Disneyland, the O.G. of all of the Disney parks, is a magical and manageable park for a weekend trip- or even a day trip- if you plan it right! In this post, I will share with you how to plan your day using an early morning plan and the best Disneyland rope drop strategy so that you can experience all the thrills and pixie dust at the Happiest Place on Earth!

Disneyland Rope Drop Strategy: The Must-Know Steps for a Stress-Free Start to Your Disneyland Day!

If you want to have a stress-free start to your Disney adventure, then it’s time to dig into some Disneyland rope drop secrets. The rope drop is the moment when the park officially opens and guests are allowed inside. It’s the perfect time to get ahead of the crowds and make the most of your day. Developing a Disneyland Rope Drop Strategy involves arriving early, having a plan, knowing where to go and when, and knowing how to use the Disneyland App. By following these Disneyland rope drop secrets, you can ensure a stress-free start to your Disney adventure!

This blog is all about the Best Disneyland Rope Drop Strategy.

Table of Contents

What is Rope Dropping?

Early morning hours at Fantasyland in Disneyland

First, if you are new to the whole Disneyland strategy idea, you may be wondering, “What does rope drop mean?”. Rope drop is a term used to describe the moment when Disneyland officially opens its gates to guests in the morning. It refers to the act of dropping a rope (which historically was the way it was done) or removing a physical barrier that separates from the park. You can feel the excitement when you rope drop and sometimes a crowd does form, but after that (imaginary now) rope drops the crowd thins out as they go in different directions and you can get some amazing photos and shorter lines.

Therefore if you want to make the MOST of your Disneyland visit, be sure to arrive early, have a plan, and embrace Disneyland’s “rope drop”. Trust me, it’s an experience you won’t want to miss!

Why should you rope drop?

A good Disneyland Rope Drop strategy can save you so much time, allow you to get great pictures, and enjoy a much quieter and less crowded Disneyland!

Rope dropping can prove to be a valuable time-saving technique. By arriving at the park early, before its official opening time, you can be one of the first to enter, thereby avoiding long queues and crowds later in the day. This early entry advantage not only allows for ample time to capture awesome pictures of a more empty Sleeping Beauty Castle, Main Street USA, and just about any land you love in Disneyland, but also provides a serene and peaceful experience.

Moreover, this strategic approach enables you to maximize your time in the park, ensuring you can experience more attractions in the morning, and have a more relaxed afternoon or evening in Disneyland. As the day goes on at Disneyland a larger crowd typically accumulates, particularly since it is a locals’ park, much more so than Walt Disney World.

Disneyland Park Hours

In order to rope drop you need to know the current Disneyland operating hours during your planned trip. Be sure to check the Disneyland park schedule as it can vary from season to season and even from day to day. Additionally, checking the app for any special events or closures during your trip can help you better plan your itinerary and make the most of your time at the Happiest Place on Earth.

Plan to arrive at least 30 minutes before Disneyland officially opens, or even earlier. Often they will let you in the front gate of the park a bit earlier than 30 minutes before official park opening hours. If you want to be at the front of that rope drop line you may want to arrive between 7:00 a.m. and 7:15 a.m., for example, on a morning when the park opens at 8:00 a.m.

Early Entry Disneyland Rope Drop Strategy Timing

Staying on-site at a Disneyland resort (this would be the Disneyland Hotel, Grand Californian Hotel, or the Pixar Pier Hotel) allows you to enter one of the two parks (Disneyland or California Adventure) 30 minutes early and go right in, no rope drop needed. Early Entry is not available for Disneyland Good Neighbor Hotels at this time.

As of January 20th, 2024 the parks for Early Entry are alternating so be sure to check the Early Entry park for that day.

When using Early Entry it’s best to arrive 15 minutes before early entry starts, basically 45 minutes before the park is set to open. Early Entry includes Fantasyland and Tomorrowland only, but cast members will direct you where to go.

