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Guide to Early Entry & Rope Drop (and When to Sleep In and Skip Both) · Ear Scouts Podcast

• Rob: In this episode of the Year Scouts podcast, we're talking all things early at Walt Disney World, from early entry to rope drop to the days when maybe you should just sleep in instead. We're gonna share with you our best tips for your next morning at Walt Disney World. Hi ho everybody, this is Rob with Ear Scouts coming to you from our makeshift studio here in Celebration, Florida. Also, with me, as always, is the other half of Ear Scouts, Eric. Hi ho, Eric. Erick: Hi ho everyone. Rob: Good to have you back, Eric. You were you were out last week. I think you were actually in the parks while we were recording the episode. Did did you have a good time? Erick: Yeah, it was fantastic. my friends came to visit from Mexico and it was the first visit and actually they they have been all around the country and they have told me that in first place Orlando well Orlando isn't in the first places to visit, so Rob: Well, and they've been to some pretty cool places. They I know they've already been to New Orleans and to Miami. So yeah. Also with us is the host of Jessica Scraps on YouTube. Jessica. Hi, ho, Jessica. Jessica: Hi ho everyone. Rob: How are things up there in Connecticut? Jessica: They are wonderful. It's been a beautiful few days here in Connecticut. So actually nice weather, pretty warm. It's 77 and sunny today. So so nice. It is. It's pretty perfect. Rob: Wow. I that sounds perfect. I'm I'm pretty sure here with heat index it was probably like 107 or something, but actually it wasn't terrible today. I was out today. It wasn't terrible. It was it was hot, but not oppressive. And joining us from I'm guessing the also temperate state of Indiana is our good friend and resident Disney trivia guru Craig. Hi ho, Craig. Craig: Mm. You Hi ho everyone. Yeah, it's definitely not as hot as Florida, but it was a little hot today. Rob: Well, what we're going to talk about today is actually, we didn't really include this in what we were talking about, but it is a way to beat the heat when you're here in the hottest parts of the day by arriving early, by coming for early entry and for rope drop, which is Disney Speak for being there right the moment the park opens officially for all of its guests, not just the early entry folks. it's a great way to get a lot of the biggest. Attractions done at Walt Disney World before the heat arrives and before all the crowds arrive with the heat. So in today's episode, we're going to kind of start with early entry and talk a little bit about that and you know what that entails and who that's for. And then we're going to talk about rope drop. And then we're going to talk about some reasons why you might want to skip both of these things because. Even though I think it's like conventional wisdom, you should always get to the parks early, there are definitely scenarios where it does not make sense to get up at the crack of dawn and go to the parks first thing. But Jessica, you are the resident early riser here. I I think you you're usually up before any of the rest of us. Well, Eric, you're an early riser too, but Jessica, you're up like crazy early. So you're always there for early entry, or almost always. Jessica: Mm-hmm. Rob: Why don't you tell us a little bit about what are the benefits of early entry and who's early entry for? How do you get to take part in early entry? All that good stuff. Jessica: Okay. So the first thing I'm gonna say is that early entry is specifically for those individuals staying in qualifying hotels. And the reason why Disney says qualifying hotels, it is all Disney World-owned properties. So the normal Disney World resorts and the shades of green, which is for military families. But also a few non Disney resorts. And I'm going to name the ones that this currently applies to. Please note this list could change at any moment. It's very important if you stay at a resort that you check with that resort or hotel and you check the Disney website just to make sure. Currently, the select hotels are the Swan and Dolphin Hotels and the Swan Reserve, the Double Tree Suites by Hilton Orlando. The Drury Plaza Hotel, Orlando, Lake Buena Vista, Four Seasons Resort Orlando, Hilton, Orlando Buena Vista Palace, Hilton, Orlando Lake Buena Vista, Holiday Inn Orlando, Renaissance Orlando Resort in Spa, Shades of Green, Signia by Hilton, Orlando Bonnet Creek, Waldorf Astoria, Orlando, Wyndham Garden, Lake Buena Vista, and Wyndham Lake Buena Vista. Now As we found out when I was here with my parents, there is a lot of this hotel, Buena Vista, Lake Buena Vista, Buena Palace, Buena This, Vista this. Make sure you're staying at the one that's actually listed. So make sure you're staying at one of the ones that's actually a good neighbor hotel that actually has this benefit. and that can change tomorrow, to be frank. Erick: The moon can already tell. Rob: And that's another thing, n just because your hotel has on the door that they're a good neighbor hotel does not mean that they get early entry because there are there are good neighbor hotels who don't have the benefit. So you you you have to be really specific and and make sure it ha they have Jessica: that's true. Craig: Mm-hmm. Right. Yeah, yeah. And if if you get a really good bargain on your hotel room, chances are it's not because even though those hotels are affordable, like, you know, I looked through holiday ends and the one that has that benefit was almost twice as much as anything else that was also nearby. So. Rob: Ha ha. Jessica: That's a great point. I mean, I think you're having to decide how important is this 30 minutes to you? Because the next thing I do want to say is early entry is just 30 minutes before park opens, that the park is available to you if you're staying at one of these hotels. it used to be a little bit longer, but now it is 30 minutes. typically what this means is most rides. Not stores, not shows, not characters, rides. This is 30 minutes where most rides are available. Except in Magic Kingdom, where only Tomorrowland and Fantasyland are open. And most of the time in Tomorrowland, Tron is not open. And here's the caveat. I think was last week that we talked about caveats, or was the week before? This is Disney doesn't say they're guaranteed to have the rides open. It's available rides. So in that 30 minutes, most rides will be open, hopefully. I'm just gonna say that's I think that we've all experienced this. Now I do want to say that during Cool Kids Summer, the last two years, early entry has been the most amazing time to see characters in almost every part. Rob: Ha ha ha. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Craig: Mm-hmm. Jessica: In almost every park. I know I've seen them in Hollywood Studios. I've seen them in Animal Kingdom and Magic Kingdom. The only one I did not see actually I did, I saw Daisy Duck and Epcot. during early entry for Cool Kids Summer, they have had roaming characters during early entry. So the caveat to mine: no characters, no shows, no attractions, is that Cool Kids Summer has included roaming characters during early entry. And that's just for the early entry people. It's not for the people waiting that don't have early entry, an opportunity to interact with characters. So that's also a good thing that's been happening, at least the last two years. Rob: And and I will say the shows that are animatronic shows, for example, Carousel of Progress, when it was right now it's being refurbished, but it would run during early entry. in Magic Kingdom, the others the other animatronic shows are in Fantasyland, not sorry, in in Frontierland and Adventureland. So you can't get to those, but Jessica: Right. So like Zootopia in Animal Kingdom, but not Lion King or Nemo or Feathered Friends. Right. So a show that requires extra humans to do things a lot of times will not be available. Rob: Mm. Right. Exactly. That's another good one. Zootopia is a good one, a good example of an a show that does run. Craig: Mm-hmm. Jessica: it is in general the best opportunity for short waits on top attractions in the parks for two reasons. Number one, it's less people. The second one is lightning lanes are not being used during that 30 minutes. Lightning lanes, in fact, cannot be used during early entry. and you will have hit and miss with them letting you scan in but five minutes before. Most of the time. Rob: That's key. Craig: Mm-hmm. Jessica: Five minutes before the park is starting to open, they'll let you tag into a lightning lane if you have it and you happen to have been there during early entry. The last time John and I were there, which is just a couple weekends ago, they would not let us tag in at five minutes before. They said, Well, we have to wait till park open to let you tag into your lightning lane, which I thought was interesting. So, so that's just I mean, I think it's up to the cast member. I had no problem with it. I think it's just a, it's a, I just wanted to say that though. So the Rob: Mm. Okay. Mm-hmm. Jessica: Really, the two reasons why it's a great time to ride rides is there aren't the Lightning Lane people cutting in front of you, and there's a lot less people there. for the the difference is for the best short times, you do need to arrive earlier than right at 30 minutes before the parks. In general, I think we say 30 minutes before. I've arrived, you know, 45 minutes before. I think it's di differs park to park. and maybe we'll talk about this a little bit more. I think Hollywood Studios is the worst of all of them because at Hollywood Studios, a lot of times they're not opening the gate. They're not actually opening and letting people through. So sometimes if you get there, you're just standing outside with everybody, even the people that don't have early entry, waiting to decide who gets to get in. So just be aware of that. But at least 30 minutes. So let's say Normal park open is at nine. So early entry is at 8 30. You should be arriving at the parks at 8 o'clock and really starting to plan where you're gonna go. Rob: To to get the absolute shortest wait. I mean, you know, that that i if if your goal is is to maximize your early entry time, that's that would be the way to do it. Yeah. Jessica: and Disney transportation, if you're taking Disney transportation, typically runs about an hour before early entry. But check your app for the buses and the bus times because sometimes those buses actually start running earlier. I found the buses run earlier. I think the skyliner's pretty consistently at 7:30. but the buses sometimes show up earlier. So just check the app when you're there at the hotel. And The only other thing that I will say is if you're driving your car, they also sometimes will not let cars in until an hour before early entry. So they have actually in some cases made cars turn around and drive around to come back. So