Rope-dropping BTMR

[Joe Arkansas]

Our MK strategy for our upcoming visit July 20-26 has been to rope-drop BTMR, then work counter-clockwise through the park, hitting Splash, Pirates, and Jungle Cruise. The idea has been to avoid the mayhem connected with the rope-drop rush to 7DMT, and have a slightly more relaxed rope-drop experience. (Especially since we will have grandparents with us on their first trip.)

However, while stalking MDE on a regular basis, I am noticing wait times climbing quickly in the morning for both BTMR and Splash. For instance, at 9:05 am today, the wait time for BTMR was 60 minutes, and the wait time for Splash was 65 (compared to 70 for 7DMT). It is not an EMH day, FYI.

Is this accurate? For those who have been there recently, can you share any insight on the early morning experience in Frontierland?

We had also planned a similar strategy for AK, eschewing Pandora at rope-drop for Kilamanjaro Safaris -- but I noticed the 9:05 wait time at KS was 55 minutes -- far longer than I expected. I am wondering if we need to rethink our strategy. Or at least prepare for a more hectic rope-drop experience than we had planned on.

 

[Robo]

Don't change your plans.

 

[Gehrig1B]

Your plans are how we do it. I would stay with what you have.

 

[GADisneyDad14]

On my last few BTMR rope drop experiences (April and May), they've annoyingly been only running one side of BTMR first thing in the morning, which causes the line/wait to spike. It's not all that bad, just not as fast moving as if both lines are running. YMMV though.

I agree, stick with your plan.

 

[juxtapose]

We rode Splash in May on a hot day at 10ish and the wait was less than 20 minutes.

 

[SillySallySews]

We do rope drop at the Magic Kingdom very similar to you, except we start at Jungle Cruise and work our way around in the opposite direction. We usually get to Splash around 10 and have never waited an hour for that or BTMRR. I would not change your plans.

 

[cgattis]

Just make sure you keep an eye on park hours daily so you know when rope drop will actually be. Disney can change those at the fairly last minute.

 

[stinkpickle]

You're going to be in a little mayhem just getting into the park before the 7DMT rush splits off, but it's definitely worth it. Get there early (even early for rope drop standards) and execute that plan.

 

[nevergrowup5]

We had the same issue with only 1 side running at opening. We were at the rope when it dropped and waited 30 minutes at BTMR. We did Splash right after and only waited about 5 minutes. We walked onto Safaris at rope drop, but make sure you are there early. By 9:05 I can believe there would be a good wait.

 

[AKBrewer84]

Our MK strategy for our upcoming visit July 20-26 has been to rope-drop BTMR, then work counter-clockwise through the park, hitting Splash, Pirates, and Jungle Cruise. The idea has been to avoid the mayhem connected with the rope-drop rush to 7DMT, and have a slightly more relaxed rope-drop experience. (Especially since we will have grandparents with us on their first trip.)

However, while stalking MDE on a regular basis, I am noticing wait times climbing quickly in the morning for both BTMR and Splash. For instance, at 9:05 am today, the wait time for BTMR was 60 minutes, and the wait time for Splash was 65 (compared to 70 for 7DMT). It is not an EMH day, FYI.

Is this accurate? For those who have been there recently, can you share any insight on the early morning experience in Frontierland?

We had also planned a similar strategy for AK, eschewing Pandora at rope-drop for Kilamanjaro Safaris -- but I noticed the 9:05 wait time at KS was 55 minutes -- far longer than I expected. I am wondering if we need to rethink our strategy. Or at least prepare for a more hectic rope-drop experience than we had planned on.

Yes, unfortunately this has changed recently. That has always been our strategy as well but the last time we were there Big Thunder had a 75 minute line pretty quick and Splash didn't look much better.

 

[TheSouthernBelle]

That's our plan for our early august trip so I will have to keep an eye on AM opening wait times. We've always done that since we don't bother with 7DMT unless we have a FP+. We've always gotten on Pirates, BTMR and Splash with little to no wait even on EMH days. If hour plus waits are still around at rope drop in August, I will move to plan B, hit Jungle Cruise and Pirates first and then leave Splash and BTMR for park closing.

 

[DisneyFive]

We've done your proposed schedule multiple times and it really is a more relaxing way to start the day. Plus you get both BTMRR and SPLASH knocked out early so there is not need to go all the way back that side of park later if you don't want. Throw in Pirates and you've done a lot of good attractions in short order.

