Steal My Strategy - The BEST and WORST Time to Rope Drop Flight of Passage in Disney’s Animal Kingdom
Flight of Passage is by far the most popular attraction in Animal Kingdom and most people are going to tell you to head to that ride first to get on with a shorter wait. HOWEVER this may not be the best option for everyone and it could instead cause you to spend HOURS of unnecessary time in line when you could be using that time to do other things.
What is Rope Drop?
Rope Drop is a word you are going to hear a ton when planning your Disney trip and although it may sound confusing, the concept is pretty simple. All that this means is that you are arriving BEFORE Cast Members officially let guests into the park so that you can be ahead of the crowds and thus have a shorter wait.
Back in the day (and for some rides they do still do this) Cast Members would hold a physical rope to the entrance of a land or attraction and then when it was time to let guests into the line, they would ‘drop’ the rope. Hence the name ‘Rope Drop’.
Why would you get to the park super early when you would be waiting around the same amount of time later in the day? Well, this is all about maximizing your time in the park.
Let’s say an attraction typically has a 1 hour wait for most of the day. You COULD just bite the bullet and wait that hour of time anytime during regular park hours, OR you could spend that hour waiting for rope drop BEFORE the park even opens. That way you then have that hour freed up later in the day to do other things like ride other attractions, see shows, eat, or even just allow you to take a slower pace the rest of the day.
Do you HAVE to Rope Drop? No, of course not! But if you are really wanting to squeeze the most out of your day, it’s a great way to knock out one of those ‘big’ attractions without having to pay the extra money for a Lightning Lane.
When SHOULD you Rope Drop Flight of Passage?
Disney Resort Guests actually have an added advantage when it comes to Rope Drop because they can get into the parks up to 30 minutes earlier than regular day guests. This means they truly are some of the first people in line and at Animal Kingdom, they even sometimes let guests onto the rides earlier than that.
This means it really does pay to get to this park as early as possible! Just as a heads up, security for this park typically opens around 1 hour before official park open and then they start letting guests into the park around 45 minutes before official park open.
If you are doing Rope Drop for Early Entry, I suggest getting to the park maybe a few minutes before security opens so that you can be one of the first people to scan into the park.
After you go through the tapstyle (this is where you scan your park ticket to get in) you are going to want to head to the LEFT! If you go right, they won’t let you in because this is where they will be holding non-early entry guests. If you get confused, don’t worry! There is usually a Cast Member holding a sign with an arrow pointing where to go.
Once you are in the left holding area, Cast Members will be scanning your park ticket again to confirm that you are a Resort Guest before letting you through. So make sure to remember to keep your ticket out! They will only need to scan ONE member from your party to help things go a little quicker.
Now you’re off to Flight of Passage! It is about an 8 minute walk, so make sure that you pace yourself and do not run! (you’ll get in trouble if you do) If you’ve arrived early, you will usually have a pretty short wait and you might even be able to hop on Na’vi River Journey before Early Entry has finished.
If you are arriving anytime after Early Entry begins, just be aware that your wait will be longer, so you may want to opt for a different attraction and save Flight of Passage for later. (I have a pro tip for this that we’ll talk about later!)
When you should NOT Rope Drop Flight of Passage
When you hear that tip of doing Flight of Passage for Rope Drop, people tend to miss the fact that there are technically TWO Rope Drops that happen each morning. Early Entry Guests get the first one thirty minutes before park open and then regular day guests (think locals and those not staying at a Disney Resort) will Rope Drop regular park open.
A majority of these people are going to still be headed to Flight of Passage and we tested it out to learn that this is probably the biggest mistake you can make in your day.
Want to see how this all played out? Watch our full video!
Because you have ALL those resort guests that are already in line for the attraction, the wait could already be well over an hour just seconds after park open. I do typically recommend that non-early entry guests arrive about 45 minutes before park open, but then if you have an hour wait on top of that when you get in the park, you didn’t really save yourself any time.
BUT don’t fret! This can actually work in your favor because I’m going to share a BIG tip.
DON’T ROPE DROP PANDORA.
Instead, you’re going to want to head over to the less busy areas of the park like Dinoland to ride Dinosaur, Asia to ride Expedition Everest (you can usually do this one several times first thing), or even take a ride on the safari as all the animals are first waking up.
You can typically hit up a few of these before crowds get crazy and then you’ve freed yourself up a TON of time later in the day.
But When is the BEST time to ride Flight of Passage?
Ok, so this is my FAVORITE Disney hack to ride popular attractions with shorter waits AND without having to buy Lightning Lanes.
I call it ‘Reverse’ Rope Drop. You can actually get in line for an attraction up to 1 minute before park close and still ride the ride. And in my experience, the wait is usually pretty short. This is because there are no more Lightning Lane guests going through to make the regular Standby Line slow down, so instead of having to stop it every few people to let those Lightning Lane guests in, they can continue to let that Standby Line flow.
I’ve done this many times for Flight of Passage and I usually only wait on average around 20-30 minutes. This is perfect because you can still go through and enjoy this super immersive queue, but you won’t be wasting a million hours in line. PLUS it’s almost like you are getting bonus park time because the park is technically closed!
BTW, the wait time will usually say something crazy like over an hour wait right before park close… It’s typically not actually that and the wait has most likely been inflated to try and sway guests away from riding it.
Now I do have to put a disclaimer that there is a little risk involved with this one. If for some reason the ride goes down after the park closes, they will not reopen it and you may not get to ride. This ride tends to do pretty well with avoiding ride closures, but it is always a risk to be aware of.
If this does sound to risky for you, then you may want to opt to do this during the day. But as another tip if you are not able to get on for Early Entry, the afternoons tend to taper off a bit as many people only spend half a day in this park. You will still have a wait, but it may not be as chaotic as the late morning can be in that land.
Let me know in the comments what ride YOU hope to Rope Drop in Animal Kingdom, and tell me where we should test Rope Drop next!
