Double Rope Drop Day at Disney World
We invited distinguished scientists from all over the world to test rope dropping two parks at Walt Disney World in a single day. Unfortunately, none of them showed up. So instead, I’d like to invite you on our ‘experiment’ to determine whether doing two park openings is possible, pragmatic, and fit for human consumption. (Updated December 29, 2019.)
As a fair warning, you won’t be able to reproduce the results of our experiment most days of the year. On a random morning, you might find Magic Kingdom opens at 8 am and Epcot has a regular opening at 9 am. That hour gap is insufficient for rope dropping both, unless you’re merely doing it to say you did. From a practical touring perspective, doing both serves no real purpose and actually puts you at a disadvantage. It’s like 4 parks in one day–a fun thing to say you’ve done (I guess?), but totally counterproductive.
However, there are some times of year when the gap between openings is larger. During busier weeks like Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, or spring break, you might find a two-hour window between opening times. This starts to open more possibilities, especially if you’re aggressive. Right now, there’s a three hour daily gap on many mornings, which is very advantageous…
When we first tested this strategy, it was possible due to Extra, Extra Magic Hours for the opening of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge. Now, this is thanks to extended hours at Disney’s Hollywood Studios thanks to the debut of Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance. Through early 2020, Disney’s Hollywood Studios opens at 6 or 7 am. Meanwhile, Epcot is opening at 9 am most mornings.
This is huge, especially during the peak season between now and New Year’s Eve. It’s pretty significant even up until the 2020 Walt Disney World Marathon on January 12, 2020, as crowds will remain very high until then, and with this approach it’s possible to knock out several headliners with minimal waits before 10 am on the busiest days of the year.
If you’re visiting through (at least) February 2020, you’ll want to arrive at Disney’s Hollywood Studios before park opening in order to score a boarding pass for the new Star Wars attraction. This is a complex and unprecedented system, but most questions you have are likely answered by our Ride Guide & FAQ for Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, so consult that for everything you need to know.
After grabbing your place in the virtual queue and potentially doing Slinky Dog Dash, Toy Story Mania, Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster, and Tower of Terror, consider hopping over to Epcot to rope drop that park’s headliners before returning to Disney’s Hollywood Studios for your boarding group to be called.
We tested this approach while staying at the Swan & Dolphin, and walked over to Disney’s Hollywood Studios for park opening. Rather than arriving super early and being in an unpleasant sea of humanity, we decided to roll up shortly after the park had opened.
We probably scored a later boarding group and maybe missed out on a loop of Slinky Dog Dash with this approach, but avoiding the congestion on Hollywood Boulevard was worth it to us. We’ve done Slinky Dog Dash a ton, so skipping it once is not a huge deal for us. If it’s your first visit or you’re doing a once-annual trip, we’d still recommend arriving to Disney’s Hollywood Studios at around 5:30 am.
I’m not going to fixate too much on the particulars of the morning, as we already offer the “optimal” strategy in our FAQ and Ride Guide for Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance.
We stand by all of the tips & plan of attack there, plus the emphatic recommendation to not miss out on this limited time offering.
Moreover, as more strategy has emerged, people have learned that Toy Story Land was devoid of guests for the first hour or so of the day. By contrast, Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run actually has its wait time peak shortly after park opening, with wait times for that ride typically dropping after 9 am.
Accordingly, our recommended strategy is still to prioritize Toy Story Land after scoring your boarding pass for Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance. It’s the smarter bet–just don’t expect to loop Slinky Dog Dash multiple times as a walk-on. You’ll probably get one or maybe two rides on that coaster before the wait times balloon. Other Toy Story Land attractions maintain near walk-on status.
Sunset Boulevard is a ghost town for most of the morning, as is everywhere outside of the two new lands.
Ride-wise, it’s incredibly easy to have everything done in Disney’s Hollywood Studios two hours into the day. Which is exactly what we’ve been doing. We sometimes push it a bit further than that, leaving Disney’s Hollywood Studios as late as 8:30 am.
Recently, we left Disney’s Hollywood Studios at 8:25 am. We hopped aboard the Skyliner, which had no line whatsoever (we even waited for an unwrapped cabin) and transferred at Caribbean Beach Resort to the Epcot line.
Again, there was no wait at the Caribbean Beach Resort hub station–no one else was even in line. This came as a mild surprise since this would’ve been prime rope drop time. Thankfully, the Skyliner is a people-eater from a capacity perspective…when it’s operating smoothly.
