ROPE DROP: YAY! OR NO WAY! ??

Rope Drop or Not?


  • Total voters
    252
  • Poll closed .

MickleSt

Mouseketeer
Joined
Aug 26, 2018
We are NOT doing rope drop on our trip in early February. That's non-negotiable.

We're an older couple, no kids or grandkids. Waking up before 7 a.m. on vacation? Then standing around in a crowd for another hour?
Naw. I mean, we're going to have some FP+'s, right? Why on earth would we want to deprive ourselves of sleep? Why deprive ourselves of quiet coffee time? What kind of holiday is that?

Still, we usually hear about how important and fun (yeah, right) rope drop is. So...

What about you? Let's hear some yays and nays on rope drop. When you do it, are you tired sooner than you'd like to be? Do you do rope drop every day you're there and love it, or only on certain days? Why? Have you done it once and declared "never again!?" Let's talk the reality of rope drop!
 
We like to do it some days, but not all. Now that was for past trips, but next year I have been told by my daughter and husband that they would prefer not to do it at all anymore.
 
NOPE! I have to get up at 5:00 am during the week for work, not doing it on vacation. Besides, we are passholders and go several times a year. We get fastpasses and do what we can do. Whatever we can't, we'll do it next time. BTW we are also empty nesters so just the hubs and me.
 
Only roped dropped AK, and that was for the extended morning hour... it allowed us to get a short Flight of Passage wait without a fast pass. Other than that, I'll arrive in the morning , but not before it opens.
 


NOPE! I have to get up at 5:00 am during the week for work, not doing it on vacation. Besides, we are passholders and go several times a year. We get fastpasses and do what we can do. Whatever we can't, we'll do it next time. BTW we are also empty nesters so just the hubs and me.

I'm with you! Have you ever done rope drop? I'm curious. I've never done it.
 
I would much rather do late nights than rope drops. My absolute favorite time to be at MK is Christmas week after midnight.

Tha being said, we once had a DisneyLand trip during a heat wave in summer with temp around 112. We did do rope drop each day and went from 7am until about 9:30 or 10am . Then went back to the hotel until about 8pm.
 
We RD every day but have changed how we do it. We used to pick parks with AM EMH and were sure to be there early to be near the front of the pack. After finding that we can do more during regular park hours using FP than we can during EMH (since there are no FP during EMH) we decided to skip AM EMH parks. We also tend to arrive right around actual RD rather than arriving extra early. We find that we do better with that extra 1-2 hours of sleep. We also tend to close down a park each evening so that extra sleep is nice.
 


We like to do it some days, but not all. Now that was for past trips, but next year I have been told by my daughter and husband that they would prefer not to do it at all anymore.

Right? I get that. With kids it must be kind of exciting to do it. But otherwise, cher, just go with the flow and laissez les bons temps roulez! Who dat!? BTW do you have beignets at WDW? Or do you just assume they're better in NOLA?
 
We are a couple who has gone to Disney three times this year without the children (college age). At home we get up at 530am for work and have a 2 hour commute. We do rope drop a couple of days on vacation because I would rather not wait in line. At MK we rope drop and we went on Pirates, BTMRR, Peter Pan and Haunted Mansion in one hour. We then Fast Passed SDMT, Buzz and saw Monsters. We were back at the resort and having drinks at the pool by 2. No stress, no lines and didn't miss out. Had dinner plans some rides at another park saw fireworks.
 
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I attempted to rope drop at MK on my trip last November. It did not work in the slightest. From my personal experience, everyone in my family was not able to wake up, get ready, and move fast enough in order to get there early and on the bus in time. So we ended up getting there like an hour after the park opened but it wasn't that bad, everyone was just stressed out. I think that it just depends on what your family can achieve in that amount of time and if you can get everything together in time. Good luck though, have a nice trip!
 
We do not take Disney vacations to relax. We take other vacations to relax. We go to Disney to ride all the rides - multiple times, whenever possible! Rope drop is key for this objective.

Our family is not a morning family at home, but we don't mind at Disney. We eat breakfast while waiting for rope drop, and we're so bushed by the evening that we have no problem getting to bed before our next fun-filled morning.

