Disneyland Park Opening Strategy & Rope Drop Tips
Arriving to Disneyland early in the morning, before park opening is essential to an efficient day. In this post, we share strategy and rope drop tips for California’s busiest theme park, including what time to arrive, which attractions to prioritize, and more. (Updated November 1, 2022.)
A lot has changed in the last couple of years. Substantively, the new land, Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, has opened along with its two attractions, Millennium Falcon Smugglers Run and Star Wars Rise of the Resistance. That changes the rope drop dynamic, as many guests are drawn deep in Disneyland to Star Wars land.
Then there are the many operational changes. Extra Magic Hour and Magic Mornings are (temporarily?) not happening, meaning that this park opening strategy applies every day of the week. More significantly, Disneyland has replaced FastPass with a paid alternative, with is pretty similar to MaxPass. (See our Guide to Genie+ and Lightning Lanes at Disneyland & DCA for more on how this complicated paid FastPass works.)
Rope drop at Disneyland is an experience that can be enjoyable or miserable, depending upon how you prepare for it. First of all, let’s address what rope drop is for the Disneyland first-timers. It’s simply when the lands and attractions officially open, which is synonymous with the published park opening time.
However, since the turnstiles usually admit guests before park opening, Disney fans have demarcated the two times with the ‘rope drop’ term. If it’s easier, just think of “rope drop” as “first thing in the morning” at Disneyland. In addition to rope drop being a time, it’s also a verb (“we’re rope dropping Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride”).
Rope dropping things has spread beyond the realm of Disney parks, too. We have been known to say, “we’re rope dropping In-N-Out Burger,” which is really just us banging on their door at 10:20 a.m. yelling, “WE WANTS THE DOUBLE DOUBLE!” (A joke I’m recycling from my Magic Kingdom rope drop post since it’s actually more relevant to Californians.)
Accordingly these tips only apply to non-Extra Magic Hour/Magic Mornings days. With that said, let’s take a look at how rope drop plays out in Disneyland…
When you should leave your hotel to arrive at Disneyland for rope drop is a pretty common question. It depends upon where you’re staying. Conventional wisdom is to arrive an hour in advance. I don’t disagree with this advice, but I’d clarify what “arrive” means–be through bag check and standing in the Esplanade (the area between Disneyland and Disney California Adventure) an hour before official park opening time.
If you’re at a hotel directly across the street, this means leaving your hotel 75 minutes before the published park opening time. Down the street a bit farther? Plan to leave your room 80-90 minutes early. If you’re staying far off-site, driving and parking, it could mean leaving your hotel two hours in advance.
This “arrival” point of clarification is significant, as many first-time visitors don’t realize there are 2-5 points of friction to the arrival experience: Southern California morning rush hour traffic, lines to get into the parking structure/lots, parking tram lines, bag check lines, and turnstile lines.
Do not underestimate the lines or congestion in any of these scenarios. While Disneyland is much more compact than Walt Disney World, its crowd flow infrastructure outside the parks is noticeably worse, and this has become a more pronounced problem in the last couple of years. All of these friction points can be significant and stress inducing, and you eliminate 3 of them just by staying at a hotel within walking distance.
We like to arrive at the bag check line about 70 minutes before park opening because this is almost always early enough to beat the crowds and breeze through. On busier days, if you arrive at bag check under an hour in advance of park opening, you could be waiting 15 minutes at bag check. If you arrive right at park opening, you could wait 30 minutes or more, depending upon the season.
If you’re impatient like me, the wait at bag check is excruciating. It might be 15 minutes, but it feels like 55 as you slowly creep forward, eye the lines around you that invariably seems to be moving faster, and groan as the security guard at your table opens every single pouch and sunglasses case, while every other table instead receives a quick once-over. I understand that security is important and all that, but Disneyland’s process is painful and inconsistent.
I’d rather arrive before the hordes of other guests, breeze through quickly, and spend that same time waiting in the relative comfort of the Esplanade between Disneyland and Disney California Adventure. The area is spacious, inviting, has a great background music loop, and is just flat-out a better way to get you in a good mood for starting your morning at Disneyland.