If you don’t want to chance it with a Skyliner stoppage, the next-fastest option for park hopping between Epcot and Disney’s Hollywood Studios is the pathway via the Crescent Lake resorts. Depending upon your walking pace, this will take around 17-25 minutes entrance to entrance. Walking is unquestionably faster than the FriendShips, but it’s less pleasant.
With the expanded security and bag check area at Epcot’s International Gateway, it took roughly 5 minutes from stepping off the Skyliner until we were inside the park, at almost 8:45 am on the dot. Your mileage may vary here–I’m a bit surprised by the lack of morning crowds at International Gateway. We experienced worse rope drop crowds here pre-expansion and pre-Skyliner, so I think this is partly luck.
From there, it was onward to the United Kingdom, where the rope drop arrivals from International Gateway are held. We were pretty much at the back of the pack here, but it was a small crowd by October standards. Within seconds of arrival, we were released and could’ve made our way towards Test Track or Frozen Ever After to experience either as a near walk-on.
Those two attractions would serve as a great starting point for following our Epcot Morning Touring Strategy & Rope Drop Tips. You could then follow-up with Soarin’ Around the World, and (hopefully) a FastPass or the Single Rider line for the other headliner attraction.
In actuality, we just wandered around Epcot to take photos of an ominous-yet-lovely morning. (You can’t tell from the photos, but it was actually sprinkling on and off throughout the morning.)
Future World is difficult to experience devoid of crowds at night, so we enjoy strolling around here in the early hours. There are a lot of walls right now, but also plenty of pockets of serenity and beauty.
One thing to note here is that our margins for error are slim. In other strategy posts, we frequently recommend arriving for rope drop at least 30 minutes in advance (if not earlier). The thinking with normal strategy is that there’s only upside to arriving earlier–no opportunity and little downside (aside from less sleep).
Here, that’s clearly not the case. Arriving far in advance for Epcot’s rope drop means sacrificing time and rides at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. As such, we think it’s savvier to cut things more down to the wire with your Epcot arrival.
Overall, this is a solid morning strategy that should allow you to do literally all of the headliners (some potentially multiple times) in both Disney’s Hollywood Studios and Epcot before noon, plus a ride on the Skyliner…if you want. From there, you have the rest of the day to enjoy Walt Disney World at a more leisurely pace, doing shows, air-conditioned offerings, or simply soaking up the ambiance of the two parks.
Despite it being a pretty packed morning, doing this double rope drop plan is surprisingly easy and doesn’t require too much racing around (aside from the early wake-up call). From a strategic perspective, this is one of the of the most time-saving mornings you’ll ever have at Walt Disney World. Enjoy it while you still can!
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Your Thoughts
Have you rope dropped two parks at Walt Disney World in the same morning? Followed a variation of this strategy? Do you agree or disagree with our advice? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
This is awesome advice that I took advantage of December 30th and 31st by starting at DHS, nabbing Rise of Resistance FPs: 6:12 1st day group 119, 6:04 group 90. 1st day we were discouraged by 90 min Slinky Dog Dash and instead headed to a 30 min Toy Story Mania and 40 min Tower of Terror. Both days we were behind a sea of people who arrived earlier than park opening but second day decided to try the supposedly 135 minutes Slinky Dog Dash line. Sure enough it was almost continuously in motion: we timed it and was only 45 minutes total!
Day one we then headed to Animal Kingdom and knocked out Dinosaur in a brisk 30 minutes (as a dino buff this was the only time I wished the queue was longer – really neat educational info and bones in the line!) before using our FP+ on a 9am Kilimanjaro Safaris. Lots of animals being fed and active at that time! Did the wonderful walkthrough animal exhibits and a 50 min Kali River Rapids with a 50 minute wait while watching the line times for most other stuff balloon. By leaving then for Epcot where lines were shorter, hitting DHS for a 415 pm Rise of Resistance, and coming back for a sunset Everest FP (and skipping Flight of Passage which had no FP+s 30 days out and lines were consistently over 200 minutes) managed to never have more than an hour long wait including a bunch at DHS were the wait times for Slinky Dog and Millenium Falcon got down to 40 minutes in the last two hours.
On the 31st we hopped to Epcot for the 8am rope drop via the parking lot entrance and got in a 30 minute Soarin’ line that moved briskly, walked right onto Living with the Land once and then a second time when joined by family members who were more sluggish from the previous day and had a 60 min Soarin, then went to Test Track and did a 60 minute single rider before heading back to DHS for a 1pm which actually had shorter waits then the day before. Left around 4 to get in a three hour nap before heading back to Epcot for NYE. Regretted leaving there to do gondolas for a 10pm 4th FP at DHS except for the projection mapping they did to Tower of Terror which was subperb. Epcot was so much fun – by waiting out everyone leaving we did a 12:55 walk on to Mission: Space which was the only big thrill ride we didn’t do.
