In this post we discuss rope drop strategy and Early Entry strategy at Epcot. We cover everything you need to know to start your day right at Epcot, including where to start at Epcot with and without Genie+, planning to get on Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure, and how to make the most of the Early Entry perk if you have it.
Related Posts
Here’s some related content / things you should know about in planning your park strategy.
First, Early Theme Park Entry. This perk of staying at a Disney hotel (or select partner hotels) grants these guests early access to each park at Disney World for 30 minutes before other guests, every day. This post discusses rope drop for guests both with and without Early Entry.
Second, Genie+ and Lightning Lanes have debuted, giving guests who are willing to pay access to the “skip the line” system at Walt Disney World while everyone else lives with old fashioned standby lines (or virtual queues at select attractions). This post discusses how Lighting Lanes can impact your rope drop strategy.
Finally, Guardians of the Galaxy Cosmic Rewind has—as of this—a virtual queue in addition to its Individual Lightning Lane. No regular standby queue yet. Without a standard queue, the ride is not relevant to Early Entry / rope drop. When that changes, it will probably be the highest priority in the park.
Basics of Rope Drop at Epcot
Let’s start with some basic information before diving into the more complex aspects of strategy.
What Is “Rope Drop”?
If a theme park opens at, say, 9AM, it’s rare that they actually just keep everyone outside at 9AM and then open the gates and all the rides right at 9AM. Instead, they have various procedures in place to try and avoid chaos. “Rope drop” refers to this process—the actual opening time and steps involved if you arrive early enough at the park. Depending on the precise protocols at a park on a day, Cast Members may actually have a rope up cutting off people from the park which is dropped when the park opens.
On our site, we typically use the term “rope drop” to more or less mean “the hustle that starts when you wake up and until you take your first breath after riding a few rides.” The idea is that you want to be one of the first people at the park to be one of the first people on the most important ride and off that ride quickly to have a short wait for a second ride and a third and so on, until there are no short waits left for good rides and it’s time to take a breath.
Rope drop strategy, then, is the plan you put together to get you through that hustle with the lowest waits on the best rides possible. This starts with waking up and includes anything preparation you have to do on your My Disney Experience app for your visit, how you should get to the park, when you should arrive at the park, where to go when you arrive, and what rides to attempt in which order.
Finally, rope drop strategy is only one part of your overall park strategy. Rope drop only covers the start of the day, and the rest of the day, including the major entertainment you’ll want to watch, is the subject of our Epcot One Day Itinerary post.
If you pay for Genie+ or Lightning Lanes, you’ll need a good Epcot Genie+ and Lightning Lanes strategy (these offerings inevitably come up in this post, too).
Then there is access to extra park hours. This post includes discussion of Early Theme Park Entry. If you have access to Extended Evening Hours and Epcot has those hours, for example, that will be a part of your park strategy.
What time does Epcot open?
Epcot opening times vary on a day-to-day basis, with openings of 9AM being most common. You should check the Disney World website or My Disney Experience app for the scheduled opening times for your visit. Guests with Early Entry will have access 30 minutes before the scheduled open, but keep reading for the important details…
What Is Early Entry at Epcot?
Guests of Disney hotels and select partner hotels have access to each of the four Disney theme parks—including Epcot—every day, 30 minutes before the scheduled opening.
Who gets Early Entry at Epcot?
Early Entry is available to guests of Disney hotels and select partner hotels. The full list is here. Guests have access to the perk all days of their stay, including check-in and check-out. I’ve had some technical issues with my MagicBand but have always been able to show my reservation in the My Disney Experience app at the appropriate time to get into Early Entry. I have heard from people that checking into the hotel online before you arrive helps make sure you are allowed in the day you check in.
What Time is rope drop at Epcot?
Rope drop at Epcot occurs on a pretty precise schedule. Guests with Early Entry are allowed on to rides basically right at the start of Early Entry. Guests without Early Entry are allowed into the park at its scheduled opening time.
What Is The Best Way To Get To Epcot?
This will be important later, but Epcot has two entrances on opposite sides of the park. Which of these entrances you have access to will impact your rope drop strategy, so how you get to Epcot will impact that strategy. We’ll discuss the details of this more when we discuss strategy below, but since it is obviously relevant to this question, we wanted to flag it.
If you can walk to Epcot’s World Showcase entrance from a nearby hotel (Yacht Club, Beach Club, BoardWalk Inn, Swan & Dolphin), that’s the best option. The Skyliner, which guests of Pop Century, Art of Animation, Caribbean Beach, and Riviera Resort can use to get to Epcot also drops you off at the World Showcase entrance.
Disney buses will drop you off at the main entrance. The problem with buses is that while I want to say, in general, that you can be pretty chill about getting to Epcot, being chill with the buses might mean you miss one and wait 20 minutes for another one, and now all of a sudden you’re way late. Personally, I try to aim to be on a bus no later than 30 minutes before I want to be at the park. Up to 15 minutes of system delays in that case won’t have much of an impact on your day. Buses are probably the worst option, but we don’t actively avoid them unless we have a car.