Our Late 2022 update to this park opening strategy incorporates the addition of Early Entry at Disneyland. This is an on-site guest perk that allows those staying at the three Disney-owned hotels at Disneyland Resort to enter the parks 30 minutes prior to park opening each morning. This makes it materially different from Extra Magic Hours/Magic Mornings in a few significant ways.
First, it’s 30 minutes shorter than its predecessor, so that’s less of a head-start over off-site guests. Second, Early Entry is not included with any tickets or Good Neighbor Hotel packages (yet). Finally, Early Entry is offered at both parks, every day of the week, which makes it unavoidable. This itself is a huge downside for off-site guests, who now cannot avoid Early Entry to strategize around it. In theory.
Thankfully, because it’s only 3 hotels, no one else is eligible, and it’s every single morning in both parks…the pool of eligible guests is quite small and diluted across both Disneyland and Disney California Adventure on a daily basis. This makes it hugely advantageous for those who are eligible for Early Entry, as few others are around to take advantage of it.
It also makes Early Entry minimally impactful to off-site guests, because by the time Early Entry is over, most of those guests have “moved on” to attempting to rope drop Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance. While they do have a distinct advantage there, that dynamic means Early Entry has almost zero impact to regular rope drop in Fantasyland. See our Guide to Early Entry at Disneyland & DCA for advice about taking advantage of this on-site perk.
For now, back to your regularly scheduled rope drop strategy, already in progress and unaffected by Early Entry…
Disneyland’s turnstiles typically open 30-45 minutes before park opening. If you’re at the front of this line, you might get lucky with your ticket being scanned in even earlier than this, which really only matters if you’re buying Genie+ or Individual Lightning Lanes. It’s not a huge head-start, so if you’d rather hang back and enjoy the Esplanade without being in a cramped line, don’t worry.
A few minutes later, the turnstiles open and Disneyland begins admitting guests to Main Street. The exact time depends upon crowds, but we’ve experienced this as early as an hour before park opening, but more commonly around 30 minutes before official park opening.
If you are using Genie+, you’ll want to book your first Lightning Lane of the day for Space Mountain at some point early on. Ideally, you’ll have an early return time and will be able to do Space Mountain after your first wave of attractions, once lines start building. See our 1-Day Disneyland Itinerary Using Genie+ and Lightning Lanes for specific strategy.
Once inside Disneyland, we enjoy savoring the leisurely stroll up Main Street. Perusing the many gift shops that are open on Main Street without people is a nice experience. It’s also nice to grab a cup of coffee at Starbucks from the Main Street Bakery as a pick me up.
Towards the end of Main Street or near the Central Plaza, you’ll encounter Security and other Cast Members who won’t allow you to proceed any farther into the park. Sometimes they’ll actually use a rope to block the path that will later be dropped once the park officially opens. (Hence the term rope drop!)
Once that rope drops, Disneyland’s attractions open, and you’ll have to decide where to head first. A lot of the crowd will head to Fantasyland, but now many guests also head to Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge and Tomorrowland. There are a bunch of competing theories about how you should ‘zig when others zag’ and go to some other land instead. Those are all ostensibly compelling, especially if you’re a contrarian or want to think you’re smarter than everyone else.
Those strategies are also all wrong. Stick with the tried and true–head to Fantasyland. Even if you don’t have small children, this is the right approach. Not only are these timeless attractions a quintessential part of the Disneyland experience, but several don’t offer Lightning Lane line-skipping access via Genie+ and are easy to knock out in the morning in quick succession.
The reason that Fantasyland is the “correct” place to start is quite simple: the minimum completion time for every attraction in Fantasyland is significantly less than alternatives around Disneyland. In particular, Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance takes forever from start to finish, and it often has delayed openings.
Fantasyland dark rides are mostly old school, no-nonsense attractions. They have short queues, no pre-show, and dump you right out near other attraction entrances. The minimum ride time for most Fantasyland attractions is under 5 minutes. You can easily accomplish a half-dozen Fantasyland attractions, if not more, in the first hour that Disneyland is open.
