Slinky Dog Rope Drop is a Living Hell

[GADisneyDad14]

I checked the last three days for Slinky. The posted waits near the end of the day were 25, 40 & 18 which puts that 18 minute wait in the rain not too much of an outlier. All are much shorter and less stressful than any early morning wait.

I said in my post the last hour TP wait times over the last week still make your point about better wait time conditions closer to park closing relative to rope drop.

I just prefer more data when looking at wait times vs single moments in time or a few days. Like whole weeks/months/seasons to isolate variables such as weather, events, holidays, days of the week, etc. I suspect we can both pick data points here or there to prove or disprove a concept on any given day at WDW.

Just for kicks, looking at the 26 operating days of Feb so far, DHS has closed at 8pm every day this month, so that variable is isolated. The average wait time at 7:02pm has been 63.5 mins (35-95 range), 7:29pm has been 55.0 mins (20-90 range), 7:58pm has been 39.2 mins (18-65 range). Let’s toss out Fri-Mon of President’s Day weekend and Friday 2/8 which has unusually high data as outliers, the numbers go down to 58.3 / 51.2 / 35.9.

That’s if we even want to believe TP observed wait time data to begin with (I did use actual wait time submission in the above calculations where available if close to any 3 time points) or if it is inflated. I honestly don’t know their methodology enough to know how relative to actual conditions that data point typically is in their data.

Still, worth a serious strategy consideration for some touring styles, as you frequently like to note.

BTW, since I’m sitting here looking at average data - perhaps not surprisingly, Tue-Thur end of park wait times are materially better than Fri-Mon. Picking the 7:28pm data point, Tue-Thur 46.4 avg wait vs Fri-Mon 60.6 avg wait. Getting in line at park closing on any Tuesday in Feb seems the way to go.

Of course, other times of the year or different date ranges can debunk any average trend noted above.

 

[FigmentSpark]

Why not start people at the DHS "hub", like they do at MK? Have areas in front of each land that are moved in a controlled way, just like MK. Then the only pushing or rushing is to the actually line up, which isn't far away.

OP had strollers. They had no hope of being first in line, as they would have to park their strollers. That's stroller life. And I used them for my littles to make sure they were safe and didn't get separated from me, so I understand completely, but there it is.

 

[fla4fun]

Stormtroopers marching you to the back in an orderly manner.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Why not start people at the DHS "hub", like they do at MK? Have areas in front of each land that are moved in a controlled way, just like MK. Then the only pushing or rushing is to the actually line up, which isn't far away.

OP had strollers. They had no hope of being first in line, as they would have to park their strollers. That's stroller life. And I used them for my littles to make sure they were safe and didn't get separated from me, so I understand completely, but there it is.

I always felt like DHS was a challenge in the way it was designed. Spoke design def. makes it easier for MK to separate out people who want to go to Fantasyland and those who want to go to Adventureland for instance.

Even in AK it's a hybrid spoke design but obviously different than MK. AK is more of a challenge with Pandora just because you have to go through the Tree of Life island part before going into Pandora area but with DHS you have to go all the way through the park to the back to get to Toy Story and it always felt smaller in terms of widths to move around in DHS.

 

[pens4821]

Sorry I haven't read thru all 5 pages, but it sounds like they don't do any sort of rope/walking people towards the ride? I know they have done something similar in the past.

I do need to add though that I wouldn't be at the front of any crowd and not expect people to try and get by me.

I'm curious about this as well. When we were there about a month ago, they had CMs walking with ropes. We went towards RNRC, but they had CMs with ropes on the walkway to TSL, was just assuming they walked them too. When we got to the split between there and TOT they let people go. Thats when we lost our up front position as we weren't running like others. But it was still nice to walk to that point.

In AK they didn't have CMs walking us towards EE. They dropped the rope and everyone went on their own. There were people throughout telling people not to run, but some people didn't listen, they just kept running right in front of the CMs.

 

[Babe the Blue Ox]

Still, worth a serious strategy consideration for some touring styles, as you frequently like to note.

Thanks for the thorough research. I just like to point out that the most popular plans are not necessarily the most efficient.

And I feel bad when someone shows up at one of the busiest times of the day and are surprised that it’s so crowded.

We give a lot of advice here, and the most common theme is to be there early. It’s just not always the best plan.

