Things learned from rope dropping

[g-dad66]

I plan to rope drop Peter Pan but I have a 6 month pregnant woman and 2 year old in a stroller in tow.

Is it going to be worth it to even try? We are not running and I have to park the stroller. How fast does it go from 5 to 40 minutes usually?

As others have said, this usually works fine.

However, on our last trip, Mine Train was down at Rope drop which caused a huge diversion to Peter Pan, and by the time we got to Pan (we were in about the middle of the Rope Drop crowd), the wait time had already shot to 40 minutes.

 

[lolomarie]

Touring Plans also has me doing Pooh then PP. We have a 7dmt FP. Does this make sense or should we do PP first? Note, I've never seen the new queue in PP so I don't mind a small wait to experience that.

 

[Delirium]

Pooh is an after the fireworks ride for us. Would never dream of having Pooh be the first ride at rope drop. So many more efficient options. You can't go wrong with Tomorrowland, Adventureland, or Frontierland.

 

[g-dad66]

Touring Plans also has me doing Pooh then PP. We have a 7dmt FP. Does this make sense or should we do PP first? Note, I've never seen the new queue in PP so I don't mind a small wait to experience that.

Would definitely do Peter Pan before Pooh.

 

[kappyfamily]

Sure you have a quick wait at FOP, but you did still wait an hour for the park to even open. As someone who is so very much NOT a morning person, it's not worth it for me.

I’ve often wondered this too? An hour wait is still an hour wait regardless if it’s before you walk thru the turnstiles or for a ride. To me the only real perk is getting thru security before the hoards of people get there.

 

[mco65]

Before 7DMT we always hit Buzz before Space Mt at rope drop. It worked well until 7DMT came along and ruined everything....

 

[mamaofsix]

Touring plans put out a video on youtube a while back testing/timing out different rope drop strategies for different rides, etc. I think they found that for 7DMT the difference in wait time was minimal if you were there at rope drop, or half an hour later. So, OP's experience makes sense.

 

[dachsie]

I was considering RD 7DMT but decided I will do it during MNSSHP instead. Havent been able to get a FP for it. I think I will Rope drop either Buzz or Jungle Cruise and hope to get a FP for PP later in day

 

[hckyhead17]

This is true but you didn't use park time to do it and if you're one of the first on FOP (as I was when I rope dropped it) then you still have no lines at other rides like Navi river and expedition everest

We did this twice last week got there for 7:00 and we were let in the park at 7:20 and off FOP by 7:40 then hit Navi and Everest twice and were out of the park an hour later. Laughing at the line for FOP as it was back close to Tiffens and it was not even 8:00(EMH).

 

[GADisneyDad14]

I was considering RD 7DMT but decided I will do it during MNSSHP instead. Havent been able to get a FP for it. I think I will Rope drop either Buzz or Jungle Cruise and hope to get a FP for PP later in day

FWIW, I have not personally RD’d Jungle Cruise but I occasionally read reports around here from people that do and say it didn’t go well. They may make you wait to fill up a boat, it ends up taking longer the expected, etc.

Obviously YMMV!

 

[dachsie]

FWIW, I have not personally RD’d Jungle Cruise but I occasionally read reports around here from people that do and say it didn’t go well. They may make you wait to fill up a boat, it ends up taking longer the expected, etc.

Obviously YMMV!

Hmm - so maybe I will do Buzz then JC then Splash (9-10FP)

What does YMMV mean?

 

[GADisneyDad14]

Hmm - so maybe I will do Buzz then JC then Splash (9-10FP)

What does YMMV mean?

Sorry, “Your Mileage May Vary.” Just slang for “your experience may be different” since it involves a lot of variables.. crowd levels, time, rope drop/ride opening procedures on any given day, etc.

Other than Buzz and Jungle being on opposite sides of the park, seems doable to me. We sometimes criss-cross the park in inefficient ways at rope drop just to hit certain things.

It may make more sense to do something like PotC and JC if you’re looking to be in the same area.

 

[Mome Rath]

Sure you have a quick wait at FOP, but you did still wait an hour for the park to even open. As someone who is so very much NOT a morning person, it's not worth it for me.

