Do you HAVE to Rope Drop?

[TheDisneyNurse]

For me, it depends on a lot of things. When I was in college, I paid for my tickets OOP. I had one short 3-4 day trip a year. I didn't have a car. I was broke, and I saved every penny for it-- it was a huge stress relief method to get me through nursing school. You bet I rope dropped! I stayed in the park from open to close every day of my little trip.

Now, I'm an AP. I go at least once every 2-3 months. I was there for my birthday, and then I went again 2 weeks later. So I don't usually RD, but it does cost me a lot of missed rides and opportunities. The last time I RD'd was at the EMH at HS to ride slinky dog. We had such a great day! We got so much more accomplished by noon than we'd done in a long time. If there's something I really want to ride and I couldn't get a FP, I will RD. You don't have to, but be prepared to wait longer during the day. You can also stay in the park late and ride with short waits at the end of the night. But it's not like it used to be. The parks close so early now.

 

[DisneyOma]

No one has to do rope drop, but if they don't do it, they are not allowed to come back on the forums to whine about long lines and not being able to do anything because the parks were so crowded midmorning...

 

[crazyash83]

thank you for the posts! I love reading everyone's opinion and strategy regarding RD... I am also glad I am not the only one who doesn't do RD.

 

[Tiggerlover91]

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 suppose because my family doesn't do evenings in the park, that's why we rope drop or do the Early Entry hours at a park if one is being offered in the park we're visiting for whatever day it may be. We usually show up about 45 minutes before park open and all works out very well. I know at MK, we got in about 4-5 rides in Fantasyland before wait times got beyond 1 hour. If you can't get a FP+ for what you're looking for, then I think RP is necessary. I've heard 7DMT is still hard to get and since we're only doing a 4 day trip RD will be a must for us. We are going to visit the MK on the 2nd and 4th day, so I'll see how lucky I can get with the ride FP+ maybe on the 4th day. Plan on only being in the parks till about 12, then leaving the park for our lunch and heading home for the 6 hour drive.

 

[Alison S]

How long does it take to get into a park if you don't RD? For example if I showed up at AK or Epcot at 9 AM for a 9AM open, how long would it take to get through all the lines/security into the park?

 

[Tiggerlover91]

How long does it take to get into a park if you don't RD? For example if I showed up at AK or Epcot at 9 AM for a 9AM open, how long would it take to get through all the lines/security into the park?

From what I can remember, the longest I ever remember being in line for bag check, tapping in and all the good stuff was maybe 10 minutes. I was behind someone that had A LOT of stuff in their bag! This was at AK on our 2015 trip. MK moves real efficiently through bag check! I mean fast!

 

[TheDisneyNurse]

How long does it take to get into a park if you don't RD? For example if I showed up at AK or Epcot at 9 AM for a 9AM open, how long would it take to get through all the lines/security into the park?

It can be insane! If I don’t get there before RD, then I purposely won’t go until later on. Getting there at opening is mayhem. If you’re a resort guest (especially if it’s a value) the bus lines are very long. The security line is long, and the tapstiles as well.

If you’re driving, the tram lines are out of control.

 

[slpeters]

How long does it take to get into a park if you don't RD? For example if I showed up at AK or Epcot at 9 AM for a 9AM open, how long would it take to get through all the lines/security into the park?

We always arrived pretty much at park opening, whether EMH or regular, maybe as much as 10 minutes before or 5 minutes after--which we actually considered RDing--and security was usually about 5 minutes. This was last Fall.

 

[GusGusTheMouse]

We have been going to WDW since extra magic hours began, and I will say my family thinks rope drop and early morning hours is the best thing ever, for other families. We HATE rope dropping, but love that so many other families go early in the morning and therefore they clear out of the park early at night. Once families that woke up at the crack of dawn for rope drop leave, we get the benefit of the similar wait times they enjoyed first thing in the morning but we get to enjoy it at night. Nighttime is when my family wants be in the park, and if you get up at 5am to get there at 7am, then it is much more difficult to stay until midnight. I will say this only works when the park schedule allows for late nights, but in the summer and peak seasons there are usually multiple opportunities that are after 10pm.

Rope drop is not for everyone. Time is something we value too, but there are other ways of being efficient with your time that does not always include rope dropping. I'd also like to say that the age groups tend to be very different during the morning hours than late at night. When you have young children who are up very early already then rope drop makes a lot more sense. But once the teenage years strike, getting up early is not nearly as much fun and staying up late is easier. So it really depends on your priorities and the make up of your particular group, but please do not feel like you are wasting valuable park time because you are not rope dropping because you can find that time using other methods.

 

[tinkerjo]

I have never had any luck with late nights. Granted we are early morning people (up at 5 every morning. Sleeping in is 7) so we rope drop and do Morning EMH when we can. We usually are done at the park by 3, go back and swim( we usually go in winter so the pool is a huge draw for the kids who have been in coats and gloves for months) we will sometimes go back in the evenings for a couple rides and a show. I have older teens that stay late in the parks but have not been very successful because even though there are less people, they shut down some of the tracks and the lines are just as long or longer than earlier in the day. BUT what works for us doesn’t work for everyone.

