Rope dropping the 2nd tier rides Strategy on a busy day?

[MrVargas]

Rope dropping the most in demand rides is a well known strategy. However, could it make sense to rope drop the 2nd tier rides instead? Particularly for a first time visitor with little kids. It seems like there is a mad dash to the 7 Dwarf's Mine Train / Slinky Dog / Flights of Passage and with little kids on my first visit in the middle of July, I have a feeling that I won't be at the front of the line. Could it make more sense to power through the other rides I'm interested in which should have much shorter waits? As for the popular rides either get a fast pass (My FP+ date has not arrived yet) prior, try and get a fast pass that day, bite the bullet and just wait in standby when it's convenient to do so.

 

[cakebaker]

This is what we always do regardless of crowd levels. We get lots of rides in the first couple of hours, then use FP for the most popular rides.

 

[wdw&sonny]

YES, YES, YES. Numerous threads on these boards discussing exactly that strategy. It works great. I would even arrive just after RD, so you don't wait with the RD crowd, but walk in just after.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

This is what we always do. FP tier 1 rides and then head to tier 2 rides first. We arrive just as the gates are opening or 5 minutes before. I've never RD a tier 1 ride and have no desire to ever do so.

 

[pens4821]

Yes! This is what we do. FP for the major wait rides, RD for the others. We only go every other year, and of the mornings we've rope dropped we really only had one morning that we had a longer wait than expected. It was for EE this past January. They were only running two trains (may have even only been one) when we got there. We walked right up to the load area, but they brought another train on so that took some time. We rode, and got back in line to ride again. We waited about 20 minutes that time. As we got to the load area again, they were brining another train out. We've rope dropped EE before and never had this issue. Usually it's two pretty much walk ons.

 

[gharter]

RD the second tier is awesome. The crowds head to the popular rides. At Ak, if you head to EE instead of Pandora, you can ride multiple times with no wait for at least 30 minutes.

 

[g-dad66]

Absolutely, if you can get FP for FoP, SDD, and 7DMT.

And if you can't get FP for any of those, and if you anticipate future trips after this first trip with little kids, then maybe just skip any of those rides on this trip (unless you're willing to wait in a long Standby line). They should be much easier to FP on your next trip.

 

[ChrisMc]

At MK, that makes a lot of sense. We knocked off 4 rides before 930 on a very busy day. Not sure how that can be done at HS. Besides SW, the other five rides are very popular. And if you have small kids, I assume that they cannot even go on ToT or Aerosmith. So then you have TS land rides and shows. So you have no choice but to go where everyone is headed, which is TS Land. Hopefully, you can get a FP for SDD and accept a wait on the other 2 rides. Depending on the ages, don’t forgot about parent swap (great way to ride twice).

 

[monkyby87]

Because of the popularity of Slinky Dog, Seven Dwarves, and the Pandora rides, you can do a large portion of the 2nd tier rides without much wait. This is the REAL rope drop strategy.

 

[KenHutch]

What you are suggesting is the strategy than many (including us) do. During our last trip on our 1st Animal Kingdom day we noticed about 90% of the mob heading to Pandora. In the 1st 3 hours of park opening we did Kali twice, Everest twice and Kilimanjo twice. And we walked thru one of the animal trails. All this before we used our fast pass on FoP.

 

[kiramay]

That’s exactly what we do at MK. We FP 7 Dwarfs, Peter Pan, and thunder mountain, and rope drop Tomorrowland. Or we’ll fp space mountain and RD thunder mountain.

 

[EdnaMarieMode]

We tend to come in just behind the RD crowd and we're able to get several attractions in before things are getting busy. I get FP for any must-do headliner on our list and if I can't get the FP then we keep an eye on standby times, try to ride later at night, or skip it because there's just no way we can do it all every time.