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

[Patience]

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?

 

[Robo]

Looks like you had some bad luck and made a few less-than-advantageous decisions.
It happens.

Example: choosing to wait in a really long Mine Train line blew your "timing advantage" for just about anything else.
And, the tech problems at Big Thunder was an unanticipated delay that couldn't be avoided.

Rope drop still "works," but with the larger crowds now, it can be much more "difficult."

 

[dakotix]

From what I understand your mistake was going to the minetrain at rope drop. It works best to hit Adventure/Frontier Lands at rope drop and make sure you have a fast pass for the mine train late morning or early afternoon. EVERYONE races to the mine train at rope drop.

 

[Disneylover99]

If I rope drop at the MK I avoid Mine Train and Fantasyland. I’ll either do big Thunder and Splash or head to Tomorrowland and ride SM a few times.

 

[GADisneyDad14]

Just curious, where did you position yourself in the Hub prior to 9am rope drop and what path did you take to get to 7DMT?

 

[Klayfish]

Sorry that happened. We don't rope drop anymore simply because there's no need to. As others have said, get a FP+ for the really popular stuff, like 7DMT. The other attractions are easy to get as FP+ same day, so you don't need to stand outside and wait for the park to open.

 

[Patience]

Just curious, where did you position yourself in the Hub prior to 9am rope drop and what path did you take to get to 7DMT?

We were on the path just to the right of the castle (as you are facing the castle). Is there another route?

 

[Amanda999]

OP: that stinks! Just wanted you to know I feel your pain, and thanks for the post - helps me for my next trip.

Wow - just looked up on TP your date (Wed. 2/20 - that was the pm EMH day Pres week?). They predicted 8/10, actual was 10/10. Several 'observed' wait times of 90 minutes by 9:15am on 7DMT! Observed average wait times (for entire day) were over 1.5 hours for BTMRR, JC, Pan (89 minutes), Splash, Space. Aladdin 48 min., IASM 46 min. average - that's a busy day!

 

[Robo]

We were on the path just to the right of the castle (as you are facing the castle). Is there another route?

There are a couple of routes, but the bridge to Fantasyland (the one you chose, seen below) is the preferred "shortest" route.

 

[gharter]

Sounds like you were there on a very busy day.
When the park is very busy, few strategies really work well.
As others have said, for RD, we either head to Space mountain and Buzz or to adventureland.

 

[Meglen]

It was some recordamounts of people that week and it is not surprising many had the same plan as you. When that happens you need to think about whats more important minetrain or all the other rides. You chose minetrain and you did not enjoy the turn out.

If I do ropedrop and it's longer than 20-30 min I move along and do it her things. Rather go on 4-5 other rides than wait in line after just waiting outside the park for an hour.

 

[mom2rtk]

Sounds like you were there on a very busy day.
When the park is very busy, few strategies really work well.
As others have said, for RD, we either head to Space mountain and Buzz or to adventureland.

That. For some things, rope drop is the only strategy left. So more people are taking it.

My philosophy has always been to not wait in any long lines in that first hour the park is open. If you give up short lines on a bunch of other stuff to wait in one line, your advantage is greatly diminished. If you aren't at the front of the rope drop crowd and are facing a long wait, your options are:

1) watch the app for a similar wait later in the day. I might even take a slightly longer wait later in the day after accomplishing a bunch of stuff with short lines first.
2) watch the app for a FP to become available. Although far from a sure thing, it's worth watching to see if something pops up. Part of the game known as FP roulette.
3) bail on the ride completely. Even if next time is a long time away, it's not going anywhere. It's the reality of FP+. Sometimes you just can't get the good FPs and you have to accept that going in.

 

[GADisneyDad14]

We were on the path just to the right of the castle (as you are facing the castle). Is there another route?

The ‘best’ route is a source of discussion for many threads and blogger coverage, but you picked arguably the best one. Were you towards the front of the crowd gathered there when they dropped the ropes? Or further back? Could you see the castle stage/opening show from where you were standing?

I agree the crowd levels last week were the biggest influence. When really crowded/holiday times, any rope drop advantage can only last an hour’ish and if you use all of that time in line for 7DMT, it’s tough.

Not to go on a tangent, but I also partly blame Disney’s current stinginess on 8am openings. When it is truly holiday-level crowded, you really need some of those pre 9am mornings to spread things around. Otherwise it stacks even more people up at 9am and then it’s just downhill from there.

Glad you were able to make the most of the day with the later PM EMHs though. Often those get crowded reviews as well, but sounds like you had a good evening.