Details to Know Before You Arrive

Park Reservations

As of the writing of this blog Disneyland still requires reservations for entry. This means YOU CAN’T buy tickets at the gate. You will need to get your tickets online, or by calling. Booking online either via the Disneyland website or the Disneyland app is the quickest way to get both your reservations and your tickets.

Using a travel planner can save you even more time as we do all of the work for you and it costs you nothing- see my contacts page and send me a message if you are feeling overwhelmed. I would love to help!

Parking

Parking (unless you have an Annual Pass, known as a Magic Key) is $30/day at the Disneyland parking garages.

I like the Mickey and Friends or the Pixar Pals parking lots as these are closer and less of a walk or commute. It takes about 10 to 15 minutes to walk, and taking the tram can save you some time but not much, it all depends on the crowd levels.

The Toy Story parking lot it is farther away BUT you can go through security at the parking lot. This saves you time at the gate as you can bypass security there.

Arrival at the Gate

Be sure to factor in the time it will take to go through the security line and have your bags checked. Early in the morning, this can be as little as 5 minutes or as much as 15 to 20 minutes, thus the above recommendation stands-arrive 45 minutes before the scheduled park opening to be on the safe side.

Have your bags open and ready to be checked and your tickets either printed, your ticket card, or available to scan on your Disneyland app. The line closest to California Adventure is often the shortest line.

Disneyland Rope Drop Strategy

To make your rope drop experience the best it can be for you and your family/friends be sure to make a list of your top 3 attractions ahead of time.

And then read everything below as you may want to save some for later!

The most popular Disneyland attractions that get the longest wait times are:

Star War: Rise of the Resistance
Indiana Jones
Peter Pans Flight
Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway
Space Mountain

Other attractions that can get long waits throughout the day are Millenium Falcon: Smugglers Run, Pirates of the Caribbean, Haunted Mansion, Big Thunder Mountain, the Matterhorn Bobsleds, and the Jungle Cruise.

Additionally, Splash Mountain at the time of this writing is currently closed and is projected to reopen in early 2024. When it does reopen, as Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, expect long wait times for this attraction.

Where Most of the Crowd will be going at Rope Drop

You will notice at Rope Drop the crowd will divide and go:

To the left to Star Wars for Rise of the Resistance
To Adventureland for Indian Jones
To the castle to get to Peter Pan’s Flight
To ToonTown for Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway
To Tomorrowland for Space Mountain

Where should you go?

These are some of the best Disneyland Rope Drop strategies categorized by goals or age of your traveling party:

Thrill Seekers

If you love thrill rides and everyone in your party is tall enough to ride them then head to Space Mountain first. The line will move quickly and you won’t be stuck in the line/attraction for 45 minutes like you could be with other popular attractions.

After this, you can head to the Matterhorn and then Big Thunder Mountain. You will be walking a bit but you should be able to get 3 major rides completed within the first hour with this rope drop strategy.

Next, head over to either Indiana Jones or Rise of the Resistance if the wait times are less than 45 minutes.

The reason I don’t recommend you go to either one first is a) they often break down and b) they take a long time to get through that queue and get on the attraction. This means even if you rope drop them you will be in line for 45 minutes at the beginning of your day. But if you hit either one of them after you ride the other three often the wait times actually go down (if the attractions are up and running). This happens after the rope drop crowd filters through them.

You can also buy a Lightning Lane individually for Rise of the Resistance if the line gets long and you have your heart set on riding this attraction (if you have the resources, it’s worth it).

After this, try to get to Jungle Cruise and/or Haunted Mansion if it’s still early enough and the lines are less than 25 minutes.

At this point, if you are lucky enough to have gotten through the above plan within the morning hours, check out the app and look at the wait times for Fantasyland. Peter Pan will be a long wait all day so no rush on this, but it’s good to get Alice in Wonderland and the other dark rides in Fantasyland done earlier in the day before the locals get there and the lines get much longer.