Uber/Lyft will also drop you off at the Main entrance. Since you don’t need to be arriving right when the parking lot opens, you don’t have to worry about problems with your driver dropping you off.
Finally, if you drive your own car, you’ll park near the Main entrance. It’s worth mentioning that you might be heading to Epcot with goals of enjoying the beverages of the festivals or drinking around the world. In this case, don’t drive.
What time should I get to Epcot?
We recommend arriving at Epcot 30 minutes before you’re allowed in the park. That’s an hour before the scheduled open if you have Early Entry or 30 minutes before scheduled entry if you don’t have Early Entry. If you’re planning to start with Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure—which we only recommend doing from the World Showcase entrance, and you aren’t buying Genie+, you might arrive 45 minutes before the start of Early Entry.
Epcot Rope Drop Strategy
At every Disney World park now, there are a ton of possible scenarios you might find yourself in based on whether or not you have Early Entry, the individual Lightning Lanes, or Genie+. At Epcot, there’s also the fact that there are two entrances, which means even more possibilities to worry about. Luckily, the park isn’t particularly challenging, so we don’t have to stress much about rope drop. There is some stress involved just before rope drop, though…
“Rope Drop” Goes Digital at 7AM
First there was an actual rope they’d keep guests behind and walk you down the main part of the park. Then they replaced the rope with Cast Members who just stand in front of you. Now, “rope drop” doesn’t even start in the park—it starts on your phone.
At 7AM the day of your visit to Epcot, there are a few things you’ll need to do:
Join the virtual queue for Guardians of the Galaxy Cosmic Rewind
Secure your first Genie+ reservations (all guests with Genie+)
Buy Lightning Lane access to Guardians of the Galaxy Cosmic Rewind (Disney resort guests)
As we discuss in our Epcot Genie+ and Lightnings Lanes post, that’s generally the order we recommend prioritizing these tasks, too. If you’re not a guest of a Disney resort, you’ll have your chance to buy Lightning Lane access to Guardians at the time the park opens. That post also discusses the pros and cons of these purchases and how you might strategize an entire day with Genie+.
What To Rope Drop at Epcot WITHOUT Early Entry
We’re going to quickly cover rope drop without Early Entry before moving onto the more complicated situation of rope drop with Early Entry.
Rope drop is more straightforward without Early Entry because, well, it isn’t really rope drop. The major rides at Epcot are all a part of Early Entry, so plenty of guests will be in line ahead of you no matter what you do. Generally, it will be best to start with either Frozen Ever After or Test Track. Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure has typically had too long waits early in the day, and they’ll be even longer by the time you get all the way back there.
Without Genie+, pick whichever is shorter. With Genie+ and a booking for one of these, just pick the one you don’t have booked. If you’re willing to use the single rider line on Test Track, then it will probably make sense to start with Frozen.
What To Rope Drop at Epcot WITH Early Entry - Intro
Note: Construction at Epcot is finally wrapping up (but not yet totally done) and rope drop procedures are starting to stabilize. We expect Guardians of the Galaxy Cosmic Rewind will switch to a regular standby queue at some point in 2024, at which point things will shake up again. In any case, there is a little bit of flux with regards to where people are held in any given direction before he park opens. These don’t impact your overall strategy, but if there’s a construction wall where this post shows a pathway, you might have to figure out how to get around it.
With Early Entry, Epcot remains fairly easy to tour, particularly if you have Genie+. Since Guardians of the Galaxy Cosmic Rewind is using a virtual queue, you don’t have to worry about fitting it into your day—you either join the queue and go when you’re called, or you buy a Lightning Lane and go at that time.
It’s nice things aren’t too challenging generally, because Epcot rope drop is more complicated than the other three parks because Epcot has two different entrances.
Guests arriving via Skyliner (Pop Century, Riviera Resort, Caribbean Beach Resort, Art of Animation) or walking from the Boardwalk area hotels (Yacht Club, Beach Club, Swan / Dolphin, Boardwalk Inn) will use the World Showcase entrance (technically called the “International Gateway”).
Other guests, including all those arriving by rideshare, their own car, or bus, will use the main entrance.
If you want to use the World Showcase entrance but you don’t fall into one of those categories, you can maybe first go to Hollywood Studios and then walk / take the Friendship Boat / take the Skyliner to Epcot. This makes most sense if you want to rope drop Remy, and it basically only works if Hollywood Studios is opening at least an hour before Epcot (because it will take about 20-30 minutes to get between the two parks).
There are three rides worth starting with at Epcot—Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure, Frozen Ever After, and Test Track. Two things are going to determine your rope drop strategy. The first is which entrance you’re using. That’s what we’ll focus on in the bulk of this section.
The second is what you book on Genie+. Frozen Ever After, Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure, and Test Track are all part of Genie+. Obviously you don’t need to start your day at the one you wind up booking first on Genie+ at 7AM.
