DisneyMomKB
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- Aug 21, 2014
August 2014 WDW Trip, 5 Days of Rope Drops, 6 "First Ride of the Day" Experiences
Greetings! Decade-long lurker, first-time poster here. Many thanks for all the tips from this board, used during 18 trips over the past 11 years. We've had many wonderful Disney travels (WDW, DL, DCL Cruises, Vero Beach, and Hilton Head Island) with terrific strategies learned here. I was a bit worried about a first trip with FP+, so decided that Rope Drop would be a must for us every day.
This isn't really a trip report; it's more of a deep dive into the first 30-60 minutes of each of our park touring days. I want to share our recent rope drop experiences at all of the parks, so I finally broke down and registered as a DIS Member. We were a party of 5, myself, DH, DS 13, DNephew 13, and DD 10. I sought every hint I could find on the boards for current rope drop Best Practices, and felt I had a sound plan for each Park. Some of my Rope Drop plans worked well, others did not, but we still managed to course correct to the front of the herd and make it to the First Ride, so I thought I would share what we did, as well as what we wish we had done, in case this benefits anyone else.
Our park-touring days were 8/11 - 8/15, generally Level 7 crowds with scorching heat. As DVC Members, we stayed in the Beach Club Villas; we took taxis to the parks each day, ranging from $13 - $22 after tip, even to Epcot and Hollywood Studios, as we didn't want to risk losing time at International Gateway and/or getting tired before our day even started at HS. On our MK Days, we had the taxi drop us off at Bay Lake Tower and took the short walkway to MK. I did not want to risk losing time to inactive monorails, ferries, busses, or any other transportation issue beyond my control. Rope Drop was a main priority of our plan! Somehow, by Day 3, that morphed into "First Ride of the Day" was a secondary goal.
Apologies in advance for the long posts per Park. Sharing this much detail because I wish I had had access to this kind of information before our trip. If this should be posted elsewhere, kindly let me know. Thanks!
Greetings! Decade-long lurker, first-time poster here. Many thanks for all the tips from this board, used during 18 trips over the past 11 years. We've had many wonderful Disney travels (WDW, DL, DCL Cruises, Vero Beach, and Hilton Head Island) with terrific strategies learned here. I was a bit worried about a first trip with FP+, so decided that Rope Drop would be a must for us every day.
This isn't really a trip report; it's more of a deep dive into the first 30-60 minutes of each of our park touring days. I want to share our recent rope drop experiences at all of the parks, so I finally broke down and registered as a DIS Member. We were a party of 5, myself, DH, DS 13, DNephew 13, and DD 10. I sought every hint I could find on the boards for current rope drop Best Practices, and felt I had a sound plan for each Park. Some of my Rope Drop plans worked well, others did not, but we still managed to course correct to the front of the herd and make it to the First Ride, so I thought I would share what we did, as well as what we wish we had done, in case this benefits anyone else.
Our park-touring days were 8/11 - 8/15, generally Level 7 crowds with scorching heat. As DVC Members, we stayed in the Beach Club Villas; we took taxis to the parks each day, ranging from $13 - $22 after tip, even to Epcot and Hollywood Studios, as we didn't want to risk losing time at International Gateway and/or getting tired before our day even started at HS. On our MK Days, we had the taxi drop us off at Bay Lake Tower and took the short walkway to MK. I did not want to risk losing time to inactive monorails, ferries, busses, or any other transportation issue beyond my control. Rope Drop was a main priority of our plan! Somehow, by Day 3, that morphed into "First Ride of the Day" was a secondary goal.
Apologies in advance for the long posts per Park. Sharing this much detail because I wish I had had access to this kind of information before our trip. If this should be posted elsewhere, kindly let me know. Thanks!