Where do the crowds flock to after rope drop?

[atilley01]

We're planning our first ever trip to Disney next year and I've had so much fun reading these boards and learning people's strategies for avoiding long lines. I'm not a fan of crowds but it seems like they're tolerable if you have a good plan in place. And I've also learned that getting to the park before rope drop is crucial.

So my question is, what are the top attractions that most people head to at rope drop? These would be the attractions that go from empty to a relatively long line pretty quickly. I'm curious about all the parks.

Thanks!

 

[threeboysmom]

MK:
7 Dwarves Mine Train
Peter Pan (families w/ young kids)

Epcot:
Test Track and Soarin'

HS:
Toy Story Mania and Rockin' Roller Coaster

AK:
I'd have to say most head towards Safari, THEN Everest

 

[Robo]

MK:
7 Dwarves Mine Train
Peter Pan (families w/ young kids)

You forgot the Anna & Elsa (Frozen) Meet & Greet.

--------------------------------

The teens, tweens, and many adults in MK tend to streak to Space Mtn.

 

[Fantabulously Cherry]

@threeboysmom is pretty much dead on. Although we usually head right to Safari but I've never had to wait longer than 10 minutes to get on it first thing in the morning.

 

[atilley01]

MK:
7 Dwarves Mine Train
Peter Pan (families w/ young kids)

Epcot:
Test Track and Soarin'

HS:
Toy Story Mania and Rockin' Roller Coaster

AK:
I'd have to say most head towards Safari, THEN Everest

I know the lines at rope drop will be shorter compared to what they'll be in a few hours so is it worth trying to head to these rides too or should you just save them for fast pass later on?

 

[nilla]

You forgot Anna & Elsa (Frozen) Meet & Greet.

True. We walked on Peter Pan last year at rope drop thanks to A&E. Also had CMs tell us we can thank those particular princesses for the short standby lines at just about every other attraction.

 

[nilla]

I know the lines at rope drop will be shorter compared to what they'll be in a few hours so is it worth trying to head to these rides too or should you just save them for fast pass later on?

If you ask me, get FPs for those. Since they're the hot rides at rope drop, you'll be able to hit other attractions (Splash, BTMMR, Star Tours, etc.) multiple times. We even managed to ride EE four straight times last May, and we missed rope drop by about 15 minutes.

 

[atilley01]

So it sounds like a good strategy is to fast pass the most popular attractions in the afternoon, do the medium popular ones at rope drop, and fill in gaps of time with the less popular ones?

 

[Doug M]

Id say AK is the least crucial to RD, we went early June, got there 30 min after open, no big lines anywhere for another hour yet.

 

[lauradis]

Depends on what time of year and which week you are going.

Im sure you have seen a crowd calendar, check out your dates.

Here is how we plan

Check crowd calendar, pick best park for which day, or pick park that had magic hours the day before.
Pick adrs for park or near by resort.
Schedule late afternoon fp+, my group likes to randomly sleep in.
We pick the must do's of everyone in the party per park.
Hop over to all parks that have night time Magic hours and run to rides.

While at Disney expect your hard worked plans to go to hello.... think of all your research as inside info to beat the crowd, but relax and go with the flow of who you are vacationing with. ei if you find splash mountain empty line hop in it, get off still empty and your party wants to go do it again and again. Its all about having fun in the moment, not the plan. Always keep in mind that it would take more then a month to do all that Disney offers.

Rope drop is important, but if its going to make your travel party grumpy is it worth it?

A Rope drop most do for me is the opening show to welcome guest into Magic Kingdom. Every trip.

Basically don't be a slave to your hard worked plans. If your party enjoys Disney you will be back, because Disney isn't going anywhere.

 

[wareagle57]

So it sounds like a good strategy is to fast pass the most popular attractions in the afternoon, do the medium popular ones at rope drop, and fill in gaps of time with the less popular ones?

This is the most basic blue print for a successful day at Disney. You can argue all day over exactly which rides you should hit first, when you should get FPs and for which rides. But what you said is essentially what it boils down to.

 

[Chitownpeeps91]

If you do the most popular at RD & then have fast passes for later you can be sure to ride them twice.

During Easter week we did RD 3 times at MK for EMH. 7 am start. We did A&E one day. 3 rd on line and 7Dwarfs the other two. We were in the first car of the day both times. Did Space Mt, Peter Pan, Buzz then got ready for the second rope drop at 8 when the rest of the park opened. First car of day for Thunder, the Haunted and Pirates. No wait for any.

Enjoy your trip!

