Can you help me figure out how early to arrive at parks for RD? (Update: post #10)

[laurajetter]

We have our itineraries planned for our trip to Disney this June and now I'm trying to figure out how early we need to arrive at the parks. We have a large group so I want everyone to know ahead of time what we're doing so I'm figuring it all out now instead of right before.

I've already figured out how much travel time to get to the parks and at first I thought I allowed enough time to get to the park gates about 30 minutes before RD. I'm not going to be a fanatic about having to be the exact first group through the turn stiles, but I definitely don't want to be at the back of a huge hoard of people either; towards the front would be nice. After I figured out what times I thought were good to arrive, I happened upon a website showing a series of photos of what the crowds looked like at the gates before RD and shortly after, with times labeled on each photo. First thing that took me by surprise is that the person said they usually let you in up to half an hour early... and the crowd at that time was already humongous... Now I feel like I have to rethink everything because with my plan we'd be trailing in at the back. How early would you all recommend arriving to the parks? We will be going towards the end of June so I know the crowds will definitely be pretty big. Here are the days and EMH info, if that helps:

6/20: Hollywood Studios (regular opening at 9am)
6/21: EPCOT (EMH opening at 8am)
6/22: Magic Kingdom (EMH opening at 8am)
6/23: Animal Kingdom (EMH opening at 8am)

TIA!

 

[ghtx]

It depends on what you want to ride at RD. If you go to AK and want a short queue at FOP, you might have to arrive an hour before opening (though maybe not that early on an EMH morning). But, if you go to MK and aren't headed towards Mine Train, then you can show up one minute before the opening and still have very short queues for almost all attractions for the first couple of hours or so.

 

[ENJDisneyFan]

As PP said, if you tell us which rides you are heading for at each park, we can tell you how early to arrive

 

[Pigletpal40]

I would also be realistic with a large group. We have 12 or more travel with us and the older teens/twenty somethings usually stay as late as the parks are open (sometimes 2am). We tell everyone we'll meet at the Bus stop 45 minutes to 1 hour before RD (1 1/2 hours if you want high demand rides) and set up a later meeting time (say 10 am) somewhere in the park for people in our group that want to sleep in.
We didn't get Mine Train FP's last trip (April) and our 11 year old really wanted to ride, We arrived just as they were letting people through the turn styles for EMH and headed straight there. We had about a twenty minute wait. Some rides, SM, Splash, HM, Peter Pan, Pirates and Thunder were 5-15 minutes or walk on for the first couple of hours.

 

[glocon]

From all the reading I've done, the most common response is be at the gates 1 hour before park opening, especially if your goal is one of the headline rides.

 

[sharonabe]

First thing that took me by surprise is that the person said they usually let you in up to half an hour early

The ONLY park where this is regularly happening right now is AK, and that's because of FoP.

MK lets everyone onto Main St at 8:00 when they have a 9:00 opening, but for your EMH morning, it will be sometime between 7:45 and 8:00 when they let everyone into the park.

 

[cinderEA]

When looking at the "huge" crowds before rope drop its important to remember just how quickly the crowds get absorbed into the rides, i.e. corralling everyone onto Hollywood Blvd is not nearly as large as the inside of RnRC, ToT, TSM etc so it looks worse than it is.

 

[kniquy]

We have a large group

maneuvering a large group is never easy, so always tell them 15 minutes earlier than you really want, because there will always be a few that can't get moving in the morning. If you are pretty much through security check and have scanned your bands 10 minutes prior to park opening you should be fine. For our past april trip we did MK twice at rope drop. Opening was at 9am and we always arrived and were entering the park by 8:50, just enough time to walk down main street and then position ourselves by the liberty square bridge (which gave us access to the splash/BTM area or a very good route to PPF)

If you can plan to do the opposite as everyone else you can almost feel like no one is there - so for MK we did the splash/pirates/BTM with no real waits this is typically because everyone is heading towards PPF or MT at rope drop. At AK - avoid pandora and the safari and hit dinosaur and everest.

HS because you are going before TS land is opening you should be able to hit TS first then move on to RnR and Tot -- There really are not many rides at this park but you will have a number of shows to help fill up your day.

 

[dledger]

When looking at the "huge" crowds before rope drop its important to remember just how quickly the crowds get absorbed into the rides, i.e. corralling everyone onto Hollywood Blvd is not nearly as large as the inside of RnRC, ToT, TSM etc so it looks worse than it is.

I think this is important to note. While yes, if you're looking for one of those MUST RIDE for everyone, like TSMM or SDMT- it's always good to be near the front of the pack. But if you're going to a less popular rude - those crowds are absorbed and dispersed pretty quickly.

