ROTR wait time at rope drop?

[tigertides]

Hello!

We are t-minus 7 days for First ever trip to Disneyland. I have been monitoring the weekend times for the past month.

We will have EE, and G+. And WAS planning on knocking out PP, and Fantasy Land.

I was planning doing Matterhorn and Space and Indy next…. BUT saw that ROTR wait time is only 20min at 8:05am


We could save $100+ in LL if did standby

Assuming ride is running, does it make sense to jump in line at 8am?

Does 7:55am (EE crowd) vs 8:05am (regular rope drop crowd) make a huge difference?

Keep in mind, it will still be a holiday weekend next weekend after Fourth of July.

 

[varyth]

We did the mad dash last weekend. With EE, we were right up against the second rope in front of Adventureland Frontierland. (The general folks were held back by another rope to our left facing Main St., so we definitely had an advantage.) At 8AM, both ropes dropped so it was a huge crowd of power walkers all heading in the same direction. We were fortunate Rise was up, and basically walked onto the ride (at most 5 minutes once we got in the ride entrance and snaked through the queue area).

CORRECTION: We were waiting at the Frontierland rope, not Adventureland.

 

[tigertides]

We did the mad dash last weekend. With EE, we were right up against the second rope in front of Adventureland. (The general folks were held back by another rope to our left facing Main St., so we definitely had an advantage.) At 8AM, both ropes dropped so it was a huge crowd of power walkers all heading in the same direction. We were fortunate Rise was up, and basically walked onto the ride (at most 5 minutes once we got in the ride entrance and snaked through the queue area).

What time did you start the mad dash? Did you spend the first 30 minutes of early entry to get a spot in line? Or able to jump in at 7:55 AM? And I do not wanna spend my first 30 minutes waiting in lune

 

[varyth]

What time did you start the mad dash? Did you spend the first 30 minutes of early entry to get a spot in line? Or able to jump in at 7:55 AM? And I do not wanna spend my first 30 minutes waiting in lune

We used EE to walk onto Star Tours first. Then did some castle PhotoPass family photos while it was still deserted.

I'd say we were at the rope in front of Adventureland Frontierland by 7:50AM, but the EE crowd was pretty light in the hub. You could jump in right before 8AM and still be at the front at rope drop. Miguel from Coco was also at the rope taking photos with us.

People were streaming in from all sides on the way to Rise, so I believe there may be a separate rope from the Fantasyland side. The walk is so long that the question is if you can maintain your position at the front of the crowd.

 

[LilyJC]

We rope dropped RotR a couple mornings over Memorial Day weekend with our EE. The first morning we walked on Space Mountain and then hit Buzz before heading over to Fantasyland to line up against the gate (it was around 7:50). We were definitely closest from there as we saw a huge wall of people from Frontierland (?) running towards us as we turned right into that closest entrance. Those who came from Adventureland/Hungry Bear entrance seemed to get there the latest.

Our second day of EE at DL, we walked on Peter Pan first, Dumbo, Pinocchio, Snow White, and then joined the Fantasyland line for RotR again around 7:55. I believe they opened the gate a tiny bit early for us as we beat the huge wall of people. Definitely worth it for us as my youngest’s bestie had never been on the ride and desperately wanted to go. Saved a ton of money too as we were planning to buy ILLs a couple times!

Oh, and with our Genie+ we fished for MEP, so keep an eye on what is temporarily closed.

 

[LKing]

I was planning doing Matterhorn and Space and Indy next…. BUT saw that ROTR wait time is only 20min at 8:05am

Were you looking at today's times? If so, Rise went down shortly after that. The ride/line is super unpredictable that way.

 

[twodogs]

Were you looking at today's times? If so, Rise went down shortly after that. The ride/line is super unpredictable that way.

Yes you have to get lucky and hope the ride is open. They don't usually post that the ride is down until after the regular park opening time (not during EE since it is not open in EE anyway). Sometimes the CM at the secondary ropes for EE folks to get into that side of the park will let you know if it is down. We did EE in October over the holiday weekend. It was incredibly crowded that weekend. We rode SM twice during EE with no wait. Then we went to the rope at Fantasyland at about 7:55am, and there were not many people waiting with us. No need to spend your EE time waiting at the secondary rope for this ride. They dropped the rope right at 8am when they made the announcements for the entire park opening. We walked with purpose and were on the ride in less than 5 minutes. Felt like a huge victory, but some many ways it can go wrong (most notably if the ride is not up at park opening or goes down immediately, which can happen). You will not get a LL to return to the ride if you were in SB when it goes down. You will either have to wait in the line and see if it reopens (and potentially waste precious early morning park time; it typically takes one hour to reset the ride when it goes down) or leave and come back later to long, long lines or buy ILL. IF you have purchased an ILL for ROTR and it goes down while you are in line, you will be given the ILL to return any time after it reopens and ride again.

 

[DisneylandFan22]

We were there in June with EE. We didn't take the risk of trying for ROTR at RD. We went in the afternoon when it was 40 minutes. We waited maybe 20-30 minutes in a continually moving line.

 

[E&Cmom]

We are here now. On Friday we rope dropped no EE. We hit Mickey and Minnie’s Railway with a less than 10 minute wait. Then did Roger Rabbit as we were there and it was a 5 minute. Checked the app and ROTR said 40 minutes so we chanced it and rode the ride in 25 minutes not 40.

 

[DLRExpert]

I would not risk the precious EE time with Rise. Like others have said the return times on the app are not accurate.
Best to wait until later, When the app says 60min it should be less.
A great sign is when you cannot see the outdoor part of the line. If they are in the cave area you are looking at a 40 wait or less.
Best time to ride is around 6pm. Especially with that second parade running and people having dinner.

 

[JerrodDragon89]

The ride was almost never open the days I went the past two weeks

So its a risk and without Splash, not much near the area to do instead so you risk the rides having walk ons for a ride that could be broken