 

[kiford]

We'll probably do RD a couple of times for our upcoming visit because we're going over the holidays. We accidently once did RD at MK because we had BOG reservations for 9 am and it didn't take as long to get there as we'd expected. I think that's the one and only time we've done RD in 8-9 trips. We're just not morning people and we're on vacation.

 

[nickcirc]

The parks close so early now.

So true

We just got back from our annual F&W trip, and as I was walking out of the parks at 9-10pm, I started to really miss the good old days with 3 hour EMH and leaving MK at 3am.
a 3am pick up for DME? you better believe we were still at the parks at 1am

For us, Rope Drop is an important part of our strategy, and with FP+ it helps to get the most out of shorter 4 day trips, since you can Rope Drop/EMH one park, and then still have a FP ready for the second park of the day.

That said, I don't miss running from the gate to TSM to grab a FP at rope drop

 

[ellbell]

I like early mornings and late nights. I rope drop everyday and then head back to my room around 1 and stay there till about 5 and have a nap. That way I avoid the highest crowds and hottest temperatures and get the benefit of both early morning and late night.

 

[slpeters]

I like early mornings and late nights. I rope drop everyday and then head back to my room around 1 and stay there till about 5 and have a nap. That way I avoid the highest crowds and hottest temperatures and get the benefit of both early morning and late night.

This is what we did as well, our naps may have been a little shorter but not much. It was kind of funny. I thought my husband would think the whole open a park and close a park (or two) every day was all a bit much, not very vacationy. When that line of thinking came up afterward his response was: "are You kidding? We took a nap every day. We don't even do that in Puerto Vallarta."

 

[OldSchoolReasons]

I am ONLY a morning person at Disney.
I feel that for me I do HAVE to RD.
You can get so much done in those first couple of hours.
At home I am a night owl but at Disney I am in bed within a half hour of getting back from the parks at close.

This is me too! Normally I can't drag myself out of bed before 10am, but at Disney I'm running on excitement and also copious amounts of coffee.

 

[TiggerBouncy]

DW is not an early morning person. She wakes up at around 10am on vacation. As DVC members and being able to quote almost every ride in the park, we have a few rides we really want to do which we can usually FP+ for. So she will sleep in.

Sometimes I may go to a park in the morning and meet her later - I can cover a LOT of ground at MK if I RD, but sometimes I just hang out around the resort.

Only rope drop if we have a good reason (breakfast we have never done before, etc). Last trip we snagged an EMM ticket so had to be up for that obviously.

However (and this is important to note) our expectations match our touring style. We don't think we are going to get to go on every ride and do everything.

 

[wilbret]

I am intrigued by 9am being early for you, lol. We have to get the kids up at 5:30am so we can get ready, eat breakfast, and have them to the bus by 6:38am.
Waking up for rope drop is a breeze for us! So maybe you just need a school with an early-bleep bus!

/Rope drop is a must for us. We too, love the no wait at Jungle Cruise to see what's on the other side of the waterfall. ;-)

 

[ELLH]

So, I think you can mostly boil the comments down to:

I RD because:

1. I'm a morning person/I'm used to waking up early
2. I don't visit too often so I make the days long and get the most out of every hour the park is open

I don't RD because:

1. I'm not a morning person/I prefer to sleep in and stay up late
2. I visit regularly so I don't feel the need to pack in every hour of availability that I can

It's your vacation. Visit how you want. There is really no right or wrong. It's simply about tailoring the time you spend in the parks to get the most of your vacation; whether that be spending all your time in the parks or spending less time in the parks and more time doing something else.

 

[gorkt]

Nah, it can work well with young kids who are up early anyway, but evening touring can also work out well. As my kids have aged, we find we really enjoy the evening EMH more.

 

[Good&Plenty]

We just returned from our trip (with a group of ten, my kids are 7 and 5). We RDed every morning, mainly because we have early risers (~6AM). We were at each park about 45 minutes prior to opening. We got SO much done in that first hour (our FPs were scheduled from 10AM onwards). All parks except for MK let guests in early.

-At MK, we rode 7DMT (we waited in line at 8:30AM for a 9:00AM park opening after our BOG breakfast), BTMR, SM, and HM, all w/no waiting.
-At Epcot, we rode Soarin' w/no waiting, and then a bunch of smaller rides, like Nemo.
-At AK, the Pandora area opened early (8:15AM?). We rode Navi' 4x (we had FoP FPs).
-At HS, we signed up for Jedi training at 8:30AM.

All that said, it works for us because our kids are early to rise and early to bed. We were back at the hotel around 5:30PM everyday (early dinners in the parks). After seeing how much we got done, I don't think that we'd hit up the parks any way else.