The Rope Drop

Regardless of all my other advice, or how you fine tune your trip to meet your personal preferences, no other piece of information I can share is more significant than THE ROPE DROP.

If you are like us, you would rather not stand in long lines. And Disney has plenty of them. Generally point of sale lines are well staffed to take your money, however, once they have your money, there will be a line for you to stand in no matter the occasion. You will stand in line at bathrooms, restaurants, bus stops, monorails, turnstiles, concierge desks, elevators, boat docks, fast pass distribution machines, ATM machines, Disney Magical Express, rental car kiosks, bag check points, oh and yes, rides.

With kids at Disney, it's hard work to wake them up, get everyone fed, load up the car, drive to the parks parking lot, take the people mover to the ticket and transportation center, get on the monorail, get through the turnstile, navigate the park to your kids first desired ride only to find a one hour wait. Mastering this process is the key to making each day a success.

Every park has what they call The Rope Drop. It's a short song and dance show they put on 10 minutes or so before they drop the rope and let the first guests in each day.

By arriving at The Rope Drop, you will be able to go straight to your ride and walk right on. And even ride it multiple times with no line. Or ride several rides in that area with no lines.

For example, Magic Kingdom. If you take your kids straight up Main Street to Fantasy Land, you could ride Peter Pan, Snow White Scary Adventure, Winnie The Pooh, Dumbo, the Merry Go Round, and It's a small world, and be done before 11am (assuming a 9am drop). If you showed up there later say after 10am or 11am, you would be there all day trying to finish those rides.

Another example, Toy Story Mania at Hollywood Studios. This is one of the newest and most popular rides. At the Rope Drop each day, thousands of people walk very fast directly to this ride. The Moms walk on the ride with the kids, while the Dads get fast passes to ride it again later. Before the Moms and kids get off the first ride, the fast passes are likely either sold out for the day, or pushed all the day back to 4pm that afternoon. It's a popular ride. So by hitting The Rope Drop, you can walk on, and then head over to Star Wars, Tower of Terror or whatever else. Without standing in long lines.

At the Rope Drop at Epcot, everyone either heads for Soarin or Test Track. And the lines go up to an hour long instantly.

One caveat to the rope drop is.... depending on your energy levels, it may require going to bed early, or missing fireworks either that night or the night before. Our kids (4&6) have gone all day and stayed up for 10pm fireworks, but we definitely paid the price the next day. Plan for some rest time if you think you'll need it.

Another potential caveat to the Rope Drop is Extra Magic Hours (EMH). Knowing EMH schedules plays an important role in doing the Rope Drop. IF you are staying on property, it's good to take advantage of a rope drop/EMH combination because the lines will be even shorter a few hours longer in the morning. If you are NOT staying on property then you should avoid the Rope Drop at a park on a day that has AM EMH, because thousands of guests who are staying on property will already be inside the park, and standing on lines, before you are even allowed in.

Plan for The Rope Drop, allow yourself enough time to get into the park given the transportation you've planned. We've left our hotel as early as 8am for a 9am rope drop when staying in a drive out resort. If you are a monorail stop away from your park, you are much better off for that park, but at a disadvantage for other parks.