 

[skuttle]

If you are staying onsite and plan on doing early EMH at MK, be aware that Frontierland and Adventureland are NOT open during early EMH. We were just at WDW for spring break/Easter. We did Fantasyland for one EMH rope drop and knocked out almost everything there with little to no waits. On our second MK day, we did EMH rope drop in Tomorrowland and it was MUCH emptier. We rode Space Mountain 3 times in a row and knocked out most of tomorrowland before the park even opened! We didn't use any FP for Tomorrowland as we were committed to doing rope drop in Tomorrowland. It worked out well.

For AK, we arrived shortly after 7am rope drop and walked onto the Safari, then headed over to Everest (20min wait), then knocked out the Dino area.

It was so worth getting up early! Evening EMH's were always very crowded.

 

[JD3ofthem]

What about getting ADR's for breakfast at a place in the park before it opens? I know people do it at MK and they are in the front of the crowd. Does that only work at MK? If you do that at HS where is the rope drop and do you have an advantage if you have breakfast at Hollywood and Vine and are out of there by 8:45 with a 9:00 park opening?

 

[soniam]

Unfortunately with tiering at Epcot and DHS, you can't get FP+ for all of the headliners. At Epcot, you have to choose between Soarin' or Test Track, and at DHS, you have to choose between Toy Story Mania and Rock n Roller Coaster. So getting to Epcot and DHS at RD is important if you want to do more than one headliner without too much wait. The same applies if you want to ride a headliner multiple times, since you can only get one initial FP+ per ride.

 

[Sargeant Tibbs]

So it sounds like a good strategy is to fast pass the most popular attractions in the afternoon, do the medium popular ones at rope drop, and fill in gaps of time with the less popular ones?

I would never fp Peter Pan. The line is always short first thing at RD. Save your FPs for the mountains, Pirates, Jungle Cruise, etc. Hit up PP, Pooh, then the rest of fantasyland first thing and move on from there. The lines in fantasyland remain tolerable for the first part of the morning, and most of the rides are short so you can knock out quite a few before the crowds build.

In Epcot, as the pp said, you can only pick Soarin or Test Track. I would suggest heading back to Soarin first thing, as the line can remain relatively short depending on the time of year, and you might be able to jump into a fairly short line again after riding it once.

 

[rdw]

Another question about RD - if you only plan to make one (b/c we like to sle n and relax on vacation ) - would you do a pre-RD ADR at CP, or, stick around to see the opening show at MK? We have an 8:20 am ADR on a day that MK (currently) opens at 9.

Thanks!

 

[srauseo]

What about getting ADR's for breakfast at a place in the park before it opens? I know people do it at MK and they are in the front of the crowd. Does that only work at MK? If you do that at HS where is the rope drop and do you have an advantage if you have breakfast at Hollywood and Vine and are out of there by 8:45 with a 9:00 park opening?

We did that exactly. We did pre-rope drop breakfast at H&V at 8:05. We were done by 8:45 no problem. They held us at the end of the alley for a little and then let us into the area in front of the hat (RIP) just before the crowd coming up Hollywood Boulevard. So we got to the second rope to wait for TSMM before the crowds.

 

[itchin2go]

I would never fp Peter Pan. The line is always short first thing at RD. Save your FPs for the mountains, Pirates, Jungle Cruise, etc. Hit up PP, Pooh, then the rest of fantasyland first thing and move on from there.

This is interesting, because we DID book a FP for Peter Pan on ONE of our MK days, and we went straight to the mountains at rope drop. Rode BTMRR twice with no wait, then Splash. It was a ghost town over there!

The below will show you why people use their FP on Peter Pan - the lines build to "unbearable" FAST.

http://www.easywdw.com/reports13/mk32715.jpg

With the exception of SDMT and A&E, all lines are "short first thing at RD". It's just a matter of what your priorities are.

In MK, there are any number of ways to go. It's much more clear cut in, say, Epcot. We USED to always start off at Fantasyland, but my daughter is 13 now, and doesn't want to ride many of those attractions anymore (Pooh and the Carousel come to mind) - at least they're not a priority anymore.

 

[MainMom]

If you are staying onsite and plan on doing early EMH at MK, be aware that Frontierland and Adventureland are NOT open during early EMH. We were just at WDW for spring break/Easter. We did Fantasyland for one EMH rope drop and knocked out almost everything there with little to no waits. On our second MK day, we did EMH rope drop in Tomorrowland and it was MUCH emptier. We rode Space Mountain 3 times in a row and knocked out most of tomorrowland before the park even opened! We didn't use any FP for Tomorrowland as we were committed to doing rope drop in Tomorrowland. It worked out well.

For AK, we arrived shortly after 7am rope drop and walked onto the Safari, then headed over to Everest (20min wait), then knocked out the Dino area.

It was so worth getting up early! Evening EMH's were always very crowded.

Thanks for sharing your success with tomorrowland! We are going this summer and Tomorrowland is my plan for our MK EMH rather than Fantasyland.