So now that summer season is in full swing, how has rope drop been?

[amg35]

First - I am at 99 days... thank you .... thank you.

Now, with the summer crowds and fast pass with ability for more later in the day - any new reports on how/if rope drop has been affected? Any very noticeable changes or are thing still pretty much the same as it used to be? I plan to do rope drop (some EMH mornings) and start scheduling fast passes around 11 am.

Still a good plan to hit rope drop for big rides and schedule fast passes for another nighttime park? Planning for October here....Animal Kingdom morning, MK night for one of my days.

Also, without hyperbole and exaggeration , with the summer crowds, have the standby lines significantly increased since last summer? - not including any days that had some ridiculous computer glitch that affected everything please.

 

[jester161]

Just got back this morning after 14 magical days including 4th July - when over the jet lag will post some more but here is a quick answer...

Rope drop with EMH was totally the best plan for us...we scheduled our FP for either late morning (if we were not going to a second park in the evening) or for evenings at a second park. We managed to do everything at rope drop with no delay...with the exception of SDMT - even EMH rope drop was a 15 to 30 minute delay (no idea how!!!)

We found that FP lines were much shorter than they used to be...we timed them and the longest FP line was 13 minutes for Soarin...and that was on 4th July!! However, we found that standby for almost anything was much longer after 1100 in the morning, right up until the evening. Then after 7 things like POTC and HM were only 10 - 15 mins, and even BTMR and BLRS were OK for standby late in the evening. It was exactly the same pattern at all four parks.

Overall MK seems much much busier in general than it used to be...but with planned FP and rope drop still manageable. We did 4th July at Epcot with a meal at Biergarden and watched the fireworks....absolutely amazing and although the crowds were large it wasn't anywhere near as bad as we expected...and so worth it!!!

We had one problem with Magic Bands....first night at MK they wouldn't get us into the parks...but was sorted at Guest Relations and then after that...best things ever!!! Genuinely think that once they get the technology fully sorted, they are a truly brilliant concept...and enabled us to go bag less! Although I will also say that when we had a long day with bags, we never waited more than a couple of minutes at bag check even on the really busy days!

Overall, I think it is more important than ever to go fully planned...I would definitely not go and hope for the best anymore! But with planning we genuinely never spent more that 15 minutes in any queue (either FP or standby) in two weeks over the 4th July holidays, and we went on every single ride multiple times. And this left every afternoon free for pool time, sleeping, or just generally strolling about.

Happy to answer any questions if you want..

 

[amg35]

Fantastic!

Sounds like my way of touring will work out. I'm especially happy to read that you were able to rope drop rides in the morning and schedule fast passes for another park in the evening.

Thanks again!

 

[Altoqueenkelly]

Still a good plan to hit rope drop for big rides and schedule fast passes for another nighttime park?

This is always the best plan

 

[jester161]

Happy to help

We found the best park for rope drop / early EMH was animal kingdom...no problems on EE / KRR / Safari / Dinosaur ...that left the fast passes for evenings at the other parks.

Also for the fourth fast pass...difficult to get the best rides at MK and impossible to get TSM at HS, TT and Soarin at Epcot - but no problems getting RNR or TOT at Hollywood and all the minor rides were easy!!

Our kids are older now so didnt try for FP on any character meets, so can't help on those.

Also the best thing....somedays didnt do a morning park, went to a water park or something....then could just turn up at six o clock in the evening at MK and be able to ride Space Mountain, BTMR and Buzz with pre booked fast pass and no wait....you could NEVER have done that in the old days!!

 

[BurleyGirl]

jester161, loved hearing your positive report...gives me hope!

 

[jester161]

Thanks - I wanted to paste a few positives as I know some people are worried by the new systems and stuff - don't be....it's still magical!!

Also I forgot...some first time things we did that were awesome...

Festival of the Lion King...amazing and well worth a fast pass!

Boardwalk - why had we never been there before?...it was really cool and great for a couple of chill out evenings (actually one negative I must say.. Downtown Disney really too crowded at the moment due to all the work - still one great night at Raglan Road though!!!)

Also we only had one 'stroppy' CM all week and that was on the parking tram at HS. Everyone else was really kind and helpful.

I might wake up later and post some more...still got jet lag and post Disney blues!!

 

[BurleyGirl]

I might wake up later and post some more...still got jet lag and post Disney blues!!

