Rope drop for FOP is a mob be warned

[JFox]

Let me tell you a story about a situation I witnessed at WDW.

We, my 4 kids & mother were in line at Pirates. We were maybe 3 turns from the loading ramp. There was a commotion behind us. There was a lady and her kid yelling, "they told us to fill in all available space". Mind you we were far into the queue line after the hallways had narrowed not at the entry.

Apparently she had inched her way up using this argument. The family behind us joined hands with the intention to prevent them from moving any farther. The lady sent her daughter under their hands then yelled that they were separated. She moved in front of the family and was now behind us. I pulled my kids close to me and the lady moved up by passing between my mother and the wall.

The lady kept on and on about moving up, filling the space and making comments to everyone in line. This whole time the line was still progressing towards the load area. The family in front of her made it very clear they were not going to pass.

Well this lady next to me was standing behind the first lady. She pulled something from her purse and was moving her arm around. It wasn't until the first lady and her daughter lined up for the boat that I realized the second lady had taken a tube of RED lipstick and drew all over the back of her cream colored suede jacket. The first lady and her daughter got a whole boat to themselves because none of the surrounding guests wanted to be near them. As their empty boat pulled away she turned and flipped off everyone in the loading area. I'm sure after she got off the boat it didn't take long to realize what had happened.

Was either action justified? Not really.

 

[Tinkerbell2017]

Let me tell you a story about a situation I witnessed at WDW.

We, my 4 kids & mother were in line at Pirates. We were maybe 3 turns from the loading ramp. There was a commotion behind us. There was a lady and her kid yelling, "they told us to fill in all available space". Mind you we were far into the queue line after the hallways had narrowed not at the entry.

Apparently she had inched her way up using this argument. The family behind us joined hands with the intention to prevent them from moving any farther. The lady sent her daughter under their hands then yelled that they were separated. She moved in front of the family and was now behind us. I pulled my kids close to me and the lady moved up by passing between my mother and the wall.

The lady kept on and on about moving up, filling the space and making comments to everyone in line. This whole time the line was still progressing towards the load area. The family in front of her made it very clear they were not going to pass.

Well this lady next to me was standing behind the first lady. She pulled something from her purse and was moving her arm around. It wasn't until the first lady and her daughter lined up for the boat that I realized the second lady had taken a tube of RED lipstick and drew all over the back of her cream colored suede jacket. The first lady and her daughter got a whole boat to themselves because none of the surrounding guests wanted to be near them. As their empty boat pulled away she turned and flipped off everyone in the loading area. I'm sure after she got off the boat it didn't take long to realize what had happened.

Was either action justified? Not really.

As I don't think anyone of those reactions were appropriate, I do get some satisfaction from the lipstick on the woman's coat.

 

[Wubar]

As I don't think anyone of those reactions were appropriate, I do get some satisfaction from the lipstick on the woman's coat.

LOVING the lipstick on that woman's coat. She deserved every smudge and smear on the back of her suede jacket, which was hopefully very expensive and hard to replace.

 

[JadeDarkstar]

wow, wonder if rd is worth it anymore. I do have a fp for each ride just not sure..I mean I was willing to give up sleep and get there 6:30-7 for an 8 am opening but if it really is so bad, maybe we shouldn't.

 

[MaryLovesPoohBear]

wow, wonder if rd is worth it anymore. I do have a fp for each ride just not sure..I mean I was willing to give up sleep and get there 6:30-7 for an 8 am opening but if it really is so bad, maybe we shouldn't.

Rope drop was totally worth it to me. And we weren't interested in racing to FOP or NR.

We went in another direction. And the place was empty. It was amazing.

 

[BigAlsGal]

Don't you remember all the Black Friday stories about people getting trampled to death all for a deal on a 32" flat screen or for a tickle me Elmo?! Yes groups of people wanting to desperately get somewhere will mow others down. It's a high priority. Obviously it was also a high priority to you as you got there 2 hours before park opening. I find the only way to be successful in getting to be say...second group on a ride...is to get there 2 hours early, defend (yes defend) your front spot at the ropes, then bust into as fast of a mall walk as humanly possible when they let you loose. With this strategy you might have less than a 5 minute wait. It takes a real lunatic to be firsts on a ride (in my experience). If you aren't willing to use this strategy then I'm sorry you will end up further back in line. You might not like it but it really is sort of a kill or be killed mentality for the most popular rides at rope drop.

 

[nighttowll]

Kind of glad after reading this I had to rearrange my plans, and we are now doing EE first with a FP for pandora later in the day. I had originally wanted an early morning FP, but couldn't get one even at 60 + 5 days. I don't particularly care about getting in that mess. We joke that my sister needs a handle with care label. She has a lot of medical issues and "breaks" easily, so a rowdy crowd is not the place for her.

