disneyland.

Unless you count the welcome from the "opening family" and the count-down from 10 as a "show"...

 

[whoever]

Rope drop is important if you are interested in doing a lot of attractions with little/no wait. Even a few minutes after rope drop will take an attraction from walk-on to 20-30 minute waits. That just snowballs as the day progresses, so if you get a slow start in the morning, your attraction count will be extremely impacted. All depends what you want to get done for your time in the park and how you want to get it done. For us, Rope Drop (and more importantly, EMH) is a must.

 

[BSOGfam]

In all of our visits we've done rope drop less than a handful of times and ended up with very cranky children (and sometimes parents ) for our efforts. We realized we were getting up early and waiting in line for 45-60 mins so we didn't have to wait in line for 45-60mins.

This was our exact thought in September. Why are we putting the kids through the hurry up and wait. I decided that first night that we would get to the park a few minutes after open. The crowds had spread out, but it wasn't busy. The next three mornings were so peaceful for us.

 

[Midnightred]

Last time I did rope drop, it was fun and exciting. It was during the summer, and I was waiting by Tomorrowland. I got on the first Star Tours ride, then on to Space Mountain with zero wait! I'm not suggesting doing that every morning, but it was pretty nice!

Midnightred

 

[dedwards]

I am with the OP We usually come in like right at opening or 5 minutes after. No line at the turnstile and no real lines at the attractions. We avoid the mad rush and the pushing and shoving that goes on. Also to get first in the park and first at the rope drop involves a lot of waiting and well I thought I was avoiding that. The key plan your visits to the park with EMH. Also it is true that peter pan feels up fast, but I have ridden the ride a million times in my life and my kids have little to no interest in it. If you are looking for something special like Anna & Elsa you do need to get there early and line up up before rope drop, wouldn't call that doing rope drop though because I will be in the park and in line for our first ride before you finish getting fastpass. Also someone said above that after only 5 minutes the park lines are large if the is the case then rope drop is a waste because you get to choose one ride and then you are in the same boat as me. The amount of stress and effort and waiting involved to be first in the park is very slight over the person that comes in just after opening, actually maybe its a disadvantage as that person got to eat breakfast walk slow over not have to wait to get in, I bet waited less time in all.

If you must ride peter pan with little wait it is needed but peter pan is not a marquee ride enough for me to go through all that.

 

[HydroGuy]

I think all feedback is valuable and thus is yours. I want to challenge several things here and hope it does not come across as being personal. You are making factual statements that just do not make sense to me.

Yesterday, we lined up to enter Adventureland, about 10 minutes before the 9am opening, with the goal of riding HMH first. The slow walk through Adventureland was just like the walk out on a Fantasmic night, slow and crowded. When we got to HMH, we were in the first elevator of the day. So what? By 10am, we had ridden HMH, Splash, POTC, Indy and BTMRR. We could have easily ridden HMH multiple times if we wanted to.

Forget about walking to HMH and forget walking through queues and forget time to board rides and do safety checks. The duration of each of the five rides is:

HMH 8 minutes
Splash 12 minutes
POTC 16 minutes
IJA 5 minutes
BTMRR 4 minutes

Total - 45 minutes

Now add to that the "slow walk to HMH", the time it takes to walk from ride to ride, the time it takes to walk through a queue (IJA at least five minutes as they make you stop and watch a security movie), the Splash queue takes at least a couple minutes, etc. Even if there was no one else in the park I do not see how one could do the above by 10AM.

Yesterday, we lined up to enter Adventureland, about 10 minutes before the 9am opening

Not every rope drop is the same. On some days DL does not allow folks through the gates early. Thus if one arrives 10 minutes before official park opening one is at the turnstile lines which can be backed up far into the Esplanade. On most days I have made RD there is no way I could have arrived 10 minutes before park opening and done anything close to what you did by 10AM.

Lining up at a rope is a waste of time.

Your experience may make this true for you. But not everyone tours the way you did this day or has the park conditions you had this day. In fact I can say I have never used RD the way you used it this day.

To wit...


o RD has different value whether the park opens at 8AM, 9AM or 10AM, and whether there is an EMH/MM that day, and whether or not the guest has EMH/MM privileges.


o How one spends their RD has a lot to do with how much value one gets. The OP chose to go on headliners with high capacity that are generally not the best use of RD. A better use of RD is low capacity/slow loaders such as:

Peter Pan
Dumbo
Alice
Mr. Toad
Mad Tea Party
Nemo Subs (possibly, depends on the day)

and basically getting the slow loaders out of the way with a minimal wait before transitioning to the high capacity rides. E.g., I almost never would ride POTC in the first hour of the day as its queue builds so slowly you can still hop in line 2-3 hours after park opening and the line is still very short (like 5 minutes).


o There is nothing very new at DL right now. When there is something new - which there often is - then RD is often the only way to ride such rides with a short wait if they have no FP. Think the re-opening of the Nemo Subs in 2007 and POTC (in 2006 I believe?).

