Magic Kingdom Rope Drop Report: Busiest Day of Year at Park Opening
We head to Magic Kingdom bright and early before park opening to see how much we can get done in the first hour of morning. In this Walt Disney World rope drop report, we do the busiest day of the year so far (July 28, 2021), with a step-by-step look at what we accomplished, strategy & tips, and our new “Magic Kingdom Moneyball” approach.
For this visit to Magic Kingdom, we stayed at Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort (lots coming soon on the new rooms, construction, and dining!) and left our room in Fiji by 7:47 am. Our room was relatively close to the dock…but it was also pretty close to the walking path to Grand Floridian and Magic Kingdom.
Given that the feels like temperature was already “dunes of Tatooine” and the humidity stickiness was “Club Cool floors,” we decided to walk. Naturally. Complaints about the heat and humidity aside, it actually was not too bad. A pleasant breeze off the water and complete control over our own arrival fate made this the right choice for us, but your mileage may vary. We arrived to Magic Kingdom at 8:07 am. (We walk very quickly and know the route well–that’s longer than a 20 minute walk for most people.)
We breezed through security and were about 10 people back at the far left turnstiles. Both the monorail and ferries were already in service at this time; the boat that arrived at the Poly right as we were leaving beat us to Magic Kingdom by a few minutes.
Magic Kingdom opened the turnstiles at 8:13 am and we arrived onto Main Street USA by 8:16 am. After a few photos, Sarah made her first stop Starbucks, which didn’t have a line out the door yet and was only a 10 minute wait. I wandered around taking photos of the crowds gathered for each land’s rope drop.
We regrouped in front of Cinderella Castle around 8:30 am, or 30 minutes before official park opening.
This is actually a great time for photos on Main Street, the Hub, and directly in front of Cinderella Castle. While these areas will be less crowded later in the day, it’s always nice to get some family photos before the Florida heat and humidity wreaks havoc on everyone.
Backtracking a bit, here’s a look at the rope drop crowd for Tomorrowland at approximately 8:20 am.
It’s hard to tell, but this is already a pretty big crowd. This is also the rope drop area that is entirely in direct sunlight.
Liberty Square at 8:22 am.
This is far and away the smallest crowd of the rope drop locations and it’s the only one entirely in the shade. This is a distinction that is very notable if you’re going to be standing elbow to elbow for 30-45 minutes.
Adventureland at 8:23 am.
This crowd is slightly larger than Liberty Square, but significantly smaller than Fantasyland or Tomorrowland.
Here’s Fantasyland at 8:26 am.
This may not look too bad, but the crowd size is probably triple that of the lands on the left side of the Central Plaza.
Same crowd at 8:35 am.
The gatherings for Fantasyland and Tomorrowland are starting to back into one another.
The Fantasyland rope drop crowd at 8:40 am.
In addition to the crowd growing here, Main Street is getting significantly busier by the minute as more guests arrive by buses, car, etc.
Here’s a side view of the Tomorrowland crowd, also at 8:40 am.
The vast majority of guests on the right side of the Central Plaza will head to Seven Dwarfs Mine Train and Space Mountain.
Bouncing to the other side, we have a look at Liberty Square and the Cinderella Castle walkway at 8:42 am. Note that the latter will not open until shortly after rope drop–something Cast Members are frequently telling guests–so there is absolutely no point of lining up there.
Keen eyes might also spot a hidden Sarah in the middle of this photo. She joined the Liberty Square crowd at around 8:45 am.
Jumping forward, here’s the Fantasyland and Tomorrowland side at 8:55 am.
With both rope drop crowds stretching back into the Central Plaza, there’s essentially no distinction between the two groups at this point. It’s just one mass of people that stretches back to the Plaza Gardens or Hub Grass. To relieve some of the congestion, it appeared that some front-of-the-pack guests for each of these two lands were allowed to enter at 8:56 am or so. There was significant crowd movement, but it was difficult to ascertain exactly what was happening from so far back.
The above video starts at 8:59 am and runs until shortly after all lands do their rope drops. (My apologies for the quality–I’m holding my camera in the other hand and am already beat from the heat.)
It should give you a decent idea of the respective crowd sizes on each side of the Central Plaza. Just keep in mind that Tomorrowland and Fantasyland had already released a portion of their crowds at this point.
Sarah and I took a divide and conquer approach to rope dropping Magic Kingdom, with the idea that I’d assess real time crowd patterns and actual wait times (which, as a reminder, can differ dramatically from posted times) to come up with some strategy on the fly.
