Thoughts on rope drop

[allybabba98]

Good day everyone,

We are in the process of planning a trip to WDW in November, my question is what you think of rope drop? Do you always make it a point to be there for rope drop and if so what time does that mean you normally leave your resort?
This will be our third trip and to be honest we have never made it for the pre show at Magic Kingdom or any rope drop. I would LOVE to do it but all the boys are fairly slow at getting out in the morning.

So just looking for some suggestions or recommendation on getting there early. I love the Trip Reports but when I read how early some people go I know that would not work for us...for me, yes...for the other people in my party not so much.

Thanks for your help.

DH, DS 10, DS 7, DS 4 and me!

 

[DisneyRegulars]

I LOVE rope drop. It's so nice to be able to walk onto any ride you want for 2-3 hours while everyone else sleeps. My biggest suggestion to you would be to try a rope drop morning on your very first full day. This will allow your family to see the benefit of rope drop, and from there you can decide to continue to rope drop for the rest of the trip, or to go back to sleeping in. Now the key to actually making rope drop with a happy family is to get a good nights sleep. Don't be tempted to stay out late the night before. Don't do it. Those fireworks, ignore them! Those tempting evening extra magic hours, NO WAY! If even one of your family members is tired the whole group will suffer. So get a good nights sleep. Also, if you schedule your rope drop morning for the first morning, the early rising will be more tolerable because presumably you guys get up early for school and work each day anyways. Plus everyone will be excited to get to the parks, so they might bound out of bed with a little more energy than normal.

We always shower the night before. We can get ready in 30-45 minutes. This includes brushing teeth, pulling back hair, getting dressed and waking our 5 year old beasty. The adults put on sunblock in the room, but we sunblock our son while waiting at the park gate to give us something to do. Sometimes we cook breakfast in our villa, so we would add time for that, other times we just grab some granola bars and go. We generally try to arrive at the park gate 30 minutes before opening. We generally leave our room about an hour before park opens if we are taking the buses. If driving to MK we leave about an hour before park opens. If driving to the other parks we leave about 45 minutes before park opens.

Schedule your FP+ for the evening/afternoon. They are almost useless at Rope Drop with the exception of the mine ride. This will allow you to enjoy rope drop, then head back to the hotel to swim, then return later to a park for a few late afternoon/early evening rides.

Again, the key to making rope drop is a good nights sleep the night before. Sleep sleep sleep sleep sleep. We usually do 3 rope drop days in a row, then spend the rest of the trip watching late night fireworks and sleeping in.

 

[Reppstir]

Honestly, I think being at rope drops makes the whole park visit worthwhile. Once inside, with EVERYONE behind you, you can do and see so much before many of the throng are even out of their cars. As a veteran of many, many trips to WDW parks, it is the tip I give to everyone who have never been. Get up and get to the rope.

 

[lillyshula]

We always do rope drop. We love being at the park early to have less of a crowd the first hour or so. We usually make sure we have a good hour and fifteen minutes before the park opens when we get on the bus. We have gone from rope drop to EMH late night many times. It was a lot easier to get to rope drop the next morning before having kids though . Now we prefer to still be up and ready for rope drop and forgo the late night EMH. That gives us plenty of rest. One thing we usually do is have breakfast in the room. Quick things like muffins, fruit, individual cereal boxes and things like that. We can still munch on them while we wait for the bus. Usually the girls are so excited about going to a park that they have no problem getting up. We usually get up by 6:30am at home to get ready for school anyway that doing it for a week at Disney is no big deal.

 

[allybabba98]

Great advice! Thank you all so much. I think this will be a good thread to show to my DH. Thanks everyone!

 

[FlightlessDuck]

what you think of rope drop?

Got to get to the park early to avoid longer lines later in the day! Not going for the show.

Do you always make it a point to be there for rope drop and if so what time does that mean you normally leave your resort?

Most of the time, yes. Usually around 7am. Everyone is my family is up and out the door by 7am when we aren't on vacation, so it's no problem for us.