you can't even drive your car up to get parked if you're there too much earlier. So an hour before early entry is about the, the, the key time that you should start trying to arrive anywhere. Rob: Mm-hmm. Yes. Yeah. you know, we're we were just talking about this the other day. we we recently did a new early entry video for Magic Kingdom that we haven't edited yet. It's not out yet. But I was right on the rope drop line for early entry. I I use the term rope drop even though I shouldn't because it confuses people. Cause rope drop is technically when the park officially opens for everyone, but there is a rope. Jessica: Mm-hmm. Rob: That is there, you know, it during early entry as well. And they do drop that rope and let everyone in at early entry. But we were right on that rope line. And I just, I'm one of those people, I'm not going to run to an attraction. You're not supposed to run in Disney World. It's against the rules to run. You don't need to run. and I was just there on a day when there tend there happened to be a ton of people who just flooded in front of me. And By the time I got to Big Thunder Mountain, there were a lot of people, you know, in front of me on that line. And yet still, it was basically a walk-on. And so I I do kind of it's made me question how valuable it is to be right on that rope line. And that's what you that's what you get by being there that early. You're right at the front of that group of people. Craig: Mm-hmm. Rob: So I really I was telling Eric the other day, I think we should do a video where one of us gets right on that rope line and the other arrives maybe five, 10 minutes before early entry is gonna start and really see how much of a difference it makes. I'm sure it's gonna make a difference. I I have no doubt it's definitely gonna make a difference. But the question is, is it a difference of five minutes, you know, or is it a difference of 15 to 20 minutes? Because I think Jessica: Mm-hmm. Craig: Mm-hmm. Rob: That's the equation that's going to matter a lot to you, whether or not it's worth losing that extra 30 minutes of sleep. But we don't know. We're going to have to find out. We'll do a video and find out. Jessica: Yeah. Craig: Yeah. And I think it's a Jessica: And I think Craig: good thing to mention that during early entry and they let people queue outside of whatever early entry attraction before it even opens. And remember that line is outside and there's a huge queue inside. don't get too discouraged if you see a huge line at Seven Doors Mind Train because that's all going to go inside and it's going to move very quickly. Rob: Mm-hmm. Jessica: Yeah, and I will say, we happened to be and we happened to be rope dropping, which you're about to talk about, Epcot, and we were there, so we were there, and the early interview people had already gone in to go to test track. And cast members came up and very clearly kept telling people Test track is delayed. We don't think that you should get in the line for they're not they're not saying it, but they're saying test track is having a delayed opening. Rob: Mm-hmm. Jessica: Test track is having a delayed opening. The number of humans who still went to test track and then were shocked that it had a delay, that it was a huge line. Listen to the cast members. Just listen to them. They're doing their best to tell you something. And if you would just listen to them, I think, you know, and it's up to you. You have to decide. But I the number of people that were so upset that they didn't get to ride test track for early entry and they were and Rob: Mm-hmm. Jessica: And the cast members were like, We're not giving you a lightning lane. We told you seven times Test Tract is having a delayed opening. So it's like, and they can't be that rude. I would get fired from Disney. I'm just letting you know, because I would be very honest. We told you you did not listen. But I think it is important because there are a lot of rides that have delayed openings. And if you don't have a secondary plan for that early entry, Rob: Ha ha ha. Jessica: just listen to the cast members and try to make us go to the other one. So it's usually why they're telling you. Rob: Yeah. We're in a little bit later in this episode, we're gonna talk about our picks for what attractions we would do for early entry and for rope drop. But I definitely think you should have at least one backup plan in mind because this is a common problem. And the cast members will usually let everyone know when the big rides are not opening, right? The ones that they expect everyone to go to. You know, if your big ride is the people mover, you know. They're probably not going to tell everyone outside, hey, the people mover's not running this morning, but they will tell you if it's Seven Dwarfs Mind Train or it's Peter Pan's Flight or it's one of those kind of top attractions that they're expecting people to go to. One last thing I'm just gonna throw out there because this was something we learned very randomly. We were making an early entry video at Magic Kingdom, and it was winter, and it was one of those rare, really cold mornings that we do get here in Orlando. winter. And we learned something that we didn't know before. And that is if the weather is approaching freezing, and doesn't mean it's freezing. If it's in like the 40s, they cannot open any roller coaster because of the risk of the metal being Too cold. it apparently affects the way that the the roller coasters behave. And so I had no idea of this. And and we were all in line for Seven Dwarfs Mind Train. Like, why is this not opening? Why is this not opening? And then finally a cast member explained it to us. And we were like, my gosh, I wish I'd known that. I wouldn't have even come here. So if you're at early entry at any of the parks and it's approaching freezing, do not go to Slinky. Don't go to Mind Train. Go instead to an indoor attraction. and you probably won't get a delay. Well, I'm gonna talk a little bit about rope drop, but I do wanna ask our friends over on Patreon. If you have some suggestions, tips for things you like to do when you're at the parks for early entry or rope drop, or times when you've decided it's just not worth it, let us know in the chat and we'll have Eric share some of your comments a little bit later in the show. But I I want to talk right now about the basics of rope drop. So this is when the park is officially open for the day for everyone, not for early entry guests. And so this is me 30 minutes after early entry has begun. And it it's basically it's it's a term that came from the fact that Disney used to and still does in some cases have like a big rope that they would keep everyone behind the rope. And when you know the announcement was made that the park was open, they would drop the rope and everyone could go inside. So that's where the term comes from. but rope drop. Is historically thought of as the best opportunity to get the shortest waits on attractions. But I think that this is something that is one of the biggest mistakes that people make in their trip planning. They assume that the ride that they want to do first, if they're there for rope drop, is the most popular attraction in that park, that the one that's going to have the longest wait later in the day. And Nine times out of 10, that's actually the wrong move at rope drop. And the reason is because all those folks that Jessica was just talking about who are there for early entry. Let me tell you, there are a lot of resort guests at Walt Disney World. It is a lot of people that are already in those lines and they're all getting in line for those same top attractions. So what I recommend doing. Right as you're gonna walk into your first land of the day, fire up the app, look at the wait times. You you can't see wait times obviously when early entry is beginning, but you can see wait times when rope drop is beginning. And you can see if there's a longer than 30 minute posted wait for something right at rope drop, by the time you get there, it's gonna be 45, 50, over an hour. And you've just wasted. your your rope drop moment when there were probably 10 12 other attractions you know at magic kingdom you know but at least a few in the other parks as well that would have much longer waits way later in the day and they're walk-ons because everybody's clustered at those those top attractions so my suggestion to you don't focus on The very top heavy hitter, unless you just get lucky, you check the app, and yeah, it's a really short wait. Great, do it. But plan on making your first ride at rope drop, kind of that second tier. Something that's gonna have a long wait, but it's not gonna be, you know, as crazy a wait as as some of those very top-tier ones. the the other thing that I would say about rope drop is think strategically. Because at Magic Kingdom, as we said, you've got Tomorrowland and Fantasyland. Everyone who's there for early entry is locked into those two lands. They can't go to Frontierland. They can't go to Adventureland. So you're gonna have first dibs on all those attractions. You're gonna get to them the same time as early entry folks do. So that is where I would put my attention if I was at Magic Kingdom. The other one I will mention that you should think about if you're coming into Animal Kingdom, typically the Safari does not run until regular park open. Usually during early entry, there's no safari. So now a lot of folks will get in line during early entry for the safari, but you can still usually get a really short wait because a lot of folks are just stuck in Pandora, which we'll talk a little bit about later. And yeah, so I I do think it is important that you take advantage of this time to ride attract ride rides that are gonna have longer waits later in the day. Just pick and choose because if you go to a line that's already crazy long, you've lost the opportunity to save time at others. Another thing I would say it's important, I know a lot of folks who go to the parks and the very first thing they like to do is go get, you know, a a fun buffet breakfast or something like a character meal breakfast. And I know that's a very popular thing to do. If you're okay, like kind of not taking advantage of those short waits, great, do that. But what I would recommend instead, give yourself about an hour, right? After a rope drop, then go do your character breakfast. So you can at least get one or two attractions done. I mean, in the long-term, you know, planning of your day, You're going to have time to do so many more things because you're going to eliminate those really long waits for that that one attraction or those two attractions you're able to do before breakfast. So those are my tips on rope drop. And in a little bit, we'll talk more about specifics of things you should think about doing in each park. but before we do that, let's check in with Eric. Have we heard any any suggestions from our friends on Patreon about