What is a rope drop?

[Heather Felker]

What is a rope drop?

 

[IsThatYouTigger]

It's basically a way of saying you are at the gates to go into the park when the park opens for the day.

 

[Heather Felker]

Thanks!

 

[yaksack]

Is it crazy and crowded? If I get the family up early for a rope drop to see the Avatar attractions, would there be a long wait?

 

[Alesia]

Is it crazy and crowded? If I get the family up early for a rope drop to see the Avatar attractions, would there be a long wait?

Rope drop will have the shortest waits of the day.

 

[nkereina]

There will still be a hoard of people and everyone will beeline for the Avatar attractions, but as PP mentioned, it will still be the shortest waits of the day. This is in part because there are no fast pass return times at opening so everyone is filtering into the standby line, which means the standby line isn't pausing for FP people. And in addition, the park is still less crowded at that time than it would be an hour or two later as people start filtering into the park for the day.

 

[Robo]

The earlier the hour, the fewer the guests.

The main reason is that most guests simply will not make the effort to "get up early" on vacation,
so those who do will benefit from the lowest crowd numbers of the day.

Know that DAK will open earlier than posted.
Guests have been arriving an hour or more before the posted opening times.

 

[DIS_AWC]

If I get the family up early for a rope drop to see the Avatar attractions, would there be a long wait?

I think the important thing to note here is that for a short wait in the morning for FoP, you need to be at the park well in advance of the actual "rope drop"/opening time. They do start letting people in before the official park opening time and in order to have the shortest wait you would want to be near the front of the pack of people heading over to Pandora. If you're looking to do Na'vi instead, that is much more relaxed at rope drop and you will have a short/no wait for that when they start letting people into the park.

This post from EasyWDW.com may be helpful for you in planning for AK rope drop:

https://www.easywdw.com/easy/animal...s-rope-drop-wait-times-and-fastpass-priority/

 

[randumb0]

The main reason is that most guests simply will not make the effort to "get up early" on vacation

add me to the count

 

[sharonabe]

What is a rope drop?

When MK has a 9:00 opening, they let everyone onto Main St about an hour before that. There are actual ropes across the paths around the hub that go into the various lands. After the opening show, they "drop the ropes" to let people into those lands.

The other parks have similar actual ropes they use when they let people into the park before opening time, but want to hold them in a specific area until opening time.

 

[NH-to-FL]

Is it crazy and crowded? If I get the family up early for a rope drop to see the Avatar attractions, would there be a long wait?

DIS_AWC said it well:

I think the important thing to note here is that for a short wait in the morning for FoP, you need to be at the park well in advance of the actual "rope drop"/opening time.

Basically, you are going to "wait" a minimum of 60-90 minutes to ride FoP. The waits quickly rise once the park opens.

Here is a link to my report of a rope drop visit to Pandora:

https://www.disboards.com/threads/first-visit-to-pandora-8-4-17.3623699/

 

[WEDWDW]

When MK has a 9:00 opening, they let everyone onto Main St about an hour before that. There are actual ropes across the paths around the hub that go into the various lands. After the opening show, they "drop the ropes" to let people into those lands.

The other parks have similar actual ropes they use when they let people into the park before opening time, but want to hold them in a specific area until opening time.

This.

Disney has gone more and more to "pretend ropes",but does still use actual ropes some.

Another place where they always use ropes is for the "World Showcase Rope Drop" at 11:00 AM between Morocco and France and between China and Norway.

Rope between Norway and China

In this picture,Rope Drop has just happened between France and Morocco.

 

[Randomsoulshine]

Maybe we are crazy but we love rope drop. We usually get there 45mins to an hour before park opening. It's exciting. It is usually somewhat cool even in the summer. We head to an attraction we love but don't have a fast pass for. Especially ones with longer waits later in the day. Sometimes I have breakfast in my back pack and we eat while we wait in line for rope drop. Dont get me wrong. Rising early isn't fun but once we are all moving around we feel the excitement building. The downside is often we wear out before night time. Last year we did 8-8pm at MK and couldn't go any longer. So we missed it in the dark. This year I have a rest day planned with MK at night. We will be attempting to rope drop Navi River, Peter Pan/Pooh,TSMM, and Test Track this year. Fingers crossed for short wait times and for the coffee/tea to kick in!