Even if they have FP the FPs will go very quickly (ST in 2011, Space Mtn in 2005).


o I am not sure what you are comparing RD arrival to. Is it arriving 15 minutes after RD? Or one hour after? Or two hours after? Not that you are saying this, but comparing RD to someone who arrives 2 hours after RD is a huge, huge, HUGE difference.


o Arriving early for RD makes sense in many cases because time spent in line before RD is different than time spent in line after RD. Before RD one is not missing on anything happening in the park. After RD any time in line does mean one is missing something else. Using pre-RD time to minimize post-RD time is a good trade for many folks.


o It sounds like you are a local to DLR and thus RD can have a different value for you. Guests staying at a local hotel who take afternoon breaks - especially during warmer months - often couple RD with a park departure around 1PM and then return around 5PM. Thus RD plays into a strategy of avoiding the biggest crowds of the day as well as the highest heat of the day during warm months.


o Arriving at RD or soon thereafter helps one get more FPs. I used to get FPs at park opening but now with the window enforcement I generally wait until 30-60 minutes after park opening. Even so, those arriving 2+ hours after RD will miss one or two FP opportunities compared to RD folks.

 

[dedwards]

I agree with Hydro comparing RD to a hour after park opening is very different then RD to 10 - 15 after opening.

I think for me arriving no more then 15 minutes after opening works best for me, The few rides that fill up that fast are not things we usually want to ride away. So we are not trading time waiting now for less time waiting later. I do agree though time waiting before opening is better then time wasted waiting after opening.

All that said I would say entering anymore then 30 minutes after opening and the fill of the parks starts to change real fast.

 

[Viva Las Disney]

I think this is one of those threads where opposing views are both correct.

For certain rides being there at rope drop is the only way to avoid a 30-40 minute wait but a lot of rides will still be walk on an hour or 2 after rope drop. What you want to ride will determine if facing the rope drop crowd is worth it for you.

The most important thing is to be there before or shortly after rope drop. If you arrive within a half hour of rope drop it isn't going to ruin your day, you will still be able to ride a ton of rides with little to no wait. If you arrive a couple hours after rope drop you are dramatically impacting your day and will end up standing in long lines, or having to FP, pretty much everything.

 

[Dukland]

There is a huge advantage, in my opinion, to arriving at rope drop.

The only time I'll ride Peter Pan is when I arrive at the ropes before park opening. That way I can get in and out of the ride within 5-10 minutes. Even just 10 minutes after rope drop, the line can build into 30 or 40 minutes, costing you 40 minutes of time that the park is actually open. That 40 minutes in the morning can be key to getting in as many attractions as possible before the mid-day/afternoon crowds arrive.

The hour of time when the park is not open that you have to wait for the rope drop is less valuable to me (since the park isn't open yet, you can't really do anything else anyway) than the 30-40 minutes of touring time you would lose by not getting into an attraction right away.

Agreed! We didn't get to rope drop either of the 2 MM at DL last month. We never got to ride Peter Pan. What a bummer! And that was in the massive heat wave that was going on, too. I wasn't about to try to make my family stand in a 45 minute line in the sun.

In DCA, it was the same for Radiator Springs. We were not at rope drop the first MM but at park opening. We still had a wait for RSR but it was doable, and we got FP for later in the day. The second MM in DCA it was just my dd and I. We opted to aim for TSM while nearly all of the rope drop crowd veered off for RSR. We were so excited to see no line when we arrived at TSM!

But, the ride was down We hung out, and my dd even dragged me onto Screamin' She took me once, then left me behind to go alone, saying, "I think it's in your best interest if you wait here mom."

We could have ridden Screamin' 10 times in a row if we wanted. We rode Ariel's Carousel and kept checking back. At one point, a Cast Member gave us a "make your own FP" kind of thing. I was excited because it was for up to 6 people and it meant dh and the boys could join us later.

Just when we were about to wander off the Pier and find something else to do, TSM opened. So we jumped in line and rode it quickly. We brought dh and the boys back later to use the FP.

So failing to be at rope drop resulted in no Peter Pan ride. Succeeding to be at rope drop resulted in our only chance to ride TSM, because the line was always at least 45 minutes long every other time we checked.

