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What time to arrive to parks to avoid the rope drop stampede?
- Thread starter mdcpr
- Start date
KaliSplash
Well-Known Member
Off the top of my head, arriving at official opening time wouldn't be a bad idea. Those there for the rope drop will already be streaming into the park. Of course, those who meant to be there for rope drop are just arriving. If you have 10 a.m,. Fastpasses, being in the park at 9:30 should give you plenty of time to get to attractions. And of course, Fastpass times are just when you first can go inside. You have a full hour margin there. (Althought that would lose times for whatever the next attractioins might be).
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ninjaprincesst
Well-Known Member
As someone who goes every year at Thanksgiving get there as early as possible, you can get so much more done before 11am than you can after. I have hit the parks at rope drop and been on 7 rides by 10:30. Although rope drop crowns appear daunting they really are not, as soon as rope drop happens the crown is dispersed throughout the park. Although the Disney nuts are there at rope drop the majority of people like to sleep in. You will also find that you will not have to wait near as long on transportation the earlier you head out, as well as shorter security lines. And don't worry about the Thanksgiving crowds it really is not that bad.
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Great to know because everyone has made Thanksgiving day to be the worst day at MK--but we got dinner reservations at BOG so that's where will be.
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ninjaprincesst
Well-Known Member
The other parks are clamer put it's not that bad, just a lot of cheerleaders and beauty pagent girls and they tend to clear out after the FOF parade.
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Queen of the WDW Scene
Well-Known Member
- In the Parks
- No
It does not matter what time of year you go there will be a wave of people for RD. Just the nature of the parks but I have never found it to be a "Simba's down there!" "Long live the king" kind of stampede.
If you want to avoid a long line at bag check I'd arrive either a solid 30 prior to RD or a solid 30 after.
If you arrive early you can get through bag check and just chill until that first wave of people gets going but if you do that then I wouldn't plan on being able to take advantage of shorter wait times.
I've also made it pretty clear in my posts that I've gone during Thanksgiving MANY times and its not as crowded as some would make others believe.
If you want to avoid a long line at bag check I'd arrive either a solid 30 prior to RD or a solid 30 after.
If you arrive early you can get through bag check and just chill until that first wave of people gets going but if you do that then I wouldn't plan on being able to take advantage of shorter wait times.
I've also made it pretty clear in my posts that I've gone during Thanksgiving MANY times and its not as crowded as some would make others believe.
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MissingDisney
Well-Known Member
Oh, they do! After having a few trips of being in the same resorts as some groups, I can positively testify. Teenagers on group trips at Disney don’t require sleep. They save that for home.
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MissingDisney
Well-Known Member
We decided to go to MK on Thanksgiving a couple of years ago on a whim. Literally made amazing FP and dinner ressie (LTT-what luck!) the night before. RD is crazy every day just because It’s just a bottleneck of humans. But after that, we did a dozen attractions by 10:30-11. It was great. The real crowds didn’t roll in until late morning. By then we had done our favorites (some twice). The rest was a game of scoring the best, soonest FP. I would not discount those morning hours, especially on a busy day.
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Thanks for the advice. If we do 4-5 rides we'll be happy. Not interested in doing everything. My family's main focus is Animal Kingdom and SGE.
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Weather_Lady
Well-Known Member
We were there at the beginning of Thanksgiving week a few years ago. As others said, getting there early will pay huge dividends. The crowd to get in (in our case, it was into the MK) wasn't a stampede -- the newer graduated rope drop procedures help with that quite a bit (rope drops at the front of each park, you walk to the hub, where there are separate, later rope drops for each land and in some cases more than one before you get fully into a land).
The problem wasn't getting in early and hitting the biggest headliners (I think the kids and I arrived 10 minutes before park opening, just before the first rope drop so we were on the heels of that crowd, and did 7DMT, Space Mountain, Splash Mountain, Haunted Mansion and Pirates in less than 2 hours). The problem was getting OUT, because by 10am or so, the crowds to get in were horrendous! We had to fight our way upstream to get to a bus through a wall-to-wall crowd that extended from the front gates to the waterfront and way past the monorail line. (In other words, in our experience the bulk of the holiday crowds are likely to arrive late -- not early -- so I suggest beating them to whatever park you're headed to. Just don't plan on getting much done in any park after mid-morning.)
The problem wasn't getting in early and hitting the biggest headliners (I think the kids and I arrived 10 minutes before park opening, just before the first rope drop so we were on the heels of that crowd, and did 7DMT, Space Mountain, Splash Mountain, Haunted Mansion and Pirates in less than 2 hours). The problem was getting OUT, because by 10am or so, the crowds to get in were horrendous! We had to fight our way upstream to get to a bus through a wall-to-wall crowd that extended from the front gates to the waterfront and way past the monorail line. (In other words, in our experience the bulk of the holiday crowds are likely to arrive late -- not early -- so I suggest beating them to whatever park you're headed to. Just don't plan on getting much done in any park after mid-morning.)
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