Rope Drop vs Closing the Park

[Trinity88]

That's my plan for our August trip. We don't plan to hit the parks until 4ish and then we'll stay until close (including the extra hours and Halloween party). I'll wake up to book at 7am, then go back to bed and continue stacking throughout the day. We're doing late breakfasts/brunches/lunches and swimming during the day. The biggest challenge, for me anyway, is to make sure I book rides in the order they run out. So I plan to have a set list of rides I'm booking at 7am, 11am, 1pm, 3pm, etc. I know it could change and we may not get everything, but at least having an order to start makes me feel better.

 

[TheSouthernBelle]

We have always been rope droppers and did so each day during our visit a few weeks ago. However, under the new Genie+ system, I'm starting to wonder if getting up very early each day is worth it. A week of early rising and spending a full day in the park does wear us out.

Is it possible to cover nearly all rides without rope drop and instead sleeping in and getting to the park mid day and stating until close? I would still get up and start booking at 7am, but the rest of the group could sleep in and we could get breakfast without rushing around. I'm interested in hearing how you late arrivals are able to manage the parks under the new system. Please note, I'm not a fan of park hopping.

I am a vote for yes as we've done these a handful of times, however, note that we do not usually book ADRs to allow ourselves maximum flexibility in park arrival times, G+ attraction times and iLL$. We also do try to do EEH if they're available.

We last used this strategy in April during the tail end of Spring Break. Busy for sure, but not the peak crowds WDW had in Feb & March. We did MK and DHS late(r) arrivals and an early (not ETPE hours) at Epcot but still meandered and enjoyed the morning. Only purchased G+ for MK & DHS, did not buy it for Epcot but did buy iLL$ for Remy. Overall, of course I don't like paying for Genie + but as much as we thought we'd be tethered to our phones, we aren't. And, I do feel like it's a huge perk for us to sleep in a little and not make our teenagers get up on vacation when they just want to sleep in. I didn't mind waking up early to get the iLL$/G+ LL but it's really nice to do that and have the ability to go back to sleep if you want. We have been rope droppers too and I think it definitely still has it's perks but it's just not worth it for us given our vacation/park touring style now.

Our MK arrival day was around 11am, we took a midday break and returned around 4pm and stayed until almost almost...1am. We called it quits at around 12:45am.

MK-

BTMRR (twice)
Splash
Pirates
People Mover
Barnstormer
Little Mermaid (twice)
HM
IASW
Buzz
Astro Orbiter (twice)
7DMT (twice)
Space

DHS day, we were tired from the EEH hours, we arrived at around 1pm to eat a quick bite and start our day. We also took a break this day and left around 4ish and came back at around 6pm for our SWROR iLL$.

Star tours
Lightening McQueen
Rockin Roller Coaster
TOT (twice)
SWROR
Smugglers
SDD
TSM
* only ride we missed (for us) was MMRR. Kids love TOT so it was a twofer on that.

Epcot- we bought iLL$ for Remy for 8:40am. We came from the Dolphin so we rolled out of the hotel around 8:15am and made our way. Park opened at 8am that day for ETPE and we got to Frozen around 9ish and we benefited from being early but definitely not a rope drop situation. We also took a midday break but I don't recall times. Epcot is so laid back IMO and really doesn't require much pre-planning, even with Guardians.

Remy (twice)
Frozen
TT
Soarin
Living w the Land
Nemo
Grand Fiesta

 

[Babe the Blue Ox]

We never get up early to race to a park since we are on vacation and want to relax and enjoy ourselves. I would imagine Rope Drop involves this mass of humanity pushing/shoving/running to get to some favorite ride like the world is ending.....not my idea of a good time.........LOL. Late in the day is a better plan with or without Genie since many of the early goers have already come & gone and the parks tend to be less crowded later in the day.

I first posted this back in the summer of 2009 when Toy Story Mania was new and the hottest attraction on property. You could substitute just about any new attraction with the same result:



Here's my favorite Rope Drop story:

I had a co-worker recently telling me about her trip to Disney World. They seemed to be pretty good planners and tried to maximize their time the best they could.