By not bothering with Flight of Passage, waking up early the 30 days before to score good FPs, and doing double rope drops both days the 90 minute Millenium Falcon line we did mid-day on NYE was the longest that we did either day while managing to do all the stuff our 16 year olds wanted at the three not Magic Kingdom parks. No waits over 60 minutes otherwise! Even managed to see their fireworks from a distance in the Germany section of World Showcase at midnight which was great since they hit capacity at 1pm and had ginormous wait times.
None of that would’ve been possible without all your awesome advice. Thanks so much for all of it!
I was able to do this exact strategy the week before Christmas…so that shows you how well it works! Got to HS at 6:15..finally in the park around 7 to get Rise of the Resistance times. Then hit up Slinky Dog, walked through Star Wars Land, and did RnR walk on. From there, my husband and I took the skyliner to Epcot at around 8:30. We got to the park around 9:10 due to the skyline having a bit of a wait at the Carribean Beach transfer station. Walked straight to Norway and did the Frozen Ride with a 15 minute wait. Did Soarin and then walked around the world for an early lunch. What a morning but it was worth it!
Thanks for the comment here. I was actually thinking about doing a new write-up on this, but seeing your comment reminded me of this post. Should be able to easily update this for current circumstances and bump it back to the top. Glad to hear it worked well for you!
Just posted last night in the DHS ExEMH article about how things were more recently – didn’t see you’d addressed it here (sorry). We were down for a trip in August and did Toy Story Land Early Morning Magic, so we got to experience the rides quite a few times (did Slinky Dog 5 or 6 times). This trip we are leaving the kids behind (they’ll find out someday where we go on the trips without them), so we’re not too worried about pumping out the rides (although we do want to do most of them – we never get to ride stuff together).
In particular, we are looking forward to checking out SWGE and not just for Smuggler’s Run. How crowded has the land itself been during ExEMH? Any thoughts on a strategy for exploring the land and enjoying some empty park ambiance vs. taking advantage of low waits on rides?
I’m fairly certain we visited HS the same day you guys did for EEMH (I remember seeing a post on your FB saying you rope dropped two parks that day and it was early October). We had similar success showing up about 20 mins after park opening. We ran around like crazy people photographing the sunrise and then still managed to do TT and RNR twice before crowds (we didn’t need to stress about Slinky Dog as we had a FP for it). We were going to rope drop the Falcon but thanks to your advice (The fantastic EEMH post) didn’t, and that was such great advice because we rode at about 10am and the wait was only 25 mins! After that we took the skyliner to EPCOT and the friendship boats to the EPCOT Resort area and headed into Disney Springs for lunch. It turned into the perfect day and we would not have done it that way but for your advice so thank you!
Hello,
We are new to your Blog and are really enjoying it.
We are coming at Easter: Wednesday – Monday.
Are there traditionally extra hours at that time at the parks?
Any overall suggestions for that time? We will be staying at the Yacht Club.
Many thanks,
We had the same idea so we tried this on 10/15 and failed epically. I think the Kids slowed us down too much.
We left BWV at 5:30, arriving at HWS at 5:45. Breezed thru security etc. – ended up only getting to ride slinky dog once and millennium falcon once. Those two rides plus the walk back to the friendship boat launch took us until 9:30. We thought sky liners weren’t running this day and the kids were already too tired to walk to Epcot. We didn’t arrive at Epcot and through security until 10:45. Lines were swamped by that late and the rest of the day was a madhouse.
once we did a Disney Cruise, so long WDW.
My husband and I did this the first week of October and it worked perfectly! Left our room at Dolphin a little after 5 am to walk to HS for 6 am rope drop – were the first group on RnR, then did Tower of Terror, Slinky, Toy Story Mania, Oga’s Cantina, and Smuggler’s Run all before 8 am. Then we leisurely walked to Skyliner station, got to Epcot, and were entering the Frozen queue by 9:06. We then did Test Track Single Rider and Mission Space and all by 10 am! It was one of the most memorable mornings of our trip!
What’s really wild is that someone who got into the parks at 10 am wouldn’t have been able to accomplish in the entire rest of the day (10-11 hours) what you did in 4 hours. Shows what a huge advantage it is to get up early!