#RD4evah
 
It's personal choice. For us we choose to Rope Drop almost every day on our trip these days because we can get SO much done in a short period of time. In January we were at the MK on a relatively busy day and were able to ride all of the following by 10am:
- 7DMT
- Winnie the Pooh
- Space Mountain
- Buzz Lightyear
- Little Mermaid

That was our first day and from there we were hooked. On previous trips we would RD a couple of days but not all. This time my 8yo was waking me up saying she wanted to get to the parks because we could always sleep at home! :D
 
I am a rope dropper. I would say that I am like that because our trips to WDW are so infrequent except that we have Six Flags season passes this year and I had us rope drop at all 3 parks we went to including our home park 8 times.

For me I get enough sleep at home and do not enjoy sleeping in. Even with my Six Flags season pass I feel the park days are so infrequent (10 total park days this year including 2 trips to our non-home parks) that I still see a major benefit to rope dropping for the rides.

With the 6Flags season pass I have found myself ready to leave the park earlier now as the crowds from 1-4pm are just nuts and not worth waiting in line 1hr for most of the major rides. If my WDW visits were more frequent I could see taking up this method or maybe that is when I could start taking in the little things.
 
We do not take Disney vacations to relax. We take other vacations to relax. We go to Disney to ride all the rides - multiple times, whenever possible! Rope drop is key for this objective.

Our family is not a morning family at home, but we don't mind at Disney. We eat breakfast while waiting for rope drop, and we're so bushed by the evening that we have no problem getting to bed before our next fun-filled morning.

#RD4evah

If I were younger and married to someone who likes Disney as much as I do, I imagine I'd be with you to an extent. But I find I'd also like to possibly put in a day where we just hang out at the resorts and/or Disney Springs to unwind. Just the one day to take it slow. Then back to the rides! But I'm older now, and appreciate that down time!
 
There's really no "right" or "wrong" way to tour the parks, so if you'd rather sleep in, have a nice breakfast, and get to the parks at your own pace, it sounds like that would be the best course of action for you. It's nice to get a lot done at Disney, but it's even nicer to be relaxed. After all, you're on vacation!

To answer your question of "why," I just got back from Thanksgiving Week at WDW. I rope dropped (alone, without my family) every day. The parks were crazy crowded that week, and it was important for me to make sure I got on certain rides and did certain things, so I woke up early and got the first bus to the park every day. To me, this was well worth it. For example: when I rope dropped DHS, they opened up Toy Story Land half an hour before the rest of the park. I was finished with Slinky Dog Dash before the park had even opened. Honestly, I'll never forget that morning, it was one of my favorite memories from this last trip.

It sounds like it might be nice for you guys to rope drop a park, and instead of making a mad dash for a ride, grab a cup of Joffrey's coffee and people watch in a quiet spot. The parks can be very quiet in the morning, so if you couple that with cooler temperatures and a nice breakfast, I think you guys might enjoy that. Then, when you're ready, you can move on to some of your favorite attractions while it's still slow at the parks.
 
BTW my DH says I can plan our trip, as long as there's not a lot of waiting in line. To me, rope drop means waiting in line. Like, for an hour. So... since we'll be at EPCOT during IFOA, I imagine there's plenty to do between FP+ and the festival stuff. The other parks should be a bit lower in crowd levels, since we're not going on a weekend. Nope. No rope drop for us.
 
There's really no "right" or "wrong" way to tour the parks, so if you'd rather sleep in, have a nice breakfast, and get to the parks at your own pace, it sounds like that would be the best course of action for you. It's nice to get a lot done at Disney, but it's even nicer to be relaxed. After all, you're on vacation!

To answer your question of "why," I just got back from Thanksgiving Week at WDW. I rope dropped (alone, without my family) every day. The parks were crazy crowded that week, and it was important for me to make sure I got on certain rides and did certain things, so I woke up early and got the first bus to the park every day. To me, this was well worth it. For example: when I rope dropped DHS, they opened up Toy Story Land half an hour before the rest of the park. I was finished with Slinky Dog Dash before the park had even opened. Honestly, I'll never forget that morning, it was one of my favorite memories from this last trip.

It sounds like it might be nice for you guys to rope drop a park, and instead of making a mad dash for a ride, grab a cup of Joffrey's coffee and people watch in a quiet spot. The parks can be very quiet in the morning, so if you couple that with cooler temperatures and a nice breakfast, I think you guys might enjoy that. Then, when you're ready, you can move on to some of your favorite attractions while it's still slow at the parks.

I like this idea! Thanks!
 

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