 

[wilbret]

Sorry you didn't have luck. It was insanely crowded, which is why we went to Legoland that weekend instead!

Mine train is awesome, but it's suuuuch a short ride, I never get in a line for it if it's over 30 minutes.
For rope drop, I obey the commands of the line app, lol. It usually takes us to something like Jungle Cruise first, away from the crowds. You can cram in several rides when there's no wait at all.
We just watch the app and plan accordingly. We are also not opposed to checking out stores, snacking, or playing Sorcerer's of MK.

Good luck next time!

 

[MrsPete]

We just returned from a trip to WDW during President's week.

Here's the root of the problem: Going to the Magic Kingdom on President's Day.

Sorry that happened. We don't rope drop anymore simply because there's no need to. As others have said, get a FP+ for the really popular stuff, like 7DMT. The other attractions are easy to get as FP+ same day, so you don't need to stand outside and wait for the park to open.

Eh, disagree. I see "rope drop" as another Fast Pass; that is, it's a way to jump on a popular ride fast ... usually.

When the park is very busy, few strategies really work well.

Yes, this is true.

 

[Moms]

We have always been rope drop people but will NEVER go to 7DMT at RD after our experience in October (Columbus Day weekend). We were horrified at the crowd racing like maniacs to the ride when the pathways were opened! People were running with babies in strollers, dragging small children, and literally pushing and shoving to get ahead of the person in front of them. It was chaos and we were really afraid for our safety! There were no cast members around to regulate things but frankly I'm not sure it would have mattered. They probably ran as fast as they could in the opposite direction. We got out of the melee as soon as we could and headed to the other side of the park, which was still crowded, but sane.

We will be there again for Spring Break and secured fast passes for mine train and will stay away from that side of the park until later in the morning. We're banking on Adventureland being less adventurous than Fantasyland at rope drop this time!

 

[gulliesmom]

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.

 

[ELLH]

I agree with the previous posts regarding your selection of where to go at RD.

But, most importantly, I think the expectation you put on RD alone may have been a bit too high given the time of RD. A 9am RD is a different animal from an 8am RD. IME, the difference can be pretty drastic, most notably when WDW is already busy as it was in your case.

 

[Mome Rath]

Yeah, I think the order of rides is key, but also the crowd levels. Also which park. Heading to Frontierland first is what I did the last time I RD'd MK, and it worked well, but I avoid the most crowded weekends.

 

[Ermise]

I feel your pain OP. We were there last week as well and the parks were very crowded. Our rope drop plan is to head to "fastpass worthy" rides, but try to avoid the rides were the majority of people are going. We had two MK days last week (Tue and Fri). Tuesday was very crowded and since it was an EMM morning there we decided to rope drop Adventureland and get Jungle Cruise, Pirates, then Splash before our first Fastpass at Big Thunder Mountain. I figured the EMM crowd would move to Tomorrowland after finishing up with Fanstasyland. Our other fastpasses were Mine Train and Space Mountain.

Friday was less crowded and we rope-dropped Space Mountain and were able to ride it a few times before the line got to over 20 minutes long.

Even though the parks were very crowded I think the "refresh" strategy for fastpasses after the first three worked very well at Magic Kingdom. After lunch when wait times were peaking everywhere we would just choose what ever had the next closest time and used them for rides like Small World, Tea Cups, Under the Sea (rides that are not worth waiting a long time to ride), modifying them if necessary to keep moving up the times. We waited to late afternoon to look for fastpasses for more popular rides like Haunted Mansion and Buzz because the times were already several hours out, but could get those if you kept modifying. On our Friday MK day we were pleasantly surprised to see a Mine Train fastpass show up for 8-9pm (for 5 people no less).

I will say that during our week we saw so many rides close for issues each day which caused already long wait times go up. Test Track was closed for 8 hours on Presidents Day and closed again when we rope dropped the EMH hour on Thursday. I very nicely explained to Guest Relations that we were not having any luck with Test Track and they added a fastpass for us which was very nice. The ride closures definitely made plans change, but sometimes it actually worked out better where our fastpasses were replaced with the any experience ones. Living with the Land and Frozen were also closed for extended periods on Presidents Day. Big Thunder Mountain was closed for extended periods on Wednesday. A Bug's Life stopped working when we where waiting on Saturday. Primeval Whirl broke down when we had a fastpass (we used the replacement for Everest). Buzz broke down when we had a fast pass (we used the replacement for Space Mountain). Tower of Terror broke down when we were in line - we just had to move to a different elevator. Star Tours broke down while we were in line. There were just so many issues which seemed to make waits even longer during the week.