You know the best way to beat the post Disney blues is to do a trip report

(Interesting what you comment about FOTLK, as we just can't seem to convince ourselves to see it, although we've heard lots of recommendations for it, but still...)

 

[OnSpaceshipEarth]

Thanks - I wanted to paste a few positives as I know some people are worried by the new systems and stuff - don't be....it's still magical!!

Also I forgot...some first time things we did that were awesome...

Festival of the Lion King...amazing and well worth a fast pass!

Boardwalk - why had we never been there before?...it was really cool and great for a couple of chill out evenings (actually one negative I must say.. Downtown Disney really too crowded at the moment due to all the work - still one great night at Raglan Road though!!!)

Also we only had one 'stroppy' CM all week and that was on the parking tram at HS. Everyone else was really kind and helpful.

I might wake up later and post some more...still got jet lag and post Disney blues!!

Ahhh...those "post Disney blues" are killer aren't they?

So, the MK was even *more crowded* than you expected? I noticed you said that Epcot was manageable on the 4th of July, but would you still say that the crowd was much larger than a normal Epcot summer crowd? Was there any park that seemed to be pretty empty no matter what time of day it was?

Thank you, jester 161, in advance.

 

[jester161]

Sorry everyone seems to be a bug somewhere...just typed out massive reply twice an it logged me out...lost the lot!! will try again later!!

 

[jester161]

apparently I can only do short posts at the moment or it logs me out so will do a few separate ones..

Epcot....4th July seemed the same as normal...we didnt leave Biergarden till 9 o clock but still managed to get a good spot and crowds were about the same as every other fireworks we have seen. We have certainly been in bigger crowds and longer queues!

We actually went there on our checkout day for fast pass on test track that we made that morning!! And at 3 o clock in the afternoon on our way out the standby wait for spaceship earth was only ten minutes...this was saturday 12th July. So Epcot was really no problems at all.

More to come.....

 

[jester161]

MK just seemed more crowded than usual...not always on the rides but just in general. The only place we found that was quiet was the new circus bit at new fantasy land...that was usually fairly quiet and quite cool with the entertainers and stuff. Cant give any reasons why this might be so...just what we all felt.

This was really the most productive place for fast pass plus...we would go there in the evening knowing we could just do the three special rides and then just wander round and 'people watch'!!

AK was the same as it always is...really quiet in the early EMH so you can walk round and do whatever you want...did EE three times one morning straight off no delays. This park seemed no different in crowds from any other time we have been. We never got any fast passes before 1200 here as we simply didnt need them.

We did FOTLK on fast pass but they were still taking standby 2 minutes before the show...this at 2.30 in the afternoon!!


HS to come...

 

[Big Daddy Incredible]

We hit MK at rope drop today. They let us in the park at 8:45AM. DW and DD13 went to Space Mountain and had to wait a few minutes - she figured they had to wait until 9:00AM. I took DD12 and DS10 to Buzz Lightyear and we went on that twice. We then met up at Mad Hatter's Tea Party. We had our fastpasses for later which was good - SDMT was done at the beginning of the day.

We left MK at 2:00PM today. They shut down all the outside rides due to lightning in the area. It's a good thing we left. When we got back to POR, it was raining cats and dogs. To make it worse, our two girls are out cold right now. We think they caught a bug so I think our day is done.

I didn't think MK was too crowded for mid July. We visited Epcot for the first day of our trip yesterday and I must have told DW at least 10 times how I couldn't believe how empty Epcot was for mid July.

 

[OnSpaceshipEarth]

MK just seemed more crowded than usual...not always on the rides but just in general. The only place we found that was quiet was the new circus bit at new fantasy land...that was usually fairly quiet and quite cool with the entertainers and stuff. Cant give any reasons why this might be so...just what we all felt.

This was really the most productive place for fast pass plus...we would go there in the evening knowing we could just do the three special rides and then just wander round and 'people watch'!!

AK was the same as it always is...really quiet in the early EMH so you can walk round and do whatever you want...did EE three times one morning straight off no delays. This park seemed no different in crowds from any other time we have been. We never got any fast passes before 1200 here as we simply didnt need them.

We did FOTLK on fast pass but they were still taking standby 2 minutes before the show...this at 2.30 in the afternoon!!


HS to come...

Thank you jester161 for your efforts in responding even with your computer troubles...it's greatly appreciated!