She started at Peter Pan’s Flight, entering its line at 9:03 am. She was on Peter Pan’s Flight by 9:11 am and off by 9:16 am. Peter Pan’s Flight averaged a 70 minute wait throughout yesterday at Magic Kingdom.
Sarah was in line for Haunted Mansion at 9:17 am. She was on the attraction by 9:32 am and off by 9:41 am.
This was a very solid second choice, as Haunted Mansion averaged a 69 minute wait over the course of the day.
Meanwhile, I made a beeline to Frontierland after finishing my video and grabbing the above photos of Fantasyland.
This was the line I encountered for Big Thunder Mountain Railroad at 9:08 am.
Splash Mountain is already using its overflow queue and is not yet operational.
One of the big risks with rope dropping Splash Mountain or Seven Dwarfs Mine Train is the dreaded delayed opening. It seems like one of the two doesn’t open with Magic Kingdom almost every other day. That makes both a big gamble.
Here’s the line for Peter Pan’s Flight at 9:20.
It’s already posting a 55 minute wait, which would jump to 65 minutes almost as soon as I left this area.
At 9:25 am, Seven Dwarfs Mine Train is already posting a 90 minute wait time.
Its wait time generally peaks early, as almost all of the Fantasyland rope drop crowd heads to it first. It’s fascinating to me that so few people see the line and opt to cut their losses. I guess it’s the sunk costs fallacy.
Due to video processing errors, it took me several tries to get the above time lapse video. You’d think multiple takes would result in a refined and higher quality video, but you’d be wrong. During those attempts, the line for Seven Dwarfs Mine Train actually got shorter. It would continue to decrease in length even as other lines ballooned during the first hour of operation.
Anyway, if you’re arriving in Magic Kingdom even 10 minutes before park opening, you’re already too late to do Seven Dwarfs Mine Train first thing–call an audible!!!
Meanwhile, Space Mountain is sporting an hour wait with its line extending behind the Joffrey’s coffee stand (far right) and past the restrooms.
Space Mountain would average an 84 minute wait time yesterday.
Around this same time, Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin has a 5 minute posted wait time.
The actual wait is probably slightly longer than that, but not by too much. Don’t let the line out front fool you–the extended queue isn’t in use and it’s constantly loading. Given the 54 minute wait this would average, it’s a good choice towards the end of Magic Kingdom’s first hour.
Sarah’s next stop is the Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh.
She entered the line at 9:44 am and was off by around 10:03 am. The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh averaged a 51 minute wait for the day.
Given that we were over Magic Kingdom’s one hour mark by this point, we regrouped and did the Little Mermaid dark ride together. I forgot to write down our on/off times, but it was a near walk-on, with the bulk of our time spent walking through the constantly-moving queue.
If we were sticking to pure strategy, our better move might’ve been doing Pirates of the Caribbean immediately after Haunted Mansion, and then sticking with this itinerary. However, that’s a lot of backtracking and crisscrossing Magic Kingdom, which may not appeal to everyone. (I was drenched in sweat by the time we got to Under the Sea: Journey of the Little Mermaid.)
Given the crowds, accomplishing 4 attractions in Magic Kingdom’s first hour (or so) is what I’d consider a win. Especially when accounting for the fact that Sarah didn’t get into the rope drop crowd for Liberty Square until 15 minutes before park opening. That makes this not just efficient, but also practical for those who get slowed down by bus delays or whatever.
In watching crowd dynamics, rope dropping Liberty Square and cutting over to Fantasyland by the Tangled Toilets is absolutely the way to go. Rope dropping Seven Dwarfs Mine Train increasingly feels like a fool’s errand–a gamble that is unlikely to pay off. Save that attraction for either midday when every line is bad or the very end of the night.
Seven Dwarfs Mine Train sucking up the Fantasyland crowds leaves the other dark rides with shorter (by comparison) lines, and several of those can be knocked out in decently quick succession.
Big crowds will also be heading to the Magic Kingdom Mountain Range attractions, making those tough sells at rope drop for me. You’re basically going to be able to do one of them with a relatively short wait, and that’s it. We’ve now done rope drop at Magic Kingdom 3 times in the last 3 weeks, and I’m reasonably convinced avoiding the mountains is the way to go.
Knocking out 4 attractions that averaged 45 minute waits or greater in the course of an hour is huge, with cumulative time savings far greater than what we would’ve saved doing one of the mountains plus one or two lower profile rides.