Rope Dropping with little ones/young kids

Mr Toad's Wild Ride — Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride in Fantasyland

When visiting Disneyland with small kids a great place to go first is Fantasyland. Peter Pan’s Fight will likely be very crowded and the waits are consistently 35-40 minutes so you may want to go to Alice in Wonderland first instead. Fantasyland has many rides close together so it’s easy to go from attraction to attraction. I recommend going to Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride, Storybook Canal Boats, Casey Junior Circus Train, King Arthur’s Carousel, then Dumbo. This should delight your kiddos and most of these will have shorter queues early in the morning.
If they are tall enough and want to ride a “fast” ride you could head to Big Thunder first then continue on with the above plan.
An alternative to this is rope dropping ToonTown for Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway. This attraction is very popular so it will draw rope drop crowds like Indiana Jones and Rise of the Resistance- so put your patient pants on! But after you ride this attraction you can ride Roger Rabbit’s CarToon spin, Chip’n’Dale’s Gadget Coaster, and even meet Mickey and Minnie- all with the shortest wait times of the day (except for RunAway Railway- that will be long).

Star Wars Fans

Are you or is someone in your party a die-hard Star Wars fan? Then go ahead and join the crowd that will inevitably form for the Rise of the Resistance rope drop. However, keep in mind, that there’s still always that option of buying a Lightning Lane for this.

Next, if all goes smoothly, go to Millenium Falcon Smuggler’s Run, Matterhorn, Star Tours, and Indiana Jones (if the line is less than 45 minutes). Check the Indiana Jones wait time and if it is longer than 45 minutes you may want to try to do this later, particularly if you will be there or coming back in the evening. If you want to skip the fireworks this is a great time to hit a busy attraction like this.

After you complete the above, it will be way beyond the golden hour of rope drop and later in the morning or even the afternoon depending on the crowd level that day. If you are able to you can head to Big Thunder, Haunted Mansion, and Pirates of the Caribbean.

After this, it will likely be crowded so you will have to assess your priorities and the wait times to see what you want to do next.

Have your priorities in mind.

Can’t decide? Talk with your group, or if you’re lucky enough to have a solo trip, make a list of your favorites and try to find a consensus on priorities. Only you know what the ideal Disneyland morning looks like for you.

The Thrill Seekers plan above is the most efficient rope drop strategy, but my kids are older now so I don’t have to consider height requirements, naps, etc.

Use the Disneyland App

The Disneyland App is helpful for maps if you aren’t familiar with the park, and within those maps, they have wait times listed. It is also essential if you are using Genie +.

Free Genie (not Genie +)

Don’t trust Free Genie’s recommendations as they lead you to low-volume rides, to try to help them with crowd control. Ignore this advice as the strategies we discussed make more sense for making the most of your rope drop time.

Genie +

You can, however, upgrade to Genie + , the paid ride reservation system that replaced Max Pass. I have a blog on Genie + pros/cons, but in summary at Disneyland Genie+ is much easier to use as again, it’s a locals’ park. Locals have the benefit of being able to pop into the park more often so they often don’t feel they need to pay for this perk.

This makes Disneyland Genie + attractions much more accessible and if you purchase Genie + at Disneyland you will definitely get your money’s worth!

In conclusion, having a well planned Disneyland Rope Drop strategy is incredibly important. Not only does it allow you to maximize your time in the park, but it also ensures that you get to experience the most popular attractions without long wait times. By arriving at the park early and knowing which rides to prioritize, you can avoid the crowds and make the most of your visit. However, it’s important to remember that a successful Rope Drop strategy requires careful planning and research. You need to know the park layout, the locations of your target attractions, and the best routes to take to get there quickly. Additionally, understanding the park’s operating hours and any early entry options is crucial. So, take the time to develop a solid plan, set your alarm clock a little earlier, and get ready to make the most of your Disneyland adventure!

This blog was all about the Best Disneyland Rope Drop Strategy!