By contrast, the duration of Splash Mountain, plus walking through the queue, boarding the attraction, and exiting is over 15 minutes. Space Mountain is over 10 minutes. Haunted Mansion is over 15. And so on. Then, when those attractions dump you out, you still have a modest walk to the next attraction. At most, you can only do 3-4 of these attractions in the first hour that Disneyland is open.
Fantasyland is the most condensed land at Disneyland, and you can really clean up by doing these short dark rides in quick succession before the crowd builds. In our 1-Day Disneyland Itinerary, we cover the most efficient order for doing these Fantasyland attractions, plus everything else after the morning rush.
Ideally, you’ll start with Peter Pan’s Flight, which will have the longest line later in the day. However, if you’re further back in the pack or its line is spilling out of the indoor queue, skip it and do Snow White’s Enchanted Wish, Alice in Wonderland, and other attractions instead. The goal here is to ride the wave and stay ahead of the crowds–that requires thinking on your feet and skipping rides as necessary.
Even though these Fantasyland attractions never peak as high as Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, Space Mountain or Indiana Jones Adventure in terms of individual wait times, the time you’ll save in aggregate by starting in Fantasyland far exceeds the time you can save by rope dropping a different part of the park.
With that said, if you’re absolutely uninterested in Fantasyland dark rides, the best alternative is Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge. If you hit Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance early (assuming no morning downtime) and then bounce to Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run, you can typically follow up with Big Thunder or Splash Mountain, Haunted Mansion, and Pirates of the Caribbean. That’s not a bad way to start the day!
At this point, it should be about an hour or so after rope drop, and you’ve probably been awake for at least a few hours. If you did start in Fantasyland, you could keep the ‘efficiency’ train rolling at full steam ahead, it’s not a bad idea to head to Frontierland and New Orleans Square at this point to decompress a bit.
Both of these lands are gorgeous in the morning, and you’ll still be ahead of the full wave of the crowds in them. It’s great to soak up their ambiance, maybe enjoy a morning snack, and appreciate the “little things” that make Disneyland special. These quiet moments of pure whimsy are when the magic happens, and what keeps us going back.
Planning a Southern California vacation? For park admission deals, read Tips for Saving Money on Disneyland Tickets. Learn about on-site and off-site hotels in our Anaheim Hotel Reviews & Rankings. For where to eat, check out our Disneyland Restaurant Reviews. For unique ideas of things that’ll improve your trip, check out What to Pack for Disney. For comprehensive advice, consult our Disneyland Vacation Planning Guide. Finally, for guides beyond Disney, check out our Southern California Itineraries for day trips to Los Angeles, Laguna Beach, and tons of other places!
Your Thoughts
What is your Disneyland rope drop strategy? Do you follow the tried and true Fantasyland strategy, do you go for thrills in Tomorrowland, or start somewhere entirely different? Do you like to savor the low crowds and have a leisurely experience later in the morning? Do you agree or disagree with our advice? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing feedback about your experiences is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
What is the best way to enter Star Wars Galaxy Edge after rope drop? We went a few years ago and one entry was closed. Not sure if they have changed. Thank you so much for this blog. Love the thoughtfulness.
How would you alter your early morning strategy for the day that Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway opens in Disneyland? It’s a Friday so maybe rope dropping the new ride would help avoid the added crowd of some locals who may be working that day? Or get other rides off the list first and then try for the new ride mid-morning?
When Runaway Railway opens it will only be available through virtual queue or paid lightning lane for a while. So, for the time being you just need to be on your phone waiting at 7AM and 1PM
Thanks for that update Tom. That’s very interesting that Early Entry has no real impact on regular, off site rope droppers. So even Peter Pan won’t be backed up? I wouldn’t have thought this, despite knowing that folks on holiday don’t like early mornings! I’m looking forward to returning to DLR in a couple of weeks – it’s been a long time! I really appreciate your updates on Disneyland. Thanks again!