 

[StacyStrong]

Maybe we are crazy but we love rope drop. We usually get there 45mins to an hour before park opening. It's exciting. It is usually somewhat cool even in the summer. We head to an attraction we love but don't have a fast pass for. Especially ones with longer waits later in the day. Sometimes I have breakfast in my back pack and we eat while we wait in line for rope drop. Dont get me wrong. Rising early isn't fun but once we are all moving around we feel the excitement building. The downside is often we wear out before night time. Last year we did 8-8pm at MK and couldn't go any longer. So we missed it in the dark. This year I have a rest day planned with MK at night. We will be attempting to rope drop Navi River, Peter Pan/Pooh,TSMM, and Test Track this year. Fingers crossed for short wait times and for the coffee/tea to kick in!

Agree. I'm all about rope drop. Yes, it's early and I'm on vacation, but WDW will never be a restful vacation for me - even if I slept in. I'd personally rather be slightly crabby and tired for 20 minutes of my morning because I got up early (but get some big ticket rides in) than be crabby and tired in a 2 hour long wait for PP lol

 

[WEDWDW]

We like to "mix it up"-some RD days and some "mid-morning" days.

 

[Liljo22]

Basically, you are going to "wait" a minimum of 60-90 minutes to ride FoP. The waits quickly rise once the park opens.

Yes, you are still waiting 60-90 minutes to ride FOP but that is with nothing else running. You get there at park opening and you are sitting in a 120 minute line when you could be knocking out several other things at AK.

 

[Klayfish]

Agree. I'm all about rope drop. Yes, it's early and I'm on vacation, but WDW will never be a restful vacation for me - even if I slept in. I'd personally rather be slightly crabby and tired for 20 minutes of my morning because I got up early (but get some big ticket rides in) than be crabby and tired in a 2 hour long wait for PP lol

You don't need to stand in a 2 hour wait for PP. Use FP+. We can get FP+ for any ride, including the "headliners", same day. The one and only exception is FoP, but everything else...PP, TT, 7DMT, FEA, Soarin', RnR, you name it...we never wait in line. So for us, why wake up early, stand in a mob outside a rope/gate and get tired and cranky when if you know how to use FP+ well you can get just as much done without having to do any of that. There's no arguing wanting to be there for rope drop...if it's something you like and get excited for, that's fantastic. But it's just not necessary if you're looking at it from a "productivity" standpoint.

 

[StacyStrong]

You don't need to stand in a 2 hour wait for PP. Use FP+. We can get FP+ for any ride, including the "headliners", same day. The one and only exception is FoP, but everything else...PP, TT, 7DMT, FEA, Soarin', RnR, you name it...we never wait in line. So for us, why wake up early, stand in a mob outside a rope/gate and get tired and cranky when if you know how to use FP+ well you can get just as much done without having to do any of that. There's no arguing wanting to be there for rope drop...if it's something you like and get excited for, that's fantastic. But it's just not necessary if you're looking at it from a "productivity" standpoint.

I'm about to turn 30 with no kids PP isn't on my FP list, but it's still something I love as it was my favorite as a kid

Obviously, having no small kids makes rope drop easier for me, but for me, I'm a much happy camper getting up early. I'm a morning person generally though.

Different strokes and all that

 

[Beachmom0317]

Our toddlers are sadly up at 5:30am every day. I have tried to adjust their bedtime so much but nope. Early risers. The only wonderful thing about this is we are easy RD people at Disney! Last time DH and I listened to the fireworks from our cabin room while our kids were snoring in their beds haha maybe one day we will actually see the fireworks!

 

[Klayfish]

I'm about to turn 30 with no kids PP isn't on my FP list, but it's still something I love as it was my favorite as a kid

Obviously, having no small kids makes rope drop easier for me, but for me, I'm a much happy camper getting up early. I'm a morning person generally though.

Completely agree with you there. If you're a morning person, have nobody else to worry about who may not be a morning person and you're happy getting up early then rope drop is great. We used to do it years ago when our kids were little because as a PP mentioned, our kids woke up at 5:30am no matter what. So we were up anyhow. But now, they're not up that early and we have no desire to be up that early (we're up at 4am weekdays at home) , so we're done with it and thankful to be so. We don't sleep all day, but even 8:00am is bliss, and we get to the parks around 9:30am.

Where I would differ in opinion is when people say it's not necessarily what they want to do but feel like they have to do it so that they can get on headliner rides. That, IMO, isn't necessary.

Oh, and I turned 30 quite some time ago and I still love some classic rides, including Small World.