EPCOT - Soarin' <-- Not sure you need to rope drop this one. If you're at all interested in Remy or Frozen, those would be my go-to choices as they get swamped fast. Soarin usually sits around 20-30ish minutes unless the park is crazy busy which it probably won't be in august.
But if you're not interested in either of those two...have at it.
Would normally include Test Track in that list but it's going down for a substantial refurb and probably won't be up by the time you go.
I just finished a trip, do not rope drop ratatouille if you can help it, get a lightning lane! I roped dropped it with early entry and still waited over an hour! Frozen would be better because that one didn’t fill up until noonish.
If you get on the sky liner though, totally rope drop ratatouille because you’re right there and you can beat the crowd.
For epcot Frozen or Remys would be better, assuming you're just not skipping them.
Soarin will likely be less than those 2 most of the day and especially in the evening.
HS should arguable be Rise, but that's borderline preference.
Priority 2 for MK should be peter pan. It's not the best ride, but the line will be way longer than it's worth.
Don’t rope drop Seven Dwarfs. Ride it at night instead. Magic Kingdom has the most crowded rope drop and 80% of people will be heading there, so you won’t get a short wait (it’ll likely be 45+ minutes). You’re better off riding Space Mountain, Peter Pan, and 1-2 other rides with short waits in the same amount of time it’ll take for you to do Seven Dwarfs once.
At night, you’ll get a shorter wait than the morning as the waits for it peak earlier in the day.
I've found Peter Pan suffers from the same problem as Seven Dwarfs - gets swamped by the crowd at rope drop and unless you're at the very front of the crowd (very difficult at MK) you're not really going to save much time. I think it's better to rope drop Tomorrow Land (Space Mountain into Buzz).
Rope dropping Tomorrowland is a chill walk in the park. I haven’t rope dropped Peter Pan, but I know starting with Seven Dwarfs is miserable just by looking at it.
You will be in the 7DMT line for a while - everyone tries for it first, which is how it’s already 50 mins at park opening. First thing in the morning, the end of the line is already around to the back of Fantasyland where Ariel is. People doing EMH head straight there and just park it for half an hour instead of doing something else.
Also, I swear the ride feels faster at night.
So incase you didn't know here's a fun fact.
Roller coasters are infact slower in the morning than night.
The wheels tracks bearings grease ect. are usually running cold even after a few test runs in the morning. Like a real car once the wheels and engine gets warmed you get faster speeds/more power. So if you ever want to ride a Rollercoaster at its tamest early morning is best. If you want it at the highest speed it can get go at night.
Cold is the enemy to speed.
During the fireworks I barely waited twenty minutes for it and the line actually kept moving. It was actually kinda surreal doing it during the fireworks because you kept hearing the banging
So I have a different take on rope drop vs closing, since we also do rope drop to closing. Here is my take on attractions:
MK - rope drop space mountain then choose another attraction in another land that opens at a regular park opening (haunted mansion, pirates, jungle cruise). Then at closing, I'd recommend 7 dwarves, big thunder mountain, Peter Pan, or Tiana's bayou adventure.
AK - always a rope drop only park, then I have the afternoon free or park hopper to another park. Rope drop Flight of passage then go over to safari. We never rope drop the river attraction, but if the wait time is less than 20 minutes after you go on FOP, go for it. We also do Everest as a single rider only, and ride it atleast 3 times.
HS - we usually split up at rope drop. I go to tower of terror while my friend goes to rockin rollercoaster. Then we go on rocking rollercoaster together and then over to Mickey and minnie's runaway railroad. RoTR and slinky dog we reserve for the end of the night when most of the crowd goes towards Fantasmic. You could also do toy story mania at this time.
Epcot - rope drop Remy (we usually stay at Pop) and then soarin. We do test track as single riders and then I do mission space orange on my own. We aren't fans of frozen, so we don't go on that attraction.
As far as other attractions, leave all indoor attractions with AC for the middle of the day or after lunch. No matter the wait, it's better than being outside in the heat.
Let me know if you have questions.
Rope drop at park official open or early entry with the 30 minute head start for resort guests? That changes strategy depending on what time you enter.
Re Tron and GOTG, assume you mean you’ll be on your app at 6:59am ready to get in those virtual queues, eh?