Hi Tom,
Thank you for the helpful information. Now that Disneyland resort guests get early admission at 7:30am (starting Aug. 8th), for those not staying at a Disneyland resort, do you suggest doing rope drop at the park that’s not designated for early admission?
Yes, I’m wondering this as well. Lots of folks stay off site at Disneyland and now there is no such thing as a true rope drop for non-Disney hotel guests. Will there be a new strategy post coming soon? Thanks for all you do! 🙂
We are hoping to go in 2021. This is not about rope drop, but a question on How to find the Magic Morning line?? We have arrived at the esplanade 1 hour before opening a few times, hoping to get in with our Magic Morning, but there was no indication which line was the Magic Morning line! And there is no way to get past the crowds and up to the front in order to read the very small signage at the turn styles. Can you please specify exactly which turn styles are for Magic Morning entry? Thanks!
How does this change on a Magic Morning day for those without access? How early can a non-Magic Morning guest enter the park?
Does DCA have a rope drop?
We are going to Disneyland in March, 2020. RotR Will be open… hopefully! What is the best strategy for rope dropping GE if we are already in the park for Magic Morning? Is there a “best” entry point to rope drop?
I know GE is not open during Magic Morning, but since we are already in the park, is there an advantage rope dropping closer in to GE
It’s too early to say how they’ll handle things, but theoretically the best entry points for Rise of the Resistance would be Fantasyland or Critter Country.
Hi, wanting to do an empty castle photo shot with a toddler the first week of August. We will go at rope drop on a non MM day…if we allow 20-30 minutes for people to run to rides… do you think there will be opportunities for empty castle shots?
Thanks
I really appreciate this post! I’ve been reading your Disneyland itineraries but have been wanting to know more about rope-drop specifically. I do have a follow-up question…we’ll be going to LA/Disneyland for the first time ever in about a month. (So excited!)
We were planning to start Friday and Saturday mornings at Disneyland and will have access to the Magic Morning hour on Saturday. We were planning to do Alice and the Matterhorn first thing on Friday, then move to Tomorrowland. Then we were going to use the Magic Morning on Saturday to focus on all the Fantasyland rides and then move on to stay ahead of the non-Magic Morning folks. Would you swap these two days so we are doing Fantasyland first? If so, what do you think would be the best use of our Magic Morning? I would really appreciate any tips from a Disneyland vet! Thanks!
My recommendation: PP, then Alice, then TL (particularly Nemo) Friday, then rest of FL Saturday morning. Don’t try to do PP during the Magic Morning unless you’re there early and are very, very fast.
Why? On Magic Mornings, generally no one is let into the park until the exact moment the MM starts. This puts you at a disadvantage for PP in particular, as everyone has now figured out that PP is the ride to get to first. To stand a chance of doing PP without a huge queue on a MM day, you have to get to the turnstiles early enough to be at the front of a turnstile line, hope that your turnstile CM processes your ticket(s) quickly, and then have to run/walk briskly down all of Main Street into FL and hope you’re able to get to PP before the others there that early. Not ideal.
By contrast, if you do PP first on a non MM day, you are let into the park ~30 min early and are held just outside of the castle. Then it’s just a matter of being as close to the rope as you can and it’s a MUCH shorter distance to run/walk briskly/beat everyone to the ride.
I wouldn’t prioritize Matterhorn early in the morning over the other FL attractions. Now that the attraction has FP, there are other Fantasyland attractions that are a better use of your early morning time. It’s a good 2nd/3rd FP choice for the day, however (after Space Mountain and Maybe Indy/Splash if it’s hot).
Can’t say enough how much your thorough posts on Disneyland are appreciated!! We’d planned our family’s first trip to Disneyland for June 7-8 thinking we’d be missing the Galaxies Edge craziness, only to be right at the forefront of not only that land’s opening but also attending on Grad Days. Thankfully we are staying at Park Place Inn right across the street (on your advice!) so we’ll be able to arrive at rope drop each day. Just planning the best we can and trying not to stress about what we can’t change!
