Walt Disney World guests who consider themselves early risers might want to take advantage of what’s commonly known as “rope drop” at the theme parks.

Rope drop is more of a term describing the official park opening as there is not typically an actual rope involved.

Oftentimes, there are far fewer guests in the parks early in the morning compared to what you’ll find during the bulk of the day. While a lot of folks like to get up early and take advantage of the lower wait times that could be available depending on how many people enter a particular park on any given day, a lot of people choose to come later in the day. As popular as it is to arrive early, we find that more folks like to sleep in on their Disney vacations, especially if they were out until the wee hours the night before.

Here are a couple of recommendations we have:

• Arrive at your theme park of choice approximately half an hour before the park is set to open that day. Each of the four main theme parks does something different at rope drop. Some do a little show, some do an opening performance, while others don’t do anything at all, but everything is subject to change at any time, so the surprise element is there too.
• Have a plan. You need to have a good idea of where you want to go once you get into the park and which attractions you want to ride first thing.
• It’s a good idea to take advantage of booking some Lightning Lanes for later in the day if you’re planning to use Disney Genie+, but also to allow time to utilize the shorter lines in the earlier hours of the morning.

Please share your Rope Drop tips in the comments section below!