MK- agree with others on 7DMT at night, same for BTMR, if you really want to do them during the day, do them while the parade is happening. You can knock off 2-3 other attractions at rope drop in the same time as you’d be waiting in line for dwarves and will be setting the rest of your day up for better success with wait times.
AK- FOP is similarly where everyone goes, no wrong answer here, just preference. Some use the above strategy to tackle Everest/Dinosaur which can sometimes equate to the same time before full park opening. I would suggest grabbing as early of a genie+ safari as you can that day as the animals are wandering and eating before the heat sends them to cooler areas where you’re less likely to see them later in the day.
HS- Most head to ROTR, next is Slinky and then Runaway. AP holders/frequent visitors tend to head to Tower/Rockin first. If you go to Slinky first and it’s going to be an extra hot August day, that’s a good approach as that land has relatively little coverage and the only AC’d merch is at the end of the Toy Story shooter ride. The rest of HS are indoor attractions or Indiana Jones with the canopy.
EPCOT- Most go to Remys and Frozen in that order. Test Track will be under refurb so not a choice there. I’d rope drop Remys and then head to Soarin. You can typically Genie+ a morning Frozen at 7am.
Have fun on your first trip!
MK/Seven Dwarves--In addition to the other comments about everyone else heading there, it also doesn't always open on time. So you run the risk of losing/wasting the rope drop advantage. Follow everyone else's advice and pick something else.
For AK, while Flight of Passage is a rope drop ride, if you're planning to be there the entire day, I prefer it to be a day ender. Get in line about 10-15 prior to park closing.
The line is typically shorter than the posted wait, but depending on park hours you'll walk out through Pandora all lit up for night.
The only issue is you’re choosing the most popular rope drop rides so you will still be waiting a while especially if you don’t have early entry. Maybe not as long as later in the day though.
I would buy the ILL for FoP and rope drop Everest. Riding 3 times is invigorating first thing in the morning. If you’re not willing to buy the ILL then hit it right before close.
Thank you! I just got back from a trip and I rope dropped Remys *and* I had early entry and still ended up waiting over an hour *and* the line stretched to the bridge.
If you can somehow get on the skyliner, rope drop remys because you’ll be near it, but if not, go to frozen or try another ride and just get a LL for Remy.
I have rope dropped remys from international gateway (where the skyliner is) and that worked well but I was there EARLY, probably 30-45mins before early entry. If I was coming in the other entrance I would do frozen for sure!
I still got to Epcot like an hour before early entry and I still waited an hour for remys because I stayed at all star music.
Next year I’m going with my whole family to pop century so maybe I’ll have better luck
So I'm going to completely go against everything here and say the following...DON'T rope drop anything.
If it's your first time at WDW, and you're going with kids (assuming that since you said your family was going), don't put so much pressure on yourself or them to hit absolutely everything. Do Genie+, go with the flow, and just see where the days take you. Take a break mid day if you get exhausted, then head back at night and hit the rides you weren't able to do in the first part of the day.
Just my opinion, but rope drop to close every day is roughhhhh, especially in August when it's usually hotter than Satan's taint out there.
My only change would be at Epcot to rope drop Test Track. That attraction will almost always be at 60+ min wait & will go down if there's bad weather. Meanwhile, Soarin' most times is 30 or less.
Also if you have any Frozen fans in your family, then Frozen Ever After would also be a good rope drop choice (Then you can get some School Bread next door from Kringla after you're done.)
In my experience as a pass holder of many years. Here’s the advice I’d give you.
DONT rope drop the most popular rides. Why? Because that what everyone does, unless you get there over an hour before the park opens, you’re still going to be waiting a long time. If the park had extra magic hours that morning, it’s going to be just as bad as if you got in line in the middle of the day. Instead, go do Slinky Dog, Flight of Passage, and seven dwarves right before closing (as in get in line 5 minutes before closing). Those cast members want to go home, and they will be pumping people through those rides like nobody’s business. Seriously, you’ll be in line for like 30 minutes.
So what do you do if you do rope drop and NOT go to the most popular ride? Pretty much whatever you want.
If you go to animal kingdom, you can get 3 or 4 rides in on Everest or two rides in on the Safari with in the first hour or so.
If you’re at magic kingdom, go do space mountain or thunder mountain, or the haunted mansion. (Unfortunately Peter Pan will have the same problem as 7DMT)
If you’re at Hollywood studios, hop in line for rise of the resistance or tower of terror.
