Seven Dwarfs Mine Train - Wait at Rope Drop

[huckabear]

If you get there at rope drop and go directly to Mine Train, are you generally able to pretty much walk right on? Or is there an instant wait? After figuring out we now have an extra hour to fill since the park is opening an hour early I have some extra time to play with and want to fit it in at RD if I can before my plan kicks in at 9am.

 

[subtchr]

It depends on what you mean by "at rope drop". There are hundreds of people waiting to enter the park. If you are at the front of that pack, then yes, it could be a walkon, or close to it. If you are farther back in the crowd, definitely not, since many of those people are going to the same place you want to go.

An added consideration is that there will already be people in the park at breakfast ADRs at CP and BOG (if you have a 9:00 park opening). Many of them make those reservations solely for the purpose of getting a jump on the rope drop crowd to SDMT. Now, whether that is an effective strategy or not seems to vary, according to the reports I have read.

 

[catne]

If you want to get a real "walk-on" plan on being at the very front of the crowd long before park opening. Have been there several times this year, at rope drop, and near the front of the crowd. Our experience--75% of the early morning crowd goes directly to Mine Train for stand-by. We have had fastpass at 9:10 AM--got in fastpass line at 9:15 or so and the stand-by time was already at 60 minutes (and looked like it--the line was huge--the outside queue was nearly full to the entrance. At 9:30 we have seen the stand-by at 90 minutes. By the way, castmembers with ropes "walk" the Mine Train crowd from the gate all the way to the entrance of Mine Train so there is no running ahead or darting through the crowd to get ahead. From what we saw, they generally hold people who are already in the park due to breakfast attendance at a rope inside the park at the entrance to Fantasyland--they don't release that rope until the rest of the crowd from the entrance arrives so they are at the front of the stand-by crowd, but not getting any other advantage (in all the times we have been there at park opening, we have never seen early entrance to Mine Train by breakfast reservation people...when we are at front of line at gate, we can see them being held at the rope ahead of us--both directions into Fantasyland. About 25% heads towards Peter Pan area and 75% head toward Mine Train. This is after the Anna & Elsa Meet & Greet hopefuls have peeled off the opening race crowd.

 

[catne]

Also, that extra hour--is that an EMH hour, or is the park opening to the public an hour early? Because if it is a general-public earlier opening, that usually means the park is going to be very busy that day. AND there will be people with early fastpasses too if the regular hours have been changed to an hour earlier opening than you had anticipated. You may have better luck with a walk-on at park opening if it is an EMH day.

 

[Lucius Best]

We were there for three MK mornings a couple of weeks ago. The first time we had a Crystal Palace 8:05am ADR and were surprised when we came outside at 8:55am to find out that the gates had opened at 8:45am and there were a ton of people heading to Fantasyland. The standby line was enormous, backed up outside towards the Mad Tea Party, but it moved quick because there are very few people using FP at 9am, so we were on in 20-25 minutes or so.

Subsequent days we were more prepared. At park at 8:20am, gates opened 8:45am. If you go straight through the castle, you're with a lot of people there for Anna&Elsa and it's longer. Best is to stay to the right, go around the right side of the castle, that is the shorter/quicker route to the 7DMT line. We didn't race to get there like the other maniacs, and we only waited about 10 minutes.

 

[Ilivetogo]

We were there for three MK mornings a couple of weeks ago. The first time we had a Crystal Palace 8:05am ADR and were surprised when we came outside at 8:55am to find out that the gates had opened at 8:45am and there were a ton of people heading to Fantasyland. The standby line was enormous, backed up outside towards the Mad Tea Party, but it moved quick because there are very few people using FP at 9am, so we were on in 20-25 minutes or so.

.

Same here. The park actually opened a little early, we went straight there (we didn't run or anything), the line was long but it really didn't take all that long. Around 20-30 mins.

 

[WEDWDW]

Be at the Mickey readers by 7:15.

As soon as they let Guests into the "Mickey Floral area" go straight to the "right Tunnel" and stay there until they drop the rope.

If you do this,you will be one of the first SDMT riders-you just have to decide if it is worth the time investment.

 

[George P Burdell II]

We were there today at rope drop for EMH. We arrived around 7:20. The turnstiles opened around shortly thereafter and were one row back from the front of the line on the right side.

Wow, people pushed and shoved to an extent I haven't seen before in the parks! We walked at a normal pace, got passed by a number of people, and yet when we got to 7DMT we walked right through the queue and onto the ride with no wait.

So, it depends how important it is to you and whether or not you have small kids. I would say, based solely on today, that if you walk at a normal pace on an EMH weekday you will not have much wait.

Hope that helps!

 

[Babe the Blue Ox]

If you're interested in an alternate strategy, we've found that the line can get really short later into the evening. For example early last summer on an non-EMH night, the posted wait time at about 11:30 pm was 80 minutes. But the actual wait was 20 minutes for our 1st trip then 10 the 2nd time through.

We felt that 2 rides in a half hour was a much more efficient use of our time than trying to fight the early morning crowd in hopes of 1 ride with a short wait.

 

[MasonsG]

Advice for arrival time for those of us without a FP or EMH entry?? What time should we be at the turnstiles for when perhaps they have a 2nd rope drop? Where do they corral the secondary guests who are not going in for the EMH at 8:00 next Thurs but instead we go in at the regular opening hour of 9:00. Where should we try to position ourselves as I am assuming they will have a 2nd rope drop/CM escorted entry to the 7DMT- would the line be pretty much over an hour before we even get into the park? We tried at the 30 day mark but there were no FPs left... Really appreciate any insights- we are AP members for Disneyland but Orlando is a whole different learning curve- Thanks so much, would love to see this ride!