My husband and I recently did a “kid free” trip and were astonished at what we could accomplish! We stayed at the Swan, arrived at HS via boat at 540, rode Falcon at 620, then went to walk on TSM 2x, 20 min wait for slinky, walk on RRC, walk on TOT 2x all before 815. From then we watched the sea of regular park opening from Starbucks, used our 3 fastpasses, watched Indy and enjoyed Star Wars land leisurely as we waited for our 130 reso at Ogas. From there we went to epcot where we hit the left side (from international gateway) for food and wine and used our Soarin FP at 645 that we were able to snag day of!
The next day at MK was even better! Arrived at 630 for 7am EMH did Space Mtn 1x, Buzz lightyear 2x, Lil mermaid, Dumbo, jungle cruise, splash and big thunder all walk on. We skipped mine train as we feel it is HIGHLY overrated. Stopped for a giant cinnamon roll and lefou’s brew then hit up one show of Laugh floor (my personal fave) and we were all done by 10am! Leisurely stroll through the shops and we headed via monorail to Epcot, did the other side of WS for food and wine and walked our way back to the Swan! Took a forty min nap and headed to AK to use our 400 fp for safari, 510 for Everest ( which we had already walked on 3x) (wait for the last car btw!) And our 645 for FOP. We did wait 30 min for Navi river (no big deal!) We were done with AK by 730 and had enough energy to head to the Springs for some cocktails and live music. One of my most successful touring days ever!!
yeah i think the key here is noting that for adults-only, these strategies are great. i would love to try some of these, and incorporated as much as i could into our recent trip, but with kids it’s just not a long-term plan. you might be able to swing one morning, maybe even two, picking and choosing some of these, but overall, traveling with a family is simply not going to go this way.
We were there a couple of weeks ago and had one day at the parks before a Disney Cruise. We managed a 16 hour day at 3 parks and our 9 and 4 year old hung in there with us! We arrived at HS at 5:30 am and walked right onto Smuggler’s Run. Then the kids and I went straight to Slinky Dog while my hubby was able to walk right into Oga’s for a beer flight at 6:30 am! Hey, it’s always 5:00 on Batuu, right? Lol! We waited 20 mins for Slinky Dog (our longest wait of the day), hit up Alien Swirling Saucers, Star Tours twice, the Muppets 3D, plus meet and greets with Buzz Lightyear, Jessie, Olaf, and Darth Vadar, with some time to explore Galaxy’s Edge and my husband built a droid.
We headed over to Magic Kingdom for the afternoon and got in Splash Mountain (FP), Country Bears, Pirates of the Caribbean, Haunted Mansion (FP), Small World, Space Mountain (FP), Voyage of Little Mermaid, Barnstormer, the Peoplemover, and Carousel of Progress, plus we got last minute reservations at Liberty Tree Tavern for a relaxing lunch to recharge our batteries. We were happy to have gotten to see the Muppets one last time in “Great Moments in History” too
Since it was a party night and Magic Kingdom closed early, we took the monorail over to Epcot and rode Spaceship Earth, Journey into Imagination, and Soarin (FP). We managed to hit up 4 food and wine festival booths before ending the night with Epcot Forever. All in all, a very productive day! The kids did great and my 4 year old made it almost to the fireworks.
If my husband hadn’t had a reservation at 10:00 at the Droid Depot, I would have much preferred to head over to rope drop Epcot instead of staying around HS.
Thanks again for another great post!
That is amazing!! What a fun day with your kids, sometimes they’re tougher than we give them credit for (especially when it’s only going hard for one day!).
Now that is an epic day! Well done!
Beautiful pics as always!! Dang, I wish I had your stamina!
I second Jon’s comment above, both of those parks need more attractions.
Highly disappointed the Canada movie isn’t running when we were there last week. We were looking to go in to a) enjoy it and b) get out of the rain. Also, there was a problem with the “show” in America too, with no announcement if it would go or not to the throng of people waiting in the pre-show area last Monday. However, the greeter outside the building was telling people there was “an issue”. Really?!
We were lucky enough to get in Test Track between showers, but also got stuck waiting in line and wasting time there inside in the afternoon. Seems like they should hand out a paper fast-pass when that happens. We did not have a fast pass, just a regular party standing in line. So we were out of luck when we decided to bail due to “more bad weather moving in” announcement.
We even debated not going to Epcot that day due to the lack of things to do….and now with no movie in Canada and France. Really?!? They really need to beef this up while they are doing other construction…
both epcot and hollywood studios should be half-price with so few rides.