If you haven’t heard the term Rope Drop, I am so glad that you are here. And even if you have, I am happy you’ve joined in the discussion around this age old question, “To Rope Drop or Not to Rope Drop?”

Rope Drop Basics

The term “Rope Drop” comes from the tradition of Cast Members dropping a long white rope that acts as the barrier between the early morning guests and the lands they are eager to explore. At a specific time — typically park open at 8 o’clock, but occasionally a few minutes before — the Cast Members will “drop the rope” and welcome guests into the lands. 

Each park has a different location for these ropes. In Disneyland Park, it’s found at the entrance of each land. At EPCOT, the current location is either side of Spaceship Earth. The placement of the rope doesn’t particularly matter in this case, other than how close you are to it if you are starting your park day in the early morning. Those coveted spots right near the front are not easily won, and often require a double or triple Rope Drop.

But, before we get into all that, let’s clarify what the term truly means. 

What is Rope Drop?

In its most basic explanation, to Rope Drop means to be early, to be first in line, or to be one of the first guests admitted in a theme park. Rope Dropping means a very early wake up, often a good amount of preparation the night before, and likely no real breakfast. It also occasionally involves some rushing, lots of waiting around, and more frequently than not, a good amount of stress. 

With all of that — why would anyone, on what is supposed to be a vacation, willingly choose to Rope Drop? That’s what we are here to find out. 

Pros and Cons of Rope Drop

I figured a Pros and Cons list wouldn’t necessarily be the best way to get to the bottom of this, but it was a good start. As previously mentioned, several of the cons to Rope Drop are obvious. You often have to make your plans in advance, you must get up extremely early, and you often arrive before park facilities like breakfast dining locations are open for business.

Now that several of the cons are out of the way, let’s get into the good stuff.  

The biggest reason people choose to Rope Drop is simply because you get to be some of the very first people in the park. In other words, you are there for the magic that comes with park opening. This is especially true if you are at a park that only opens certain lands for Early Hotel Guest Access (more on that later).

When you are one of the early birds at a Disney park, you truly do get the worm. Being in the park as soon as it opens allows you to get in the queue for a ride when there is little to no line. This specifically includes rides like Radiator Springs Racers in California Adventure that average a 60-70 minute wait almost every day of the year, and maintain that high wait time throughout the day. 

Lightning Lane Alternatives

Radiator Springs Racers, as well as some of the other heavy hitter, E-Ticket attractions, offer a Lighting Lane Single Pass that you can buy. However, this means spending more money on top of an already expensive trip. The most popular rides in the park are not included in the regular Lightning Lane Multi Pass and are an additional purchase, even if you have already chosen to add the Multi Pass option to your ticket.

Below is a list of the attractions that require the purchase of Lightning Lane Single Pass to skip the usual standby line:

• Disneyland Park – Rise of the Resistance 
• Disney California Adventure – Radiator Springs Racers 
• Magic Kingdom – Seven Dwarfs Mine Train and TRON Lightcycle Run 
• Disney’s Animal Kingdom – Avatar: Flight of Passage
• Disney’s Hollywood Studios -Rise of the Resistance 
• EPCOT – Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind

Arriving to these parks early allows you the opportunity to ride attractions with a significantly lower wait time. Plus, guests can avoid the choice that many will have to make later in the day: to spend over an hour of valuable park time in a line, or shell out $11-$28 per person to skip a large portion of the line. 

Additional Rope Drop Benefits

Even if rides aren’t your jam, the early morning low wait times applies to dining locations or character meet and greets as well. If you want to put your name on the waitlist at Oga’s Cantina in Galaxy’s Edge (the Disneyland Park location stopped taking reservations) or secure a meeting with one of your favorite characters, being early puts you at the front of the pack. 

Getting some of your high priorities out of the way in the beginning of the day sets you up for success. It allows you to stack as much as possible in the first few hours of your visit, and then relax to have brunch or see a show while the majority of guests are just coming into the park. 

Knowing you have capitalized on these quieter hours takes away a good amount of the stress over arriving during the busiest time of the day. You can ride those smaller attractions, fill your time with characters or shopping, and avoid the largest crowds heading to those big attractions by the middle of the day.

Rope Dropping doesn’t guarantee you won’t get caught up in some lines on your Disney parks day, but it does give you the best chance to avoid as many as you can.  

Double and Triple Rope Drop

Now lets circle back to one of the things I mentioned earlier: Double or Triple Rope Dropping. 

To get those prime front row spots during busy times at the Disney parks, some extra measures have to be taken. It isn’t enough just to arrive at the park 15 or 30 minutes before it opens. If you do that, especially in peak crowd times, you will find yourself in some of the worst parking and transportation lines of the morning, resulting in your spot being nowhere near the front of the crowds at the rope. This is where the Double and Triple Rope drop comes into play.