 

[MmmSuite]

We got in early with a BBB reservation for my sons. It was quick since they just got glittered. We played behind the castle for about 20 mins and then the CMs directed us to the right where we waited by Merida's M&G for about 10 mins. We merged into the crowd there and were second in line and first on the ride because the woman in front of us got out of line because she lost her party.

It was crazy watching all those people coming towards us and knowing I had to merge into that with my then 7 year old. I had a grip on him like never before. My husband got left way behind with the two little ones in the stroller but he had the rider swap pass by the time we were off. It was so exciting to be first on the ride though. If you can in anyway get into the park before it opens and be standing at that Merida M&G area, I highly recommend it. My son rode twice in about 10 mins due to rider swap and at 9:10 the wait said 80 mins!

 

[Nicholas Carter]

There are hundreds of people waiting to enter the park.

 

[italian alps]

We got in early with a BBB reservation for my sons. It was quick since they just got glittered. We played behind the castle for about 20 mins and then the CMs directed us to the right where we waited by Merida's M&G for about 10 mins. We merged into the crowd there and were second in line and first on the ride because the woman in front of us got out of line because she lost her party.

It was crazy watching all those people coming towards us and knowing I had to merge into that with my then 7 year old. I had a grip on him like never before. My husband got left way behind with the two little ones in the stroller but he had the rider swap pass by the time we were off. It was so exciting to be first on the ride though. If you can in anyway get into the park before it opens and be standing at that Merida M&G area, I highly recommend it. My son rode twice in about 10 mins due to rider swap and at 9:10 the wait said 80 mins!

ooooh i like it! didn't think of BBB at that hour. They open at 8 as well?

 

[Lucius Best]

Advice for arrival time for those of us without a FP or EMH entry?? What time should we be at the turnstiles for when perhaps they have a 2nd rope drop? Where do they corral the secondary guests who are not going in for the EMH at 8:00 next Thurs but instead we go in at the regular opening hour of 9:00. Where should we try to position ourselves as I am assuming they will have a 2nd rope drop/CM escorted entry to the 7DMT- would the line be pretty much over an hour before we even get into the park?

Planning sites recommend that guests staying on-site at a Disney resort avoid the morning EMH days, because although you get an extra hour, there are more people there and the rest of the park is more crowded later in the day. If you are staying off-site, you absolutely do NOT want to get to MK at 9am on a day when the park opens at 8am for EMH. I would assume by the time you get there, standby line for 7DMT will be at least 40 minutes, maybe more than 60 minutes.

If you want to ride 7DMT without FP, you want to go to MK on a different day when park opens at 9am. Get through gate before 8:30am, park will probably open early ~8:45am, when you get in, stay to the right, follow the crowds around the right of the castle and you'll have only a 10-15 minute wait for 7DMT.

Alternatively, you can wait until park close. Not many people are returning with FP the last half hour the park is open. They will inflate the posted standby wait time to discourage people from jumping in. We were there a couple of weeks ago, standby was listed as 40 minutes just before closing, but we could tell just by looking at the line that it would be much shorter, we only waited 10 minutes.

 

[KEVD]

We felt that 2 rides in a half hour was a much more efficient use of our time than trying to fight the early morning crowd in hopes of 1 ride with a short wait.

Agreed! 7DMT at rope drop is a bit insane for laid back folks like my family and I. I refuse to run, nudge my way ahead of other people, defend my place against folks who push ahead of me etc. And I insist that my children take the same approach. During our last trip, we arrived at the ropes at 8:00 and we were in the second "row" of people waiting. By the time it go closer to opening I was amazed about how many people arrived much after us yet nudged their way to the front, many came in from the flank. And once the ropes dropped folks ran ahead of us, cut us off etc. I refuse to take part in such childish nonsense. Anyway, even though we were in the second row at the ropes, there were probably 100 or so people who had made their way ahead of us by the time we got to 7DMT. Even so, it probably only took us about 15 mins from the time we arrived at 7DMT until we were on the ride.

 

[MasonsG]

I thought with the shorter Thursday hours that MK would be the better choice, we did FPs 30 days out for that and did DH for Friday, so if I switched them I would give up all the FPs. Learning a lot from these boards, its very different at Disneyland/California Adventure. We are just coming in to Orlando 2 days early before our cruise on the DCL Fantasy- thanks for all the help, we have a 5 year old boy so waiting till closer to closing would not work out too well, especially having just arrived from the west coast late the night before, may just have to see that ride another trip. Truly appreciate the insights, we are so much better prepared.

 

[Babe the Blue Ox]

we have a 5 year old boy so waiting till closer to closing would not work out too well, especially having just arrived from the west coast late the night before, may just have to see that ride another trip.

Won't travelling from West to East have the opposite effect? At 11 pm, your body clock will be telling you that it's only 8 o'clock. In your case, I really believe that it will be much easier to let the 5 year old stay up late vs. making him get up early.

My favorite Disney memory is chasing my then 3-year old daughter back to the entrance of Space Mountain moments before midnight with her screaming "one more time Daddy" all the way. Kids are funny about that kind of stuff.

 

[MasonsG]

Would love it if he had that kind of energy, he starts to really slow down about 7pm and usually asleep by 8... but I can always hope :0) Thought the morning would be the better weather, the forecast is 60% rain and thunderstorms in the pm. Not that familiar with FL weather. But that was ominous sounding. Will just keep our fingers crossed- but at least we have some idea of options now- thank you!