Dan

 

[JETSDAD]

We also typically start with BTM and Splash but then we save Adventureland for later because it is easy to pick up additional FP's later in the day there.

 

[NickC]

That is our usual plan of attack for day 1 at MK. Then, day 2 we RD Space Mountain and stay on the right side of the park.

 

[MomOTwins]

We split up at rope drop: me with the twins on BTMRR and my DH took my DS who was too small to ride a coaster on POTC. My DH rode POTC and took a boat ride to Tom Sawyer island and back by the time we were done on BTMRR (around 9:25, after the rope drop at 8:50). It was definitely due to the only-running-one-side issue. I don't think we will rope drop it again. We will rope drop Space instead, which consistently seems to just be a 10 minute wait at rope drop, and get a FP for BTMRR

 

[Isabelle12345]

We actuallly did this last weekend and were very successful
We even did 7DMT at 9:00 with a PPO reservation at BOG, then walked (fast!) to BTMR and had less than 10 min wait, then Splash with less than 15 min, then pirates with less than 15
We used the lines to guide us on whether we had time for pirates before our next FP and they were right on point (all the attractions showed 10 min more wait on the MDE app vs lines and lines was right each time)

 

[SamanthaH]

Our MK strategy for our upcoming visit July 20-26 has been to rope-drop BTMR, then work counter-clockwise through the park, hitting Splash, Pirates, and Jungle Cruise. The idea has been to avoid the mayhem connected with the rope-drop rush to 7DMT, and have a slightly more relaxed rope-drop experience. (Especially since we will have grandparents with us on their first trip.)

However, while stalking MDE on a regular basis, I am noticing wait times climbing quickly in the morning for both BTMR and Splash. For instance, at 9:05 am today, the wait time for BTMR was 60 minutes, and the wait time for Splash was 65 (compared to 70 for 7DMT). It is not an EMH day, FYI.

Is this accurate? For those who have been there recently, can you share any insight on the early morning experience in Frontierland?

We had also planned a similar strategy for AK, eschewing Pandora at rope-drop for Kilamanjaro Safaris -- but I noticed the 9:05 wait time at KS was 55 minutes -- far longer than I expected. I am wondering if we need to rethink our strategy. Or at least prepare for a more hectic rope-drop experience than we had planned on.

That is really odd... about the 60 min wait time for BTMR at 9:05am. I have been watching wait times all month (although not this morning), and I have seen times more along the lines of 10-20 minutes in the first 30 minutes. For example, right now at 6pm ET, the posted wait time is 45 minutes. I would keep my plans, and if you arrive, and it is over 20 minutes, hit Splash first and then check back.

 

[Kerriowl]

We did MK in mid June. One day we needed to rope drop 7DMT. We had planned to use our all experience fastpass for Splash after that. We ended up not needing it as the Splash line was only 15 minutes (and that is with BTMR not running.

 

[PrincessVi]

I watched wait times before our trip this year. I think Disney's strategy of controlling crowd flow using fast passes is highly effective. There were crowds for rides that are usually not headliners. Often those third pick fastpasses were rides I wouldn't transverse an entire park to go to specifically, but it's hard to deny the compulsion when you booked the fastpass so far in advance and it's in your itinerary. Less savvy folks at using the My Disney app probably don't juggle fastpasses. If newbies get a 9:15 BTMR fastpass they wouldn't stop and think, I shouldn't need a fastpass at that time in the morning, they would think they got lucky. Disney running the rides at lower capacity ties folks up at certain rides for an unnecessarily long time. It pulls people away from headliners though, so people aren't posting ten hour wait times for 7DMT. If they don't want a line somewhere just increase the number of fast passes somewhere else. Also, I think that at MK more than at other parks people using the refresh strategy take fast passes as early as possible so they can burn through the first three and get more.

I found wait times to be fairly accurate even in the PM when I had hoped they where elevated.

AK was opening a half hour earlier than the scheduled opening time. They seem to let people right on FOP and Everest but other rides like Navi they were encouraging folks to look around the land and the Safari they were letting people queue but not loading vehicles until closer to scheduled opening.

 

[Randomsoulshine]

Sad to hear of long waits at rope drop for BTMR. Last year in June we rode it three times with little to no wait back to back. I’m guessing they were still running both sides back then.