Rope drop [Wednesday 2/20/19] was terrible

[JeninTexas]

I agree RD can be brutal. I doubt we do it again due to experiences like the OP describes. We get a PPO breakfast at BOG and that works out very nicely.

 

[Lindaleeann]

If you only use FP for Peter Pan, you will miss experiencing the interactive standby QUEUE.
Many guests find it so entertaining that some consider it nearly equal to (or better than) the attraction, itself.

So, Peter Pan is one of the top two destinations at Rope Drop.

Thanks so much!

 

[Lease257]

We rope dropped on this last Tuesday. We headed to Adventureland. We rode jungle cruise, carpets, and pirates in an hour and stopped for a snack before our BTMR FP at 10:20.

Steering away from the PP/7D/space mountain crowd worked in our favor

 

[FigmentSpark]

We rope dropped on this last Tuesday. We headed to Adventureland. We rode jungle cruise, carpets, and pirates in an hour and stopped for a snack before our BTMR FP at 10:20.

Steering away from the PP/7D/space mountain crowd worked in our favor

Did you have FPs for those or did you stand in lines later in the day?

 

[Remy is Up]

As long as people keep standing in stand by lines I'll be happy

 

[Brett Wyman]

As long as people keep standing in stand by lines I'll be happy

I frequently get the urge to pull a random family out of an insane standby line and show them how I just got a FP for the same ride 10 minutes ago. To educate them not to show off of course, no sarcasm intended. But of course if everyone knew what we know then it wouldn't work. That's the rub.

 

[FigmentSpark]

Also you have to be able to get the early FPs so you can get the next ones. Anyway, when you look at same day availability in all the parks, it seems like only MK has a lot left for SDFPs. Am I wrong? Or do they do SD releases of all the rides?

 

[LizzyS]

We rope dropped Epcot last weekend. It was fine. I think it’s better now that people split towards 3 main rides (we went for Soarin).

I remember the TSM rope drop back in paper FP day. That was brutal.

In my opinion, Soarin' is THE ride to head to first at rope drop at EPCOT. We walked right on doing that last year on a marathon Sunday at EPCOT; I'm used to California Adventure and the usual awful wait for Soarin' there, so that was a treat.

 

[Tiggerlover91]

I frequently get the urge to pull a random family out of an insane standby line and show them how I just got a FP for the same ride 10 minutes ago. To educate them not to show off of course, no sarcasm intended. But of course if everyone knew what we know then it wouldn't work. That's the rub.

I can't remember the exacts, but on one of our days in MK I was speaking out loud to hubby and son about tapping in for our FP. Someone in the standby line asked what does that mean? How do you get this fastpass. They were as American as they could be. I stopped at the point where they were in their standby and gave them a quick run down. Showed them the app on my phone and they were like...wait....what? They were shocked it was that easy and wondered why they were standing in an hour standby line. I smiled at them, said good luck and off we headed to our FP at another ride.

 

[jess20k]

We just returned from a trip to WDW during President's week. On previous trips, I was a big fan of rope drop. We are morning people so waking up early to get to the parks is not a problem. On this trip, the parks were super crowded due to President's week and a marathon. We tried rope drop on our Magic Kingdom day and it did not go well. In fact, it was pretty awful.

Magic Kingdom opened at 9 and we fast walked to the minetrain. Despite having arrived a little before 8:00 am and fast walking, we waited almost an hour for the minetrain. After that, we rode the tea cups on standby (30 minute wait), then went to use our first fast pass at Big Thunder. The fastpass line at Big Thunder was gigantic and we waited nearly 30 minutes to ride. The CM at the fastpass checkpoint said they were having some technical difficulties. Anyway, after riding Big Thunder, we had maybe 45 minutes before our 12:00 lunch reservation at Be Our Guest so we decided to try to ride Little Mermaid which had a posted standby time of 25 minutes and was close to BOG. After waiting over 40 minutes in the Little Mermaid line, we left the line and went to lunch. We rode Space Mountain with a fastpass right after lunch and left the park. We came back in the evening and stayed for extra magic hours until midnight. Now, we are not late night people but the three hours between 9 and midnight were great and we were able to ride Haunted Mansion (with a fastpass), Jungle Cruise, Pirates, Splash, Little Mermaid, Peter Pan, Buzz Lightyear, Dumbo, and Small World during those hours with little to no wait.

