Rope Drop Experiences Spring Break 2019

[Lorelei18]

I was hoping some people could share their rope drop experiences for travel in the past month/Spring break 2019. We will be at WDW the week leading up to Easter.

Unfortunately, no 8am openings for AK for us other than EMH, but curious if anyone experienced AK hours changing to 8am open at the last minute. Like right before our trip started we had this happen several years ago, it was probably one of those scenarios where they made a bunch of park hour changes for the upcoming months, but it affected our AK day. I know this Friday may be the day they release any park hour changes.

Also, for each park what time did you arrive to the tapstiles, what time were the tapstiles opened, what time were you released to the rides/did the rides open? What was your first rides and how long were the waits? Or if you stayed til close, how were your waits later in the evening?

Fortunately I have a SDD, FoP and 7dmt fastpass. So depending where we are in the crowds, we may rope drop those or ropedrop pretty much everything else, Im going to leave that decision up to the morning of, currently leaning towards the "rope drop everything else" but also know in some scenarios not everything is running before official park open.

 

[TammyLynn33]

We have similar fast passes . We got the big fast passes everywhere and plan on rope dropping the others.
Good luck

I was hoping some people could share their rope drop experiences for travel in the past month/Spring break 2019. We will be at WDW the week leading up to Easter.

Unfortunately, no 8am openings for AK for us other than EMH, but curious if anyone experienced AK hours changing to 8am open at the last minute. Like right before our trip started we had this happen several years ago, it was probably one of those scenarios where they made a bunch of park hour changes for the upcoming months, but it affected our AK day. I know this Friday may be the day they release any park hour changes.

Also, for each park what time did you arrive to the tapstiles, what time were the tapstiles opened, what time were you released to the rides/did the rides open? What was your first rides and how long were the waits? Or if you stayed til close, how were your waits later in the evening?

Fortunately I have a SDD, FoP and 7dmt fastpass. So depending where we are in the crowds, we may rope drop those or ropedrop pretty much everything else, Im going to leave that decision up to the morning of, currently leaning towards the "rope drop everything else" but also know in some scenarios not everything is running before official park open.

W

 

[Mango7100]

We RD MK 3 weeks ago during spring break and steered toward Adventureland instead of the crazy that is to the right of the castle. Entered the park about 20-30 min before opening. We rode Pirates three time back to back (yes it’s excessive but it’s one of my husband and daughters favorite), did Magic Carpets, and met Jasmine and Aladdin all within an hour

 

[Pembo]

We were there last week of March. Rope dropped Epcot on 9 am opening, went straight to TT and waited 25 mins. AK on an EMH morning we hoped to ride Navi but it was down so we went on the Safari with no wait and lots of animals. Studios reg open, the stampede to Slinky was crazy but we walked on TSM twice in the first 45 mins. MK on an EMH morning was CRAZY! We headed straight to Space and waited 40 mins! Planned to go to BTMRR at 9 but the stampede was insane! Chose to walk on Pirates and Carpets instead. We got to each park about 45 mins BEFORE the park open.

 

[chirogrrl]

We were at WDW 3/23-3/30. This was our first-ever Spring Break trip and it definitely lived up to the hype for being busy. Wow!

We did RD at MK on 3/25. We left BLT about 8:15 and walked to the MK. I believe we went through the tap styles around 8:30-8:35 and walked back to the Adventureland rope. There was a small crowd in front of us, but we were fairly close to the front. Our plan was to go straight to BTMRR and ride multiple times. By the time the rope dropped at 9a, the crowd was huge! The CMs do a "mosey" walk back to the rides, but Splash was down, so everyone went to BTMRR. It took a good 15-20 minutes to get on the ride. We only rode once, because it was 45 min wait by the time we got off the ride! Space and SDMT were also down at RD that morning, so I think that brought everyone to Big Thunder! Nothing was walk-on, like it usually is for the first 1-2 hours after RD, too busy! I should add that I checked the wait times each morning and I think 1 or 2 big MK rides were down at RD every day that week, usually SDMT or Space!

