Touring Plan telling me to rope drop.... Dumbo?

Walt Disney World Touring Plans
1

My touring plan (pre my selection of FPP which doesn’t happen until next month) on an MK day with a PPO breakfast is saying rope drop Dumbo and Buzz, and not to do 7DMT until 1045am with a larger wait. That doesn’t make a ton of sense to me. Anyone have insight on this? Should I just move 7DMT to first and optimize? I don’t really love the ride and neither did either of my family members, so I don’t want to FPP if I don’t have to. I have never done a PPO breakfast at MK so I have never done a true in-park rope drop scenario. Just wondering. Thanks!

(yes, I know that I have 3 hours of free time in the afternoon before the dessert party. When I nail down FPP I will add more stuff in there.)

MK Day 1 - PPO Breakfast.pdf

2

Looking at the plan, I’m not that concerned about it. The wait times seem reasonable, so I wouldn’t worry too much about the order at this point.

Did you Optimize it several times until the results were stable?

3

I did, but this was done a few days ago with different CLs, so I should probably do that again. Thanks for the reminder!

4

You could try swapping to see the difference.

But the goal isn’t to minimize the wait for a specific ride, but minimize total wait time. So, while 49 minutes to wait for 7DMT may seem long, what is the TOTAL wait time for Dumbo and Buzz combined if you have them later in the day? Let’s say it adds up to 35 minutes. The plan you posted here shows that you’ll only wait 10 minutes by doing a RD, for a total gain of 25 minutes. (Actually, let’s be fair. You are also getting in rides on Splash Mountain and BTMR with minimal wait times as well.)

Now, if you RD 7DMT, you won’t be eliminating 49 minutes of wait time, because EVERYONE tries to RD 7DMT. So, in actuality, you might still end up with a 20 minute wait time. That’s a gain of 29 minutes in comparison. This would be 7DMT ahead if it weren’t for the benefit of Splash and BTMR as well.

1 Like
5

That makes way more sense. Thanks!

6

Furthermore, I can see the wisdom of putting Dumbo ahead of Buzz, despite being a longer walk and then involving some back tracking. Why?

Well, everyone going to Fantasyland first hits 7DMT. When they get off, they will hit other Fantasyland rides, including Dumbo. So, you get ahead of the Dumbo crowds. Then, you go over to Buzz. If you had hit Buzz first, Dumbo line increases because of folks done with 7DMT. Plus, Buzz will have an initial RD hit of those starting at Tomorrowland, but by doing Dumbo first and then coming BACK to Buzz, you allow initial RD Buzz crowds to die down a tad.

1 Like
7

Also there’s a video where TouringPlans showed that unless you get to 7DMT right at rope drop, the line backs up pretty quickly, but then drops down again in the first hour. So the combination of what @ryan1 said and this fact may be what led to that selection.

Still, I’d suggest a FP+ for 7DMT…

For reference, here’s the video. It was an interesting experiment! Rope Drop at the Magic Kingdom - YouTube

5 Likes
8

This is what I was going to say as well. If you’re not at the front of the RD crowd, you’re better off riding 1-2 other things nearby and then getting in line for SDMT.
I love their videos like this and wish they could do them all the time.

1 Like
9

It might make sense to FPP 7D even though it’s not a fave simply because that FPP would be a big time saver.

10

Ropedropping dumbo is just silly. Everyone knows you rope drop Carousel of Progress! Ideally, you go sprinting up to the CM and ask how long the wait is.

3 Likes