Heading directly to Seven Dwarfs Mine Train or Splash Mountain–the park’s two longest waits of the day–along with the masses might be the “sexy” choice, but it’s not necessarily the savviest strategy. Think of this like Moneyball, but for theme park attractions. Sometimes it’s better to simply find a way to get on base/attractions quickly and easily!
(With our “Magic Kingdom Moneyball” strategy in mind, I’ll be updating our 1-Day Magic Kingdom Itinerary later today. That’s currently very overzealous and doesn’t account for current crowd levels. Wait time data and graphics courtesy of Thrill-Data.com.)
Speaking of which, we want to reiterate that our visit was on the busiest day of the year (so far) at Magic Kingdom! It has been a couple weeks of “busiest days,” with new annual highs breaking ones set days before. You might recall last week’s Magic Kingdom Crowd Report: Busiest Week of the Year. Well, that title should now be Second-Busiest, as this week has surpassed it.
These record-setting days and weeks cannot continue indefinitely. First, because we’re nearing the end of summer season, so the next couple of weeks are pretty much the last hurrah for vacations before school starts. Second, Magic Kingdom moves to 8 am opening times next week, a change that cannot come soon enough (and one that’ll really help with rope drop efficiency).
Finally, there’s also a decent chance that “current events” (Florida’s rising cases and Walt Disney World reinstating the indoor face mask rule) will put a non-negligible dent in crowds. While both of these things are likely to fall off and be non-issues by mid-August, their impact will likely reverberate far beyond that, resulting in cancellations in September, October, and perhaps beyond. We’ve seen the same thing with past waves, and this one-two punch of news will probably be even more significant. Regardless of how things play out, the damage is done.
Ultimately, this is all to say that if you’re rope dropping Magic Kingdom in the coming days or weeks, you should adjust your expectations downward as compared to even earlier this summer. However, what we experienced will hopefully be the peak (or close to it) of current crowds, with things getting progressively better in August and September 2021. Of course, all bets are off come October 1, 2021…but that’s a whole different ball game, anyway. Regardless, hopefully our “Magic Kingdom Moneyball” rope drop strategy gives you some ideas for the next time you visit Walt Disney World!
Planning a Walt Disney World trip? Learn about hotels on our Walt Disney World Hotels Reviews page. For where to eat, read our Walt Disney World Restaurant Reviews. To save money on tickets or determine which type to buy, read our Tips for Saving Money on Walt Disney World Tickets post. Our What to Pack for Disney Trips post takes a unique look at clever items to take. For what to do and when to do it, our Walt Disney World Ride Guides will help. For comprehensive advice, the best place to start is our Walt Disney World Trip Planning Guide for everything you need to know!
YOUR THOUGHTS
Thoughts on morning in Magic Kingdom? Have you experienced rope drop recently in Magic Kingdom? Do you agree with our “Magic Kingdom Moneyball” approach, or do you prefer knocking out the mountain range? How would you have done things differently? Any other feedback on arriving early to the Walt Disney World theme parks? Agree or disagree with our advice or approach? 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 so great- thank you! Although I’ll be watching to see if the 8am and cancellations change this strategy (eg if we can get to 7D first/early/front of pack). Otherwise, I’m following this exactly. I’ve screen shot the ride itinerary and sent to my brood so they are already aware of Tom’s Plan! Will report back!
Park guests are like sheep. The Rope Drop is nothing more than a very dangerous park management program to encourage guests to crowd into to parks at park opening. It does not reduce wait times and creates the potential for a disaster if the crowd gets spooked.
I hope you do a post regarding masks tomorrow. I have a lot of questions about how it actually plays out. Totally get why you are blocking comments on those stories. I don’t want to get into any mask arguments, but I would like some facts from “on the ground.”
First, I’m wondering if >85-90% of people will put masks on when going indoors without being asked? If they do the rest of my questions are irrelevant. But, if they don’t…
Will Disney actually try to enforce masks requirements? Particularly if a significant number of guests don’t just put masks on without being asked?
Is this just lip service from Disney to appease local government?
If Disney does try to enforce this will employees put up with that or will they just look the other way?
With Universal not requiring masks does this put Disney at a hiring disadvantage? Will prospective employees choose to work for Universal instead so they don’t have to deal with mask enforcement and presumably be able to not wear masks themselves sooner than if they worked for Disney?
Doesn’t Universal not requiring masks make things pretty difficult on Disney? Seems like a rare instance of divergence between the two.
I tried to email you so this doesn’t kick off some ridiculous and pointless mask debate, but I couldn’t find your email.
Thank you for the excellent post, Tom!!