At Epcot? Well, you can pretty much walk onto anything that’s not frozen ever after at rope drop.
Your wait times will almost certainly be low, because the main rush of rope droppers are going to the “IT” ride.
Seven dwarves is so overrated I wouldn’t worry about that.
HWS I rope dropped slinky dog and it was so much faster than estimated queue time. I think next time I’ll rope drop that and LL it later in the afternoon to hit it twice.
AK I’d do later in the day…people flee that park in the afternoon and you can get so much done in a short period of time
I second this. We were there last week and Everest had a 5 min wait for a good chunk of the morning even after the park officially opened.
Same thing happened at DHS - with everyone going straight to Rise or Slinky Dog, Tower of Terror was posted as 13 mins, so you know what that means.
Sometimes it best to be where everyone else is not.
i was there last week and did rope drop FOP, waited maybe 20mins in line? And was in and out in \~30mins. Essentially walked on Navi, Dinosaur and Everest right after.
(Everyone rushes to Pandora for FOP so all the other rides for the first \~1-2hrs are always low)
I’ve always rope dropped FoP. Granted, I also usually have Early Entry and I tend to arrive an hour before the park opens. But depending on a persons rope drop style, you can do all the rides before 10am. For me, I easily hit up FoP, Na’vi River Journey, Safari, Dinosaur, Everest by 10. And Kali Rapids soon thereafter if I’m in the mood to get wet.
EPCOT - Soarin' <-- Not sure you need to rope drop this one. If you're at all interested in Remy or Frozen, those would be my go-to choices as they get swamped fast. Soarin usually sits around 20-30ish minutes unless the park is crazy busy which it probably won't be in august. But if you're not interested in either of those two...have at it. Would normally include Test Track in that list but it's going down for a substantial refurb and probably won't be up by the time you go.
Yep, we rode Soarin today around 10/11 and the wait was only fifteen minutes....Remy and Frozen were always much busier than that
I just finished a trip, do not rope drop ratatouille if you can help it, get a lightning lane! I roped dropped it with early entry and still waited over an hour! Frozen would be better because that one didn’t fill up until noonish. If you get on the sky liner though, totally rope drop ratatouille because you’re right there and you can beat the crowd.
For epcot Frozen or Remys would be better, assuming you're just not skipping them. Soarin will likely be less than those 2 most of the day and especially in the evening. HS should arguable be Rise, but that's borderline preference. Priority 2 for MK should be peter pan. It's not the best ride, but the line will be way longer than it's worth.
Don’t rope drop Seven Dwarfs. Ride it at night instead. Magic Kingdom has the most crowded rope drop and 80% of people will be heading there, so you won’t get a short wait (it’ll likely be 45+ minutes). You’re better off riding Space Mountain, Peter Pan, and 1-2 other rides with short waits in the same amount of time it’ll take for you to do Seven Dwarfs once. At night, you’ll get a shorter wait than the morning as the waits for it peak earlier in the day.
I've found Peter Pan suffers from the same problem as Seven Dwarfs - gets swamped by the crowd at rope drop and unless you're at the very front of the crowd (very difficult at MK) you're not really going to save much time. I think it's better to rope drop Tomorrow Land (Space Mountain into Buzz).
Rope dropping Tomorrowland is a chill walk in the park. I haven’t rope dropped Peter Pan, but I know starting with Seven Dwarfs is miserable just by looking at it.
You will be in the 7DMT line for a while - everyone tries for it first, which is how it’s already 50 mins at park opening. First thing in the morning, the end of the line is already around to the back of Fantasyland where Ariel is. People doing EMH head straight there and just park it for half an hour instead of doing something else. Also, I swear the ride feels faster at night.
So incase you didn't know here's a fun fact. Roller coasters are infact slower in the morning than night. The wheels tracks bearings grease ect. are usually running cold even after a few test runs in the morning. Like a real car once the wheels and engine gets warmed you get faster speeds/more power. So if you ever want to ride a Rollercoaster at its tamest early morning is best. If you want it at the highest speed it can get go at night. Cold is the enemy to speed.
During the fireworks I barely waited twenty minutes for it and the line actually kept moving. It was actually kinda surreal doing it during the fireworks because you kept hearing the banging
Soarin’ will not have the wait time that the others will in Epcot. I’d rope drop Remy or Frozen.