 

[Thing 1]

We always do rope drop and try to every other day, do a EMH morning park. That first hour is just so important. There are few to no lines to start the day and we LOVE the MK opening show. We do everything the night before. We are not primp people and we can be ready and out the door with in 20 minutes of getting up. DH wakes up earlier anyway and will sometimes go fill mugs and maybe grab a light breakfast. Otherwise we grab food from the room and eat while we wait on the bus. We allow an hour from leaving the room to walking into the park. That is almost always more time than we need.

 

[Kimly]

Since we have had kids, I don't think we have actually ever made it to the rope drop, but we make it there within 30 mins of the park opening. It allows us to enjoy the park before it gets insane, then go back to the resort for a few hours and then usually a different park that evening.

 

[luvmy2babies]

We are a rope drop crew as well unless it is the day after we see the night time stuff at Magic Kingdom. Because my son was under 40 inches until this year, we never had to worry about getting to Test Track or Soarin’ so the one park we don’t rope drop is Epcot so it is our day after a late night park. For the other three we get there for opening at least once for each during a trip.

It’s two children and me. Like others we do baths the night before. I get up first (around 7 for a 9am opening) and do the usual plus sunscreen. Then I put sunscreen on the children. My son generally gets up on his own while that is happening. My daughter, I put it on her, turn her, do the other side, every space and she still isn’t awake until I say, “Do you remember where you are?” Then she’s up.

On rope drop days I generally pack breakfast. We leave on the bus an hour or so before the park opens and still have 30 minutes once we are there; so the food provides something to keep occupied while we wait for the park to open. Usually breakfast consist of stuff I ordered from Garden Grocer: Individual juices, bagels I spread jelly on before leaving the room or sometimes the children might have an individual sized cereal with a small carton of milk I pick up at the food court the night before or on the way to the bus stop.

Love the opening show at MK

 

[CQuinn]

We have never done rope drop. The closest I've come is getting to AK for EMH a little late and they were letting everyone in for regular opening. I'm usually there on the early side, but never actual rope drop. We definitely do the rides we know will get big lines and we don't have FP+ for, and the waits are minimal then. Probably like a 1/2 after park open.
I'm not a parent but you know if your kids are going to be crankiest waking up early or waiting in some lines. I think a rope drop day also offers the best chance of the famous "mid-day hotel break"

 

[dprincessmom]

We are both Rope Drop and Night Owls )

Love Rope Drop for the ability to get in and get things done. We can knock out our essentials at Epcot, HS and AK in a few hours with rope drop, then hit the water parks or resort for a little rest/pool time, then back out for more fun.

If it is a longer trip, halfway thru we will switch to late nights and hit the Evening EMH and sleep in a little the following day.

Both are great times to be in the parks so you really need to determine what works best for your family.
There is nothing like watching your little one close a park down and the smile on her face because she knows there is no way that she would be up (and out) this late at home.

 

[xlsm]

We always try to be at rope drop. How early we leave the resort depends on what park we're going to for the day, and/or what we plan to do there. We always stay at the Wilderness Lodge, and the Magic Kingdom is the park we always make it a point to be at very early. We probably leave the resort at 7:30ish/7:45 for 9am opening mornings. We like just hanging out and taking pictures. On the other hand, we don't like getting to Epcot that early. We try to time it to be there right at the opening time. Last year we timed it perfectly, and pulled up on the monorail from our breakfast at Poly right after the mad crush of rope droppers entered and had a very easy entry, right after 9. For Hollywood Studios, we get there early like MK. For Animal Kingdom, we generally leave the resort by 8am, but this year we have our first ever pre-park 8am Tusker House breakfast reservation, so we'll be up and out very early that day.


I like being able to knock out a lot of rides and character meets first thing in the morning before the masses arrive

If your family doesn't want to get up early, maybe you can get away before them and they can meet you later inside the park?

Enjoy your trip!!!