Just wondering, was the extended Peter Pan queue open when Sarah hit the attraction at rope drop? (For us, it’s not complete without it!)
This matches out experience on the July 13th. We were in the park by 8:15 for a 9:00 open and queued up by Cosmic Rays and the Teacups just before 8:30. Rope drop didn’t occur until 9:00 AM and by the time we could reach the end of the Seven Dwarves line it was past the Little Mermaid queue and the posted time was 80 minutes. With Splash Mountain down at open most of the lines grew quickly. By 11 we had only managed Ariel, Peter Pan and Big Thunder. Combined with the summer heat and no fast pass, the loss of a pre-rope drop made Magic Kingdom the most difficult park to navigate, on par with DHS.
Thank you for the continued updates, Tom and Sarah! I’m obsessively trying to map out a park strategy for our visit September 30-October 5th. I know things will change by then since everything is very fluid right now. Because of that, I so appreciate reading your reports from the parks!
In my opinion (and with a trip coming up in a few weeks) you are doing God’s work, Tom. I’ve always been a planner/strategist when it comes to our Disney trips. My husband laughs but every family needs one of us. For those of us who balanced a lot of things that Disney is completely disregarding now when we booked post-closure (see: non-existent so called attendance caps) this info is ESSENTIAL as are others sharing their recent strategies. Keep giving me hope, people!
This was a fascinating post to me as yesterday was supposed to have been our first day. We pushed our start date back to 8/7 due to my daughter coming down with an awful cold. I wonder how much better it will be by then due the news. I just hope that it won’t be any worse.
Tom, thanks for reminding us (and not for the first time!) that current conditions mean that lines for the most popular rides can peak earlier than normal, so averages can obscure planning.
I was thinking of looking at the rides with shorter durations, but the only ride with a larger than MK average wait time that’s quicker than Big Thunder is … Astro Orbiter. (Still, every ride is somebody’s must do, right?) You clearly know what you’re doing.
We were at Magic Kingdom Monday… we Rope dropped Peter pan, then straight to Pooh, Buzz, People Mover and Dumbo. All those rides were done by 10:25 am. We headed to Sleepy Hollow for a waffle and break. After that we did SDMT, Space, Tomorrowland speedway x2, Astro Orbiter and Mickey’s Philharmagic before another break. Then we hit Big thunder before an early dinner at 4pm at Liberty Tree. We fit Splash in RIGHT before the big storm and then we left. We had a very efficient day!
Tangled Toilets We have names for all the Disneyland pit stops, most not appropriate for public forum. With that later rope drop/no fast pass, it looks like survival of the fittest. Is the feel/excitement affected? Edging, eyeing up the competition? Elbow to elbow and speed walking (running)? In your video i distinctly see a woman cut off a wheelchair without looking back. That’s nothing new, but the need to join in or be else be shut out feels different.
We’ve never done rope drop but have done tours that had us inside the Parks before rope drop and watched with our guide as people fast walk like trotters trying not to break into a run.
I don’t want to put pressure on you but we are really depending on your advice on doing Oct 1st. I don’t care about doing rides that day but I do not want to miss the speeches and ceremonies at the official start of the day.
PS What do we win if we spot Sarah?
Sounds like spot on advice, as usual – big thanks to you and Sarah for your reports, which were a huge help to us in prepping for our recent trip.
We rope-dropped Magic Kingdom two weeks ago (14 July), and it sounds like crowds have gotten even worse since then. Like you, we had an opportunity to arrive on foot (passing security around the same time as first buses), so we managed to speed walk our way right to the front of the Fantasyland rope. We were very glad it resulted in a walk on for 7DMT, but as you say it does mean standing 45 min in crowded/hot condition on the bridge (we took pictures from there and had breakfast snacks to keep spirits up). 7DMT was great, but I’m easily persuaded that strolling in 30 min later, taking photos at the castle and then lining up at Liberty Square is an equally good way to go. One parent in our party with a small child did both Winnie the Pooh and the Prince Charming carousel while waiting for us to come out of 7DMT.
We rounded out our first hour by heading to Peter Pan (approx. 20 min) and it’s a small world (10 min), before trying our luck at Splash Mountain (around 45 min actual wait time by then, which was better than we had feared). Since we like the Dumbo queue (an air-conditioned playground), we then followed the princess cavalcade back to Fantasyland to do that, and were delighted to find the Casey Junior Splash n’Soak Station open again when we came out of Dumbo.