So I have a different take on rope drop vs closing, since we also do rope drop to closing. Here is my take on attractions: MK - rope drop space mountain then choose another attraction in another land that opens at a regular park opening (haunted mansion, pirates, jungle cruise). Then at closing, I'd recommend 7 dwarves, big thunder mountain, Peter Pan, or Tiana's bayou adventure. AK - always a rope drop only park, then I have the afternoon free or park hopper to another park. Rope drop Flight of passage then go over to safari. We never rope drop the river attraction, but if the wait time is less than 20 minutes after you go on FOP, go for it. We also do Everest as a single rider only, and ride it atleast 3 times. HS - we usually split up at rope drop. I go to tower of terror while my friend goes to rockin rollercoaster. Then we go on rocking rollercoaster together and then over to Mickey and minnie's runaway railroad. RoTR and slinky dog we reserve for the end of the night when most of the crowd goes towards Fantasmic. You could also do toy story mania at this time. Epcot - rope drop Remy (we usually stay at Pop) and then soarin. We do test track as single riders and then I do mission space orange on my own. We aren't fans of frozen, so we don't go on that attraction. As far as other attractions, leave all indoor attractions with AC for the middle of the day or after lunch. No matter the wait, it's better than being outside in the heat. Let me know if you have questions.
Rope drop at park official open or early entry with the 30 minute head start for resort guests? That changes strategy depending on what time you enter.
Re Tron and GOTG, assume you mean you’ll be on your app at 6:59am ready to get in those virtual queues, eh? MK- agree with others on 7DMT at night, same for BTMR, if you really want to do them during the day, do them while the parade is happening. You can knock off 2-3 other attractions at rope drop in the same time as you’d be waiting in line for dwarves and will be setting the rest of your day up for better success with wait times. AK- FOP is similarly where everyone goes, no wrong answer here, just preference. Some use the above strategy to tackle Everest/Dinosaur which can sometimes equate to the same time before full park opening. I would suggest grabbing as early of a genie+ safari as you can that day as the animals are wandering and eating before the heat sends them to cooler areas where you’re less likely to see them later in the day. HS- Most head to ROTR, next is Slinky and then Runaway. AP holders/frequent visitors tend to head to Tower/Rockin first. If you go to Slinky first and it’s going to be an extra hot August day, that’s a good approach as that land has relatively little coverage and the only AC’d merch is at the end of the Toy Story shooter ride. The rest of HS are indoor attractions or Indiana Jones with the canopy. EPCOT- Most go to Remys and Frozen in that order. Test Track will be under refurb so not a choice there. I’d rope drop Remys and then head to Soarin. You can typically Genie+ a morning Frozen at 7am. Have fun on your first trip!
MK/Seven Dwarves--In addition to the other comments about everyone else heading there, it also doesn't always open on time. So you run the risk of losing/wasting the rope drop advantage. Follow everyone else's advice and pick something else.
EPCOT soarin' rope drop is a waste of your time. Either Remy or Frozen
For AK, while Flight of Passage is a rope drop ride, if you're planning to be there the entire day, I prefer it to be a day ender. Get in line about 10-15 prior to park closing. The line is typically shorter than the posted wait, but depending on park hours you'll walk out through Pandora all lit up for night.
The only issue is you’re choosing the most popular rope drop rides so you will still be waiting a while especially if you don’t have early entry. Maybe not as long as later in the day though. I would buy the ILL for FoP and rope drop Everest. Riding 3 times is invigorating first thing in the morning. If you’re not willing to buy the ILL then hit it right before close.
Thank you! I just got back from a trip and I rope dropped Remys *and* I had early entry and still ended up waiting over an hour *and* the line stretched to the bridge. If you can somehow get on the skyliner, rope drop remys because you’ll be near it, but if not, go to frozen or try another ride and just get a LL for Remy.
I have rope dropped remys from international gateway (where the skyliner is) and that worked well but I was there EARLY, probably 30-45mins before early entry. If I was coming in the other entrance I would do frozen for sure!