rope drop or early entry? Erick: Mm-hmm. Yes, from Christrina and Jessica. Both of them like love to robbed up for Cinderella Castle photos. And well in this case for Christina, like also riding Peter Pan's flight during during early entry. she mentions that that frees them up for to book a different lightning lane in tier one in the Magic Kingdom. for Rachel, they have robbed up Haunted Mansion. Rob: yeah. Jessica: Mm-hmm. Craig: Good point. Erick: And it was it was amazing. They were the first in line. Rob: it's magical. I mean, you feel like you have your own personal theme park sometimes. So yeah, those are great, great suggestions. Jessica: Yeah. I can say when we were there with my parents in January, we rope dropped not early entry, but we walked through Adventureland and we were the only four people in Adventureland and we did the tiki room by ourselves. And it was this, it really was magical. Probably and most people wouldn't rope drop the tiki room. And we didn't intend to rope drop the tiki room. Rob: Wow. Jessica: We were just walking that way and it was just magical and it just seemed like the right thing to do. And I I completely agree. Sometimes by being there early, you can have these magical moments that you're not expecting because you can be where no one else is. And it really is like you feel like you're alone in a theme park. so I completely agree with that. Rob: Yeah. Wa one morning, I I don't necessarily recommend doing this unless you're going for for what I'm about to describe to you. we we just happened to be back in World Showcase during early entry and and rope drop. And we were walking through the countries that aren't open yet, because most of World Showcase doesn't open until later in the day, which is why no one ever says, you should go into World Showcase unless you're doing Remy or Jessica: Mm-hmm. Rob: you know, frozen, which are the attractions that are open. but there's a lot of pavilions that have nothing open during that time. And let me tell you, it is magical. I mean, if you just want to wander around World Showcase and get some beautiful photos and just feel like you have this country to yourself, it's it's pretty amazing. So it it's worth considering. Jessica: Where Rob: if you don't have a big long list of rides. But Craig, I want to toss to you right now because you're, I feel like of all of us, you're the least likely in most cases to to to want to like get up crazy early and do rope drop or or early entry. And you're you're a Disney World pro. Why don't you share with us what are some reasons why people might want to just skip all the early stuff and sleep in. Craig: Yeah, well, you did describe me quite well. In fact, my guy Eric and I, always joked if we were ever going to start our own YouTube channel, it would be We Stink at Rope Drop. That would be the title of it because it's just sometimes you have the best intentions and it doesn't happen. some so there are times when you might just not want to do that. Say you've already got a long day plan like you're planning on doing the fireworks that night and it's, you know, Rob: Ha ha ha Jessica: Mm. Craig: 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. day at the Magic Kingdom. Be realistic. That is a long day unless you have like a good long break planned in the middle for that. You're probably gonna run out of steam. I mean you know your own group of course and you know your own limitations but it is a very long day if you do that. If you have people in your party who are cranky in the morning or perhaps you're the one. that gets cranky in the morning. Don't beat yourself up on it. That's how some of us are. So one of the other nice things about if you don't go there and you go later is lines tend to drop in the evening as well, especially during things like fireworks. So that's just another option of getting some low wait times in and just taking advantage of those evening hours. Jessica: Ha ha ha. Rob: Ha ha ha. Craig: Kind of the same thing with photographs too. If you stay long enough and you're there after park closing, can still get, you can get some really great castle shots at night with the lights, et cetera. And if you're really concerned about missing your park time, you might want to consider lightning lanes instead of early entry or rope drop or combine them, of course. Because I know a lot of people say, well, If I'm in line an hour before the line even opens and then I have to wait another half hour, like how was that saving me time? The thing is it's saving you park time. It's saving you park hours. And some people consider that if you have your tickets, that's what you're paying for. So instead of, you know, spending an hour in a line in the park during, you know, park hours when you're supposed to be having all that fun. Yeah, get it done early, you know, while you're drinking your coffee while you're just slowly waking up. And it's again, I'm a big lightning lane person, but you can definitely skip early entry or yeah, early entry or rope drop if you know how to use your lightning lanes well. And another one, if you overdid it the night before, if you're having a great time and you're like, we have to get up for early entry. It's like, I don't know, I'm having fun. It's like, go ahead and just. Rob: Yeah. Craig: call it there. That's what I like to say. Let's just call it. We're not doing early entry. Let's continue to have fun tonight and and not even have to feel guilty about it. Jessica: Yeah, I think one of the things you were talking about, I just want to say this for the because I'm usually the mom of the group here. John and I have watched, I'm sorry you guys have too, the families with the little kids outside of Hollywood Studios or Epcot or doing that wait. I'm gonna tell you, forty five minutes of waiting before you even get into the park with little kids who are anticipating doing something fun is is awful. It's awful. Craig: Hm. Rob: Yeah. Jessica: They're not in a line. Craig: Hm. Jessica: They don't have their bubble th bubble wand. They don't even, they've not, it's awful. So if you're a parent and you have your kids, in some ways, what Craig just said is really important to listen to. You're still waiting an hour. It's just that 30 minutes of that was not during park time, but you're still waiting an hour. So with those kids. Rob: Mm-hmm. Jessica: not doing something they want to do. So just kind of listen to what we talked about last week. And one of one of Rob's, you know, suggestions was do lighting lanes with kids because shortening the weight is almost as important as saving the park time. So I I do I've watched more kids have a complete breakdown between 8 and 8 30 in the Hollywood Studios area than I have in a lot of other places in the world. So Craig: Mm-hmm. Rob: And and we talked about this in and I think it was last last episode, recent episode where where I was talking about being in the parks with kids and I those kids were so excited about the fireworks and about seeing Tinkerbell fly through the air. They were so pumped. And because we did rope drop and we didn't have the opportunity for them to take a nap in the middle of the day, it just didn't happen. It it couldn't happen. I mean They were worn out and and they were cranky and they were just they weren't having fun anymore, you know. So I think that's a really valid reason for why if if if what matters most to your crew is, you know, the the magic that happens the end of the night, just skip it. Just skip the rope drop and and let everybody sleep in and enjoy that magic in the night. Yeah. Jessica: Mm-hmm. Craig: Mm-hmm. Erick: Jessica B actually talk about that in in the chat. she wrote I'm also a big fan of splitting up if your group is a mix of early risers and not. My family likes to sleep in but I'm always up by five. So I wrap her up on my own and then come back to the hotel at ten AM to meet up with the fam and then we head out together. It's a win win for everyone. Rob: Mm-hmm. Craig: Mm-hmm. Rob: No, I I definitely agree with that. And we kind of, you know, we we we kind of do that with when we have meetups, you know, and we we try to plan things that'll be early entry things that people who are are early entry people will want to go do and then things that start later in the day for folks who just who don't want to deal with being at the parks at the crack of dawn. all right. Well, what I wanna do right now is I wanna get really specific. I want to talk about for early entry and for rope drop, what are the attractions that you think people should be focused on right now? They should be considering as their their top pick or their top couple of picks when they're planning out their morning. and I'll go ahead and and start us off and we'll start off with the easy park, Animal Kingdom. I think there's like what you can You can almost count all the rides on one hand. It's it's a s right now it's a very small park because they're they're redoing one of the major lands to become tropical Americas. but in my opinion, if you're there for early entry, it's not rope drop, we're talking early entry. I think flight of passage is the no brainer. that is in the Pandora, the land of Avatar, and it is Craig: Hehehehehe Jessica: Mm-hmm. Rob: the single pass lightning lane, meaning that even if you were using lightning lane multipass, you would have to pay extra for this one attraction. So that's a good reason to do it during early entry. So you have to pay for it. but we also did we did an experiment. We did a video once with Eric and I where Eric went to Flight of Passage and I went to Navi River Journey, the other big Pandora attraction right next door. Because he started with flight of passage, he finished almost the entire rest of the park by the time I was done riding flight of passage because I went second, because there were that many people who got in line in front of me. So I a lot of people just say go to Pandora. If if Flight of Passage is on your list, be specific. Do flight of passage. It's it's the one. I mean, I think it's the early entry pick. Jessica, what is your early entry pick at Animal Kingdom? Jessica: I say Navi River because although I do enjoy Flight of Passage, many of the times I have looked, the Flight of Passage single pass is less money and available, and I don't want to spend the money. I don't need the multipass at Animal Kingdom, except for except for Navi River. So, and a lot of times you can do Navi River, particularly if you're there with my mother, who it is her favorite ride. Rob: Okay, yeah. Mm-hmm. Craig: Mm-hmm. Jessica: Two, three, I think we wrote it three times. We wrote it three times. You can and we just got and they they wouldn't let us people mover it. We had to get off and get back on. I'm just letting you know. But you can ride it multiple times during early entry with no weight. So, I I would say, for early entry, I would pay for flight of passage and do Navi River because