Rope Drop Recommendations from Pop Century

Please tell me what time I should plan to be in line for the Pop Century bus or Skyliner to each park for rope drop, in order to be near the front of the pack.

Magic Kingdom
7:30 early entry
8:00 official open
??? get in line for bus

Epcot
8:30 early entry
9:00 official open
??? get in line for Skyliner

Hollywood Studios
8:00 early entry
8:30 official open
??? get in line for Skyliner

Animal Kingdom
7:30 early entry
8:00 official open
??? get in line for bus

Thanks for your recommendations!

ETA: If it matters, I’ll be heading straight for the standby line of the ILL ride at each park: Seven Dwarves, RotR, and FoP.

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Also, if rope-dropping via the Pop Skyliner isn’t optimal (because it won’t get me to the parks early enough or whatever), let me know!

AK rope drop we found out we should have been on the bus earlier but still had a good rope drop - I don’t know what time we got on the bus but were in line at 7:10 for 7:30 EE. Went right to FOP and had a mild wait.

We rope dropped HS very successfully from Pop - was in line at 6:52 and had a short skyliner line but front of the pack at the taps. Walk-on at SDD.

Epcot was probably our most successful RD, on skyliner around 7:05, off Remy by 7:50 and in line at TT by 8 for 8:00 EE

MK was our RD fail day - got off to a shaky start and ended up Ubering to CR and walking over. Might have actually worked out better?

Edit to say that rope dropping via skyliner, especially to Epcot if you want Remy, is fantastic. I’d say the line starts building around 6:45, but moved swiftly once it starts going.

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I realize my post is less than helpful as I didn’t think to note my exact times, I’m going off photo time stamps!

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Thanks, very helpful!

For AK, you were in line for the park at 7:10 (not the bus), is that right?

For HS, you were in line for the Skyliner at 6:52 (not the park), right? What time was EE?

How long did you wait for the Skyliner on your Epcot day, in order to be able to board at 7:05?

Good to know that you observed the Pop Skyliner line starting to build around 6:45, although I imagine that depends on what time the parks open on any given day.

Okay I just did the math, and are you saying you got in the Skyliner line at Pop a full two hours before Epcot’s official park opening?

This is a good bit earlier than I expected. I was figuring around 90 minutes would be fine.

Oh no, we were on the skyliner around 7:05 for an 8am EE. I’d think we were in line around 6:45/6:50.

We flew over Caribbean beach at 7:11am and were in line at the taps at 7:25.

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Oopsie, I misread the Epcot EE time as 8:30 (which is what it’ll be for me). That makes more sense.

7:11am at AK for 7:30 EE


7:11am flying to 8am EE at Epcot

7:23 landed at Epcot

6:52am flying to 8am EE at HS

7:20 at HS

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I love the photo essay, thanks!!

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I figured it was time to stop messing around and get serious lol

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For AK we were definitely on the bus at 7 because I remember it got quiet and everyone got on their phones right at 7.

For EP same situation in line, we were close to boarding at 7am.

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:rofl:

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So in general, it looks like I should get in the bus/Skyliner line about 90 minutes before official park opening (an hour before Early Entry).

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Another rope-drop question: While hightailing it to a headliner attraction like RotR, what’s the best way of finding out if the ride is down?

I don’t know if any other way besides the MDE app. My greatest fear was getting in a rope drop line for a shuttered line!

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I just wonder if a Cast Member might have better intel than the app….

Undoubtedly. Finding the right CM with the info and the ability to convey it might be tricky though.

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I believe I read somewhere 80-90 mins prior to EE should get you close to front of park.

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In October, we got on the skyliner at 7:15 for an 8:00 EE open at Epcot. Arrived at Epcot around 7:45 but had a ticket problem and had to go to GS to get son’s ticket to work. Even after that, we still only had a 15 minute wait for Remy.

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