Really appreciate the Disneyland post and updates Tom! We are wdw goers, but are trying to do a DL trio prior to SWL opening and do more of a touristy vacation in CA because we never leave the bubble in Florida because there’s so much to do there. These post really help us with the little knowledge that I have on DLR
My most magical Disney day was unquestionably the time we beat all the crowds to be the first people on Peter Pan one morning (followed closely by being the last riders on Haunted Mansion on a different night). But that happened only because my friend was extremely dedicated to making it happen. Left to my own devices, I generally avoid Peter Pan because it’s just not worth the time commitment for me.
Thanks for this timely post! Going to Disneyland for the first time this weekend and we will be skipping the thrill rides (our party of 3 includes a just barely 40-inch tall kiddo and a pregnant parent). Should we make peter pan our first stop?
Yes. It’s a must. Don’t be bummed if you see a queue even if you’re at rope drop. This line moves pretty fast and doubles later in the day.
After Peter Pan, I suggest Dumbo and Alice. The others don’t fill quite as fast in my opinion. Have fun! Beating the crowd is part of the game for me:) I like what he writes about heading to less crowded frontier land / new orleans next. They’re our favorite part of the park. Save Toontown and Space Mt. for later.
Eat an early lunch, then maybe catch a mid afternoon swim/ nap before heading out for round 2 later in the day.
We are going to Disneyland next week. You advise getting to bag check about 70 mins early but the web says Disney Parking doesn’t open until 1 hour prior to the park opening. Does parking actually open earlier like the parks ‘open’ turnstiles early or is that a fast rule? Also is there a ‘best’ parking option? We are driving up from San Diego. Thanks.
Parking opens 90 minutes before park opening
I am deep in the camp of hitting Fantasyland first. My only question about this strategy is getting a Space Mountain Fast Pass first. I was thinking Indiana Jones would make the most sense, especially heading towards Frontierland next. (Which was my family’s tradition solidified further by my husband wishing for a “faster train” after Casey Jr. and that being my inroad to getting him to try a rollercoaster) It would make a ton of sense to head to IJA from Big Thunder with a quick ride on Pirates in between if there is time.
I don’t have a strong opinion on Indiana Jones Adventure v. Space Mountain FastPass prioritization. We usually do Indy because that’s what we prefer, but I think if you’re strictly going for efficiency, Space Mountain gets the edge.
In the grand scheme of the day, I don’t think it makes a huge difference.
Thank you for the reply. What’s nice about Disneyland is even getting from Frontierland to Tomorrowland isn’t too difficult unless it is parade time. (When I so wish the Skyway was still around)
What’s your advice on touring Disneyland once SWGE is open and you DON’T care to go to that land? Think times will be lower for other rides, or just super high capacity everywhere?
Sticking with this plan is likely going to be your best option.
My prediction is that most people will head to Galaxy’s Edge at park opening, creating a ~2 hour window when the rest of the park is *less* crowded than normal. After that, I think the park will experience significantly elevated crowds across the board.
We wen’t do Disneyland 2 days near this past New Year’s and both days rope drop was at the turnstiles/ There wasn’t an in-the-park rope drop after that. Is this just done during busy times? I had no idea they did it earlier than that regularly. (Come to think of it, one of the days was a Magic Morning, which might very well be different.)
We did the recommended Fantasyland-first approach and it was great. We weren’t at the front of the line so Peter Pan was already at ~20 minutes so we bypassed it and did everything else. We ended up having a pretty neat experience being the first people of the day to ride Snow White’s Scary Adventures. No one had gotten in line yet when we finished the ride, so we were the only people on it at the time.
They switch it up from time to time, but we haven’t done rope drop at Christmas/NYE in a couple years, so I can’t really comment on what’s normal for that busy stretch.
Good call on skipping Peter Pan’s Flight in order to stay ahead of the wave. We’ve had to do that a few times, and it’s a common-enough occurrence that I probably should note it in the main text here.