Are there any rides that should NOT be rope-dropped?

[EmJ]

Either because they tend not to open on time, normally have very short waits, etc.? I'm making plans....

 

[midnight star]

Indiana Jones always seemed to be down for rope drop.

Haunted Mansion holiday was always down at rope drop this fall. At least when I was there.

Pirates because it’s such a long ride. You can do 2 short rides in the time it takes to complete it.

 

[EmJ]

Indiana Jones always seemed to be down for rope drop.

Haunted Mansion holiday was always down at rope drop this fall. At least when I was there.

Pirates because it’s such a long ride. You can do 2 short rides in the time it takes to complete it.

Ah! Pirates was on my list. What about rope-dropping Jungle Cruise while grabbing a LL for IAJ right after?

 

[shosh1530]

The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. I realize that probably isn't on your agenda, but it is the top of my kid's list and he insisted we ride it first. I tried to explain that we should go on the more popular things first while the lines were short, but that just seemed to strengthen his resolve.

 

[EmJ]

The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. I realize that probably isn't on your agenda, but it is the top of my kid's list and he insisted we ride it first. I tried to explain that we should go on the more popular things first while the lines were short, but that just seemed to strengthen his resolve.

Lol, I have a 7-year-old, so I get it. Winnie the Pooh is on our agenda, but not as a rope-drop. Thanks for the feedback!

 

[jason417]

I wouldn’t rope drop due to being pretty easy to ride at other times:
Casey Jr
Carousel
Mad Tea Party
Pinoccio
Buzz Lightyear
Star Tours
Mark Twain
Winnie the Pooh

Little Mermaid
Mater’s Jamboree
Nearly everything on Pixar Pier except Toy Story Mania and Incredicoaster. However, if you rope drop Pixar Pier you can actually do a lot in a short time if you go in this order:
Toy Story
Incredicoaster
Goofy
The rest in any order

 

[midnight star]

Ah! Pirates was on my list. What about rope-dropping Jungle Cruise while grabbing a LL for IAJ right after?

Hmmm that might be a little better as long as Jungle Cruise is open for rope drop. It’s a shorter ride than pirates. I haven’t used LL/Genie+ yet so not sure how that can come into play

 

[disneylover102]

In general go for the more popular rides but don’t do the insanely popular ones first unless you intend to be toward the front of the crowd. If you do Rise first you could wait longer than you would in the middle of the day. Also I don’t recommend using LL for a couple hours after park opening. Use it when the lines are actually generally long because you can only do once per ride anyway. If you’re park hopping book Soarin’ right when you’re scanned into the park (they actually start scanning people in about 45 minutes before the park opens) and it’ll change to 1-2 PM (when you can park hop) and then you’ll have to wait 2 hours to book another one. At that time start actually using LLs.

I especially do not recommend booking Indy as your first LL after Jungle Cruise like you asked about. This is because you actually don’t skip a ton of the line, only the exterior queue. And if the exterior queue is empty or almost empty you just wasted a LL. Make sure there’s even a line to skip before you use a LL there.

Also you don’t need to assume Indy and Mansion will be closed at rope drop. PP must’ve been really unlucky, but I’ve rope dropped Indy several times (before Rise changed to standby and before Space got rid of the single rider line) and it’s never been down. One time I was at the front of the crowd and walked onto Indy and then immediately walked onto Mansion.

 

[midnight star]

Also you don’t need to assume Indy and Mansion will be closed at rope drop. PP must’ve been really unlucky, but I’ve rope dropped Indy several times (before Rise changed to standby and before Space got rid of the single rider line) and it’s never been down. One time I was at the front of the crowd and walked onto Indy and then immediately walked onto Mansion

Oh yes I was unlucky lol. I went twice in September and Haunted mansion Holiday AND Indy were both down at rope drop so everyone in that area headed for Pirates. I went again in November and same situation except the Haunted Mansion Holiday, Pirates and Indy were all down so then everyone headed to Big Thunder.

 

[EmJ]

I wouldn’t rope drop due to being pretty easy to ride at other times:
Casey Jr
Carousel
Mad Tea Party
Pinoccio
Buzz Lightyear
Star Tours
Mark Twain
Winnie the Pooh

Little Mermaid
Mater’s Jamboree
Nearly everything on Pixar Pier except Toy Story Mania and Incredicoaster. However, if you rope drop Pixar Pier you can actually do a lot in a short time if you go in this order:
Toy Story
Incredicoaster
Goofy
The rest in any order

This is great, thank you!

 

[disneylover102]

Oh yes I was unlucky lol. I went twice in September and Haunted mansion Holiday AND Indy were both down at rope drop so everyone in that area headed for Pirates. I went again in November and same situation except the Haunted Mansion Holiday, Pirates and Indy were all down so then everyone headed to Big Thunder.

Yeah that’s really rough that’s definitely not the typical experience. It’s definitely the worst when something breaks down like that. One time when there were still paper fastpasses I was so proud of myself because I was so fast that I got a paper fastpass and was still gonna be the first person on Space. Then it broke down and didn’t reopen for 7 hours.

This isn’t quite the same but I was there the day Rise opened and everyone rushed to Rise hoping they would start with standby and then switch to virtual queue when it got too long… which of course they didn’t. So when everyone (honestly thousands of people) got turned away from Rise they ALL headed to the Falcon or Big Thunder. The line for Falcon was stretching way outside the queue and Thunder was way longer than I’ve EVER seen at rope drop

 

[SOCALMouseMommy]

Ah! Pirates was on my list. What about rope-dropping Jungle Cruise while grabbing a LL for IAJ right after?

