Do you HAVE to Rope Drop?

crazyash83

Mouseketeer
Joined
Aug 1, 2013
I am not a morning person... 9 am is extremely early for me but I can do it for Disney, however, I am wondering if there are any of you out there that are similar and never do RD or RD for select days? If you only do select days, what park is your priority RD?
 
Now that we are passholders, rope drop isn't as urgent because we don't feel like we need to cram everything in. I would say MK is our priority rope drop to hit a bunch of attractions before our first FP. We usually do Adventureland first, starting with Jungle Cruise, then Pirates, then BTMRR, and then start using our FP at Splash. We rarely rope drop Epcot because we're more interested in World Showcase than rides. We've had good luck with FP for HS and AK (Slinky and FoP) so no need to try to race to those attractions first thing.
 


Of course you don’t need to rope drop! Overated! Stay asleep!

(Said as I enjoy the low rope drop crowds)

But in all seriousness, I do enjoy MK rope drop more so than other parks. The opening procedure (for a 9am opening) make things very easy and actually a pleasant experience. Plus more opportunity to knock out big parts of the park early, freeing up more strategic FP use later.

MK we make an effort to RD. The others, not so much.
 
I don't really do rope drop unless there's a specific reason. I just figure out a plan of attack that doesn't necessarily have me going on every single ride or show. But I just prefer to be able to wake up a bit later, rather than at 5am every day when I'm supposed to be on vacation!
 
I am a rope drop fanatic. However I understand there are those who are not. I rope drop because my time is a priority. I can get more done in the first 90 minutes than any other three hour stretch throughout the day. I also like to get ahead of the crowds. I know that by rope dropping, there will be several hundred people behind me trying to do the same thing, but with significantly higher waits.


For example, on our last Animal Kingdom day, we rope dropped Navi River, then headed to Dinosaur, Primeval Whirl, Expedition Everest, and Kali River, along with looking at the tigers, in the first 90 minutes. Incredible. Realistic wait times for those rides in the middle of the day can be 60, 30, 30, 45, 30, or 3+ hours waiting. This was also before our first fast pass of Kilimanjaro Safari.


My family are not morning people. But my wife has reluctantly understood the importance of rope drop. We have kids 5 & 6. She would rather get up early and knock out Buzz Lightyear, Astro Orbiter, Speedway, Teacups, Dumbo, and Little Mermaid in the first 90 minutes than stand in line for those rides. Those are the rides my kids want to go on first. She also understands that it doesn’t make sense to burn our first or second fast passes on those rides early in the day. So for her, it’s become a reluctant agreement to rope drop because she at least understands what the alternative is.


Now, the most important thing we have implemented in our travel to counteract the need to rope drop is a longer trip. Make each park a two-day visit. This is the balance we’ve subconsciously gravitated towards. We don’t need to rope drop as we double the amount of pre-planned fast passes. This way we get to reserve both top tier and second tier attractions for the week, or we double rides like Flight of Passage. For MK, this especially helps as my plans for our next trip only having us going to literally half the park one day (fantasy, tomorrow), and half the other (adventure, frontier). It also gives us more resort time and makes for a more relaxing trip.


If your plan is to do as much as possible, or if you only have one day per park and want to do most things, I think rope drop is necessary. Otherwise, a good balance can and should be made.
 


You don't HAVE to go to Disney.

That said, if you can't RD you can't RD. Some people do just fine without it. I would say that if you're not going to RD, lower your expectations about how much you'll get done. I've seen it personally and watched Touring Plans prove that the earlier you arrive at the gate and the closer you are to the actual rope... the more you'll get done in any given day. But really, it's all up to you and what you want to get out of your trip.
 
I completely understand why others RD, but my family and I are not morning people either, and we figured out long ago (been going to WDW pretty much yearly since 1998 and made our first trip in 1994) that we have a happier trip if we don't RD.

That said, if you don't plan to RD, I think it's best if you have your FP+ booked at the 60 day+ mark and have a plan of attack for each day and park. Take a look at Touring Plans and/or other planning sites to help you decide which park to do on which day, and come up with a general order of what you plan to do when. Then use the refresh strategy that's been described on the threads here on the Disboards to start maximizing your FP+ potential as soon as you get checked in at your first FP+ ride.

We haven't roped drop since about 2005, and showing up at the parks between 10 and 11 am and just using the above strategies have worked really well for us. One caveat -- if you are going to WDW at an extremely busy time of the year (Christmas week, Easter week, Thanksgiving week, etc), you may well find that you either need to rope drop to save your sanity/patience, or look into staying CL and purchasing the extra CL FP+ (we're doing this for our Christmas trip this year).

Best of luck to you! :) I'm sure others will chime in with great suggestions for how to maximize what you get to experience without doing RD.
 
I have been to Disney over 10 times now and I never did Rope Drop until last year. And it changed my life LOL. I don't think I could ever do Disney again without rope dropping. It allowed us to get so much done, so we could go at a leisurely pace for the rest of the day.

That being said, it's a great thing that not everyone does it, because then it would be crazy!
 
Lots of people don't do rope drop and are perfectly happy with their experience. I usually do rope drop because I like a more leisurely end to the day....but that's just me. Know what your goals are and how best to meet them. Then, have a great time!!
 
We don't RD but on our last trip we did do the AP Toy Story event. Was in TS Land before 7AM. I must admit between the rides we got in during the event and the ones we got in after leaving the area when the park opened I can certainly understand the advantages. We did 21 rides that day at DHS. (Many repeats SDD 6 times) Even with that we still will not RD in the future, we are on vacation after all!
 
Last time we were in Disney World was about 12 years ago and we followed tour guide Mike plans. I believe we included several rope drop mornings. That trip was fabulous! Since then, we are West Coast and more Disneyland people, but we usually drop there on 1 morning out of 3. Now with Max pass, it’s a game changer and I think we may not need to rope drop in the future, but it’s a hard habit to break.

For this trip, my children and daughters boyfriend are all adults. While they would rope drop if I asked them to, I think their preference is to have a later start. We are trying a more leisurely approach since we have free dining in our package. This trip is fewer were rides, more time together while dining, and just a relaxed approach. We’ll see how I do with this new mindset.
 
Like some others have stated, my family is definitely not made up of early risers, plus there's 6 of us that have to get ready and that could take a little while. Instead, what our plan was on our past trip a few weeks ago was to at least try to get there within an hour of the park opening, or at least before our first FP lol. The lines still aren't that bad and we're able to get done pretty many things before our FPs, I felt like.
 
I am not a morning person... 9 am is extremely early for me but I can do it for Disney, however, I am wondering if there are any of you out there that are similar and never do RD or RD for select days? If you only do select days, what park is your priority RD?
I did rope drop for the first time in a long time this Aug. I couldn't believe how many rides we could get on and how wait times throughout the park was 10 min. It only lasted for the first 45 minutes so if your going to do it you want to be in the park past security before the park opens. Kids did space mountain twice, buzz, toy story and speedway all in 45 min then ride time already increased but by then we had FP. We ended up only staying at the park 3 hours and going to the pool since we enjoyed so much in such a short time frame. I remember the rope drop show being more exciting when it was at the entrance of MK and now it's at the castle.
 
You don't HAVE to rope drop. But I do. LOL It would be a lot easier for my family to sleep in, but it would be a lot more difficult at the park. We just really value how much we can get done at rd and the jump we get on the day.
 

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