What time to arrive for rope drop if staying off site?

[Calidisneyfam]

We love to rope drop; this time we are staying offsite, so won't have the early entry. Because of this I plan to start in Adventureland (for Disneyland days) and probably Paradise Pier for the California Adventure day. Assuming 8:00am open time, what time should we arrive to get in line? Normally if staying onsite I'd arrive at least 45 minutes prior to early entry to be at the front of the pack. I'd like to be at the front of the off site pack. Should we arrive at 7:15? I don't know if that would put us in long lines to enter the park with the on site group.

We will be there November 18-20, which is the weekend before Thanksgiving.

Any tips on what time to arrive at security would be appreciated, and what rides to hit when the park opens. We will avoid Fantasyland and Tomorrowland, since we don't have the early entry.

No young kids in our group, just a mom and two teenagers.

Thanks!

 

[pennym]

We arrived no more than half an hour before at security. We found both security lines and lines to get in to Disneyland hugely reduced, and we were there over Easter, reservations were full. It's just a way simpler process than it used to be. We were generally at the rope 5 or so minutes before it dropped.

 

[DLRExpert]

We love to rope drop; this time we are staying offsite, so won't have the early entry. Because of this I plan to start in Adventureland (for Disneyland days) and probably Paradise Pier for the California Adventure day. Assuming 8:00am open time, what time should we arrive to get in line? Normally if staying onsite I'd arrive at least 45 minutes prior to early entry to be at the front of the pack. I'd like to be at the front of the off site pack. Should we arrive at 7:15? I don't know if that would put us in long lines to enter the park with the on site group.

We will be there November 18-20, which is the weekend before Thanksgiving.

Any tips on what time to arrive at security would be appreciated, and what rides to hit when the park opens. We will avoid Fantasyland and Tomorrowland, since we don't have the early entry.

No young kids in our group, just a mom and two teenagers.

Thanks!

Security opens at 7am
Try to arrive at the entrance by 730am.

No need to avoid Fantasyland or Tomorrowland.
Peter Pan will have the longest line at park opening due to Early Entry, but even that isn't too bad if you are the first one at the rope and make Pan first.

Space Mountain is usually second busiest, but tends to be 20 minutes or less until 9am.

You do not have to really be in the Adventureland area until around 850am-9am to have low waits at Jungle Cruise, even Indiana Jones. Mansion Holiday will start to be crowded by 9am as well.
Be at Pirates 930am-10am.

My usual RD strategy if I had G+LL during that time
- Enter park for RD immediately book Indy LL (to fish for MEP), get to the rope area closest to the entrance of Tomorrowland
- Park opens head to Alice first, then Dumbo, then Toad. Out of that part of Fantasyland by 830am, before is even better.
- Matterhorn at 830am
- Railway at 845am
- Head to Adventureland by 9am. Actual first LL I book is for Mansion Holiday
- 915am Jungle Cruise, 930am Pirates
- Scan into Mansion LL , next LL Indy. After Indy LL is Falcon LL and Rise ILL if I buy into it. Then LL Thunder. Then start collecting LL for Tomorrowland

 

[nalabear]

Security opens at 7am
Try to arrive at the entrance by 7309am.

No need to avoid Fantasyland or Tomorrowland.
Peter Pan will have the longest line at park opening due to Early Entry, but even that isn't too bad if you are the first one at the rope and make Pan first.

Space Mountain is usually second busiest, but tends to be 20 minutes or less until 9am.

You do not have to really be in the Adventureland area until around 850am-9am to have low waits at Jungle Cruise, even Indiana Jones. Mansion Holiday will start to be crowded by 9am as well.
Be at Pirates 930am-10am.

My usual RD strategy if I had G+LL during that time
- Enter park for RD immediately book Indy LL (to fish for MEP), get to the rope area closest to the entrance of Tomorrowland
- Park opens head to Alice first, then Dumbo, then Toad. Out of that part of Fantasyland by 830am, before is even better.
- Matterhorn at 830am
- Railway at 845am
- Head to Adventureland by 9am. Actual first LL I book is for Mansion Holiday
- 915am Jungle Cruise, 930am Pirates
- Scan into Mansion LL , next LL Indy. After Indy LL is Falcon LL and Rise ILL if I buy into it. Then LL Thunder. Then start collecting LL for Tomorrowland

Rare to see a Matterhorn fan, but not Space (or that's the end of Tomorrowland to cap off the day)

 

[Dug720]

How bad will MMRR be if you don't have early entry?

 

[Jawwdoc]

MMRR opens at 8 so those with early entry queue up outside Toontown around 7:50 am but that queue is small vs the queue for RotR. If you rope drop as an offsite guest, the initial surge of early entry rope droppers will likely be on the ride by the time you make it to the attraction queue. I’ve rope dropped MMRR both as an early entry guest and offsite guest and the wait was minimal both times.

 

[Dug720]

MMRR opens at 8 so those with early entry queue up outside Toontown around 7:50 am but that queue is small vs the queue for RotR. If you rope drop as an offsite guest, the initial surge of early entry rope droppers will likely be on the ride by the time you make it to the attraction queue. I’ve rope dropped MMRR both as an early entry guest and offsite guest and the wait was minimal both times.

Awesome, thanks! Trying to avoid having to buy an ILL if I can at all help it!

 

[DLRExpert]

Awesome, thanks! Trying to avoid having to buy an ILL if I can at all help it!

Be cautious though, Rise and MMRR are known to be down at opening.
For MMRR best to enjoy something else at park opening, then go to MMRR and Toontown around 830am. If open MMRR will still have a short wait until 9ish.
For Rise just wait until you are comfortable with the posted Standby wait time. A usually 60 minute wait is 50 or less minutes. If there is no outdoor queue you are looking at 30-40 minutes. BUT pray that it does not go down while in line.

 

[Dug720]

Be cautious though, Rise and MMRR are known to be down at opening.
For MMRR best to enjoy something else at EE, then go to MMRR and Toontown around 830am. If open MMRR will still have a short wait until 9ish.
For Rise just wait until you are comfortable with the posted Standby wait time. A usually 60 minute wait is 50 or less minutes. If there is no outdoor queue you are looking at 30-40 minutes. BUT pray that it does not go down while in line.

Thanks. I'm off property, so no EE.

And no desire for anything Star Wars, so that's a bonus.

 

[RunnerMom71]

For MMRR we never waited... basically walked on around 9:00 am? They really should removed this from LL+ in my opinion. Never even noticed long wait times posted on the app

 

[DisneylandFan22]

For OP in case you are not aware there is no separate entrance for EE. So all guests wait in the same line and get in at 7:30 AM.

 

[kj2mom]

How bad will MMRR be if you don't have early entry?

Be cautious though, Rise and MMRR are known to be down at opening.
For MMRR best to enjoy something else at park opening, then go to MMRR and Toontown around 830am. If open MMRR will still have a short wait until 9ish.
For Rise just wait until you are comfortable with the posted Standby wait time. A usually 60 minute wait is 50 or less minutes. If there is no outdoor queue you are looking at 30-40 minutes. BUT pray that it does not go down while in line.

We were there in July and tried to RD MMRR, it indeed was down so we went on Roger Rabbit and once we got off that MMRR was open with no line at all. Worked out really well for us even though initially we were disappointed to find MMRR not open.

 

[Dug720]

We were there in July and tried to RD MMRR, it indeed was down so we went on Roger Rabbit and once we got off that MMRR was open with no line at all. Worked out really well for us even though initially we were disappointed to find MMRR not open.

Thank you!