Rope Drop vs Park Close

[Babe the Blue Ox]

If you don't rope drop, you can't go back and get a do-over if a ride you really want to ride is down or has a long line at the end of the night. This is why most people recommend rope-dropping if you want to have the best chance of riding all the rides you want to ride. There are just too many factors to consider at only park close if you are depending on following a set schedule and/or want to ride specific rides. You might get lucky like the other poster with multiple rides, but you cannot assume that will always occur.

Those are very valid points, but one of the biggest factors that makes a late-night plan successful is the fear that it won't work. Mornings are way too crowded and stressful for us and I would rather hit the headliners multiple times after the crowds die down, which they always do.

We've been doing this for a long time and it has always been successful for us. I've never had a Disney attraction break down at closing time and feel that it's more likely that they won't fire up in the morning. I would probably change my thinking if we ever had something like that occur.

The only time we've ever been shut out of a late ride was over at Universal several years ago when someone jumped out of a Dudley Do-Right boat and it shut the whole attraction down. They did give us free tickets to come back another day for that incident.

 

[Babe the Blue Ox]

Here's another example from a recent summer visit to MK from 8 pm to midnight. We did all of this without G+:

Big Thunder 3x
Splash Mtn 2x
Space Mtn 2x
7D Mine Train
Pirates
Jungle Cruise
Haunted Mansion
Pooh
Peter Pan
Speedway
Barnstormer 2x

We also watched the fireworks and had a couple of Dole Whips.

 

[Mermaidtails1323]

Yes, this is just a normal evening in the park for us. Our last several trips have been either the 2nd week in May or the first week in June. Not the busiest times of the year but not slow days either. These are generally listed as crowd level 7 or 8 days.

We learned about Line Stacking and Disney’s methods for inflating the evening wait times in the 1997 Unofficial Guide and have been using this info to our advantage ever since.

Super helpful! We are going this year late May and may need to try this since kids are getting older. Fear of success has definitely held us back before. Looks like a new thing to try!

 

[ILovePixieDust]

We're usually rope drop people as well but not that the kids are older it sounds like park close might be even better.

Anyone know if it is as effective over the Christmas and New Year's weeks as well??

 

[Babe the Blue Ox]

We're usually rope drop people as well but not that the kids are older it sounds like park close might be even better.

Anyone know if it is as effective over the Christmas and New Year's weeks as well??

We've done this twice on New Year's Eve in Disneyland and that was by far the most crowded I've ever seen a Disney park. Once the crowds started to congregate for fireworks shows, the lines for the rides dwindled considerably. Watching Fantasy in the Sky during repeat rides on Big Thunder is spectacular.

 

[clm10308]

I absolutely love late nights at MK during Christmas week. Midnight to 2am is the best time for rides. The only negative is that there is pretty much no food available after 11:00.

 

[saraheliz]

We typically do a mix during our trip but we LOVE park close. I wish it was later like it use to be though. My kids have always been able to push through and are so much more pleasant once the sun is down (we go in summer).
I have the greatest video of my 7 year old dancing down Main Street at midnight last year, and we typically end our trips at MK closing out the parks with repeated rides on Dumbo or the Mad Tea Party. There's nobody there so they just let us stay on for multiple rides!

 

[scrappinginontario]

Another factor in the AM vs PM approach is what time the parks close.

The past few years when we’ve been there in Aug and Sep, the latest time any park closed (other than for ticketed parties) was 10PM for MK. All other parks closed earlier. Similar to the parks being less busy at park opening the earlier the park opens, they’re less busy the later the parks are open, but when that’s not late there isn’t the big drop in crowds some above have enjoyed.