 

[Amanda999]

Why would anything change? You get to the park first, you get to ride first.

And why would people be upset? "Yes, I see that there is a hundred people in front of me but I think I should get in first"?

And, it's not as though you won't get to ride, you just enter the standby line that opens at 15 minutes (or less ) after RD.

Basically, what I'm reading is that you believe that people should be allowed to push in front of others because they can run faster than others between the rope drop area and the ride.

The biggest issue is that there is a physical gap between where you stand at RD and where the ride enters. I don't think it's unreasonable to think that if you're at the front of the RD line, whether you get there fours early or twenty minutes early, that you get to ride first, regardless if you can run the fastest.

The current process provides an incentive to rush past people that are there early. Reduce the incentive and reduce the problem.

If only a few people (let's say 100) get a rope drop CM FP, then the problem remains for everyone else - i.e., all the rest of the people will still run to get to SB line. So still the 101st person will probably not get to be 1st in SB.

I was at HS 3 or 4 years ago - before TS Land opened - waiting for PPO breakfast (H&Vine). We were 30 minutes early for 8am breakfast (DS was very eager) - so, park didn't open for 1.5 hours, on a level 2 day. There were easily 50 people already waiting - not for breakfast, at the turnstiles. I can't imagine what its like now.

 

[Jcon]

If only a few people (let's say 100) get a rope drop CM FP, then the problem remains for everyone else - i.e., all the rest of the people will still run to get to SB line. So still the 101st person will probably not get to be 1st in SB.
I was at HS before TSMM, waiting for PPO breakfast (H&Vine). We were 30 minutes early for 8am breakfast (DS was very eager) - so, park didn't open for 1.5 hours, on a level 2 day (end of August, years ago). There were easily 50 people already waiting - not for breakfast, at the turnstiles. I can't imagine what its like now.

It's not a panacea and there are probably several issues that I don't know about or am not considering but I think it would help with some of the issues mentioned. I don't even know what the right number of passes would be.

I'm just looking for a solution to address a longtime complaint of many people.

We can't stop people from acting badly but we can try to help those that are adversely affected by them.

Maybe just walking the groups to the most popular rides is the best way. Maybe slowing the pace would discourage people from running past others.

I just hope OP has had a wonderful day at the park and this mornings' issue is well be her and her family.

 

[cmwade77]

I agree I wish there was a better way, but when there are mobs of people, it's pretty hard for a few CM's to control. Reminds you of Black Friday, I always feel bad for those workers too. Hope you enjoy the rest of your vacation and agree with DisArmyWife218, TSL is pretty cool at night.

Actually, it wouldn't be that hard, for the newest rides in the park, the standby line should begin OUTSIDE the turnstiles until a reasonable amount of time after park opening. Then people have to walk the length of that queue to get to the attraction.

 

[Micca]

I think Disney needs to work on this, I don't have any suggestions but crowd control is in their wheelhouse. I wonder if anyone has been seriously injured during the RD rush? Because if someone does sustain some kind of serious injury Disney would have a tough time proving they weren't culpable, and it's just bad optics...they hate that.

 

[YawningDodo]

This is probably the closest thing they could do, but the problem would still be at some point they'd have to have a time when the entrance opens, because they're not going to leave it overnight. Making it earlier relieves some of the pressure, but you'll still get people that will show up and wait for that opening time. They'd also need more staff reporting earlier, because even if things aren't open yet, if you have more of the park open to where people can get to it, you're going to need more staff in place.

The reality is I'm not sure there really is a great way to deal with it, but they'll probably need to find something at some point, the only real question is whether they come up with something before or after someone gets trampled.

This is something I recall talking about a bit in earlier discussions about why parks don't have more EMM's or open earlier every day and so on--it has the potential to create scheduling issues and require larger numbers of CMs. When I worked backstage at DHS on the Disney College Program, there was one work assignment I got fairly frequently that had me start at 6:00 in the morning because some of my tasks were related to pre-opening prep work. It was clockwork, 6:00 every day. Now that they've started doing more early morning events and soft openings are more frequent, I imagine that those kinds of assignments have to be set earlier on at least some mornings. The thing about the overnight and early morning work that goes on at the parks is that sometimes having one part of the park inaccessible because it's open to the public can create a big hiccup in a seemingly unrelated work area because you can't make a delivery within the park or get at something you need. That's especially true at DHS, where there's no utilidor and the layout both onstage and off is...well, frankly terrible. Of course, Disney can and will change CMs' schedules to accomodate whatever park schedule and special events they've committed to, but an earlier soft opening means rescheduling everyone, not just attractions CMs, and could lead to having to add extra shifts to cover the requirements of the lengthened day. So it's not something that necessarily makes good business sense if it's not being done for a paid event like EMM.