Navi River does get a long line later in the day and Rob: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Jessica: It's just it's just it particularly if you really like it, like my mom does. So I'm picking Navi River for mom. Rob: All right. I love it. And that's a you know, that's such a great point. I never even thought about it. But with Animal Kingdom, it's a better value. It's a better value to get that one single pass. And you're right. If you can if you play your cards right with when you ride the other rods, you don't really need multipass in that part. Yeah, that's a great tip. Craig, what is your Animal Kingdom early entry pick? If you're there for early entry. Jessica: Mm mm. Mm mm. Craig: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. OK, so I agree with with Rob on this flight of passage. It's kind of a no brainer if that's on your list, unless, of course, you have a single pass lightning lane for it. And for rope drop, I'm going to pick one of the rivers, either Cali River Rapids or Navi River Journey, just depending on the weather. If it's hot and if it's already hot that hot in the morning, I have no problem jumping in the line for Cali. And it's a beautiful line. Rob: Un unfortunately they don't open Cali anymore that early. They've they they've stopped it doesn't open yeah, they does it does it doesn't open now until usually ten or eleven AM. Yeah. Craig: did they just stop it? Okay, because they were doing that and then they started opening it with the park for some reason. So, okay, well, I guess I'm not doing that unless they change the rules again. But here's my thing about Navi River Journey. That queue is so excruciating, the standby queue. It's warm, there's nothing to see. It's just a bunch of people in a huge room going back and forth. So that Rob: Yeah. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Jessica: I will say there is a Play Disney app option in that queue if you wanted to waste your phone's battery. There is a game you can play in the Navi River Journey Navi my gosh. Navi River Journey Cue on Play Disney that you can try with your kids. But it killed my phone in like 10 minutes when we did it with the boys one time. And I don't disagree, Craig. Without that app, it was excruciating. Craig: Ooooo Rob: Yeah, so much of that cue is outside. Almost all of it is outside. And it's just it's really sometimes it's not just hot, it's steamy. It's like there's so much water over there. Yeah. well so Craig, you started us off with your rope drop pick as well for for Animal Kingdom. And so since you can't usually do since you can't usually do Cali. Jessica: Is awful. Craig: Yeah. Jessica: They tried. It's so muggy. Rob: Your rope drop pick then is to do a Nobby River journey to start your day. Yeah, I think that's a good pick. Eric, before we move on to other rope drop picks, are we hearing anything from our friends on Patreon about Animal Kingdom specifics? Erick: A lot of people agree with Plata passage, but some people actually like to go to go with Zootopia or Everest because they don't like to to be dealing with the that stressful moment about getting crushed by people going to fly fly the passage. Jessica: a great point. Yeah, I think I don't I mom, I don't know if dad's listening, but that was one of the things my dad was surprised by. It was just the where are all those people going? And I was like, Dad, they're all going to flight of passage. Every single human is all going to the same place. And they are power walking as if they're going to win the Olympic medal. I mean, it's overwhelming. I I dislike it so much. Rob: Yep. And And if you're not on that front wave of people going, because you're right, everyone is going to flight a passage. You will be standing in line in Africa. The like the bridge that goes into Africa is where they back that line up to. It's crazy how long that line gets very quickly. So yeah, if you're if you're not on the front end of that, you might not want to do flight of passage for early entry. well Jessica: Mm-hmm. Erick: Right. Jessica: Mm-hmm. Rob: This is actually a good segue to my pick for rope drop because I kind of have two that that I that I like to consider for rope drop. Back when it was Animal Kingdom had Dino Land USA, that was actually one of my favorite ways to rope drop the park because nobody. I mean, you would go into Dino Land and you would be the only human that you would see. Other than other cast members, like the cast members that were there. It was empty and it was magical. And you could just start on that side of the park and work your way around, you know, and so you would end in Pandora. And it was just a beautiful day because you just were always you were in the place where the crowds weren't. unfortunately, Dyna Land isn't there anymore. Jessica: Mm-hmm. Rob: So there's not as much to do on that side because as we mentioned, Cali River Rapids sadly doesn't open until later. so my rope drop pick is actually Kilimanjaro Safaris. and that's because Safaris doesn't typically open for early entry. There will be some folks who will get in line for it from early entry, but it won't be a super long line because you can't ride it yet. so that's a great way to kind of get first dibs on a line in Animal Kingdom. If you're not enthused about doing Safari first thing, I do think it can be worth starting in Asia for the same reason that I talked about with with Dino Land. You do have that experience. You could do Everest, it will be open, and you could do that Animal Trail will open generally with the park. And you'll just have that whole area of the park to yourself is kind of magical. So those would be my my two things I would consider doing in the morning. Jessica, what's your what's your rope drop? If you're not there for early entry, you're there for rope drop, what's your pick? Jessica: This used to be a no-brainer for us. It used to always be Kilimanjaro's safari. I mean, that was for the reasons you talked about, but also because the animals tend to be more active in the mornings. It's cooler in the mornings. It's a good time to see the safari, all of those things. And then they did something that's really thrown my whole world upside down, and that is they've added the best character interaction that they could have in any Disney park, and that is Nick and Judy. And Rob: Mm-hmm. Jessica: I say that because the Nick and Judy line can be over an hour long. if you have kids that want to meet Nick and Judy, or if you are a grown adult woman and you want to meet Nick and Judy, I do really recommend rope dropping Nick and Judy. To not have to waste an hour later in your waste, to spend an hour later in your day. I know when John and I did the 5K and we had our Nick and Judy medals, we rope dropped Nick and Judy so that we could be there with our medals. I have rope-dropped Nick and Judy a couple of times to get that interaction. Then you can go you literally, you're spending maybe 10 minutes there, then you can do Zootopia and go to the Safari. It's not costing you. It's just like kind of like what you said. If When Eric did Flight of Passage first and you did Navi, if you do something before the Nick and Judy line, thinking you're gonna be fine, you'll be surprised how much behind it puts you. If Nick and Judy is on your list, and you start with Nick and Judy. And then that's just to me, that's just no brainer. The other thing that I will say is the Mickey and Minnie meet and greet is also one. Rob: Mm-hmm. Yep. Jessica: That I would, if that is important and you're one of the people that want to see them together, remember this is the only place right now you can guarantee to see Mickey and Minnie together in a meet and greet and get a photo. So I also would rope drop Nick and Judy first because they are longer than Mickey and Minnie right now. So you can make take that with what you will. But and then go to Mickey Mini if characters are important. So I just want to add that in there as a secondary option, other than Kilimanjaro Safari. Rob: I'm so glad you mentioned this because I had completely forgotten about what we did when we were there with the Littles this last time. We rope dropped Bluey. And that ended up being a very good call on for our day. So I will say this: if you don't have like little kids in your crew, it's questionable how much you would enjoy Bluey first thing in the morning because it's basically. Jessica: Mm-hmm. Rob: The adults are gonna kind of stand in the back and watch the kids dance and play with Bluey and Bingo. And the kids that are playing with Bluey and Bingo are all gonna be around the age of probably 12 and under, I would say, is kind of the the yeah. But so if you've got kids who are excited about meeting Bluey and Bingo, that could be a great way to start your morning. If you don't, however. Jessica: This old? Craig: Mm-hmm. Rob: I like, I love Bluey. I'm a big Bluey fan. I probably I I can tell you I would not rope drop Bluey if I did not have little kids, because it would be a weird rope drop experience. because it's it's definitely geared towards the littles and not anyone else. But yeah, thank you for reminding me of that. All right. Craig, why don't you start us off on this next park? next we're gonna move to Epcot. Which is, I think, your favorite park, if I'm not mistaken. where do you like to go for early entry in Epcot? Craig: It is? Well, not surprisingly, I like to go to my favorite ride and that's Guardians of the Galaxy Cosmic Rewind. If you haven't done test track, I might suggest that because it seems like both of those have very long lines. think Guardians is still longer throughout the day by average, but then again, test track goes down a lot. be aware of what might be open. Guardians does not close for weather, Test Track does, so keep that in mind as well. Rob: Mm. Yep. Yeah. I I'm gonna agree with you. I think that those for me in Epcot right now for early entry, unless you're coming in from the International Gateway, which this is something that you may not be aware of, but if you're staying at a Skyliner resort or you're staying at one of the Epcot area resorts, you're gonna actually be coming into Epcot from the back of the park through Basically between the UK and France pavilion. I you can, and you will see a lot of people do this. You can at the beginning of early entry walk all the way up to the front of the park and do guardians and test track. We did it in a video and it actually ended up working out okay. I mean, we didn't have a super short wait, but it wasn't nearly as bad as it would have been later in the day. Having said that, I did not enjoy walking from the back of the park all the way to the front of the park as my first activity of the day. It was not something I would probably choose to do again. So I would say if you're coming in from the back, Remy and Frozen, those are gonna be your your go-to early entry attractions, in my opinion. Jessica, what