Do not expect to Rope Drop riding a Disney Bus

Touchdown

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
I realize why they are doing this (to avoid crowding the gate) but at the same time I find it incredibly disappointing that currently at least until EMH is implemented, the Disney Buses will not get you to the park gates in time for rope drop. The only way to do that is to either walk, Skyline, monorail, ride share or drive. I strongly suspect the EMH coming is due to the complaints of resort guests missing out. Until this becomes implemented if you are a park warrior and value that <5 min wait for FOP, SDMT, or anything at DHS make other arrangements to get to the parks for rope drop.
 

JIMINYCR

Well-Known Member
Nice to know. When those EMH's were originally implemented I always took advantage of them, especially finding the evening ones worked much better for me. I am an early park goer and stay late every day of my trip. Some people avoided those parks because they said it made the parks more crowded, which they sometimes did. We always had PH passes so when the parks felt too crowded we could always hop away. I'll be looking forward to when they are brought back and use them to my advantage.
 

Joel

Well-Known Member
I would say that this is generally true but, as with everything having to do with Disney transportation, is very much a YMMV kind of thing. On both of our last two trips (October and January), the first bus sometimes got us to MK before they had started letting people who walked from Contemporary through security.
 

Surferboy567

Well-Known Member
Even with extra magic mornings (as I call them) the end result is that the resort guest has 50% less time then they did when extra magic hours were available. I doubt the average resort guest will get much out of those 30 minutes they may be able to get an attraction or two done (on a good day) but it is so much less then extra magic hours.

The buses also have a higher chance of making the resort guest lose their 30 minutes entirely. They are almost never easy to secure, as well as actually getting you there on time. The only good thing about these new hours is that every park has them with should spread out the crowds. This however, is far from an upgrade.
 

Touchdown

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
In the before times, arriving 75 min before opening at a bus stop never failed to get me to my park for rope drop.
 

flynnibus

Premium Member
I realize why they are doing this (to avoid crowding the gate) but at the same time I find it incredibly disappointing that currently at least until EMH is implemented, the Disney Buses will not get you to the park gates in time for rope drop. The only way to do that is to either walk, Skyline, monorail, ride share or drive. I strongly suspect the EMH coming is due to the complaints of resort guests missing out. Until this becomes implemented if you are a park warrior and value that <5 min wait for FOP, SDMT, or anything at DHS make other arrangements to get to the parks for rope drop.
So what time did the buses start running before opening?

I am trying to understand your complaint...

Is it the bus start time has changed?
Is it the rope drop time being variable?
Or are you saying the bus start time isn’t matching something else? Or too slow?

Thought they always started an hour before park opening (including emh)
 

Touchdown

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
So what time did the buses start running before opening?

I am trying to understand your complaint...

Is it the bus start time has changed?
Is it the rope drop time being variable?
Or are you saying the bus start time isn’t matching something else? Or too slow?

Thought they always started an hour before park opening (including emh)
-Parks have been opening 45-30 min prior to posted opening.
-Buses start running approx 45 min before opening.

Ive rope dropped DHS twice (walking) and AK once (drove) where I saw no buses arrive prior to the gates being let open.

When I took the bus to MK my bus arrived 45 min before, and it was clear hundreds of folks were already in the MK.
 

Touchdown

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
So its more the problem that rope drop time has been creeping forward...
No the problem is that there is no central hub rope drop. Once the gates are open everything is. In the before times people would poke in shops and go to Starbucks so you could get ahead of them by proceeding to the park icon. Now, everyone heads to the attractions so you really need to be in the front.
 

cjkeating

Well-Known Member
I feel like buses used to run much earlier than 45 minutes before park opening? I remember getting to AK or DHS in 2019 at least an hour before opening? I had a feeling officially buses used to run an hour before park opening but in reality it was about 90 minutes before?
 

CaptainAmerica

Premium Member
Even with extra magic mornings (as I call them) the end result is that the resort guest has 50% less time then they did when extra magic hours were available.
That's only true if you picked the EMH park every single day of your trip. In the past, I would do morning EMH zero times but I'll do this new 30 minute deal every day, so I'm actually gaining a bunch.

Not to mention that the crowds at the morning EMH park tended to be worse on those days so your short lines early in the morning were immediately offset by worse lines by lunch time.

So its more the problem that rope drop time has been creeping forward...
That seems to be the complaint. Park opens at 9:00 (posted), bus drops him off at 8:45, and he's upset that the "rope was dropped" at 8:40.
 

flynnibus

Premium Member
That's only true if you picked the EMH park every single day of your trip. In the past, I would do morning EMH zero times but I'll do this new 30 minute deal every day, so I'm actually gaining a bunch.

Not sure why the new offer would change your perspective on EMH. It really doesn't help you at all except to let you get in line sooner. It's simply too short of a time. And the problems you mention about that park being more crowded still apply.

It's not really 'get a few rides in...' it will become "get in 7dwarves line before the masses do" so you get one shorter wait.

It's a horrible trade-off vs the prior offer.
 

Animaniac93-98

Well-Known Member
I feel like buses used to run much earlier than 45 minutes before park opening? I remember getting to AK or DHS in 2019 at least an hour before opening? I had a feeling officially buses used to run an hour before park opening but in reality it was about 90 minutes before?

When character breakfasts were a thing, there used to be a "breakfast bus" that left once or twice super early (like 7:30am to help those with 8:00am reservations on a 9:00am park opening day). You could call the front desk the night before to find out when it would be there.
 

NelleBelle

Well-Known Member
I thing "rope drop" is currently not a thing and there is no set time that the parks are opening so you get the luck of the draw of when your bus gets you to the park before soft opening. Seems like a silly thing to complain about that you're not getting into the park 15 minutes before the rest of the crowd, which is exactly what they're trying to prevent!
 

mm52200

Well-Known Member
They start letting guests into the park as soon as the park is ready, which varies every day. Most days currently at MK atleast it seems that buses drop off before a single ferry or monorail unload. Once again your mileage may vary but with no Fastpass currently clogging up lines, the amount of people in front of you should be pretty negligible.
 

Hcalvert

Well-Known Member
I was there in July during reopening and the busses were really late getting people to the park. We drove from then on and always arrived in the parks around or before official opening and no problem getting on rides before the masses arrived. This is also true of my trip during Christmas week too. We decided that we are never taking Disney transportation again if we can help it (only exception would be the boats to MK from/to Poly, WL, or GF).
 
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WondersOfLife

Blink, blink. Breathe, breathe. Day in, day out.
I thing "rope drop" is currently not a thing and there is no set time that the parks are opening so you get the luck of the draw of when your bus gets you to the park before soft opening. Seems like a silly thing to complain about that you're not getting into the park 15 minutes before the rest of the crowd, which is exactly what they're trying to prevent!
What do you mean there is no set time the parks are opening????
 

Touchdown

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Drove to MK this morning, in the first “hour” of park opening (more like hour 40 min):
-SDMTx2
-Peter Pan
-Haunted Mansion
-BTMRRx2
-Splash

Also I definitely beat the buses, only was behind the contemporary walkers.
 

castlecake2.0

Well-Known Member
What do you mean there is no set time the parks are opening????
The park has an official opening time, but depending on crowds forming at turnstiles, if the park is show ready they’ll start letting people in to avoid crowding out front. However as guests started hearing this was a thing they started trying to find ways to get to the park “first”. So to combat that transportation is being used to try to keep people away from park entry until closer to opening time. So now to combat that, guests are coming up with other ways to try to get to the park without using Disney transport, usually involving trying ways to sneak into the contemporary to gain access to the walking path.
 

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