Rope Drop Example Experience

This is best explained with an example of our reporter’s morning plan to go to Disneyland on October 30th of last year. Halloween is one of the busiest time to visit a Disney theme park, especially Disneyland Park or Magic Kingdom. Here is an example schedule to Rope Drop Disneyland Park: 

• 6:30-6:35 a.m. — Arrive at Mickey & Friends Garage
• 7:05-7:10 a.m. — Park and Exit Vehicle
• 7:15-7:20 a.m. — Be on the Parking Tram
• By 7:25 a.m. — Walk up to the Front Gates
• 7:35 – 7:40 a.m. — Be at the Adventureland Entrance

Now, seeing as the park doesn’t officially open until 8 a.m., it might sound crazy that we wanted to get to the parking structure an hour and a half before that. However, to get a spot at the front of the crowd in the castle hub, that’s what we had to do. Here’s why:

The Mickey & Friends Garage opens to allow cars in at 7 a.m. In order to be at the front of the line that builds in the lanes ahead of that opening, we would have to be there at least 15 minutes ahead of time on a normal day, and even earlier on a holiday. Once we passed the parking attendants and the first Rope Drop, we followed the Cast Members’ directions to park our vehicle. That can take anywhere from 5 to 15 minutes. Rope Dropping is all about time, and parking lines can make or break the plan right at the beginning. 

Once we left our vehicle, we had to go through security. At Disneyland Resort, security includes two different points for lines, the bag check or metal detectors, and the wait for the parking tram. The less people in front of you is better, and that trend starts when you’re parking. 

Getting into the Esplanade (the area between the gates to Disneyland Park and Disney California Adventure), we mixed with all the guests walking in from the parking lots, Downtown Disney District, or one of the hotels. This is where we selected a turnstile line, and waited for the second Rope Drop in this scenario.

At Disneyland Park, this second Rope Drop happens at 7:30 a.m., or a few minutes before that if they are anticipating heavy crowds. Once we were officially in the park, we made our way down Main Street, U.S.A. toward the land of our choice, Adventureland. Many guests use this time to stop and take pictures, look at some store fronts, or grab a coffee at Starbucks. We did not. We kept the castle in our sights and walked with a purpose straight to the rope. 

We were not the very first guests there, but we were in the first twenty or thirty guests. That gave us a front row spot in the waiting crowd, and allowed us to be in the first group on Haunted Mansion Holiday, which is the ride with one of the highest wait times during the Halloween season. 

This schedule put us at the front of three waiting crowds, the parking line, the front gate line, and the land entrance line — hence the term Triple Rope Drop. Though there wasn’t an actual rope at two of those spots, the practice is still the same. 

This schedule is definitely a little intense, and it does not need to be implemented for every Disney visit, especially during quieter times of the year. Sometimes a Double (just the front gate and the land) or just a regular Rope Drop is enough to get ahead for the day. 

However, on days like October 30th at Disneyland Park, this strategy let us ride the most popular ride in the park and two other E- Tickets — Pirates of the Caribbean and Big Thunder Mountain — before 9 a.m. It put us in a great spot to get everything we wanted done first thing in the morning, and we were making our way through the biggest attractions before the majority of the day’s guests had even parked their cars.  

Early Hotel Guest Access

Staying on property at one of the Disney Resorts or hotels offers you perks for the higher price tag, one of which is access to the parks 30 minutes before all non-hotel guests. This is bonus time before the parks officially open to knock out some attractions. This access varies from park to park. Though the 30 minute window is universal, the amount of attractions and the areas you can access in that time is not. 

For example, in EPCOT, early hotel guests have access to almost every ride and the entire park, minus some areas in the back, near World Showcase. This is very different from Disneyland Park, where you only have access to Tomorrowland and Fantasyland and their attractions. Over half of the park is excluded from this hotel early access window. 

Regardless of what areas you can visit, an extra 30 minutes of exclusive time before the park even opens is always a big benefit. But, in the case of guests who don’t have that hotel reservation, it will change the strategy you implement going in. 

In locations like Disneyland Park and Magic Kingdom, starting in areas not open to hotel guests like Frontierland or Adventureland will allow you to still capture that no-line and no-wait advantage. In a park with full-area access, like Disney’s Animal Kingdom, regular Rope Drop guests should plan to hit the attractions that weren’t open to hotel guests, such as Kilimanjaro Safaris. These strategies will help you maximize the Rope Drop window and make losing those extra hours of sleep worth it. 

Overall Thoughts

Where does this leave us regarding the question at hand? In many guests’ opinions, Rope Drop is always a good idea. In almost every scenario, it provides invaluable time and opportunity, no matter what you want out of your park day. Similarly, staying in a park till closing and getting in a ride queue minutes before the cut off can also offer a great benefit, particularly if you can’t stand the idea of getting up before 7 a.m. on vacation (but that’s another article). 

Sacrificing sleep and a luxurious breakfast at your hotel for Rope Drop can pay off if getting every minute out of the park day is something that’s important to you. However, that can lead to yawns and dragging feet around the time of a firework spectacular.

Of course, every family’s trip is unique, and just because you Rope Drop one day, doesn’t mean you have to do the same strategy every day. Especially if you are hopping around to multiple parks, or only spending the afternoon or evening in the parks. Overall, Rope Drop can be a valuable and fun experience if planned properly.

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Eden L.