As for my Day 1 RD experience, I'll just repeat what I've said before when someone asked what to expect:

I would ask myself the following questions: do I like being smashed together with hundreds of other people in what feels like the starting gate of the NYC marathon where the goal of the race is to trample everyone in your path to "win" your objective of standing in yet another line? do I feel that personal space is overrated? what is the maximum population density you can achieve for a one square acre plot of land? how ruthless can people be when dealing with the old, the young, the weak and anyone silly enough not to be moving as fast as they are? is it better to go around or leap over that stroller that someone in front of you is foolishly trying to use as a moving blockade? just how claustrophobic am I? do I think that people yelling and screaming at their families and friends to hurry up is an entertaining part of the pre-show? to refresh myself for the ride, can I watch the entirety of the 2.5 hour Avatar movie while waiting in line (I'm going to start calling this the "Avatar" rule - if the wait in line is longer than the actual movie on which the ride is based, I will have to say no)?

 

[sjmac42]

I really think Disney have a duty of care as they are creating this situation. Yes, it's people that are displaying the bad behaviour but Disney do need to address the situation and spend a tiny bit more money on extra staffing in these new areas. They probably think it's cheaper to deal with a few lawsuits than do that but with all the nanny state type rules everywhere in the world these days, why isn't this type of obviously dangerous behaviour been addressed by the authorities, fire marshalls, police etc.
Chuck out a few people here and there, or shut down a park a few times for safety breaches and I reckon the situation would improve quite rapidly. Probably dreaming but . . . . . . . . . . .

 

[SydandPaige'sMom]

Honestly same thing for us on Monday. We were again one of the first families to arrive at Epcot about 7 am again and yet when they rope dropped hundreds of people ran past us. Granted we were not going as fast that day so whatever and FEA was broken down all day anyway. But yeah its kinda frustrating when you show up FIRST and then have people that showed up way later just push past you even with you walking fairly fast.

We were there too on Monday. I could not believe that mob for a ride that has been open for that long. People were full on running! We couldn't get a fast pass and by the time it opened up at 5 it had a 2 hr wait so we skipped it again this year.
But yeah same thing happened to us at MK on Sunday for mine train. First ones there and ended up being pretty far back in the end.

 

[CJLove79]

Thank God, I'm going to Disney World November 2018. LOL. I already typed up a plan where I'm going to Pandora on a weekday AND Toy Story Land will be opened. As soon as TSL is opened, Pandora will be a year old and literally everybody and their mama will be mobbing Hollywood Studios. I'm still expecting a crowd but not like what the OP went through, which is messed up. I'm glad they were able to still enjoy the ride even though it was like an obstacle course getting there.

 

[BK2014]

Let me tell you a story about a situation I witnessed at WDW.

We, my 4 kids & mother were in line at Pirates. We were maybe 3 turns from the loading ramp. There was a commotion behind us. There was a lady and her kid yelling, "they told us to fill in all available space". Mind you we were far into the queue line after the hallways had narrowed not at the entry.

Apparently she had inched her way up using this argument. The family behind us joined hands with the intention to prevent them from moving any farther. The lady sent her daughter under their hands then yelled that they were separated. She moved in front of the family and was now behind us. I pulled my kids close to me and the lady moved up by passing between my mother and the wall.

The lady kept on and on about moving up, filling the space and making comments to everyone in line. This whole time the line was still progressing towards the load area. The family in front of her made it very clear they were not going to pass.

Well this lady next to me was standing behind the first lady. She pulled something from her purse and was moving her arm around. It wasn't until the first lady and her daughter lined up for the boat that I realized the second lady had taken a tube of RED lipstick and drew all over the back of her cream colored suede jacket. The first lady and her daughter got a whole boat to themselves because none of the surrounding guests wanted to be near them. As their empty boat pulled away she turned and flipped off everyone in the loading area. I'm sure after she got off the boat it didn't take long to realize what had happened.

Was either action justified? Not really.

LOVING the lipstick on that woman's coat. She deserved every smudge and smear on the back of her suede jacket, which was hopefully very expensive and hard to replace.

I don't disagree with feeling of satisfaction of seeing the lady get what people feel she deserved. But it also shows how people tend to over-react to perceived and actual slights/annoyances. The only person in the story who actually committed a crime is the lady with the lipstick, but yet we see her as the hero of the story. Somehow we feel that the annoyance of line cutting justifies the damage to the woman's jacket.

