As we continue to keep an eye on operations during Walt Disney World’s phased reopening, a big change has taken effect at EPCOT – the return of rope drop.
Ever since the Walt Disney World theme parks reopened in July 2020, Disney effectively eliminated rope drop.
For those who may be unfamiliar, rope drop is a term that refers to holding guests in a certain area before a theme park opens. Typically, this includes a small area of a theme park where limited shopping or dining experiences might be open in the hour or so leading up to the park opening. Guests who are looking to take advantage of typically lower wait times often show up to a theme park an hour or more before official park opening and wait for rope drop.
Due to crowding associated with rope drop, Disney effectively eliminated rope drop and simply opened the theme park all at once to spread out crowds. Well, that’s changing now with rope drop returning to EPCOT recently. In this article, we’ll walk through the timing of rope drop and what we experienced this morning.
EPCOT doesn’t officially open until 11am, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t show up earlier than that to try and take advantage of low wait times.
The timing of your arrival hasn’t changed with the new rope drop procedure. EPCOT will typically open up their parking lot to guests around 10am. Guests will typically be allowed to line up in front of the parking lot gates around 9:45am and wait the 15 minutes until the parking lot opens.
From there, it will take a few minutes to park and make your way to the park entrance. Perhaps the reasoning for reinstating a more traditional rope drop experience at EPCOT is because the physical distancing markers have been removed from the park entry plaza. Guests will either crowd together in this area, or they could be given a bit more space to utilize within the entrance plaza of the inside of the theme park.
Disney opened the EPCOT park entrance around 10:05am and allowed guests to either line up for Future World East or West.
Future World West
- The Seas with Nemo and Friends
- The Land
- Soarin’ Around the World
- Journey into Imagination with Figment
- World Showcase
Guests rope dropping Soarin’ will want to line up to the right (west) of Spaceship Earth. There are two rope drop areas here that lead to the same pathway.
Future World East
- Test Track
- Mission: SPACE
- The EPCOT Experience
- Mouse Gear
- World Showcase
Guests looking to head towards Test Track should queue up to the left (east) of Spaceship Earth.
For a short video of the Future World East rope drop experience, check out our tweet below.
As always, keep checking back with us here at BlogMickey.com as we continue to bring you the latest news and photos from around the Disney Parks!