Thoughts on avoiding rope drop?

[DontSpamMe]

How were ride waits? Do you feel like you missed anything by not being earlier? This sounds ideal.

We never waited more than 30 minutes for any ride.

Ride wait times were worst from 9a-12pm. Things opened up as the day went on. By 5pm all the big rides were essentially walk ons. We rode a total of 24 rides. We only rode 5 rides from 9a to 2pm (this included ROTR and lunch). After 3pm things opened up quite a bit. By 5pm most of the big rides were essentially walk ons (pirates, haunted mansion, big thunder). Maybe the only benefit of being in front of rope drop would be the fantasy land rides. The wait times there were consistent all day. We were the least productive in that area. Overall, it was a great experience and the lack of those late day APs made a huge difference.

 

[ParkHopper1]

How were ride waits? Do you feel like you missed anything by not being earlier? This sounds ideal.

Nope, opposite actually. The pattern seemed to be that everyone with reservations wanted to get in early then once you could park hop at 1p the wait times in DL went down. Thursday late afternoon/evening we were literally walking on HM, Pirates and Big Thunder.

Morning wait times were busier. We did notice my yesterday that crowd levels went WAY up and appears they are increasing capacity, but with no Fastpasses the standby lines are way manageable

 

[Kailua's Belle]

We never waited more than 30 minutes for any ride.

Ride wait times were worst from 9a-12pm. Things opened up as the day went on. By 5pm all the big rides were essentially walk ons. We rode a total of 24 rides. We only rode 5 rides from 9a to 2pm (this included ROTR and lunch). After 3pm things opened up quite a bit. By 5pm most of the big rides were essentially walk ons (pirates, haunted mansion, big thunder). Maybe the only benefit of being in front of rope drop would be the fantasy land rides. The wait times there were consistent all day. We were the least productive in that area. Overall, it was a great experience and the lack of those late day APs made a huge difference.

Hmm, seems like conventional wisdom of getting there before park opening and riding as much as you can in that first hour is going out the window! Our first day is July 1, when the 8:00 a.m. openings start. Now I'm starting to think we don't need to be there an hour ahead but going against what I've always done makes me nervous, lol!!

 

[SFMommy]

Hmm, seems like conventional wisdom of getting there before park opening and riding as much as you can in that first hour is going out the window! Our first day is July 1, when the 8:00 a.m. openings start. Now I'm starting to think we don't need to be there an hour ahead but going against what I've always done makes me nervous, lol!!

Our first day is also July 1. And we have ALWAYS gotten to the gates super early. But now I am considering sleeping in, having breakfast at the hotel and arriving a little after 8:00. I just can’t decide!

 

[Matrixleos]

I think the decision to get there early or not depends on how many days you're planning to spend at the parks. If you have multiple days, you can sleep in more and not miss much as you have plenty of days to do everything on your list.

Someone whose there for 1-2 days and plans to commando style the park from start to finish, can't waste those early minutes by not showing up at rope drop.

There is no right or wrong answer, just whatever suits your style and how you want to enjoy YOUR disney experience.