Things learned from rope dropping

[Daisy1940]

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.

With small kids that wake up at 6:30-7:00, arriving at 8:00 and waiting in line while we eat breakfast, put on sunscreen, drink coffee, the toddler walks around, visit the restroom, etc. is far preferable than keeping them out of trouble in a hotel room that isn't baby proofed. Yes you are waiting in "line" but it isn't the same as a kid waiting in a queue for an hour having to stand still. Often the parks open before 9:00 so you really aren't waiting that long. Plus as others have said, the rest of the lines are short (outside of the 1-2 e-ticket attractions a park) so you reap the reward of getting there early for several hours.

 

[hopeful4fl]

I am envious of all the rope droppers. I am an early riser and would love to rope drop to avail of the advantages. My wife, who loves to sleep in....well..... her idea of a rope drop would be to tie that rope around my neck and drop me from one of the mountains........

 

[Babe the Blue Ox]

This is awesome and I will be so excited when my kids can do this, but they are 11months and 3 years old, by park open they've been awake for 2 1/2 hours, late nights would never work for us right now. Not wishing their childhood away but sleeping in and doing the parks at night will be nice one day.

Those little ones might surprise you at the parks.

My fondest 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.

 

[goodeats]

How is TSMM at rope drop these days? Is it easy to get into, since everyone dashes for Slinky Dog Dash? How about FEA at Epcot?

You can look in the app, but the waits for TSMM are pretty short for awhile after rope drop. The bottleneck is at SDD and the three tracks hemp. We did have ride service issues though (paused for over 5 min). We didn’t make it back to Frozen in the am, but when I looked one morning around 10 it was only 15 min. By the time we got there with our 11:30 FP it was 40 min.

 

[heathermm]

You can look in the app, but the waits for TSMM are pretty short for awhile after rope drop. The bottleneck is at SDD and the three tracks hemp. We did have ride service issues though (paused for over 5 min). We didn’t make it back to Frozen in the am, but when I looked one morning around 10 it was only 15 min. By the time we got there with our 11:30 FP it was 40 min.

We were just there the 11th-18th and rope dropped HS. There was EMH of 7:00am. We got there about 6:40. We went straight to TSM bc we had a later FP for SD. We walked right on TSM. Rode it 2x before it was a posted 10 min wait. We also went right on to Alien Saucers with no wait. Everybody is definitely dashing to SD. After riding TSM and AS; we went and rode RnR 2x and Tot2x and it was just hitting 8:00.

 

[Daisy1940]

Those little ones might surprise you at the parks.

My fondest 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.

We keep waiting for that to happen but in four week-long trips with son as a baby now toddler we've only managed to make it to 9:00 fireworks twice. We've made it to 8:30 a number of times but that seems to be his maximum. Why can't he last that extra 30 minutes ?!? Hahaha

 

[Daisy1940]

I am envious of all the rope droppers. I am an early riser and would love to rope drop to avail of the advantages. My wife, who loves to sleep in....well..... her idea of a rope drop would be to tie that rope around my neck and drop me from one of the mountains........

Maybe you could go ahead to the park one morning and have her meet you. There is something really special about the parks in the morning, there is an excitement in the air that just isn't there later in the day. MK is especially nice because you can really soak up the Main Street atmosphere in a way you just can't after the park opens and the crowds are thick with people entering and leaving the park.

 

[bladiator]

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.

I usually Pooh and PP at the same time.

 

[lolomarie]

I usually Pooh and PP at the same time.

I'm tired and it's been a long day, so it took me longer than I'm proud of to get this. Lol!!!! But then when I did....hahhahahahah. And your name is bladiator!!! The Bladder of a gladiator!!!!!!

 

[fractalpotato]

I love RD, we get so much done and we're back at the hotel by mid afternoon to recharge. Great way to break up the day. I feel like I do more on those days, I mean, obviously I do, but on days where we power through the park and don't take a break, the day feels longer and less fun.

That said, I think the idea of "get to AK an hour or more before it opens so you're not waiting a long time" to be kind of silly. You are waiting. Yes, you're burning up less park time, it's not without merit, I just find it a little vexing that it is presented as a short wait. It's not! It's just a technique for minimizing the impact of that wait time. I also don't think it's worth it, we love FoP, but if we don't get a FP, we don't ride it. It's not that good, it's really good, but it's not quite that good in my opinion, for the waits involved. On our next trip we're not even going to AK because we don't really care for the park and the idea of burning a days FPs to get that ride is untenable, but this will also be our third trip this year (it's been a weird year, normally it's one trip a year if that, but we had a milestone birthday, a graduation and now a wedding this year for dear friends), so the impact is minimal. Still, on a one trip year, I wouldn't ride FoP without a FP, no amount of dressing up that wait will change that.

Matt