Everybody knows that at theme parks, the early bird gets the worm of low wait times, but what’s the best way to start your day at Disneyland? Here is our breakdown of the most popular rope drop options at Disneyland Park, direct from the upcoming Unofficial Guide to Disneyland 2025.
Arriving early is the single most important key to touring efficiently and avoiding long lines. With your admission pass in hand, be at the gate ready to go at least 30–45 minutes before the theme park’s stated opening time. There are shorter lines and relatively fewer people first thing in the morning. Early risers receive even more of an advantage at Disneyland than at Walt Disney World, since local Californians rarely rope drop. The same four rides you can experience in 1 hour in the early morning will take more than 3 hours to see after 11 a.m. Have breakfast before you arrive, so you will not have to waste prime touring time sitting in a restaurant.
Your progress and success during your first hour of touring Disneyland will be affected by your decisions during the minutes leading up to opening. The standard park opening procedure is for all guests to be admitted through the turnstile onto Main Street about 30 minutes before the official park opening. On early entry days, eligible hotel guests should stay to the right side of the Main Street and show their room reservation inside the Disneyland app to a cast member near Plaza Inn for immediate access access into Tomorrowland and Fantasyland. Otherwise, guests are allowed to proceed to the end of Main Street but are held short of the castle in the central hub. At the official opening time, everyone is released into every land at the same time, with all attractions open (unless otherwise noted).
Early Entry for on-site hotel guests allows guests of the Pixar Place, Grand Californian, and Disneyland Hotels holding a valid park ticket to enjoy select Disneyland or Disney California Adventure attractions 30 minutes before the general public on most mornings. Early entry is offered at Disneyland every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday; it’s offered at DCA on Sunday, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. The participating park will open its gates to all guests when early entry begins. Once inside, hotel guests must show their reservation in the app for access to the rides, while everyone else awaits the regular rope drop from the central hub. During the early-entry period at Disneyland, most of the Fantasyland attractions and select rides in Tomorrowland will usually be open. The rest of the park’s attractions—including all of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge—remain off-limits until the official opening time.
When the official opening time arrives, early-entry guests have an advantage reaching certain E-Ticket rides, especially Rise of the Resistance and Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway. If you’ve got early-entry privileges, make the most of them by arriving at the gates as quickly as possible after security screenings start, so you can be one of the first guests to enter your preferred land. Ride a few attractions, then get ready to rope-drop from Fantasyland toward Galaxy’s Edge or Toontown (depending on your touring plan).
If you are ineligible for early admission, try to begin your day at the park that is not offering early entry. Barring that, you should still try to start your morning at an attraction that does not offer early entry, since queues for rides that do participate may already be busy by the time ordinary guests enter.
If you are going to Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge or Frontierland first, proceed as far forward in the central hub as allowed and line up to the left of Walt and Mickey’s central statue. To rope-drop Rise of the Resistance, use the Frontierland entrance instead of going through Adventureland; guests may make it to the attraction entrance slightly faster by sprinting through Critter Country, but they may be forced to join the queue behind folks coming from Frontierland. Note that early-entry guests coming from Fantasyland along Big Thunder Trail have a slight edge over everyone coming from the hub.
Watch this POV video to see the rope drop for early entry guests from Fantasyland to Rise of the Resistance:
Rise of the Resistance has become reasonably reliable in the mornings, but a delayed opening is still not uncommon, making your morning workout wasted. Even if everything goes according to plan and you’re among the first few hundred guests inside the queue, it will take you 25–40 minutes to emerge from the attraction, so lines at the rest of the park’s E-Tickets will be growing by the time you return to Planet Earth. Wait times for those lagging just a few minutes behind the leaders are often worse than at midday, so don’t bother rope-dropping Rise if you aren’t at the head of the pack. Better options for riding with a reasonable wait are to go about 60-90 minutes after park opening, or late in the day.
If you are going to Indiana Jones Adventure, Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, or Haunted Mansion first, stand in front of Jolly Holiday Bakery on the left side of the central hub and wait next to the walkway to Adventureland. When the rest of the park opens, proceed to Adventureland for Indiana Jones, or continue past the Treehouse for New Orleans Square and Critter Country. Off-site guests have the advantage over early-entry users at these attractions.
If you are going to Tomorrowland, Fantasyland, or Toontown first, wait on the right side of the central hub. If you are going first to Matterhorn Bobsleds or Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway, head between the castle and the left side of the mountain. Early-entry guests will always have a large lead on these rides.
For Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage, Star Tours, or Space Mountain, bear right at opening and zip into Tomorrowland, as seen in this POV video:
Finally, guests going to Fantasyland tend to bottleneck on the left side of the hub, so you can beat most of the crowd by starting on the right side and cutting straight towards the castle.
See this rope drop route to Peter Pan’s Flight in this POV video:
Disney has a number of cast members supervising the rope drop in order to suppress the mayhem of anxiously waiting guests. A pleasantly parental prerecorded “Please walk; don’t run” announcement attempts to have a somewhat subduing effect on the straining crowds, but upbeat music at the opening moment revs them right back up again. After removing the rope barrier, Disney cast members may lead you at a fast walk toward the attraction you’re straining to reach, forcing you (and everyone else) to maintain their pace. Not until they come within close proximity of the attraction do the cast members step aside.
So here’s the scoop. If cast members persist in walking the crowd back, the only way you can gain an advantage over the rest of the crowd is to arrive early enough to be one of those close to the front. Be alert, though; sometimes the Disney folks will step out of the way after about 50 yards or so. If this happens, you can fire up the afterburners and speed the remaining distance to your destination.
What’s your favorite way to rope drop at Disneyland? Let us know in the comment below!
For all there is to see and do at Disneyland, check out The Unofficial Guide to Disneyland by Seth Kubersky with Bob Sehlinger, Len Testa, and Guy Selga Jr. All Disneyland fans should also check out The Disneyland Story: The Unofficial Guide to the Evolution of Walt Disney’s Dream by Sam Gennawey.
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