When to arrive at each Park for rope drop for non-resort guests

ikillratz

New Member
Original Poster
I am going to WDW this coming May. We are staying roughly 15 min from each parks parking lot. We are not staying at a Disney Resort. We are mainly concerned with arrival time for Magic Kingdom since we will need to park and then take the tram or ferry to the main entrance. Plus the rope drop has recently changed at magic kingdom since it is now at Cinderella's castle now from what I have read. What is a good time to plan to be parking at magic kingdom? Is 8am to be getting out of our car to early or to late to be one of the first people in the park? We are hoping to be at the front so we can get on the 7 dwarfs minecar first thing.
 

carriebeth

Well-Known Member
I would say that would be early enough to get you inside the park before rope drop. Will you be the very first person waiting, no. But you will be able to get to Seven Dwarfs and ride without much wait at all.
 

sjv

Member
You will want to be in the parking lot at least 90 minutes before opening. It can take any where from 30 minutes to an hour to get from the parking lot to security.
 

ikillratz

New Member
Original Poster
What about the other parks (Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios)? Should I expect to be in their parking lots 90 min before opening (7:30am) are can I be later to be one of the first in the park? For Hollywood Studios we want to ride Toy Story Mania first and at Animal Kingdom we want to do the safari first.
 

sjv

Member
No only MK, all the rest don't take as long so maybe 30 minutes early . Last April we got to AK at 8:30. We ended up waiting about 20 minutes for the park to open. We went straight to the safari and it was about a 10 minute wait. We did the same thing at HS and there was no wait at toy story. If you go to epcot it's a bit longer so maybe 45 minutes . Hope this helps.
 

ikillratz

New Member
Original Poster
Thanks for all the information. So I am thinking I will need to be getting out of my car in the parking lot at MK around 7:30 to get a good spot at the rope drop and get on the 7 dwarfs ride with minimal wait when the part first opens. What transportation method is better to get from the parkign lot to the entrance of MK, is it the ferry boat or the tram?

How about the water parks? Do I need to get there an hour early also?
 

sjv

Member
Tram is probably faster but I like the boat. I'm no help with the water parks , I haven't gone to them.
 

MissingDisney

Well-Known Member
Even if you are first at rope drop it does not necessarily mean you'll be first in line for a ride. There will already be other people in the park due to special events, etc. and if there's morning extra magic hours, they would have already been there for an hour.
At The water parks, they let you in but hold you in a certain place before letting you into the main section. I don't understand the need to get there early for this either. Everyone still has to find a spot for their stuff, to sit, etc. Is standing there waiting for an hour to save you five minutes with it? Only you can decide that.
 

Minnesota disney fan

Well-Known Member
We have arrived at the MK around 7:45am for the opening into the Main Street of MK. The s how started at the Castle around 9am (this was February). We stay onsite, but like to be early. We found that ALOT of people ignore the opening show and line up at the rope going to FL to try and be first for 7dmt. Then it's the running of the bulls when the rope drops. Honestly, the line up area gets really crowded and long, and this was the "slow" season. You could get in front in the line if you are really early if you want to do that. good luck:)
 

thomas998

Well-Known Member
I am going to WDW this coming May. We are staying roughly 15 min from each parks parking lot. We are not staying at a Disney Resort. We are mainly concerned with arrival time for Magic Kingdom since we will need to park and then take the tram or ferry to the main entrance. Plus the rope drop has recently changed at magic kingdom since it is now at Cinderella's castle now from what I have read. What is a good time to plan to be parking at magic kingdom? Is 8am to be getting out of our car to early or to late to be one of the first people in the park? We are hoping to be at the front so we can get on the 7 dwarfs minecar first thing.

You need to look at the calendars for the parks and make sure the day you are planning on trying for a rope drop isn't the morning that guests get an extra hour in the morning... That's the first thing to do... but your plan for getting to the mine train at rope drop isn't going to work the way you think. You'll basically be waiting in line behind everyone that had breakfast in Be Our Guest prior to rope drop... I know when we did a Be Our Guest breakfast that happened prior to rope drop we figured we could get onto 7 dwarves really fast because we would be ahead of the regular guests... Well everyone that had breakfast had the same idea so by the time we go to the ride prior to any rope drop their was already a substantial number of people waiting in line.... And we were about 30 minutes in advance of when the ride was even going to open... So don't expect to just walk on even if you run like mad and push down everyone in front of you to get there at rope drop because you'll already have a line of people there waiting.

I would strongly suggest if you want the mine train that you start trying everyday to get a fastpass for it when your window opens and keep trying... you might get lucky... Otherwise just get ready to stand in line no matter what.

One word of caution is that the ride isn't really all that great... It has a newness factor to it and it is remarkably smooth... but to be honest about the ride it is one of the weakest rollercoasters you will likely ever ride.
 

DfromATX

Well-Known Member
Everyone heads to 7DMT first thing and the wait at opening was 45 minutes. We did our fast pass for it at 10:00 and had all of FL done by then. It was great!
 

TiggerDad

Well-Known Member
Thanks for all the information. So I am thinking I will need to be getting out of my car in the parking lot at MK around 7:30 to get a good spot at the rope drop and get on the 7 dwarfs ride with minimal wait when the part first opens. What transportation method is better to get from the parkign lot to the entrance of MK, is it the ferry boat or the tram?

The tram takes you from your car to the TTC. You transfer there to either the boat or the monorail. This need for two modes of transportation is part of why the others are recommending additional time at MK than the other resorts.
 

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