She was very excited to tell me about her experience riding Midway Mania without a Fast Pass. The got up really early, got to the gates about 45 minutes before they opened and waited in a pretty large crowd. Then they hurried as fast as they could to the ride and the wait was *only* 15 minutes. By the time they got off the line was almost an hour long. There were people all over the place.

I rode the same ride 4 times in about an hour late at night and didn't have to deal with the crowds.

 

[ChadsGirl]

I think it really depends on your family. My DD7 is more of a morning person than a night owl. We just got back and rope-dropped every day, and feel like it was the best option for us so we could be out of the park from the heat. By about 11 it was too hot for us to keep walking around the park and we needed to get out.

 

[Davey Jones II]

Has anyone used the lines app from Touring Plans? How was the accuracy of their predictions?

I have another question. These days, the wait times start to drop two hours before closing time? We always thought it was one hour before closing.

Thanks to everyone for tolerating my pesky questions! I am in full trip planning mode, we're (finally, after three years) going in October.

 

[snikki]

Has anyone used the lines app from Touring Plans? How was the accuracy of their predictions?

I have another question. These days, the wait times start to drop two hours before closing time? We always thought it was one hour before closing.

Thanks to everyone for tolerating my pesky questions! I am in full trip planning mode, we're (finally, after three years) going in October.

I love the lines app. We only use the lines app when we are at the parks. It's pretty accurate.

Wait times dropping 2 hours or 1 hour before park close depends on the park and the closing time. I feel that AK wait times start to drop around 5-6 so if the park closes at 8 pm you have a lot of time with low waits. For the rest of the parks it depends on closing time, night time shows, etc.

 

[TheSouthernBelle]

Has anyone used the lines app from Touring Plans? How was the accuracy of their predictions?

I have another question. These days, the wait times start to drop two hours before closing time? We always thought it was one hour before closing.

Thanks to everyone for tolerating my pesky questions! I am in full trip planning mode, we're (finally, after three years) going in October.

I've used lines a bunch and use it more and more and overall, it’s usually more accurate than Disney's posted times. It has its misses but it’s consistently more accurate. Wait times will drop but posted wait times may not come down much to discourage guests from getting in line close to park close.

 

[Babe the Blue Ox]

Another thing I see is that Touring Plans users are reluctant to report the short waits in the evening.

Example - if you find a 15 minute actual wait on Rise, are you going to report it so that others know too, or are you going to jump back in line and ride again.

 

[TheSouthernBelle]

True, and even when I do try to report my wait times when I get in line and start the app clock, depending on the ride, it doesn't always go through when I get to through the line if it's an indoor building with poor service/connectivity.

 

[acgardne]

I'd like to hear experiences from those who start booking rides at 7am but don't go to the parks until later. Can you stack rides and still get there after noon?

We did this, booking when we we were waiting in the airport for the evening. Had to wait a bit for MK for times to get where we needed them to be, but we stacked what we wanted.

We stacked for the evening almost every day on our 7-day trip. Worked great for us, but we aren’t the type to do lots of dining reservations. That being said, we stacked evening RotR, MFSR, SDD, and MMRR around our only res, Oga’s. Would have worked perfectly if SDD hadn’t gone down. Easier with Oga’s, though, since you must be out after 45 min.

 

[sewingmolly]

I've just returned and we did rope drop at all 4 parks. I would say that we didn't get as much done in the morning as we had in the past. At MK last week, we were on the first 7SDMT train and when we got off the line for Peter Pan extended for more than 100 feet outside. We did Winnie the Pooh instead, followed by Dumbo and Barnstormer. Then we went to Splash Mountain and walked on. On Tuesday, we got into the MK right at 9:00 am, went straight to Splash Mountain and waited for about 25 minutes. At DHS, we went to TOT at rope drop, but it opened about 15 minutes late. At AK, we were late (got to the park about 15 minutes before park early opening) and waited about 20 minutes for FOP. At EPCOT we were able to do Remy and Frozen during early hours.

I might jokingly suggest making a park reservation for EPCOT everyday. Then you could ride GOTG (either virtual queue or ILL) and then park hop. It's much easier to stack for the park you're hopping to since you will automatically get a time after 2:00pm.