We (as a party of two) try to be at the bus stop an hour to 45 min prior to rope drop and for us rope drop priority rides are :
MK- Peter Pan (I refuse to wait in a long line for this and also do not want to use fast pass)
HS- RNR (which mind you, we've never successfully done because it's been down every time!) so second choice is TSMM
EP- Soarin
AK- safari (we haven't been since pandora opened)

 

[laurajetter]

It depends on what you want to ride at RD. If you go to AK and want a short queue at FOP, you might have to arrive an hour before opening (though maybe not that early on an EMH morning). But, if you go to MK and aren't headed towards Mine Train, then you can show up one minute before the opening and still have very short queues for almost all attractions for the first couple of hours or so.

Okay here are the rides we intend on going on first thing at each of the parks, without FPs:

6/20: Hollywood Studios (regular opening at 9am) - RnR
I know this is a very popular one, but not everyone in our party will be going on this. The twenty-somethings and 2 kids will be running on ahead of the slower members. Still, we're trying to get them there early enough to hopefully have not more than a 15-20 minute wait, because we do have a FP+ for our second ride, 9:45-10:45 which we'd like to board by about 10am.

6/21: EPCOT (EMH opening at 8am) - The Seas with Nemo & Friends, Turtle Talk with Crush
This one is the least of my worries... we have 3 FPs in a row right after this and we're just hanging out here during that first EMH

6/22: Magic Kingdom (EMH opening at 8am) Space Mountain/Buzz Lightyear

6/23: Animal Kingdom (EMH opening at 8am) Na'vi River Journey
We're only at AK one day so we couldn't get a FP+ for both Pandora rides...thus we'll use the advantage of EMH RD for this one. All members of our group will be going on this, and I know there probably will be faster guests bypassing us on the walk over (especially since 2 of our members are on ECVs) but if we can at least start out near the front of the pack maybe that will help.

 

[gap2368]

Your EPCOT and MK day you will more then likely be able to walk on theses rides for the first 15-30 minutes the park is opens so I would say get there maybe 20 minutes before the park opens if you want. HS day maybe 45 minutes early and AK at lest an hour if not earlier

 

[soniam]

The ONLY park where this is regularly happening right now is AK, and that's because of FoP.

MK lets everyone onto Main St at 8:00 when they have a 9:00 opening, but for your EMH morning, it will be sometime between 7:45 and 8:00 when they let everyone into the park.

Actually, they let us into DHS up to a rope right at Starbuck's/Trolley Car Cafe about 30 minutes before opening in March. They did the same thing in July of last summer. These were regular park opening days, not morning extra magic hours.

 

[gap2368]

Actually, they let us into DHS up to a rope right at Starbuck's/Trolley Car Cafe about 30 minutes before opening in March. They did the same thing in July of last summer. These were regular park opening days, not morning extra magic hours.

Yes this is true there is no set time it could be 30 minutes or 15 minutes

 

[ghtx]

Okay here are the rides we intend on going on first thing at each of the parks, without FPs:

6/20: Hollywood Studios (regular opening at 9am) - RnR
I know this is a very popular one, but not everyone in our party will be going on this. The twenty-somethings and 2 kids will be running on ahead of the slower members. Still, we're trying to get them there early enough to hopefully have not more than a 15-20 minute wait, because we do have a FP+ for our second ride, 9:45-10:45 which we'd like to board by about 10am.

6/21: EPCOT (EMH opening at 8am) - The Seas with Nemo & Friends, Turtle Talk with Crush
This one is the least of my worries... we have 3 FPs in a row right after this and we're just hanging out here during that first EMH

6/22: Magic Kingdom (EMH opening at 8am) Space Mountain/Buzz Lightyear

6/23: Animal Kingdom (EMH opening at 8am) Na'vi River Journey
We're only at AK one day so we couldn't get a FP+ for both Pandora rides...thus we'll use the advantage of EMH RD for this one. All members of our group will be going on this, and I know there probably will be faster guests bypassing us on the walk over (especially since 2 of our members are on ECVs) but if we can at least start out near the front of the pack maybe that will help.

Of those four, the only one where you would need to arrive earlier than about 10-15 minutes before RD time, or less, is Navi River Journey. Even so, if you arrive just about 10-15 minutes early at AK (especially since it's an EMH morning), you will be far back in line but most everyone will be headed to FOP, not Navi River, so your wait shouldn't be very long.

For the rest, I think you will have very little wait even if you don't arrive to the front gates until the RD time. However, if you roll in 30 or 60 minutes later, the queues may have built up considerably.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

I get to the bus stop about 1 hour to 45 minutes before park open. I get to the park when I get to the park. Usually 10-15 minutes before park opening. I'm fine with that. I don't feel the need to be at any park 60 minutes before park opening to be in the front of the pack. IMO you may get a 1-2 ride advantage over the person in the back of the crowd but not enough of an advantage for me to get their so early.

**This is excluding wanting to ride FOP at RD.

 

[laurajetter]

Okay thanks for all of your replies... It's been so long since I've been there and everything is so different now anyway. It's very helpful to be able to rely other people's knowledge of what the parks are like now!