Rope Drop is a term you might see often if you’re reading different Walt Disney World touring plans and park strategies.
If you’re not familiar with what “Rope Drop” means, let’s quickly break it down and then chat about why Rope Drop is important!
Rope Drop is Disney lingo for when a park (or an area within a park) opens for the day.
Typically, Cast Members will use a rope to block off the currently unavailable areas in the park. Once the rope “drops” aka is removed, guests are free to enter.
Why Does Rope Drop Matter?
Why does rope drop matter? Not only are the first couple of hours after rope drop a great opportunity to tackle lots of attractions without long waits, it’s also important to understand Rope Drop at a park like Magic Kingdom.
Magic Kingdom may be listed as opening at 9am. But if you show up at 9am thinking you’re right on time, you’re actually LATE!
Magic Kingdom typically let’s guests into the park about 45 minutes – 1 hour before opening time! And this early opening is for ALL GUESTS. Not just for Resort Guests.
You can use this time to explore Main Street! Shops are open! Starbucks is open! Snap some photos and take your time starting your day!
Early entry for Resort Guests will be 30 mins before official park opening time — so 8:30 in this scenario.
Early Entry at Magic Kingdom is limited to Fantasyland and Tomorrowland.
So you’ll be starting there if you’re a Resort Guest. There will be ROPES up blocking the different lands within Magic Kingdom — they’ll drop for Resort Guests 30 mins early in both Tomorrowland and Fantasyland.
If your park strategy is to tackle a big ticket ride first thing in the morning — like Seven Dwarfs Mine Train for example, you’ll want to be at the front of that rope when it “drops.”
If you’re not a Resort Guest, you won’t want to rope drop Seven Dwarfs Mine Train.
Why? Because all of the Resort Guests are already in that queue. INSTEAD you’ll want to rope drop an attraction in one of the other lands of the park that didn’t open with Early Entry! Like Jungle Cruise in Adventureland or Big Thunder Mountain Railroad in Frontierland!
Ropes will drop for ALL lands and ALL guests at official park opening time.
You can read about Early Theme Park Entry for Resort Guests right here. That post covers which Hotels are included in the Early Entry, which rides are open, and more!
I hope this Rope Drop info is helpful! 🙂
Be sure to follow along on Instagram @brbgoingtodisney if you don’t already do so. I share stories LIVE from the parks each week as well as my top tips for visiting Walt Disney World.
Don’t forget to pin this post for later!
