Early rope drop...

[MattC]

So I have noticed this a couple of times and again at DHS this morning. Sometimes the parks will open up 15 or so minutes before the scheduled time for rope drop. What leads to this decision being made? Is it just on a whim? If all the CMs have rides and attractions ready to go early will they open? Or if managers notice a larger than normal crowd waiting for rope drop will this happen? Anyone know?

 

[luv]

You mean actually opening the park and not just letting people through the turnstiles/taps tiles, right?

I assume it has to do with crowds, but didn't notice appreciably bigger crowds on days where they did it than days when they didn't. I didn't see it happen enough times to really take a good guess, though.

 

[MattC]

You mean actually opening the park and not just letting people through the turnstiles/taps tiles, right?

I assume it has to do with crowds, but didn't notice appreciably bigger crowds on days where they did it than days when they didn't. I didn't see it happen enough times to really take a good guess, though.

Right, park fully open. I've experienced just going through the turnstiles and then being stopped before getting to attractions and waiting for the rope drop time. But only a couple of times, including this morning at DHS, the park was fully open at 8:45.

 

[Epicpilot]

It is crowd control technique used due to size of the park, especially for DHS weird layout. This way there is not a mass crowd of people at the turnstiles. Also at MK they open the park in sections. First they wait for everyone to start walking down Main Street and there are ropes at the entrance to each land from Main Street,then the rope is walked away from the entrance all the way down to the back of each land. It is a great crowd control technique and is proven to be a great method.

 

[AndyS2992]

It is crowd control technique used due to size of the park, especially for DHS weird layout. This way there is not a mass crowd of people at the turnstiles. Also at MK they open the park in sections. First they wait for everyone to start walking down Main Street and there are ropes at the entrance to each land from Main Street,then the rope is walked away from the entrance all the way down to the back of each land. It is a great crowd control technique and is proven to be a great method.

This. Stops people from stampeding to the Mountains and causing havoc lol

 

[JIMINYCR]

At DHS it's interesting when I've been at rope drop, to watch the crowd split. I'd say 45% go in the direction for TSM, 30 for RnRC and the rest for ToT to ride immediately and collect fast passes.

 

[bubbles1812]

At DHS it's interesting when I've been at rope drop, to watch the crowd split. I'd say 45% go in the direction for TSM, 30 for RnRC and the rest for ToT to ride immediately and collect fast passes.

It's actually interesting. In my experience they opened the park early but they didnt open the rides early except for a few.

In Feb, they opened 45 minutes early. I went back to TSM to ride it and get a FP. Then I headed down to TOT at about 8:45 to get another FP and ride it a few times (3 to be exact lol), but they didnt open it til 9 even though they had opened the park early. From what it looked like, was the same thing with RnRC

 

[Texas84]

We got into DHS 20 minutes early one morning and went right for TSMM. I asked the FastPass CM why they opened early and she said they sometimes do it when they finish their opening checks early. So sounds like it's random.

 

[JillC LI]

We were once eating breakfast early at AK. Regular opening was supposed to be at 9am. At 8:45 as we were gathering our things to leave, we heard throngs of people walk-running past the restaurant towards the safari. We quickly headed towards E:E but by the time we got there, there was already a decent sized line. It was annoying because we thought we'd have a jump on any lines by eating inside the park and leaving the restaurant at 8:45 before the supposed 9am opening.

 

[natatomic]

A lot of times they'll do it if it's just getting way too crowded at the turnstiles, especially if that's been the case the previous day or two. Typically, CMs aren't called in earlier; that morning they just say, "Hey, we're dropping the rope 10 minutes early, try to get the ride open a bit quicker today." If they do, they do. If they don't, they don't. Some attractions will only let you go so fast!
I think it's a very common thing to do during Star Tours Weekends at DHS. If it's something planned in advanced, they will sometimes schedule CMs to come in X minutes early.

 

[Johnny Hess]

We always get to DHS at least 30-40 minutes early to be there for the early opening, it never fails us. One cast member at Tower said they always open Toy Story first, then the others if they finish their prep work before 9:00 AM. I think it's great for the early birds - you can get through all of the major attractions in the first hour 1/2 - 2 hours before the crowds grow.