 

[dorchrislen]

.How one spends their RD has a lot to do with how much value one gets. The OP chose to go on headliners with high capacity that are generally not the best use of RD. A better use of RD is low capacity/slow loaders such as:

Peter Pan
Dumbo
Alice
Mr. Toad
Mad Tea Party
Nemo Subs (possibly, depends on the day)

I apologize, but I need to hijack and I hope Hydro sees this....
I'm thinking it would be better to hit Matterhorn before Nemo Subs in your order above, wouldn't it? Here's my order for Oct 31 (non EMH day 8am open):

Peter
Alice
Mr. Toad
Snow
Pinnochio
FP Run for Space
Matterhorn
Nemo
Star Tours
Autopia or Buzz
Space
move to Adventureland/Frontierland

What do you think?

Oh and for the OP, I think you're right, and so is everyone else. That's a purely personal preference. You gotta do what works for you!

 

[JenneleB]

I'm glad to see this thread as we leave in just under 60 days for our first trip to DL and we are not sure if we will be able to be there in time for rope drop on our first day.

 

[Love Tink]

Why wouldn't I be at rope drop? What am I supposed to be doing...sleeping? On a day I get to go to Disneyland?!?

 

[julesann]

Why wouldn't I be at rope drop? What am I supposed to be doing...sleeping? On a day I get to go to Disneyland?!?

My feelings exactly (even though my family makes fun of me for it--different strokes for different folks )

 

[HydroGuy]

I apologize, but I need to hijack and I hope Hydro sees this....
I'm thinking it would be better to hit Matterhorn before Nemo Subs in your order above, wouldn't it? Here's my order for Oct 31 (non EMH day 8am open):

Peter
Alice
Mr. Toad
Snow
Pinnochio
FP Run for Space
Matterhorn
Nemo
Star Tours
Autopia or Buzz
Space
move to Adventureland/Frontierland

What do you think?

Oh and for the OP, I think you're right, and so is everyone else. That's a purely personal preference. You gotta do what works for you!

Sorry, my list was not a "do things in this order". It was a list of things to do first right after RD.

And also, sorry, but the OP said

Lining up at a rope is a waste of time.

The OP was not expressing a personal preference but making a general statement. The OP cannot be right and others who say "RD is totally worth it" as a general statement. The OP can certainly say "RD is not with it for him/her" which of course cannot be debated.

As I outlined in my PP I think the OP went too far by generalizing their experience when it was really a specific experience under a specific set of conditions.

Sort of like saying "Always take an umbrella to DLR because when I went one day last February it rained". That experience was not general but specific to February and that day in February.

 

[dorchrislen]

Yes, Hydro, I stand corrected. I don't agree it's a waste of time, and I am a total commando!

So, Hydro, what do you think? Nemo first or Matterhorn?

 

[MouseEXP]

I would always recommend that once the park opens you should head to the west side of the park (Adventureland, Frontierland, etc..) than the East side of the park (Tomorrowland).

Reason #1 more popular attractions on the East Side have FP
Reason #2 more popular attractions on the West side

So my rope drop day starts like this at an 8am opening (non MM day).
Peter Pan (skip if its a MM day)
Dumbo (skip if its a MM day)
Casey jr
Alice
Matterhorn (The only side open is Tomorrowland until 830-845 then Fantasyland side open which makes the line shorter, or just use Single Rider )
Pinocchio
Snow White
If you really want that Mickey photo head to Toontown for a half hour.
Other than that get a FP for Indy
Splash Mountain
Mansion
Pirates
FP for Thunder
Use FP for Indy
Jungle Cruise
grab FP for Space
Use FP for Thunder
Lunch
Buzz
grab FP for Star Tours
use FP for Space.
After that it should be around 3pm -4pm.
Once the Star Tours FP comes up you can grab a FP for something and do some of the attractions you may have missed. Or see a show or parade.
Save Nemo until it gets dark
if you go to Small World, make sure you use the right lane line.

 

[zanzibar138]

I did RD at DL one morning of my last trip. I'm glad I did it, because I got to ride Peter Pan's Flight with only a 15 minute wait. However, I did NOT enjoy it! Why? I also was there during the heat wave, and the wait by the rope in the sun was not enjoyable. The crowds were insane and the pushing and jostling for position was quite unbelieveable. I was glad that I'd chosen to do this on a day when my parents weren't joining me. Unfortunately the only other ride I was using RD for (Alice) was down, so it was only half worth it for me.

I'll do it again next time, because it is unfortunately the only way to ride PP without a long wait. By the time I exited after waiting 15 minutes (so say 20 minutes after RD), the queue was already out to 40 minutes.

On the other hand, we all did RD at DCA on 2 occasions, and both were enjoyable and totally worth it (we headed to Paradise Pier though, not RSR).