Pirates doesn’t tend to get much of a line until 10 or 11am and even then it’s not usually too long? Pirates consistently has an overstated wait time, usually by double. For example, today I rode Pirates at 11am with a 35-minute posted wait time and we were on in 13 minutes.

All that said, Pirates is kind of a classic and a great way to start your day in my opinion. So if that’s what you want to do at rope drop, do it! Jungle Cruise develops a decent line later in the day, but rarely is it longer than 30 minutes or so. But it’s still nice to ride when the wait isn’t too long.

Something to note about all the rides is the wait times will cycle up and down and up and down all day long. People see a short wait and head over and soon the wait is long. People see the long wait and decide to skip it and soon the wait is short again. Over and over. So if you want to ride something and the wait seems too long just wait a while and when it drops again pounce on it.

 

[sophy1996]

Oh yes I was unlucky lol. I went twice in September and Haunted mansion Holiday AND Indy were both down at rope drop so everyone in that area headed for Pirates. I went again in November and same situation except the Haunted Mansion Holiday, Pirates and Indy were all down so then everyone headed to Big Thunder.

You must have been there when we were in November. One morning HMH, Splash, Pirates, and Indy (and some Fantasyland rides) were all down at rope drop. Everyone on that side of the park who wasn’t going to SWGE ended up at Jungle Cruise or Big Thunder. The line for Jungle Cruise said 10 minutes but it really was 30+. What a mess!

 

[cdoc29]

If your getting Genie+ then rope drop the rides that don't have Genie+. This strategy worked extremely well for us. The non-genie+ rides are mostly the less popular rides. We got 4 or 5 in the first hour and then started riding the Genie+ ones.

 

[By-Tor and Snow Pup]

I will never rope drop Rise again.
My daughter and I decided to rope drop it on one of the busier mornings. We got out of bed very very early to rope drop Rise. We got to the security check very early and waited... forever. We got into the park then waited at park gate. We got into the park and waited at the rope for rope drop. We very very close to the front. The rope dropped (and I am ashamed to admit it), but we broke the rules and ran to Rise. A few teenagers were faster runners than us, but we made it!! We were very close to the front of the line. After a bit of a wait the CM's allowed us to enter the official queue. My daughter and I were sooo excited; we did it! The line proceeded to right before the briefing room and.... we stopped. We waited 45 minutes before they made the announcement that there was an issue and you can leave the queue if you wanted to. Of course, nobody did because everyone in line went through what we went through to get there. About 20 minutes after that they announced that the ride was closed and we'd all have to leave. The entire line was vacated. I thought after all that waiting and we got soooo close that we would get a Fastpass (LL) or something. "No," was the curt answer.
Meanwhile, the rest of my family woke up later well-rested. They sat and had breakfast. They leisurely walked into the park and rode 2 or 3 rides before my daughter and I got out of Rise... and we did our best not to let it ruin the rest of our day!

 

[disneylover102]

I will never rope drop Rise again.
My daughter and I decided to rope drop it on one of the busier mornings. We got out of bed very very early to rope drop Rise. We got to the security check very early and waited... forever. We got into the park then waited at park gate. We got into the park and waited at the rope for rope drop. We very very close to the front. The rope dropped (and I am ashamed to admit it), but we broke the rules and ran to Rise. A few teenagers were faster runners than us, but we made it!! We were very close to the front of the line. After a bit of a wait the CM's allowed us to enter the official queue. My daughter and I were sooo excited; we did it! The line proceeded to right before the briefing room and.... we stopped. We waited 45 minutes before they made the announcement that there was an issue and you can leave the queue if you wanted to. Of course, nobody did because everyone in line went through what we went through to get there. About 20 minutes after that they announced that the ride was closed and we'd all have to leave. The entire line was vacated. I thought after all that waiting and we got soooo close that we would get a Fastpass (LL) or something. "No," was the curt answer.
Meanwhile, the rest of my family woke up later well-rested. They sat and had breakfast. They leisurely walked into the park and rode 2 or 3 rides before my daughter and I got out of Rise... and we did our best not to let it ruin the rest of our day!

Oof that’s very rough!!! I rope dropped it 3 days in a row at the front and always walked right on

 

[disneylover102]

If your getting Genie+ then rope drop the rides that don't have Genie+. This strategy worked extremely well for us. The non-genie+ rides are mostly the less popular rides. We got 4 or 5 in the first hour and then started riding the Genie+ ones.

Unless you want to repeat the genie+ rides

 

[Belia]

The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. I realize that probably isn't on your agenda, but it is the top of my kid's list and he insisted we ride it first. I tried to explain that we should go on the more popular things first while the lines were short, but that just seemed to strengthen his resolve.

When we went to WDW a few years ago Pooh was the ride we rope-dropped BOTH days we spent at MK.... and my kids were older! 7 and 10 I think!!! It wasn't on purpose... we were headed to FL and weren't in front enough to try for PP and it was the first ride we came to so we just hopped on! All I could think was "If Len Testa could see us now!"

 

[disneylover102]

When we went to WDW a few years ago Pooh was the ride we rope-dropped BOTH days we spent at MK.... and my kids were older! 7 and 10 I think!!! It wasn't on purpose... we were headed to FL and weren't in front enough to try for PP and it was the first ride we came to so we just hopped on! All I could think was "If Len Testa could see us now!"

At least at MK Pooh is a lot more popular. It’s never more than like 15 minutes at DL

 

[Belia]

Oh yes I was unlucky lol. I went twice in September and Haunted mansion Holiday AND Indy were both down at rope drop so everyone in that area headed for Pirates. I went again in November and same situation except the Haunted Mansion Holiday, Pirates and Indy were all down so then everyone headed to Big Thunder.

OOOF. That sounds brutal.