 

[Babe the Blue Ox]

I've just returned and we did rope drop at all 4 parks. I would say that we didn't get as much done in the morning as we had in the past. At MK last week, we were on the first 7SDMT train and when we got off the line for Peter Pan extended for more than 100 feet outside. We did Winnie the Pooh instead, followed by Dumbo and Barnstormer. Then we went to Splash Mountain and walked on. On Tuesday, we got into the MK right at 9:00 am, went straight to Splash Mountain and waited for about 25 minutes. At DHS, we went to TOT at rope drop, but it opened about 15 minutes late. At AK, we were late (got to the park about 15 minutes before park early opening) and waited about 20 minutes for FOP. At EPCOT we were able to do Remy and Frozen during early hours.

I might jokingly suggest making a park reservation for EPCOT everyday. Then you could ride GOTG (either virtual queue or ILL) and then park hop. It's much easier to stack for the park you're hopping to since you will automatically get a time after 2:00pm.

Just curious, how early do you have to arrive to be on the first 7DMT ride of the day.

We usually wait until later in the evening to ride, and our longest wait ever was 20 minutes in opening week back in 2014.

The wait is usually about 10 minutes, but we did wait 15 just a few weeks ago.

 

[RLGNC]

Ordinary people should do whatever works best for their famlies sleep habits.

"Ordinary" people...LOL...I love it!

 

[sewingmolly]

Just curious, how early do you have to arrive to be on the first 7DMT ride of the day.

We usually wait until later in the evening to ride, and our longest wait ever was 20 minutes in opening week back in 2014.

The wait is usually about 10 minutes, but we did wait 15 just a few weeks ago.

We got to the MK about 7:30. There were only two of us and we walk fast.

 

[mikalkwin]

I used to rope drop. I won’t for my next trip. For several reasons but one of them is that RD actually involves waiting. A lot. Not in the attraction waiting lines but at the park turnstiles before opening or at the ropes before the park “really” opens. It really defeats the purpose of “no wait” of the RD strategy. If I have to be at the park 1 hour before early entry, that is too much wait for me.

 

[PetePanMan]

That's my plan for our August trip. We don't plan to hit the parks until 4ish and then we'll stay until close (including the extra hours and Halloween party). I'll wake up to book at 7am, then go back to bed and continue stacking throughout the day. We're doing late breakfasts/brunches/lunches and swimming during the day. The biggest challenge, for me anyway, is to make sure I book rides in the order they run out. So I plan to have a set list of rides I'm booking at 7am, 11am, 1pm, 3pm, etc. I know it could change and we may not get everything, but at least having an order to start makes me feel better

Is it difficult to get return times for 4 pm and after while you are stacking early in the day?

 

[mamaofsix]

For our family, this is a question of economics. It costs upwards of $1000 a day for our park tickets, so we rope drop to close to maximize what we spent. I just can't justify only being in the parks for 6-8 hours at that price. Instead, we work in full "rest days" where we don't go to any parks at all. This way we are spending less days at the parks, thus less $$$ on tickets . . . but still getting days to sleep in, swim and relax.

By doing rope drop to close, we almost never have to do multiple days at a park, so can do everything with a 4 day ticket, and mix in 3 or 4 "rest days" to enjoy other things.

 

[RLGNC]

I used to rope drop. I won’t for my next trip. For several reasons but one of them is that RD actually involves waiting. A lot. Not in the attraction waiting lines but at the park turnstiles before opening or at the ropes before the park “really” opens. It really defeats the purpose of “no wait” of the RD strategy. If I have to be at the park 1 hour before early entry, that is too much wait for me.

That's a good point. I'm really starting to rethink my strategy for Sept. DH and I were planning to try RD since we were never able to manage it with kids but after reading this thread I'm not so sure anymore.

 

[bakerworld]

Our family hasn't used Genie+. Our youngest daughter purchases one PH per visit and she does either 3 parks or all 4 with very good success at the 3p time (especially in MK) and at closing. Personally, we don't do either. If I manage to get to a park by 10a it's a success - LOL. We show up, do a few rides and head for Disney Springs = in bed by 9p.

 

[Aug2020distrip]

We did both! Rope drop (or at least really close to opening), then back to condo around 1pm for a swim/nap, and back to the parks around 430. We left during hottest and busiest times and felt the lines were best first thing in the morning and then after 6pm, so this was perfect for us.

ETA: we had 2 kids with us, if no kids I would have stayed right through lol