are your early entry picks if you're over at Epcot? Jessica: I think in general, I'm not a Guardians person. So, because of motion sickness. So I would say if you're in the front of the park, it's Test Track. If you're near the back of the park, it's Remy's. I will caveat. If you are someone who has kid l small kids, frozen I think is this early entrying frozen is the absolute best. If you have kids and you're not gonna get multipass or you're gonna get multipass, but you wanna use the tier one on something else, Frozen, frozen, frozen. I think that's the the best option. the other thing that I will say for early entry is if you choose to do Figment Living with the Land and the finding Nemo, you're gonna get all those done real quick because no one else will be over there. Not that I know from experience, but you could just and in fact they don't they don't expect anyone to be there. Rob: Yeah. Yeah. I I f I feel like that might be that might be Jessica's early entry morning right there. That I I feel like Figment is your is your early entry jam, am I right? Jessica: They might not even open. you know, humorously, even I have not early entried Figment. and I love a good Figment. I will say, and maybe we'll talk about this, just don't do Spaceship Earth. This is because it's right there in the front of the park, either early entry or rope drop, humorously that line will be longer than it will be if you just wait 45 minutes. So Rob: Okay. Erick: Yeah. Craig: Mm-hmm. Rob: Yeah. Jessica: That's the one that I've it's the funniest thing to me to watch the trends of spaceship earth earth weight here. there. It kinda has that spike as it it has all of the iconography of being Epcot, so Rob: Mm-hmm. Craig: Mm-hmm. Rob: Right, yeah. It is the icon of the park. Erick: Just to give a just to give a head a heads up, someone in the chat commented earlier that Figmin was not open for early entry and they were like turnaround to go to a different attraction. So Craig: first thing. Jessica: well now I'm gonna have to test that. Craig: You Rob: Wow. Jessica: Now I'm gonna have to test that. Now I think most of the rides or do they not, if you go and look at the times of the rides, do they include early entry in the times the rides are open? So you should be able to see in the app. Rob: They do. It but it's tricky. Here's what they do that the if you just glance at it, you might not notice they have the regular time posted and then below that it'll say extended hours and that's where it'll post if it it's open during early entry and or extended evening hours. Jessica: Mm. We're checking, we're checking figment right now. Rob: Yeah, check check Figment. See when it's gonna but I I can tell you that that I'm I'm pretty sure I have ridden Grand Fiesta tour during early entry. So it kind of shocks me. It kind of shocks me that that that would be available and Figment would not, but Jessica: I'm I want to know ex Well who hasn't? Erick: Yeah. So Rachel just wrote also like in the chat, he isn't open for early entry. I tried. Rob: Wow. All right. Jessica: It does not have extended hours, but Rob: Yeah, not even extended evening hours. Jessica: Nope, doesn't have extended evening. I knew it didn't have extended evening hours. Yeah, Grand Fiesta Tour does have extended hours. Journeying Imagination with a Figment does not. We have learned something today that is extremely important. Rob: Yeah. Mm-hmm. Do not go to Figment for early entry. Erick: Okay. Craig: Well, I mean, if you're waiting Jessica: Figment is not available. Craig: more than 10 minutes for either of those rides, something's wrong to begin with. Erick: boy, boy. It wasn't Rob: Ouch. Erick: I was just gonna say like this last time, I was I was telling you about like how at the beginning of the podcast I was mentioning that my friends just came to visit. one of the first things that we did was in Epcot, it was actually Figment. We have w that was our first line in lane. And I can tell you, Jessica, if you go there and you finish riding Figment, you can be the first in line. to meet him on on his meets and greets. He was I'm so sorry, but he he was alone. He was by himself. He seemed very, very sad. Craig: Hmm. Jessica: never seen him alone because I guess I haven't been there, but like anytime there's like three people like in line, John literally has to like pull me 'cause I'm like graviton. We could go wait in there. I can go wait in that line. I have a lot of figment pictures. Rob: Mm-hmm. Well, before we check in with our friends on Patreon, because I do want to hear their Epcot picks, let's talk about Rope Drop. Because as we've discussed, Rope Drop is a different thing from early entry. Craig, what do you like to do if you're an Epcot for Rope Drop? Craig: Okay, my first choice is actually Frozen. Test Track, Remy, those are other ones that are up there, but they also have single rider lines. So that's why I'm going to pick Frozen first. And it's a lovely queue once you get inside, but it's short and most of it, that queue is outside. So that's when I'm going to try to eliminate as much weight as possible. Rob: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Jessica, what's your rope drop pick for Epcot? Jessica: Frozen or Soren. Those are the two that I think Soren is usually not chosen by anyone at early entry or very few people. It's probably more now that it's in Soren over in America, but Soren I find is a good one to rope drop. Not a lot of people are going that way. and then Frozen, a lot of people did test tracking guardians or Remy's, so you can get into Frozen, but Rob: Mm, mm-hmm. Jessica: I still find that frozen line, even if you rope drop it, can be long, whereas Soren almost never is if you rope drop it right at the start. Rob: Yeah, that's a good point. The thing with Frozen, so often it does not open on time. I feel like that one is one of those that just it's always on the struggle bus in the morning. And sometimes it it opens with early entry, but sometimes it doesn't. And so what happens is you end up with the line already backed up. if frozen opens with early entry and it's running smoothly. Jessica: Mm. Rob: I find that if you're on that first wave of people coming in during a rope rope drop when the park officially opens, it's usually very little weight. if you get there with that that group of folks. but the exception is when it's not been functioning that morning. So again. Jessica: Do you think the new animatronics have helped? Rob: Well, no, because we were we just did our early entry video there and the new animatronics were there and Frozen did not open on time with early entry. So yeah, I don't know I I think I think I really don't know. but my gut says that Frozen is having cause it my recollection is it had issues. It's always had issues. Like even back when it was maelstrom. Jessica: Mm, okay. I was hoping those would help. Rob: I feel like that attraction has had I think it might just be structural, you know, with that attraction that's just finicky. but the the other one I think I think Soren, I think you're right though. I I had not put Soren on my list, but now that you say that, I think Soren is probably your safest. It's gonna have a very long wait during the peak period of the day. And you're right, there's almost never a a long wait. Right there at rope drop. So that's a really good pick. Eric, what are we hearing on the the chat? What what are folks' recommendations for early entry and rope drop at episode? Erick: Before I go to recommendation, Sarah sorry, the Colangelo Henkel family had a question. Is it possible to try to do both Guardians of the Galaxy and then get in line for Test Track during early entry? We were in the first pre show for Guardians during early entry, then walk over Test Track and it was already forty minutes. But at least we got in line before the park opened. Rob: Yes. So I'm curious, was it really a 40-minute wait? Because what's happened to me, in fact, this happened in our early entry video. I started with Guardians, I went to test track, and as I was walking up, it posted at 40. But that's because they knew the the the wave was coming in. They were anticipating the wave, but because I got in before that wave of people, my weight was actually. Feel like it was like fifteen, twenty minutes. It wasn't forty. Was theirs forty? Erick: They they reply and they say yes, it was a forty minute wait. Rob: Yeah, it was a real 40. Okay. Yeah. I I do think it's I do think it's worth it though, honestly, you know, to to do both first thing, just because, especially with test track, that ride goes down constantly. I mean, it's just for weather, it has technical issues, it's just it's a finicky attraction. It's it is the rise of the resistance of Epcot. and so I would say Jessica: Mm. Mm-hmm. Rob: If you can get that done early, it's worth doing. Yeah. all right. Any other suggestions before we move on to our next park? Erick: Well Lisa is also giving a heads up that the spaceship Earth has been delayed a lot recently. So you haven't so you haven't even been able to rob drop her. So Rob: well, that's surprising. But I I guess yeah. Well, you know, I I I a lot of people want to start their day by thanking the Phoenicians and I support that. let's let's move on. We're gonna save Magic Kingdom for last, because I feel like that's the probably the one certainly with the most options to consider. let's move on to Hollywood Studios. and I'll start us off this round. Jessica: Hmm. Phoenicians. Mm-hmm. Rob: My pick for early entry at Hollywood Studios is kind of the classic pick that everyone will tell you Slinky or Rise. But here's the thing both of those attractions more often rise than Slinky, but both of them have been known to not open with the park. So they will usually come out and tell you, as Jessica mentioned earlier in the show, they'll say, If Rise or Slinky is not functioning, they will let people know. so that's your cue. If you were planning to do one, to go do the other. both of these attractions, I I will say lately Rise has been kind of funny. It it has had lots of periods where there have been shorter waits, as Jessica mentioned in a recent show. you can sometimes get lucky with Rise these days. especially if it's having a good day and it's it's functioning all day long. Slinky, on the other hand, man, it's like hitting the lottery to find a short wait on Slinky Dog Dash. So I think if you're if you're trying to pick between the two, I'd probably pick Slinky as my as my early entry pick. yes, Eric? Erick: I think this is the perfect moment to bring this question from Heather. how do you find out if a ride is delayed in early entry, other than getting to the ride and seeing it or hearing from the cast members? Rob: You'll it well, if it's not one of those top attractions, they're not gonna tell you. and the way you find out is by opening the app because as soon as the park is open for early entry, they will begin posting wait times pretty quickly. And if a ride is not opening, it will usually already say temporarily closed. It'll already say that in the app. So you'll know not to go there. So I would say check the app. But yeah, if it's a big one, like Jessica said, they're gonna tell you outside before you even get in, probably. all right. Jessica, what are your early entry picks for Hollywood Studios? Jessica: Rise of the Resistance. That's it. I just said Rise of the Resistance. And I wait. I wait for Rise of the Resistance. I go to Rise of the Resistance. In general, my very first ride always is Rise of the Resistance. So I I've waited inside that queue for an hour while it's delayed. And they don't kick you out. They just let you sit there. So there you go. They just it's cool, it's nice. Rob: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Craig: Shocker! Rob: It's true. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Jessica: So, yeah, rise of the resistance is what I typically do. And we don't early entry. I mean, I am an early person, but we don't early entry a lot because we stay off property a lot. So if I if I have early entry, I am going to Hollywood Studios to try to get rise of the resistance. That's one of the that is the that's my preferred because out of all the four parks, this is my favorite ride. Rob: Mm-hmm. Jessica: In all of the parks, and I wanna get it and I wanna be able to ride it more than once, and so I early entry it. So rise of resistance is my pick all the time. Rob: Mm-hmm. All right. Craig, what's your early entry pick if you're at Hollywood Studios? Craig: Okay, so this is the part where I'm going to zig while everyone else is zagging. And I'm going to go down Sunset Boulevard, hit Rock and Roller Coaster, Star in the Muppets, and Tower of Terror. For many of the reasons we talked about with Epcot, you know, going where no one else is going. And these are like Rock and Roller Coaster, that's still going to have long lines for quite a while for the foreseeable future. Towers generally not too bad. Rob: Hm. Yep. That's a really good play. Craig: but I know that it's running pretty regularly. But yeah, that's. Rob: Yeah, it depends on 'cause they they put that one in refurbishment all the time. Where they'll d whenever it goes in refurbishment, they close one half of that attraction while they work on the other half. And so yeah, when that's happening, your strategy pays off handsomely. Yeah. well that's that's actually the perfect segue to my regular rope drop pick at Hollywood Studios, which is to do exactly what you said. I if I'm not there for early entry, I don't think about Rise or Slinky because I know that those attractions are probably gonna be mobbed with people. I love to go straight down Sunset Boulevard and do Tower and Rock and Roller Coaster. I also love it because it's right there at the front of the park. It's just it's a logical place to start your day. so yeah, I agree. That's a good pick either for early entry or for for rope drop. Jessica, what's your rope drop pick? Jessica: Rise of the resistance. So in general, I do rise of the resistance and and a Ronto Roasters. That's what we do even when we rope drop. When we rope drop, even if it's not early entry, we rise the resistance in Ronto Roasters. I do recognize that if you're not crazy about Rise of the Resistance, or you're not it's not your favorite ride, that might not be what you want to do. I tell my friends that have kids Toy Story Mania is a good one. Rob: Mm-hmm. Erick: Yeah. Yeah. Jessica: To rope drop or Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway is a good one to rope drop. Those are two that you'll get longer lines. Or if you're a Star Wars fan and you you want to get a single pass for Rise of the Resistance, which we talked about last time, I don't think you need to do any more. Millennium Falcon would be a good one as well. But in general, John and I, Rise the Resistance, Ronto Roasters, or if I'm there with other people, Toy Story Mania. So mom and I, Toy Story Maniad it, and had almost no weight. Rob: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yep. Yeah. Jessica: It rope drop. Assuming Slinky Dog is up. If Slinky Dog is down, Toy Story Mania do not go to. Rob: I will Right. Yeah, it'll be mobbed. I love the new Millennium Falcon Smugglers run. I love that there are three different missions to choose from. I could make an argument that rope dropping Millennium Falcon would be a smart play because that has so much rewritability now. I mean, you you really if if you enjoy that attraction. you might want to try to ride it three times to experience all three of the different adventures you can take. If you're a big Star Wars person, that's something you might want to consider. I'm just gonna throw that out there. but Craig, before we go to Patreon, what is your what is your regular rope drop pick for Studios? Craig: it was the same as yours and the same as my early entry and that was Rock and Roller Coaster and Tower of Terror. I do that either way. Rob: So yours, you don't change. It's the same either way. Yeah. Yep. Eric, what are we hearing for Hollywood Studios over in Patreon? Erick: Ray and Lauren, they do rise. if we get there and it's down, we pivot to smugglers, then toy story mania, then Mickey and Minis. Usually we get we get around three to four rides done by the end of early entry. that opens up us up to do some of those rides second time if we get line in lane or just leisurely do whatever else we would like. Rob: Wow. Yeah. Erick: Jessica says that they pivot Millennium Falcon when a slink key is down. Rob: You know, what what Ray and Lauren said about getting multiple rides done during early entry, that's also a case for starting with Slinky, because Slinky is a very fast ride, not not just fast in terms of roller coaster, it's fast. But I mean it's you're you're you're on and off of that attraction. They load very quickly. There's not a pre-show. You're on and off of that attraction, and that does free you up more time. Whereas the flip side of that, Rise the resistance, it is a lengthy attraction. You are not gonna do anything else during early entry other than rise of the resistance because it's the experience lasts so long. Jessica: Y I've done two Craig: Mm-hmm. Jessica: I've done at least two rides. Yeah, we've been able to do we've typically get to do Rise of Distance and either Falcon or or Runaway Railway. Rob: Have you? I forgot because it rise, they let you experience the first part of it before early entry begins, right? They usually let you go through. So you've experienced half of it by the time early entry begins, usually, right? Jessica: When Kieran when Winnie we did it with Kieran on early entry, we s they started letting people in right at eight thirty. And I s we still got Mickey and Minnie's runaway done before early entry ended. So we still had enough time to do both. I think it's like a fifteen minute ride total. So you you have time. Rob: Okay. All right. Okay. Good to know. Yeah. Craig: Yeah, it's very important to bear that in mind though, the difference between the two. Jessica: Yeah. it's a totally it's a much longer it's much longer than Slinky Dog. And if you're in the back of that early entry pack, you will only get Rise Done. Craig: Yeah. Rob: Yeah. Right. Right. All right. What what else you were looking for another thing there on on Patreon, yeah. Erick: Yes. This one came from Rachel and she said if you are the first people to write Toy Story for the day, then you get to sign a special book and take a photo. I have no idea about that. Jessica: Ugh No Rob: Toy Story Mania? Interesting. Jessica: Well bucket list opened. Erick: Mm-hmm. Rob: I that reminds me, we're gonna talk about Magic Kingdom next, but I learned quite by accident, if you're the first person at the Friar's Nook in the morning at at Magic Kingdom, I went there during early entry because I was just starving, and they're like, You're the first guest of the day, and they like make a big deal out of it and they give you this big feather, like you get like this feather, and it's it's a whole like thing. Craig: You Rob: I don't know. That was a fun thing that I just discovered one day without meaning to. yeah, very cool. I didn't know they did that on Toy Story Mania. Now I feel like I've got to cross that off the bucket list. I gotta go try that out. All right. Well, let's move on to our final park, Magic Kingdom, because we do have some questions of the week that we need to get to. Jessica, why don't you start us off for this round? I I know that you're probably gonna have the the less conventional early entry pick is my guess, 'cause you tend to to to think think outside the box when it comes to early entry. Jessica: I think yeah, and I think the in general I don't go to Disney World to ride roller coasters. I know that a lot of people do. That's not why I go to Disney World. So for us, we have basically two th two ways we handle early entry at at Magic Kingdom. the first is buzz, buzz and the people mover. I will buzz people mover a lot. Rob: Mm-hmm. Jessica: I like Buzz Lightyear. I don't want to wait in a line for Buzz Lightyear. It's one of those rides that I feel much like Navi River Journ River Journey River Journey. Gosh, that's hard for me to say. Navi River Journey. Craig said that line was horrible. I buzz when it's outside. I that is the worst possible line in the park. so I like to get buzz, you know, and get get on it without a line. And then I will Rob: Ha ha. Jessica: start my day with the people mover after that. the second thing that we will do, and I know I have been made fun of on this podcast before is I will, I will early entry small world, and then we will walk Main Street and get the photos and experience the vibes and watch the opening show when it used to exist. It doesn't exist anymore. and get the photos and just do that. I will small world and vibes. Rob: Ha ha ha. Jessica: And and then be prepared to go do Adventureland when it opens. So I I just think you've got to you've got to know kind of what part of Magic Kingdom brings you joy. Now, if I had little kids with me, I would early entry and I would do Dumbo, Barn Surmer, and Pooh and Mermaid. I would try to knock those four. You could knock, I bet you could get. Rob: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Jessica: four all four of those done in early entry and start off the day with a you know with the kids kind of giving them the joy and and not have to worry about some of those, you can fill that morning time and then go to a character breakfast or then go take a a break or then go to Peter Pan. But if I had the kids with me and I think when we did have little kids, we would, we would Dumbo it up. Dumbo was one of the you or carousel. Rob: Yeah. Mm. Jessica: You haven't lived until you've carouselled at eight o'clock in the morning. So Craig: Hehehehehe Rob: All right. Craig, what