 

[Peppeperoni]

Then why have any? Just make it a Survivor themed free for all.

That’s basically what it is. Just saying I’m sure it’s obvious to everyone no matter what they do they won’t win. I wouldn’t look at DISNEY I’d look and question people’s manners before that. It’s more insane to me that people act like this than Disney trying to match the number of guests trying to get in

 

[kcp6763]

This may have been mentioned but I'm surprised they don't do something like they do in California Adventure at Disneyland. Was there this past summer and the gates were open earlier than the park. When you got in they stopped you at certain places but had lines for the popular rides (guardians, racers) and people just stood in an orderly line and walked in an orderly line. Since you were already waiting in a line it was understood that no one would run ahead and there was no big mob. Seems like a great thing to implement at DHS.

 

[LSUmiss]

I just need to rant. We were the good guys. We showed up at 7:45 for a 9am park opem. We were literally the first in line at the turnstiles. Right at the front of the rope drop crowd. We started walking when they said to and then the chaos began. People were running all around us, shoving the side of the stroller with my baby in it, cutting between me and my husband with the other stroller so I had to slow down to find him. Now we are at the end of a 90 minute line, hundreds if people in front of us when we have already waited 90 minutes. I want to cry. People are awful. I thought rope drop cast members were supposed to make people walk.

And this is part of why I never got the appeal of rope drop. So essentially you waited 165 min for the ride. I don’t see how that’s any worse than going midday or whenever?

 

[lugnut33]

Ugh. Disney needs to find a better way. I can't even imagine what the Star Wars rope drops will be like.

How about making the first hour of operation fast pass only?

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

How about making the first hour of operation fast pass only?

I'm not sure they would do that. If anything it would be like FEA where for the 1st 2 hours of its operation it was standby only. Eventually FP was increased to when the park opened.

 

[lugnut33]

I understand the sentiment. But she could stay home and enjoy her babies and hubby for free. She came to Disney and lined up 75 minutes before park open to ride an attraction. Disney needs to handle this better.

OP, I hope you'll email guest services with your concerns about how this was handled.

One other idea: One large solid walled single file line that runs from park entrance all the way to Slinky Dog.

 

[LSUmiss]

This goes completely against the 3 FP+ system WDW already has in place and, IMHO, they aren't going to hand out special RD FP+ without, somehow monetizing those FP+. In fact, they've already done this - it's called EMM.

WDW has already come up with multiple ways a guest can get FP+ to Tier 1 rides without ever having to do RD. 1) stay onsite (and the longer you stay onsite, the more chance you have of snagging the FP+, 2) do EMM, 3) do DAH, 4) book a tour. WDW is not going to hand out FP+ to guests above and beyond the system they already have in place. WDW wants us to spend money in order to up our chances of getting on these Tier 1 rides. For those who do not want to spend this money (or for those who decided to FP+ something else), unfortunately, this is what they face at RD. As the Disney mantra goes, "we cannot control guest behavior". As PP's have mentioned, RD'ing a recently opened, Tier 1 ride, is not a great idea.

OP, I'm sorry you had a bad experience. It sounds awful and I hope the rest of your day gets better. We witnessed this a little bit when we went to sign DS up for Jedi Training a few years ago. There just seem to be a lot of people out there that do not care if their actions negatively impact other people.

And, this is why these extras will continue to be profitable.

 

[LSUmiss]

Just seeing the photos of it makes me the sucker who pays for After Hours. HS is my favorite park, though, so I don't mind the price with an AP discount!

That’s me. Disney is just profiting on ppl’s human nature to act like rude maniacs. Those who can avoid it pay for the experience to avoid those ppl.

 

[soniam]

We once saw a grown man running for Frozen at Epcot rope drop. They started us back at Spaceship Earth. On the way to World Showcase, he took a header into the pavement. Lots of blood all over his face and mouth. Karma CMs were yelling at him to stop running when it happened