 

[Robo]

Thank God, I'm going to Disney World November 2018. LOL. I already typed up a plan where I'm going to Pandora on a weekday AND Toy Story Land will be opened. As soon as TSL is opened, Pandora will be a year old and literally everybody and their mama will be mobbing Hollywood Studios. I'm still expecting a crowd but not like what the OP went through, which is messed up.

Frozen Ever After (Open 1.5 years)- Epcot at Rope Drop, still a mob.
Seven Dwarfs Mine Train (Open 3.5 years)-MK at Rope Drop, still a mob.
Toy Story Mania (Open 9.5 years)- DHS at Rope Drop, still a mob.

 

[Wubar]

I don't disagree with feeling of satisfaction of seeing the lady get what people feel she deserved. But it also shows how people tend to over-react to perceived and actual slights/annoyances. The only person in the story who actually committed a crime is the lady with the lipstick, but yet we see her as the hero of the story. Somehow we feel that the annoyance of line cutting justifies the damage to the woman's jacket.

Let's not forget the beauty of flipping children and parents off right before she boarded the ride. Yeah, she can deal with a little lipstick.

 

[BK2014]

Let's not forget the beauty of flipping children and parents off right before she boarded the ride. Yeah, she can deal with a little lipstick.

That happened after the lady had tagged the jacket with lipstick, so it cannot be considered part of her justification for doing so.

 

[ilovetotravel1977]

Rope drop was totally worth it to me. And we weren't interested in racing to FOP or NR.

We went in another direction. And the place was empty. It was amazing.

I'm thinking now we will show up at AK for 8:30am (9am opening), take our time getting to Na'vi (try to get a FP+ for 9am), check out Pandora, then head over to Africa right away. We'll go back to Pandora at night to see it all lit up and then ride FOP at the end of the night. We want to see the Que anyways, and you can't with a FP+.

Some in our party of 10 will not want to wait another hour for FOP after just waiting an hour to get into the park.

 

[Anabelletoronto]

Is it crazy for me to say I would like to go at rope drop just to see this insanity?
We won't because our touring plan is to arrive later and we have FP for FOP at 2:30 and a flight at 8pm but seems like a unique show.

 

[OnSpaceshipEarth]

Is it crazy for me to say I would like to go at rope drop just to see this insanity?
We won't because our touring plan is to arrive later and we have FP for FOP at 2:30 and a flight at 8pm but seems like a unique show.

Ha!

 

[MaryLovesPoohBear]

Is it crazy for me to say I would like to go at rope drop just to see this insanity?
We won't because our touring plan is to arrive later and we have FP for FOP at 2:30 and a flight at 8pm but seems like a unique show.

We sat there and laughed at the craziness. Full grown adults running, not just walking fast, but running, so they could wait in a line for a new ride.

And yes, I get that for some, it is a once in a lifetime trip. But it is still just a ride.

"The running of the fools." AK Cast Member.

 

[Lorelei18]

At Disneyland California Adventure my family and I rope dropped getting a Fastpass for the new Guardians of the Galaxy ride a few weeks after it opened. When the turnstiles opened, which at the time happened 30-45 minutes before official park opening, you walk briskly a short way to a CM holding a sign that says, "Line forms here for Guardians of the Galaxy Fastpass." There is a temporary queue set up and people start filing into this queue. After 15 or 20 minutes, the CM begins walking the orderly line down what is the equivalent of Sunset Blvd at Hollywood Studios. No one ran. From there you are queued up again in a backstage holding type area. At rope drop you are then walked into the actual Guardians of the Galaxy queue. After rope drop the first temporary queue is no longer needed, however the backstage holding area one is used for overflow (similar to how it sounds like the path between Africa and Pandora is used for FoP overflow.) I guess my point is, Disney as a company knows how to do this properly, as they did it for Guardians on the Galaxy, at least for the Fastpasses, which oddly had a greater mob than people going to the actual ride (which had a separate queue on the other side of the road further down).

 

[cindyfan]

....
Disney needs a more organized way to handle that. Start an actual queue with a small line from the opening to the ride so there is not pushing ahead. Hand out numbers to people in line and go by that. Something besides the mad mob that it turned out to be. My mom was very upset.

So I just want others to know-rope drop for FOP works as far as getting there quick-but BE WARNED- you will be pushed, smacked, crowded and mobbed. People were running along the side jumping benches and stuff to run ahead of people and then pushing back into the crowd up ahead. I had people just pushing me and pushing me.

Its not okay. I am really disappointed in Disney for how they handled this. Its dangerous.

EXACTLY!!! What is wrong with Disney that they haven't figured this out yet!!!!!