Rides offline at rope drop—change strategy?

[Meteora]

Hi everyone!

We’ll be making our annual trip next week. We go during Easter week every year so we’re well prepared for what to expect.

In the past, we’ve gotten fastpasses for the mountains and rope dropped fantasyland. This year, due to the fact that we have a lunch reservation at BoG and just to change it up a little, we thought we’d rope drop thunder mountain, then go to splash mountain, then try for either pirates or haunted mansion before making our way back to fantasyland for our FPs.

In following the wait times on the app, it looks like thunder mountain was closed at park opening yesterday, not running until maybe twenty minutes in. Splash was also offline and took even longer to start running. Today, it appears that Splash is offline again along with Pirates and both are still listed as temporarily closed as I write this post. Obviously I’m not in the parks, so the information could be wrong, but I’m now concerned about wasting precious time walking all the way back to Frontierland at rope drop to find the rides offline. By the time we made our way somewhere else, we’ll be ten to fifteen minutes behind and will have likely missed out on a short wait for any other headliners. During Easter week, as we all know, every minute of that first hour is crucial.

Is there a way to know at rope drop that a ride will be down so you don’t walk all the way there? And either way, should I be revising my plans to try to avoid this issue?

Thank you, expert Disney team!

 

[DWillowBay]

Only by relying on the app. How else would anyone know what rides are offline at any time? It's the chance we all take, I guess.

 

[PrincessWithABlaster]

Hi everyone!

We’ll be making our annual trip next week. We go during Easter week every year so we’re well prepared for what to expect.

In the past, we’ve gotten fastpasses for the mountains and rope dropped fantasyland. This year, due to the fact that we have a lunch reservation at BoG and just to change it up a little, we thought we’d rope drop thunder mountain, then go to splash mountain, then try for either pirates or haunted mansion before making our way back to fantasyland for our FPs.

In following the wait times on the app, it looks like thunder mountain was closed at park opening yesterday, not running until maybe twenty minutes in. Splash was also offline and took even longer to start running. Today, it appears that Splash is offline again along with Pirates and both are still listed as temporarily closed as I write this post. Obviously I’m not in the parks, so the information could be wrong, but I’m now concerned about wasting precious time walking all the way back to Frontierland at rope drop to find the rides offline. By the time we made our way somewhere else, we’ll be ten to fifteen minutes behind and will have likely missed out on a short wait for any other headliners. During Easter week, as we all know, every minute of that first hour is crucial.

Is there a way to know at rope drop that a ride will be down so you don’t walk all the way there? And either way, should I be revising my plans to try to avoid this issue?

Thank you, expert Disney team!

Yesterday all 3 mountains were down at 8 am park open. Not a great start to the day. We've been there twice when Splash was down at park open.

We were at BTMR and the lines were longer than expected which is why I noticed. Then we happened to catch Splash just as it came back up so we were able to walk right on. There's really not much you can do though - any ride could be down at RD. I really like to RD Splash and BTMR and then work back to PotC and JC (with a FP).

This year we're mixing it up and going Fantasyland first. But if one of the Frontierland rides isn't open, then stop at JC and Potc instead (just check the app) and hopefully they'll re-open. I think the only thing you can do is have a plan B in mind for what to do if something is down. I wouldn't rearrange because of the possibility (that's practically a dare for Murphy to send the gremlins to whatever ride you thought was going to be more reliable ).

 

[Babe the Blue Ox]

Other than just being too crowded, another reason we avoid rope drop is the chance that some of the headliners won’t fire up first thing in the morning.

We’d rather arrive a little later then stick it out through the evening hours when the lines get shorter.

 

[PrincessWithABlaster]

Other than just being too crowded, another reason we avoid rope drop is the chance that some of the headliners won’t fire up first thing in the morning.

We’d rather arrive a little later then stick it out through the evening hours when the lines get shorter.

There is an equal chance that they will be down at night. If you don't have APs or park hoppers that could end your chance for getting to ride that ride. Not that I'm disagreeing with your strategy - it's a good one - it just doesn't work for everyone in all circumstances.

My strategies are A - get a prebooked FP, B - RD, C - 4th FP, D - ride at the end of the evening. In the order. But that order is what works for the type of tickets we have and the type of schedule my family keeps at the moment. All are good strategies - the one that works best is going to vary from family to family.