are your early entry picks if you're there, the Krakodon at Magic Kingdom? Craig: Okay, well I'm going to get in line for Seven Dwarfs Mine Train. First thing. Peter Pan is another one. In fact, we tried that and of course it was down. So we gave it a shot, hoping it would come up. The cast members seemed to be a little more positive that it would, but we finally gave up. But yeah, I think you're going to get more most bang for your buck out of Seven Dwarfs Mine Train. Rob: Mm-hmm. Craig: But again, Peter Pan is a long one, although it is a nice cue at least, and most of it is indoors now. Rob: Yeah. Yeah, I I actually I I agree. I think for me, Mind Train is my top pick. but Peter Pan's a good fallback because the thing about Peter Pan, it's a long wait, and the the cue is adorable. And if you do the lightning lane for Peter Pan, you're gonna miss that really cute cue. So I do think that early entry is the happy medium. You don't spend forever in that queue. but you get to experience it. You get to kind of take your time with it a little bit as you go through. so if you've got littles, probably Peter Pan, I would say, is is your better play even than than mind train. but for me it's always mind train. and I'm gonna pivot to rope drop. And one thing that Jessica said when she was talking about vibes, it reminded me of something that I had not thought to include before. And that is if you are rope dropping Magic Kingdom, you can get into the park with the early entry folks. You're allowed to come in during early entry and you're just limited to Main Street. So if you just want those main street vibes that Jessica was talking about, you can actually get those. Even as a rope dropper, not an early entry, by coming in during that early entry period, also a great time to get those castle photos that we mentioned earlier in the show. So, or Starbucks, yeah, which that line, whoo, that line can be as bad as as Peter Pan's flight sometimes. but that's why I always go to Joffrey's instead, which is in Tomorrowland, which is open for early entry. Jessica: Or Starbucks. Craig: Mm-hmm. yeah. Jessica: Mm-hmm. Erick: Yeah. Jessica: But not to rope droppers. Rob: correct. Rope drop, you gotta wait. You can't get in there until gotta gotta go Starbucks. unless you got it at the TTC, which is actually what I usually do. but the the other picks I would say for for rope drop, if you're not looking to do vibes, I think Big Thunder Mountain and Jungle Cruise are the two. Jessica: Rope Dropper's got a Starbucks, sorry. Craig: You Jessica: Mm. Rob: Best picks for rope drop because as we said earlier, all the early entry folks, they're in Tomorrowland and Fantasyland. They can't even get to Big Thunder or Jungle Cruise. and both of those attractions, especially Big Thunder right now, are gonna have much longer waits later in the day. So if you're a roller coaster enthusiast, Big Thunder is my rope drop pick. if you're more of a classic Disney attraction buff, I would say jungle cruise, but big caveat here: Jungle Cruise is a long ride. It is not quick. And so you will eat up a lot of your early entry time riding either jungle cruise or if you're gonna do, say, Pirates of the Caribbean is another one. It's a long attraction. It takes a while. So keep that in mind if you pick those for rope drop. all right. Craig, what is your what is your pick for rope drop? Craig: Okay. Mine is also Big Thunder Mountain right now. And I'm combining that with Tiana. Tiana's Bayou Adventure, which is what we did when we didn't get into Peter Pan. We decided to cut our losses and just wait to get, you know, in the first wave of the early entry guests being led into Frontierland. So which we did from Fantasyland. I did ask and they said this was the quickest way to get back there to join from Rob: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Craig: the Fantasyland Bridge near Haunted Mansion. But yeah, we basically got right on Big Thunder. was running, so we got on that quick enough, and then Tiana was still a walk-on after that, so that was definitely a good rope drop choice. Rob: Yeah. Tiana takes a little while for it to get really busy. I think because a lot of people wait till it gets hotter in the day to ride Tiana. So yeah, that's a really good pick if you're looking for a short wait. Jessica. Mm-hmm. Craig: Mm-hmm. Yeah. And they're both, yeah, and there are all these tier ones too, if you can knock out as many tier ones during early entry, that's, or even rope top for that matter. Rob: Right. For those who are not familiar with how Lightning Lane works, you are limited to having only one tier one attraction booked initially. You can have two tier twos booked, but you only have one tier one. So that's why Craig is saying it is a good idea to knock out as many of those tier ones as you can. So then you don't have to worry about booking them because you couldn't have them pre-booked. Jessica, what is your what is your rope drop pick for a Magic Kingdom? Jessica: this one was actually kind of hard for me to think about because I am I am that unique person. I we we rope drop people mover quite a bit. So I had to think if I was really gonna rope drop, what would I rope drop? And and I think I would go jungle cruise and then just w walk the park. Jungle Cruise, Peter Pan Peter Pan, Jungle Cruise, Pirate, and Haunted Mansion. I would probably do those three. those are the three kind of classic Disney rides, Magic Kingdom rides that kind of Rob: Mm-hmm. Jessica: Harkin nostalgia for me and are the ones I want to ride that might get longer lines later in the day. in the Halloween time, we may rope drop Haunted Mansion first because it tends to get a longer line. In the Christmas time, we would rope drop jungle cruise first because it's the jingle cruise and it tends to get a longer line. So I would just play that by ear sometimes seasonally. Sometimes those rides matter as well. But I will. be brutally honest and say nine times out of ten, we're heading to people mover and that's a problem. So I I I feel bad. I feel like I'm not the greatest addition to this podcast on this particular topic because I'm giving you the what what does nostalgia do for you and not roller coasters. So I can say I can get a lot of the rides that I like to ride in while y'all are doing roller coasters though. Rob: n no absolutely not. You're you're you're there's a lot of people who have yeah. Mm-hmm. Craig: No, it's different opinions. Erick: Say that. Don't say that. Rob: No, I mean that's a very valid, that's a very valid approach, too. Is I mean, if you're not interested in these biggest ticket attractions, you're right. It is the perfect time to get on all of those what people would consider second-tier attractions, but for you, they're they're they're tier ones for you. Eric, what are we hearing over on Patreon before we move on to questions of the week? Jessica: I can ride people mover a lot. Mm-hmm. Erick: a lot of people are just on team seven doors mind train. and then well Jen is adding that after you finish writing a seven doors, like then you have to go to the Rapunzel bathrooms. some of them are suggesting to to wrap drop a blur pen as well. And Matt and Leslie are saying like if you're early enough in the queue at Seven Doors Mine Train, you can often get a nice head start as we need the Pooh or Peter Pan as well. So the nighttime experience on Mind Train is also pretty awesome. Rob: Yeah. I think I've always been able to get Peter Pan done with a short wait immediately after Mind Train. That is that's typically doable. So yeah, I think that is a good play. If Winnie the Pooh is more important to your group, you could definitely get a short wait on Winnie the Pooh after Mind Train and it's closer. It's right there as you get off. All right. Well, thank you for that. And Erick: My turn. Rob: Jessica, I think now it is time to move on to our question of the week segment. And we have a couple of questions that you found for us. Just so you know, if you would like to have your question answered in a future episode, just leave your question as a comment on one of our podcasts on YouTube. or if you're a member of our Patreon family, you can ask your question in the chat on Patreon and we'll try to include it as well. Jessica, what are our questions of the week this week? Jessica: So it does help, by the way, if you put in all caps question for podcast, because then we'll we'll definitely catch it. I'm just gonna put it out there because I know a lot of times Craig and I are looking for the questions, and all caps helps us. So it's just a just a thing. we actually have a few questions. I think we've already answered the gist of, but we're just gonna read them and kind of get get the takes on. Johnny Five on Patreon had two questions. They're very kind of specific. The first one is Rob: Ha ha ha Jessica: For Hollywood Studios, in your guys' experience, does Slinky Dog tend to start running earlier than the other rides? Craig: I've never seen it, but. Jessica: Okay. Rob: No, Jessica: he said he said last time he saw it ten minutes earlier and he wasn't sure if that was common. Rob: not usually, no. So sometimes all of the rides will start running a little bit early if if they're if they're ready. I mean, I've I've definitely with rise, I know I've gotten all the way to the Star Destroyer before early entry even started. that's not uncommon. So but I don't think it's something unique to Slinky. in my experience that it tends to open earlier than everything else is my experience. But yeah. Jessica: Okay. His second question is which higher tier rides are good during early entry for being able to ride multiple times before the queue get long? So he wants to ride the same ride over and over again. What are some examples of those? what do you guys think for ones you can do multiple times? Craig: Well, I think we've mentioned a bunch of them too, like Rock and Roller Coaster, Tower of Terror, the studios, that's a good one to get in quick and then you can probably get in a few more before the lines really start going. Rob: I'd say my number one pick right now for doing it again and again would be Millennium Falcon Smuggler's Run, because of the rewriteability right now and getting to experience all of those different adventures. If I was in Magic Kingdom, probably the one I would recommend doing again and again would be Buzz Light, Year, Space Ranger, Spin, because that's one where you really kind of need some practice before you get good at it. And so I think. Jessica: Mm. It's a good one. Rob: That would be a fun one to do kind of over and over and kind of get higher and higher scores. I think that could be a good pick. Jessica: Yeah. Okay. And then the next question we have is from Debbie GB, also on Patreon. For early entry, it would be great to have an idea of what sort of time to arrive at the parks. How does this vary, for example, if one day at Epcot we want to rope drop with early entry, Rimmy then frozen, but the other day we just want to go to Lay Hall and Impressions de France. Same thing for Rob: Mm-hmm. Jessica: If I want to do Space Mountain and Peter Pan versus just riding the carousel and Little Mermaid, can you we still want to do early entry, but how close to how much before do you recommend getting there? Rob: I mean w what are your all thoughts on on that? Craig: and Jessica: I think for the second tiers, you could just get there right at right at the early entry time. Show up at 8:30, five minutes before. Just so you can get through the gate, you'll still be first in line. but Le Hall does not open with early entry. So that was one of the things I was gonna say. I don't think Le Hall opens with early entry. The food. Rob: Mm-hmm. Five minutes before. Yeah. Just five minutes but so you can get through the gates and get to where you're going. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Craig: Mm-hmm. Agreed. Yeah. Rob: I think it I think it opens at Park Open but Jessica: Right. So if you're early entering it. Rob: But you could do impr is does is Impressions de France have does that run during early entry? Jessica: I just I'd have to check. If it does, then you could do Impressions de France and then do Le Hall. Rob: Yeah, because it would empty it basically empties into the into Lesalle. So I I think I've done that very thing. And I don't know that I did it for early entry because I don't usually have early entry, but I have rope dropped Impressions de France and then gone to breakfast at Lesalle because those are two of my favorite things. And thank you for bringing up Impressions de France because this is something we should mention. If you're curious about one of Jessica: Mm-hmm. Right into it. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Rob: The great classic attractions at Epcot, Impressions de France. I love it. you can only do it in the morning or in the evening. Most of the day it is a a lesser attraction, in my opinion. it is a sing along for Beauty and the Beast that is just it's no Impressions de France. I'm just gonna I said it. Jessica: Rob's favorite. And not really a singalong. Craig: Yeah, and I did double check and it is not offered during early entry. Rob: Not offered during early entry. Okay, thank you for checking. So yeah, it sounds like you would not have any success doing that plan for early entry, but you could do it for rope drop. yeah. Erick: Yeah. Rob: but okay. Well, I I will say I really want to make this video to find out how much you benefit from getting in line for early entry crazy early. because I have a sneaking suspicion that maybe conventional wisdom isn't right. I think maybe if you just showed up 10 15 minutes before, you might still have a Jessica: And those are the questions for the week. Rob: Pretty short wait on even those big ticket attractions like Mine Train and maybe maybe even Flight of Passage, but I don't know. Well, I feel like we need to test this out. So we'll find out. But I will say, in answer to your question, based on the prevailing wisdom, is that you should be there at least 30 minutes before early entry begins if your goal is to do some of those big ticket rides. all right. Well That's all the time we have for questions of the week. And that's all the questions that we had for questions of the week. So now it's time to move on to our final segment that we like to call happy thoughts. Cause, you know, we like to we like to end with a little happy story at the end of the night. so Craig, why don't you start us off this week? What is your happy thought? Craig: Okay, so my happy thought is that I actually home for two days in a row before I leave again tomorrow morning. So the last two weeks have been quite a whirlwind between going to Disney, North Carolina, New York for work, traveling all over Chicagoland for work and leaving tomorrow. But I actually gave myself four hours to work on an art project that I had put away probably years ago, and it's still not even going to be done and probably won't get back to it for another, but it felt good. to allow myself to have some time that I should have been doing other things, but I treated myself and just let myself be creative and do something I wanted. So that was my happy thought. Rob: I love that. That's awesome. And I'm so glad that you're gonna have a little well deserved time off. Jessica, what is your happy thought this week? Craig: Take care of yourself. Jessica: So my happy thought is a rumor. It's a rumor that the Disney cruise line may be coming back to New York. That is all over the internet right now. And I if you really I mean, we're gonna do the Ear Scouts cruise, and that will be the first Disney cruise we do. But for John and I to do Disney cruises consistently. Rob: Ooh. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Jessica: Having them go out of New York would be a huge thing. And we always said that we would do a Disney cruise when it came back to New York. So even the rumor of a possibility that it's coming back was just I was so I sent it to John first thing. He was like, ooh. So I'm super excited. I hope it happens. And hopefully we can get all of us northerners that New York is an easier place to go out from. We can do a northern Ear Scouts cruise if it does come back. Rob: as soon as as soon as I saw that rumor, I I was like, This this is the perfect opportunity to have like a double vacation. We could go to New York, have a couple of New York days, and then have a Disney cruise. It sounds amazing. Yeah. Jessica: Yeah. Craig: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. I've Jessica: Exactly. I'll show you all my office. You can come see it. It's really cool. Craig: cruise Rob: We would love to. Craig: I've cruised out of New York several times and it's a great part. Jessica: Mm-hmm. Rob: Yeah. Jessica: yeah, super easy. Rob: Before we continue with Happy Thoughts, I I do wanna have a quick detour because you mentioned the rumor. I also saw a rumor that Space Mountain at Magic Kingdom is gonna get a complete overhaul. And I'm just curious what are what's everyone's thoughts? Are you excited about the potential of this? Are you horrified by the potential of this? What's what's you what you're thinking? Erick: Okay. Craig: My Erick: Ha Craig: ear. My ear. Erick: ha ha. Jessica: I can't ride Space Mountain. So unless it gets better, I can't ride I mean, I would love if you overhaul it to the point that I can ride it again, I'd be fine. Rob: Ha ha ha. Craig: My internal organs are thrilled. Let's put it that way. Jessica: Mm-hmm. Rob: I'm I'm excited. I'm very excited by this news. Eric, what do you think? Are you excited or are you gonna be you'd be sad to have the chiropractors mountain gone? Erick: I will be very happy just to see something new and hopefully like it's going to be some well, if it happens, hopefully it's going to be something like Anaheim where two people can write at the same time, but also like it's way the smooth like way smoother but most importantly I really hope that it it comes with the soundtrack. Like I think it makes it more more special. So Rob: Mm-hmm. Jessica: Mm-hmm. Craig: Mm-hmm. Onboard audio Rob: yeah. Mm-hmm. Craig: would be great. Jessica: Some sort of story. It needs it needs to be Disney fide. Right now it feels it even even if it wasn't jerky, it feels like it needs something, right? It just feels like it does. So I I'm excited about it. It gave me hope that maybe I'll write it again. Rob: Yeah. Mm-hmm. it it it reminded me we met some coaster enthusiasts in the parks not that long ago and they were telling us the story of how Space Mountain, the reason it's so rough and Herky Jerky is because it was the the company that that created that track system doesn't exist anymore. And so they went out of business. And so it's very difficult for Disney to maintain they have to kind of create their own, you know, maintenance program for, you know, that for a company doesn't exist anymore. So I think that's also probably a big reason that maybe Disney's looking at overhauling it is so that they can have an easier time maintaining the attraction going forward. But I'm excited about it as well. I think I'm glad to hear we're all on this in the same boat. We're all excited. and I can't wait to hear more, hopefully at D twenty three. Eric, what is your happy thought this week? Erick: the podcast I was mentioning that my friends were I just came to visit and something new happened to me where we rode Tower of Terror by ourselves. We were the last family and honestly just being there, the three of us on the ride, it just felt different. It was a little bit like scarier and but also like it was at the same time it was very exciting. Rob: Mm-hmm. Erick: I felt like again, I I I just felt like the ride lasted longer and it was more thrilling. so yeah, I I'm glad that I was able to to experience that. Rob: You guys got an amazing photo pass photo too of just when I I I was flipping through, I didn't know that it happened to you. And I was flipping through the the photo pass photos and I saw, I was like, my gosh, there's like no one with them on Tower of Terror. That looks amazing. So yeah, I'm so glad you you shared that. we'll have to put that on Patreon, that photo pass photo. well, my happy thought this week is that we are getting ready for Our second Ear Scouts Jamboree here at Walt Disney World. And Jessica is wearing her her Wilderness Explorer ears to commemorate the new line of week. We created a shirt, we created a rock's glass, we created a mug, with a whole bunch of merch that is specifically for the jamboree. And I'm really kind of happy with how it all turned out. I think it looks really cool and I'm so excited to see everyone. If you've never heard of the Ear Scouts Jamboree, it is gonna be, I think it's October 9th through 12th. Is that correct? That's right. Yes. October 9th through 12th at Walt Disney World. you can find out more about it on our Patreon community. You don't have to pay, it's you can join for free and and find out more information. Jessica: That's correct. Rob: but it is it's open to everyone. You can come and and hang out with your fellow Ear Scouts crew. We're gonna be doing all kinds of stuff. We're gonna have a scavenger hunt, we're gonna do mini golf, we're gonna do level 99 at Disney Springs. it's gonna be we're doing Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween party. It's gonna be a great time. but if you want to check out that new merch, I'm my happy thought is that we finally got that done and got it up, and I'm really happy with how it turned out. So Head over to earscouts.com forward slash shop, and you can see all the new Jamboree merch. And hopefully we'll see you here at Walt Disney World October 9th through 12th for the Jamboree. until then, I hope everyone has a wonderful week filled with lots of happy thoughts, and we'll see you again next time.