Is rope drop still working for you? What should we have done differently? I was convinced rope drop was the ticket when going during busy times but I no longer think so. Thoughts?

We just went a few weeks ago, but in the beginning of Feb. We luckily had good rope drop experiences every morning at every park, except one time. It was at MK and we got there a good half hour before rope drop, right at the very front of the line. We wanted to get to Peter Pan. Well, by the time we got there, we ended up waitng 25 min. In the past it would be no more than 10 min. Here my husband said he thinks that the other points of rope drop entry for some reason got in before the cast member manning our area let us in. Looking back, it did seem like she was a tad late. Even a few min can matter. So, maybe that is what happened to you too? We have always used that rope drop entrance at MK in the past, this was the first time this happened. I did not even realize there were other rope drop points. Please correct me if I am, or should I say my husband is wrong.

 

[KateMW]

Sites have been telling people for years to do rope drop...people have listened.

 

[Brett Wyman]

Sites have been telling people for years to do rope drop...people have listened.

Let's be clear rope drop is great! The park is mostly empty, the shops are mostly empty, and great photo opportunities to be had and yes you can wlak right on to many many rides that have long waits later in the day. Just dont RD the current "It" attraction : )

 

[JETSDAD]

Also you have to be able to get the early FPs so you can get the next ones. Anyway, when you look at same day availability in all the parks, it seems like only MK has a lot left for SDFPs. Am I wrong? Or do they do SD releases of all the rides?

It's not as much to do with releases as it is with people changing plans. And yes, all rides in all parks can be found same day. Some easier than others but with some refreshing they can usually be found.

 

[Brett Wyman]

It's not as much to do with releases as it is with people changing plans. And yes, all rides in all parks can be found same day. Some easier than others but with some refreshing they can usually be found.

Even FOP in the middle of the day. This is from 3 days ago.

 

[davish562]

Even FOP in the middle of the day. This is from 3 days ago.

How many people were in your fastpass party? Just wondering

 

[mykidsmom]

We rope dropped for the first time ever Thanksgiving and it was great. We fast walked to BTM and were the first ones on and in the front row. We then went on Splash which had zero wait. Twice! Then back on BTM. We also managed to do Tomorrowland speedway with a 15 minute wait. Then back to IASW. We had FP for Peter Pan, 7DMT and I am totally blanking on the third right now but did all three of those and modified our times to go earlier to then add more FP after we used our third by 10 am! I was very pleasantly surprised by how well it worked. That said, not sure I will rope drop often- it was a lot of work to get everyone out the door.

I’m so interested in this strategy! Hope you don’t mind a few questions
What time did you arrive at park - is it still necessary to get there an hour ahead if not going to 7DMT?
Was park opening at 8 am? What time were your fast passes for 7DMT? Trying to figure out how to be done with 3 by 10 am. Thanks for your help!

 

[PrincessWithABlaster]

How many people were in your fastpass party? Just wondering

The more important thing than party size is in the upper left hand corner.

 

[gulliesmom]

I’m so interested in this strategy! Hope you don’t mind a few questions
What time did you arrive at park - is it still necessary to get there an hour ahead if not going to 7DMT?
Was park opening at 8 am? What time were your fast passes for 7DMT? Trying to figure out how to be done with 3 by 10 am. Thanks for your help!

We arrived an hour before the park opened and were able to modify our 7DMT from a later time to 10:00 am by refreshing. Refreshing is great b/c people add/drop/modify stuff constnatly so it is always changing. What might not be available one minute us suddenly available 30 seconds later.

 

[Spencer Wright]

Is rope drop still working for you? What should we have done differently? I was convinced rope drop was the ticket when going during busy times but I no longer think so. Thoughts?

As other posters have stated, with Mine Train and Peter Pan, Fantasyland is a nightmare at RD. It sounds like you had a really excellent plan, and it was just a horrible day in terms of crowds. I typically go back to Splash and Thunder Mountain, and then head to Adventureland, which seems to take longer to fill. Out of curiosity, how far did they let you go back in the Park? They seem to be vary how far they let Guests go back, and this makes a difference.

I love RP, and continue to recommend it. But I find it is a great way to get on a lot of the attractions very easily that don't normally attract the most crowds. For example, in MK Small World, Buzz Lightyear, Ariel, can be ridden many times prior to FP''s starting. For me its a great way to get on A LOT of attractions, and maybe one or two headliners with a short wait.