While Lightning Lane strategy will definitely impact your rope drop, it’s not the focus of this post. Instead, we’re going to focus on how your choice (“choice”) of entrance impacts your rope drop. From there, you can sort out how your Lightning Lane strategy should look.
The final caveat is that if you’re willing to use the single rider line on Test Track, then it doesn’t have to be a priority at rope drop. If the Test Track wait is low enough for you later in the day, ride it as a family, otherwise use the single rider line.
What To Rope Drop at Epcot (With Early Entry) - Main Entrance
Let’s start with the main entrance. From the main entrance, once you’re let inside the park you’ll walk toward Spaceship Earth (the ball) and go left or right. Left is where you’ll go if you’re riding Test Track, Frozen, or Mission: SPACE. Right is where you’ll go for everything else.
The best rope drop option from the main entrance is Test Track. You’ll easily beat the guests coming from the other entrance.
The second best option is Frozen Ever After. Guests coming from the World Showcase entrance will beat you there, but if you walk at a brisk pace you’ll still only have a 5-10 minute wait.
Note: As of early 2024, I was seeing guests from the front get to Frozen before guests from the International Gateway. We’re hoping Guardians of the Galaxy switches to a regular standby line soon so that Epcot’s rope drop procedures can finally stabilize, but until that happens you might see variance like this.
The walk to Frozen is a bit confusing, but you’ll want to basically walk alongside (or through, if it’s open) the old Odyssey Pavilion building:
In either of these two cases, you’re going to the left when you enter the park.
Here’s a view from the front of the holding area on the left (after you walk along a bunch of construction walls), with Test Track far in the background:
Here’s an example Test Track rope drop (remember park hours vary):
7:44AM - Arrive
8AM - Let inside park
8:30AM - Start of Early Entry (9AM park open)
8:40AM - On Test Track
And here’s an example Frozen rope drop:
7:52AM - Inside park
8:26AM - Allowed to walk to rides
8:30AM - Official start of Early Entry (9AM park open)
8:36AM - On Frozen Ever After
After the first of these you’ll probably either head (1) the other or (2) Soarin’. I’d typically favor getting both of these done early if possible.
Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure is not a reasonable option from the front of the park. The walk is simply too long and too many people at the other entrance will be queued before you’re anywhere near the ride. The wait will usually be at least 30 minutes by the time you get there. (As mentioned above, you might transit through Hollywood Studios if you want to avoid this.) If you decide to head to Remy from the main entrance, you’ll start right, in the direction of Soarin’.
What To Rope Drop at Epcot (With Early Entry) - World Showcase Entrance
Now, from the World Showcase entrance. Looking through some of my posts, I see that I’m not even consistent on which approach I use here. Let’s explain the two alternatives…
Option 1. Rope Drop Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure. Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure is only a short walk and usually begins queuing before Early Entry officially begins.
Starting with Remy’s allows you to pick something else (Frozen or Test Track) as your first Genie+ Lightning Lane, which gives you a better chance at an earlier time, which allows you to make your second pick sooner. If you don’t have Genie+, then Remy’s is going to be the best option to rope drop from this entrance in any case.
Walking in through the World Showcase entrance you’ll turn right and go over the bridge into the France pavilion:
Remy may even begin queuing on the bridge (this isn’t necessarily a bad sign, if they haven’t loaded the queue for the ride yet this isn’t that many people). Here’s a look at an example schedule:
7:48AM Arrive
7:57AM Let inside park / queued for Remy
8:30AM Start of Early Entry
8:37AM On Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure
Option 2. Rope Drop Frozen. If you have Genie+ and pick Remy’s as your first Lightning Lane, you’ll be able to rope drop the slightly less popular Frozen Ever After. Lower crowds mean you won’t have to stress as much about an early arrival. The long walk to the ride also gives you more time to get ahead of some crowds. (With Remy, guests are just queued as the enter the park, basically.)
Here’s a sample Frozen rope drop with a “late” arrival, starting with a look at the crowd when I arrived:
And my schedule:
8:12AM Arrive / Let inside park
8:27AM Begin walk to Frozen
8:36AM On one of the first few Frozen boats
However, as noted above, as of early 2024, I was seeing guests from the front get to Frozen before guests from the International Gateway. When that happened, we actually weren’t on Frozen until 8:51AM. This isn’t a huge practical difference (whether you’re off at 8:36AM or 8:51AM, the lines for the big three rides are going to be long and the lines for most everything else short), but it’s notable I suppose.
Test Track is the worst option from the World Showcase entrance. Expect at least a 15-30 minute wait by the time you get there.
Continuing Your Morning at Epcot
Usually it’s going to make sense to visit one of the other “big three” rides once you’re done with your first one at Epcot. After that, you’ll head to the rest of the rides—starting with Soarin’—trying to get as many short waits done as quickly as possible.
If the waits for the major rides are all over, say, 45 minutes, it might make sense just to delay them and just tackle some short waits. Ideally if the waits for Test Track / Frozen / Remy are too long you’ll still have luck with Soarin’.
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