Mornings are so much cooler, temp wise, and you get through security and the tapstiles really quickly and when all the other rides would usually be filling up, you are already done with all of Pandora, and on to whatever else you'd like to ride, or like me, ready to park hop to a non-EMH park and then to an early lunch. But yes, if you not a morning person I don't think rope drop is for you. I'm not a night owl, so I'd never get into line right before park close either.

 

[Queen of the WDW Scene]

I'm not a morning person with the exception of Disney.
I much rather wait that hour before the park opens (well really I usually arrive 35 minutes before the park opens) and hop on 6 attractions within 2 hours than arrive at or after RD and wait 1 hour for 1 attraction.
I'm a ride warrior like that then later I can be more leisurely.

 

[nkmorgan87]

we love rope drop! The amount of rides you can get on within the first few hours of the day is amazing. Frees up so much time to explore the parks

 

[Dr.Mickey]

Touringplans plan has me going to Winnie the Poe

Ahh...Eeyore makes MUCH more sense now.

This may be my favorite typo ever

 

[Babe the Blue Ox]

Here's my favorite Rope Drop story:

I had a co-worker recently telling me about her trip to Disney World. They seemed to be pretty good planners and tried to maximize their time the best they could.

She was very excited to tell me about her experience riding Midway Mania without a Fast Pass. The got up really early, got to the gates about 45 minutes before they opened and waited in a pretty large crowd. Then they hurried as fast as they could to the ride and the wait was *only* 15 minutes. By the time they got off the line was almost an hour long. There were people all over the place.

I rode the same ride 4 times in about an hour late at night and didn't have to deal with the crowds.

 

[Queen of the WDW Scene]

Here's my favorite Rope Drop story:

I had a co-worker recently telling me about her trip to Disney World. They seemed to be pretty good planners and tried to maximize their time the best they could.

She was very excited to tell me about her experience riding Midway Mania without a Fast Pass. The got up really early, got to the gates about 45 minutes before they opened and waited in a pretty large crowd. Then they hurried as fast as they could to the ride and the wait was *only* 15 minutes. By the time they got off the line was almost an hour long. There were people all over the place.

I rode the same ride 4 times in about an hour late at night and didn't have to deal with the crowds.

Different priorities.
I am never at HS at night.
How would that work for me?
Or how would that work for someone that wants to watch F!?
What I've found is compared to the rest of the day through closing RD is the least busy time.
I've also experienced that even with PM EMH its still more crowded with longer lines.
I think this is because the majority of people don't arrive at RD so they wait longer for few attractions throughout the day making it so they have to stay as long as possible to fit in the attractions they want.
I guess different people just have different strategies that work for them which in the end is probably a good thing otherwise we would all be at the parks all at the same times and it would be chaos lol.

 

[tlmadden73]

Rope drop is definitely less and less a "secret". The more crowded Disney gets the more people are willing to sacrifice (get up early) to try and miss the crowds .. which just makes Rope Drop ironically crowded.

You are still waiting in a line at Rope Drop. Getting there an hour before the gates open and then "only" waiting 15-30 minutes for a ride still means you waiting 90 minutes for that ride .. (it just means that 60 of those minutes weren't cutting into the time the park opens).


My philosophy is "go where the people ain't"

Rope Drop is great -- I do it every day .. but I don't feel the need to get there hours before the gates open to be at the front of the line. I just want to be walking up the main street right at 9:00 AM. You can't really "run with the bulls" with small children, but you can maximize your time in the parks by getting there early on getting on a ton of the Tier 2 type of rides early on.

Go to rides that people AREN'T gunning for and use your Fast Passes for those big rides.

Harder to do in the parks with Tiering though . I still wonder what my AK, Epcot and DHS days will look like when you can only get 1 Fast Pass for ALL the rides you really want to do

 

[Babe the Blue Ox]

Or how would that work for someone that wants to watch F!?

We were there just a few weeks ago. Over the last 2 hours of operation, we rode Toy Story 4 times, ToT 3 times and RnR twice. We still had plenty of time to grab snacks before Fantasmic started.

At each ride, the posted wait was at least 4 times the actual wait. One time on TSM, the posted wait was 90 minutes while the actual wait was only 3 minutes. That’s an extreme example though.

Rope Drop is just too crowded and stressful for us. We would rather wait until later when the lines get short.