Seven Tips for Dealing with Rope Drop & Toy Story Mania

[bxrluv]

Thanks for the great tips and motivation to get my butt out of bed in the morning! We are so not morning people and this is our first trip during peak time so we plan to maximize our morning time. The early bird gets the ride

[joanna71985]

One other tip- make sure your entire party is in the park when you go to get FPs. If the person hasn't used their ticket through the turnstyles, it won't work in the FP machines.

[crmark1]

Is the rope drop being described at regular opening hours or extra magic early hours? Is one crowd at opening larger than another?

[joanna71985]

Is the rope drop being described at regular opening hours or extra magic early hours? Is one crowd at opening larger than another?

It could be used for either. But typically the crowd at regular opening is larger.

[rubato]

We just experienced this craziness for the first time last week. The tips are perfect. We had one older couple refuse to listen to all the CMs as they headed for those stairs at the Chinese Theater. The CMs would tell them to get back in the line and they would just so NO! Until they got to the stairs. The CMs created a hands linked road block and refused to let the couple through. Man were they mad! I, of course, enjoyed it immensely.

[pixiesmimi]

We did this on our last trip and got the FP first because we had heard they were gone quickly. Then we got into the Standby line. It was a little bit of a wait but we had so much fun (just DH and I) that we were glad we had the FP so we could go again. But, as said above, the FP line skips all the atmosphere. Glad we did the other first. And as a bonus, right across the street is the character photo line inside. You can go in and see all the characters at one time and have pictures taken. The earlier the better before the line gets long.

[MNNHFLTX]

We did this on our last trip and got the FP first because we had heard they were gone quickly.

They do go quickly, but unless you want to ride again right away, you generally have time to go the standby route first and get fastpasses afterwards. For example, we got in the standby line first at 8:10 a.m. and by the time we got out the fastpass return time was for 11:45 a.m. (this was in early August). That was fine with us, as we were then able to go on Rock'n Roller Coaster and Tower of Terror before our return time.

Another observation I forgot to add in my last post--if you send one member of your party to get fastpasses while you get in the standby line when the park opens, it's very possible that you will be too far advanced in the line for them to catch up with you by the time they get them (at least not without garnering a 1000 dirty looks). I saw one guy who was quite irate, talking with his family on the phone. By the time he got their fastpasses, they were already almost up to the front of the standby line, so he missed out on riding it with them on that go-round.

[mouseketeer mom]

I will avoid this morning mob in the future. I hated the stress of this. We have been lucky enough to ride this on our past few visits, and won't even try very hard to get on this next time. If the wait time is not too long, we'll wait, if the return time for fastpasses works for us, we will do that. If not, we will simply pass on the ride on our next visit. Those mob scenes and I just don't get along! Too stressful!

[Meteora]

Thanks for the tips! I have been trying to figure out how to work TSM into our usual DHS plan, which used to involve going straight to Sunset Boulevard and getting one FP each for TOT and RnRC for my sister (the rest of us won't touch them), then heading to TGMR for the first ride of the day.
Do you think we should still do this but bump it all to after one stand-by line trip through TSM, or should I send my sister ahead to do TOT and RnRC while I get FPs for TSM for the whole fam?

[LoriMistress]

Great tips! Thanks for sharing.

[MaxPower]

The cast members are very serious about not letting anyone run to the attraction.

Sometimes I think they enjoy it because it's the only time they are allowed to yell at guests.

[Iluvpooh]

I was at rope drop yesterday and these tips are great if you want to be one if the first to ride in the morning or if you want to ride twice before lunch, but we did it a little different.


We left the mob and went straight to RnR and walked on then walked over to ToT with a 5 minute wait. By the time we got over to TSM, the FP lines were thined out and we got FPs for 11:45. Not bad really.

[NJDad]

We did the CM march two straight mornings. First day they made it clear what the rule about staying behind them was, second day not so much.

Funny thing was, at least one of the CMs was the same exact guy who gave the spiel the first time.

[WelshieLover]

We went through this process on Jan 27th. It was crazy. We unknowingly followed most of the tips with the exception of getting in line immediately after getting our fastpasses. Part of the problem was that getting our fastpasses was at least a 10 minute ordeal. Little did we know nor did the 3 people in line in front of us realize that the 1st person in our Fastpass line was a tour leader. She proceeded to get about 50 fastpasses for her tourgroup who had given her their tickets while they went off to ride Tower of Terror and Rock and Roll. By the time we got our fatspasses they were for 10:30 AM and the standby line wait was 40 minutes.

[MaxPower]

The Fast Pass situation IS crazy. I think it's worth it to arrive early enough to be in the front of the mob.

You then get to be first to the Fast Pass machines. You can easily ride Toy Story Mania twice in the first hour of the day and ALSO acquire a Fast Pass for another ride in the early afternoon.

The way we usually do it is:

1) Enter with the mob
2) Get Fast Pass #1
3) Ride Toy Story Mania immediately using standby line
4) Leave and ride Rock N Roller Coaster- After we've done this, then our Fast Pass is now "active"
5) Go back to Toy Story Mania to ride a second time
6) Get Fast Pass #2
7) Ride other attractions
8) Use Fast Pass #2 later in the afternoon

This way we get to ride Toy Story Mania three times in one day with no more than a ten minute wait each time.

[Goes4FastPass]

The tips are valid.

The whole set the alarm to get everyone up to make all the necessary transfers and time to go through bag check and turnstiles then up to the rope to wham slam push shove throw your stroller in a pile because if you slow down for a step all the Fastpasses for the whole day will be gone situation is unfortunate.

[joanna71985]

The cast members are very serious about not letting anyone run to the attraction.

Sometimes I think they enjoy it because it's the only time they are allowed to yell at guests.

Actually, not really. I know most of the people at TSM don't like Rope Drop because of people getting crazy trying to run past, or run ahead to the ride (and then getting mad when the CMs ask them to stay behind the CMs).

And even then, CMs are technically not supposed to yell at guests.

[MaxPower]

It's still fairly crazy once the mob of people starts moving en masse. Even though nobody can get in front of the cast members, there is still a lot of jostling once the rope is dropped as people practically run to get in front of the slower people pushing strollers as well as those who are there at rope drop and have no real plan regarding where they are heading.

There used to be A LOT of people who would head straight for Rock N Roller Coaster and Tower of Terror. Now there are only a few who do so. These days, everyone is there early for Toy Story Mania.

[crltkcagle]

Wow thanks for the tips!

[MaxPower]

No problem.

It's actually kind of funny to see the people there first thing in the morning who have one single goal in mind: GET TO TOY STORY MANIA