"Rope drop" at DHS - totally unprepared for the insanity

[QueenElinor]

It's crazy and we did it once - never again! We always arrive at 9:30am as we don't care about TSM or the Jedi Training so we can skip the madness

I live in Montana for a reason.... I just don't do crowds.
This is going to drive me bonkers, but I want to do it once, as well. It just sounds so fun!

I'll probably be on Xanax the entire week, anyway.

 

[hollygolitely93]

what a jolly good idea-i think you should put this forward to disney!

Or they could build more family friendly rides so the demand wouldn't me so high for TSM

I like the suggestion of not even trying stand by first thing but grab a FP...we built that into our strategy as well.

 

[Disney_Princess83]

I live in Montana for a reason.... I just don't do crowds.
This is going to drive me bonkers, but I want to do it once, as well. It just sounds so fun!

I'll probably be on Xanax the entire week, anyway.

It's AWFUL! The "hysteria" rope drop here creates for a ride is beyond me We just miss it because the two things that people "run" for, we don't particularly care about.

 

[cvjw]

Yes, I agree that once we got through the gate there wasn't much of a stampede. I was just surprised by how many people there were outside of the gates and how long it took me to get through the gates.

In early June, we waited 30 minutes or so just to get thru the security check point at DHS. In all of our trips to Disney, we have never waited more than 10 minutes or so with Disney security. I don't know what it is with DHS, but it just isn't as easy to get into as the other Disney parks.

 

[ghtx]

If you can arrive early enough to get close to the front of a line behind a turnstyle, it makes all the difference in the world.

Agreed. But I figured (incorrectly) that 8:30 was early enough. I guess I was wrong.

The next day I was at Epcot at 7:20 for the 8am EMH open, and I was the first person there. Oh well.

The day after, I got to MK at about 8:45 for the 9am open. We saw the RD show, got in at 9, and rode about four or five rides with no wait in the first hour.

So it was really just at DHS that I had trouble with the opening.

 

[reiella]

We have APs and have been to WDW several times in the past few years. We were at DHS a week ago Sunday with our three boys, and things have certainly changed. In the past, we've always arrived about 1/2 hour before rope drop, been near the front of the rope line and had fun with our speed walk to TSM. Now, it's hard to know when to arrive. When we arrived before 8am for our H&V ADR, guests were already lined up at the regular gates for a 9am opening. Not a few guests - lots of guests - more guests than we usually see when we arrive 1/2 hour early during peak season!

I knew about the fuzzy opening time, but was surprised to see the extent of the domino effect on our plan. Under the old system, we would have been walking out of H&V at rope drop and been on TSM standby. Under the new system, guests had been entering for quite some time and by 9am "opening" the line for TSM was already longer than we were willing to wait. So we grabbed FPs for TSM, which had an impact on our plans for the rest of the day.

Next time, we'll have a different strategy from the start. I think it will involve FPs for TSM from the beginning with no attempt to ride standby. We'll plan to stick around long enough so that we can pull FPs for RnR and use them after lunch. Easy to adjust - just different.

TSMM is probably the one ride that everyone knows gets long early, and it's also probably the one ride that is must-ride for their kids who can't pass height restrictions at that park.

Or they could build more family friendly rides so the demand wouldn't me so high for TSM

I like the suggestion of not even trying stand by first thing but grab a FP...we built that into our strategy as well.

Quite, part of the problem is that DHS has the focus on shows. Which are pretty good mind you, it's just that folks still want the rides. And given that in the morning, your choices are just among the rides anyway, I'm not too sure how to approach it short of 'more rides'.