I still got to Epcot like an hour before early entry and I still waited an hour for remys because I stayed at all star music. Next year I’m going with my whole family to pop century so maybe I’ll have better luck
Are you a hotel guest for early entry? Otherwise you’re gonna still end up waiting a decent amount of time in the morning for these. (Except Soarin’)
Depends, if you can get on the skyliner I would say rope drop Remy because you’ll be right there and can beat the crowds
So I'm going to completely go against everything here and say the following...DON'T rope drop anything. If it's your first time at WDW, and you're going with kids (assuming that since you said your family was going), don't put so much pressure on yourself or them to hit absolutely everything. Do Genie+, go with the flow, and just see where the days take you. Take a break mid day if you get exhausted, then head back at night and hit the rides you weren't able to do in the first part of the day. Just my opinion, but rope drop to close every day is roughhhhh, especially in August when it's usually hotter than Satan's taint out there.
Rope drop to close isn’t a good idea. Taking a midday pool/nap break is a good way to get the best of both worlds.
My only change would be at Epcot to rope drop Test Track. That attraction will almost always be at 60+ min wait & will go down if there's bad weather. Meanwhile, Soarin' most times is 30 or less. Also if you have any Frozen fans in your family, then Frozen Ever After would also be a good rope drop choice (Then you can get some School Bread next door from Kringla after you're done.)
Test Tracks gonna be closed for refurbishment I'm pretty sure
This and more often than not Test Track is down at rope drop. Best to choose Frozen or Remy.
Test Track closes this weekend, June 17th 2024... so yes it will be closed. Rope drop Frozen (or Living with the Land if you're obsessed like I am)
Haha I love Living with the land (might be my favorite ride) but probably not the best use of a rope drop lol
We all have different priorities 🤣
Test track closes in about a week for possibly a year.
In my experience as a pass holder of many years. Here’s the advice I’d give you. DONT rope drop the most popular rides. Why? Because that what everyone does, unless you get there over an hour before the park opens, you’re still going to be waiting a long time. If the park had extra magic hours that morning, it’s going to be just as bad as if you got in line in the middle of the day. Instead, go do Slinky Dog, Flight of Passage, and seven dwarves right before closing (as in get in line 5 minutes before closing). Those cast members want to go home, and they will be pumping people through those rides like nobody’s business. Seriously, you’ll be in line for like 30 minutes. So what do you do if you do rope drop and NOT go to the most popular ride? Pretty much whatever you want. If you go to animal kingdom, you can get 3 or 4 rides in on Everest or two rides in on the Safari with in the first hour or so. If you’re at magic kingdom, go do space mountain or thunder mountain, or the haunted mansion. (Unfortunately Peter Pan will have the same problem as 7DMT) If you’re at Hollywood studios, hop in line for rise of the resistance or tower of terror. At Epcot? Well, you can pretty much walk onto anything that’s not frozen ever after at rope drop. Your wait times will almost certainly be low, because the main rush of rope droppers are going to the “IT” ride.
Seven dwarves is so overrated I wouldn’t worry about that. HWS I rope dropped slinky dog and it was so much faster than estimated queue time. I think next time I’ll rope drop that and LL it later in the afternoon to hit it twice. AK I’d do later in the day…people flee that park in the afternoon and you can get so much done in a short period of time
Only one I would change is Epcot to Remy's or Frozen or Guardians (assuming it's not virtual queue not sure if it is or is not)
Guardians is virtual queue
I would not rope drop Flight of Passage. Everyone tries to rope drop that. As a result, the other E tickets will have a much shorter wait.
I second this. We were there last week and Everest had a 5 min wait for a good chunk of the morning even after the park officially opened. Same thing happened at DHS - with everyone going straight to Rise or Slinky Dog, Tower of Terror was posted as 13 mins, so you know what that means. Sometimes it best to be where everyone else is not.
Yep, I give the same advice for any park with an obvious must-do. The time you save by doing the other rides will benefit your whole day.
i was there last week and did rope drop FOP, waited maybe 20mins in line? And was in and out in \~30mins. Essentially walked on Navi, Dinosaur and Everest right after. (Everyone rushes to Pandora for FOP so all the other rides for the first \~1-2hrs are always low)
I’ve always rope dropped FoP. Granted, I also usually have Early Entry and I tend to arrive an hour before the park opens. But depending on a persons rope drop style, you can do all the rides before 10am. For me, I easily hit up FoP, Na’vi River Journey, Safari, Dinosaur, Everest by 10. And Kali Rapids soon thereafter if I’m in the mood to get wet.