What time to get to TDS?

[travelgirl06]

We are going to TDS for one day on a weekday in April (the week before Golden week). What time would you recommend arriving? I am seeing lots of posts of crazy rope drop crowds on social media and wouldn’t mind avoiding those IF it won’t have a very negative impact on our day.

FWIW - we frequently rope drop DL and are OK with that/very much appreciate the low crowds of the first few hours of the day. Last week we accidentally got to DCA half an hour late (I think they must have changed hours after the last time I checked…) and it was totally fine and actually nice to avoid the waiting/crowds (and we still got in a few rides before it got super busy).

 

[gelatoni fan]

Park gates can open as early as 1/2 an hour before scheduled park open so it's best to arrive before then. But if you plan to buy Premier Access for the attractions that have them, it's actually not a big deal to not be at the park entrances super early. If you aren't able to rope drop Tower of Terror or Journey to the Center of the Earth, then you'll likely have to wait 60+ minutes for them later in the day if you don't buy Premier Access.

The attractions without Premier Access will typically not build up a sizeable line within the first hour of park opening. But lines do build up a lot faster at TDS than at DCA.

 

[Agent 86]

I'd say at least 30 to 60 minutes before the scheduled opening time (bearing in mind that, the park can "open" 30-ish minutes before the scheduled opening time).

If you buy some breakfast from a 7-11 (or similar) and bring a leisure mat to sit on (and an umbrella for shade), the time passes quite quickly.

A limited selection of rides may also open "early" (i.e. when the park opens). The rest only start operating at the scheduled opening time. I found a list of the rides which typically open "early" when I was researching for our last trip, but I can't seem to find it now. Even then, the list I found was inaccurate. I think it had listed Toy Story Mania as a ride which started operating "early", but it didn't on the day we visited and despite rope-dropping the ride, we ended up waiting 90+ minutes!

 

[travelgirl06]

Thanks for the tips! I’ve been keeping an eye on ride wait times and they look a little crazy…I think we’ll try to focus on a few must-dos and otherwise soak in the ambiance, shop/snack. We won’t have any kids in tow this trip, which will make the lines a little easier.

That is crazy that Toy Story had a 90 min wait at rope drop!! We try to hit WDW during low season to avoid crowds, but have done DL in many different crowd levels, but a 90 min wait at rope drop still feels crazy…

I also like the idea of getting konbini/convenience store breakfast to eat while we’re waiting to get in

 

[Agent 86]

but a 90 min wait at rope drop still feels crazy…

Yeah, when we got in line, it was 30/40 minutes which we were debating (with a toddler in tow). If we knew it would be 90 minutes (in July’s heat and humidity), we would have purchased Premier Access tickets!

 

[travelgirl06]

Update: we got there about 30 min before opening with our konbini breakfast. They didn’t let anyone in (or through security) until 9 (official opening time).

As someone who is used to rope drop where you get all the way through security, enter the park then wait at the rope or felt crazy to be waiting for security outside the park after it has opened. That said, it moved fairly quickly and we were in the park by 9:15.

We “rope dropped” Journey to the Center of the Earth but probably still waited 40 minutes… luckily between premier access, single rider and relatively short lines we were able to get on most things we wanted to try.

We also saw Big Band Beat which was cute and Believe Sea of Dreams, which I loved.