We also did RD at AK on 3/26. We had FOP FP+, so we went straight to EE. We didn't get to the park until 8:45ish. They had a ton of bag check lanes open, so that was very quick and we were through the tap styles before 9a. Pandora was already open, but we walked back to the rope at the Tree and sent the kids ahead to EE at RD (they like to ride multiple times). We were able to walk on EE 2 times in a row, then the kids went single rider several more times. It was much less crowded in AK that morning for the first hour or so, felt almost like a non-Spring Break RD.

We didn't experience any Park hours changes while we were there. I was hoping for it, because everything was so crowded. I will say that we spent a lot less time in the parks this trip, because it was crazy in the afternoons. We were not surprised though, we expected it.

 

[UNCJibble]

We're going to be there the same week, have the same FP, and my plan is to "rope drop everything else". I'm hoping to get 2-3 different 2nd tier rides in before the crowds build. I'm a little worried about the reported 25min RD wait at Test Track, I was hoping to get TT and Soarin in before a 9:30 SSE fastpass expires.

 

[ENJDisneyFan]

We were there 4/2-4/7. We did RD at MK on 4/3. Arrived at the park around 8:15am, got through security fairly quickly and made our way back toward the castle. Right at 9am they opened the park and we made our way to Peter Pan. Were off the ride by about 9:10am. We had FP later in the morning for the 3 mountains.

We also did RD at DHS on 4/6. Arrived at the park by about 8:30am and made our way through security. At 8:45am CMs started walking the crowd back to TSL. We had a FP for SDD later that morning, so we headed straight for TSM and were off the ride before 9am. Then went to AS2 and had about a 5 minute wait. From there we could have gone to RNRC or ToT and had less than 20 minute wait for either (we chose to do Star Tours instead because my kids won't do ToT and we had FP for RNRC).

All in all the crowds weren't nearly as bad as I expected for spring break time. Between RD and FP we didn't wait more than 15 minutes for anything at any of the parks.

 

[Lorelei18]

We were at WDW 3/23-3/30. This was our first-ever Spring Break trip and it definitely lived up to the hype for being busy. Wow!

We did RD at MK on 3/25. We left BLT about 8:15 and walked to the MK. I believe we went through the tap styles around 8:30-8:35 and walked back to the Adventureland rope. There was a small crowd in front of us, but we were fairly close to the front. Our plan was to go straight to BTMRR and ride multiple times. By the time the rope dropped at 9a, the crowd was huge! The CMs do a "mosey" walk back to the rides, but Splash was down, so everyone went to BTMRR. It took a good 15-20 minutes to get on the ride. We only rode once, because it was 45 min wait by the time we got off the ride! Space and SDMT were also down at RD that morning, so I think that brought everyone to Big Thunder! Nothing was walk-on, like it usually is for the first 1-2 hours after RD, too busy! I should add that I checked the wait times each morning and I think 1 or 2 big MK rides were down at RD every day that week, usually SDMT or Space!

We also did RD at AK on 3/26. We had FOP FP+, so we went straight to EE. We didn't get to the park until 8:45ish. They had a ton of bag check lanes open, so that was very quick and we were through the tap styles before 9a. Pandora was already open, but we walked back to the rope at the Tree and sent the kids ahead to EE at RD (they like to ride multiple times). We were able to walk on EE 2 times in a row, then the kids went single rider several more times. It was much less crowded in AK that morning for the first hour or so, felt almost like a non-Spring Break RD.

We didn't experience any Park hours changes while we were there. I was hoping for it, because everything was so crowded. I will say that we spent a lot less time in the parks this trip, because it was crazy in the afternoons. We were not surprised though, we expected it.

I cant believe how many rides were down on your MK day. Ugh! I have been during spring break before, and yes, between noon and 5pm especially MK is wall to wall people!

 

[Lorelei18]

Thanks to everyone who responded so far!