Strategy For Rope Drop - No Car

[ilovedisneymm]

You can take the boat that runs from the doc to the contemporary and walk to MK from there as the resort boats start running at 6:30. It is about a 10 min walk I would say.

When we want to make rope drop that is the route we take.

When we have a BBB appointment or early before park breakfast ressie, we have a FW driver take us. Now, I'm not sure they do that for all guests but they did for us.

Ilovedisneymm can you tell me how you set this up? We have an early dining reservation (45 mins before open) and it sounds exactly like what I need.

Thanks,
Kim

 

[KristinU]

This is great that you all can you all can make it on the first boat. The only thing I can think of is the boats must run on a better schedule during Christmas, but I don't see how this could be true as the first park boat from the fort runs 30 minutes before park opening all year round right??

This is interesting how you all make it. We are there on the dock early and usually the first/second/third family in line so it's not like we have to catch the second one.

I'm saying when we go in January and for the past three years, getting on the first boat will not get you to MK at the start of opening ceremony. We have seen the parade as we approach the docs and we unload from the boat as they are singing the songs.

Feeling like I need to prove that we were there before the festivities...here's a goofy, blurry selfie of us waiting for the train and show:

And OK, I just looked through my pics at the timestamps, we were boarding the MK boat at 6:26am, pulled away from the dock by 6:30 (I took a very blurry shot back at the Fort beach that is stamped at 6:30), right in front of the MK (behind that buffer island) at 6:38, through the turnstiles and in the courtyard area at 6:43, and took the silly pic above at 6:51.

Here are my not-so-great pics, but at least I could look at the time stamps and if I stand really far from the computer they don't look so blurry!

 

[ilovedisneymm]

Like I said before, that is great you made it to MK on the main boat before the opening ceremony. I don't doubt you, I didn't think you needed to prove anything and never said you did. I think the reason for our difference experiences could be that the main boat ran either on time or a few minutes earlier during xmas time. Could be that our boat ran a few minutes later and that just happened to be each and every time we went to MK on the main boat.

I neither have a reason to state anything other than the truth on our experiences.

For three solid years in the month of January, in our experience.....being first at the doc, moving quickly and being one of the first few on and off the boat and again, moving at a quick pace off the boat, we still did not make the opening ceremony. We can catch part of it on the boat and we can catch the middle/end of it getting off the boat. But if we want to make the full ceremony we need to take the resort boat and walk to MK.

The ceremony lasts what 8mins???? 9mins??? We are talking about minutes and those minutes mean beginning/end of ceremony difference. Factor in fog, rocky waters, amount of people on and off, handicap or mobility challenged people, strollers, boat drivers in training....the list of factors that could influence those minutes is never ending...

You have your experiences getting there before opening ceremony and I have mine.

 

[ilovedisneymm]

It is raining here and hubby is home for the day. I just asked him and showed him your post Kristin.

He said that he doesn't remember on the 2013 & 2014 trip about how the arrival went to MK from the main boat went with certainty but he did say that several times on the 2015 trip the main boat was late and said they were training a lot of boat drivers during that time. In addition he said that the opening ceremony often started 10 - 15 minutes prior to park opening.

Again, more factors that play a hand in our different experiences....when the opening ceremony starts in Dec/Jan. I know that they have in the past started the show a bit earlier if heavier crowds are lining up than anticipated.