We took a midday break, but found lines were still pretty long upon our return around 4.30pm, so took some time to snack and watch cavalcades before finding lower wait times at Buzz Lightyear (around 15 min by 5.30pm). Our group then split, with the “big kids” managing to do Space Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain (around 35-40 min wait time each) in the time that it took the littles to do PeopleMover (15 min) and Jungle Cruise (55 min). We were pleasantly surprised that Pirates was a walk on by 7.30/8pm (official wait times had just dropped from 50 min to 25 min, but there was literally no one in front of us until we reached the boat), presumably since people wanted to start getting into position for HEA. We managed to squeeze in Under the Sea just before HEA started and then watched the fireworks with plenty of space for our kids to dance and run around in Fantasyland. Hopped on the carousel right afterwards again and went home very happily.
This truly sounds horrid. Yes, you got through 4 rides in an hour — But none of the mountains, no Pirates, no Jungle cruise. Little Mermaid isn’t a good enough attraction that it should require an opening hour premium. (and neither is Pooh). Haunted Mansion is such high capacity, that it also shouldn’t require a first hour premium.
If that’s all you can get through in the first hour, then I don’t see how you can possibly get much done in a full day.
I look forward to seeing your 1-day itinerary.
But this is making me glad I have Boo Bash tickets. (and keeping fingers crossed that waits truly are much lower during those 3 hours)
Tom, I’m pre-ordering your “Where’s Waldo” style book, entitled, “Keen Eyes May Spot Sarah.” (Just make sure it’s released after your Wilderness Lodge coffee table book…)
Ugh, if it’s already this bad, I can’t even imagine 10/1. I’m already mentally preparing myself that that day is going to be more about revelry and atmosphere than riding rides. Although I’m also naively hoping we’ll see some of the old WDW with some truly insane park hours that day. 6 AM rope drop with these crowds sounds reasonable.
I also assume this means food, both ADRs and mobile orders, is becoming even harder to come by? As a “late” anniversary person not arriving until 9/30, I’m assuming ADRs in MK that day are pretty much going to be gone by the time my 60 day window opens on Sunday.
Thanks as always for the continued updates as a lot of nervously await your 10/1 predictions and recommendations.
Rope dropped Magic Kingdom last week, and you’re analysis is spot-on here. We were pretty close to the front of the Seven Dwarfs/Fantasyland crowd (arrived to the park at 8:03am with a 9am opening), and 2 minutes before they let us in they announced that Seven Dwarfs wasn’t going to open with the park. We audibled and put in some Olympic-level speed walking to get in pretty close to the front of the crowd heading to Splash Mountain through Frontierland, but it’s such a long ride that even with minimal wait by the time we were off it we were stuck in long lines for pretty much everything else in the park by about 9:30am. If Splash Mountain wasn’t a must-do for our party with an inability to come back at the end of the day (traveling with a small child), this strategy you outline here makes a lot more sense. Also, I cannot stress enough that a 50 minute wait in this reality with no Fastpass is very different than the standby 50 minute wait when Fastpass was used. The lines move, which is great, but Disney just doesn’t seem to have the queue space for this many bodies in line, and you’re spending a lot more time in that Club Cool Floor humidity and Florida sun than I was mentally prepared for.
Wowzers. I think we have been spoiled by the low crowds in the past year and not having rope drops. But I agree with the strategy of doing the opposite of what the crowds do. Also, do not hesitate when trying to change plans, just get in a line for something, because by the time you figure out what you think might be a short wait and hussle all the way across the park, it’s already full and you missed everything on the way.
I like your strategy and had a few questions as I’m prepping my ‘game’ for Oct 1. We are staying at the Swan/Dolphin and trying to figure out how to get to MK the earliest. Since their bus drops off at TTC, I was debating walking over to Boardwalk to take that one instead. Other thoughts had been an Lyft to the park early, but I wasnt sure what the policy would be on that…do the Lyft cars have to wait at the turnstyles too? Ive been keeping an eye out for any openings at the Bay Lake resorts as well, and noted somewhere that the walking path to MK was supposedly closed until an hour before park opening. Have you encountered this?
Definitely walk to BoardWalk or Yacht Club and use those buses.
The hours from the walkway sign have been removed, so I’m not sure. I had heard that before, but suspect it might’ve been that way earlier in the year due to park opening times and dawn.
“Magic Kingdom opened the turnstiles at 8:13 am and we arrived onto Main Street USA by 7:16 am”
Knew you had a Delorian.
Club cool floor as a measurement of humidity is a keeper.
Ha, knew I should’ve double checked every single number before posting!