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Published: June 11th 2021
In Disney World lingo, "rope drop" is when you arrive at a park before opening. People do this to walk right onto a popular ride when the park opens and to go on other attractions while crowds are fairly low. Normally, rope-dropping doesn't interest me much, but I feel much differently during the pandemic. I wanted to prioritize getting on indoor rides early in the day before there was much wait, and that's exactly what we were able to do!
Magic Kingdom was scheduled to open at 8am. I read that the best way to rope drop is to be at your bus station 90 minutes early. Joanna and I got there right at 6:33. Disney isn't filling buses to capacity right now, which is nice, but it means you wait longer for buses. We didn't fit on the first bus, and we were the last people to make it onto the second bus. It took off around 6:40. When we arrived at Magic Kingdom shortly before 7am, the buses were held back. At 7am, buses were allowed in. They parked, and we all got off and went through security and lined up at the park entry scanners. At 7:15,
they allowed us into the park. Joanna and I went to Space Mountain. The queue was all outdoors until opening, and there were few people in line (most rope-droppers beeline it for 7 Dwarfs Mine Train). Joanna and I used the restroom and then joined the Space Mountain line. There were probably 30 people ahead of us. By the time they opened the rides up at about 7:50ish, the line was significantly longer for Space Mountain (maybe 300 people, if I were to guess).
That is actually the reason I never really understood rope dropping before. Look at us. We waited for an hour for Space Mountain, when later in the day, we probably would have a shorter wait. What's the point? Well, during a pandemic, the point is that we got to wait outside! When they opened the ride shortly before 8, we walked straight through the indoor portion of the queue. By the time we walked to the end of the line, it was our turn to board. Joanna loved Space Mountain, and it was her favorite ride of the whole trip. I loved that because Space Mountain was my favorite ride when I was a kid
(we went to Disney World once when I was a kid, when I was 4).
After Space Mountain, we walked straight over to Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin. This is a ride that had always been a favorite of our kids. It never has the longest lines, but it's all indoors. At 7:58, we got to walk on with no wait. Our car seemed to be malfunctioning and wouldn't turn, but Joanna didn't seem phased. In fact, she didn't seem to do anything at all. She wasn't blasting away aliens or trying to defeat the evil emperor, Zerg. I asked her why she wasn't playing, and she said, "Because I choose mercy." I thought that was sweet. Anyway, that's why we have the most boring looking photo from that ride!
From Buzz Lightyear, we made our way to Seven Dwarfs Mine Train. The line was 50 minutes long, and most of it appeared to be outdoors, so we decided to save that ride for later. We went to Under the Sea ride (Little Mermaid), which has a significant portion of the queue indoors, and the ride is entirely indoors. We got to walk right onto that ride, too!
Afterwards, we walked by Gaston's. It was almost empty. There were no lines, and only two tables inside had people at them. I was shocked! I guess people want to get rides in when it's so quiet in the morning. So, Joanna and I decided to split a cinnamon roll. We chose to eat inside because there was almost nobody around, and the doors were open for ventilation. We'd eaten at Gaston's once before in the past, and it's a really cool building that looks exactly like the one in Beauty and the Beast.
Once we finished our cinnamon roll, I figured the attractions probably all had lines. I was wrong! We went to Haunted Mansion, and we got to walk right on to that ride, too! At this point, it was about 9am. I felt like we'd gotten to do so much already! It had only been an hour, and we went on four rides and enjoyed a cinnamon roll. I asked Joanna if she'd want to ride Splash Mountain next. Splash Mountain has mostly an outdoor queue, but the line gets longer as the day goes on because people want to do the water rides in the
Pirates of the Caribbean
Photos are taken near the start of the ride when you aren't doing anything yet. We look pretty bored at that moment, but it's a great ride!heat of the day. We waited about half an hour for Splash Mountain, and then we went over to Pirates of the Caribbean. We submitted our citrus swirl order while we were in queue (they set it up so that most of the queue was outdoors, which was awesome!). So, after our pirate ride, we picked up our treat. I don't actually like the regular/pineapple dole whip that many people obsess over, but citrus swirl is a mix of orange dole whip and vanilla ice cream, and it's so good! You get it at Sunshine Tree Terrace in Magic Kingdom.
So, as a quick recap of our rope-drop morning: Rides opened at 7:50am, and by 10:45, we had gone on Space Mountain, Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin, Under the Sea, ate a cinnamon roll at Gaston's, got on Haunted Mansion, waited and rode on Splash Mountain, waited and sailed on Pirates of the Caribbean, and enjoyed a citrus swirl from Sunshine Tree Terrace. It was such a fun morning!
We were actually ready to go at that point, but we had lunch reservations at 12pm. To kill time, Joanna and I found Disney Photopass photographers and took pictures,
Sunshine Tree Terrace
I got a citrus swirl, and Joanna enjoyed a cup of vanilla soft serve. and we did some souvenir shopping. We saw two character cavalcades go by, which is what Disney World is offering in lieu of parades. Without scheduled times, the cavalcades don't attract huge crowds. You just see them if you happen to be in the area. We got to see Tinkerbell go by, and later we saw all the princesses on a big float! We then rode on People Mover before we finally ate lunch and headed back to the resort. After being spoiled by the Disney Skyliner, the wait for the buses felt extra long!
We took a long break at our resort. We rested in the AC and then went for another swim.
At 5:30, we headed back to the bus stop to go back to Magic Kingdom. We had a dinner reservation at Cinderella's Royal Table (one of two indoor dining experiences I booked to see some characters!). I was nervous for it, but also pretty excited. We arrived at 6:10pm, and the line for Seven Dwarfs Mine Train was down a bit to 45 minutes. By the time we got there, it dropped to 25 minutes. Seven Dwarfs Mine Train is a short roller coaster,
but it's so much fun! It has cute scenes from the movie, too. After that, we hopped over to Jungle Cruise. Jungle Cruise was at an 80 minute wait for most of the day, but it dropped down to 40 minutes at that point. The wait and the ride are entirely outside. Jungle Cruise is an enjoyable ride because of the skippers. They tell jokes the entire time, and it's hilarious. Today was no exception! After Jungle Cruise, we still had a bit of time until dinner, so we decided to watch the 12 minute Philharmagic even though it was indoors. There were very few people there, and I figured because it was short and we could sit away from the other guests, we would be OK. After that, we checked in for dinner. I was nervous, but the tables were spaced out a lot. Joanna and I were seated in a raised area of the restaurant with just three other tables, and we sat at the edge of a big table near a corner. The closest table to us was probably 10 feet away. Although indoor dining isn't considered a safe activity, I felt like it was as safe
as it could have been. It felt safer than the airplane when Joanna ate her snack with unmasked kids in front of us! It felt worth it because she got to see Cinderella. However, I didn't want to stay longer than we needed to. So, after we finished dinner and saw Cinderella, I asked if we could take our dessert to go. In total, we were at our table from about 8:30pm to 9pm.
The park closed at 9pm. That meant there was a huge crowd leaving the park when we did. We didn't make it back to our resort until nearly 10:30pm. I was wiped! We got to do so much on our Magic Kingdom day, though. It really felt magical, and it was our most enjoyable day of the trip.
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