How to fail at DCA Rope Drop 

My favorite rope drop for DCA is to start by going through Grizzly Peak, and waiting behind Little Mermaid. At drop you head to Incredicoaster, Midway Mania, etc. You can get all the backside rides done in 30-45 minutes. Then you have time to wait for the longer rides.

I can just see David saying "Off to the salt mines" in the morning after grabbing a cup of coffee and hugging the wife and daughter. He definitely does work! But I mean come on, it's Disneyland!

1. This is actually really helpful to first time planners! Watching Rope Drop fail videos really really helped me plan my first visit to Disney World. Knowing what can possibly go wrong is very helpful. Especially when you may only have 1 day at the park 2. It drives me nuts that they know thousands of people are heading to RSR when it is down, but they still allow everyone to rush into Cars Land just to be disappointed🤨😔. I wish Disney would change that policy bc it’s not a great first impression. Make an announcement or something. 3. Minutes LITERALLY are make or break when rope dropping RSR! I feel so bad for badly informed guests who are just told “rope drop RSR” and don’t understand that getting there 15 minutes later, say 7 55 vs 7:40, or 8 05 vs 7 50, could be the difference between the wait being 30 min, 45 min, or 90 min. We were there in mid November and did single rider on RSR around 9 45 am and a slightly annoyed mom asked us how much we waited in single rider and we said like 10. She said they had been waiting since 8, so almost 2 hours. I felt so bad!! The difference in your arrival time makes SO SO much difference at RSR. If you plan to rope drop RSR and you scan in the park at 8 01, you’re already late.

My last trip we stayed on property and I did early entry in both parks. I have to agree that even for early-entry, DCA is not as good an experience as Disneyland. Having said that, both were nice and for two of them, we actually pre-queued for rides (Radiator Springs and Rise of the Resistance). While those were successful in that we spent very little time in either queue (and thank goodness they were both running), we really preferred the relaxed "let's wander by that closed ride and see if we can catch it reopening just as we're there" which actually worked more than once. Kudos to these videos and your analysis, and as always highest marks for the cast members who were all just amazing across the board for our last trip (and every trip we've done to both US parks)!

Yes! That happens all the time at Radiator Springs Racers!! Most are down at open unfortunately I have found.

We were a ways behind you in the rope drop queue on this same Wednesday morning. I can see myself clearly at 3:20. We set foot onto Buena Vista Street at 7:37. Word had made it up the line that RSR would not be opening with the park by the time we had walked nearly to Cars Land, so we pivoted and entered Avengers Campus to try WEB Slingers, then had a double fail when it was also down. Our family wound up doing Goofy's Sky School, Inside Out Emotional Whirlwind, Pixar Pal-a-Round, Jessie's Critter Carousel, and getting pictures with Mrs. Incredible all before 9 am. We passed by RSR on our way back to Cars land and saw them running test vehicles, but cast outside the attraction were discouraging people from forming a line and they were still saying that they had no official estimate as to when the attraction would reopen. At 9:02 we entered the queue for Luigi's and stood in line for a few minutes when, dun dun dun, it also went down. As we were walking out of the attraction through the standby line, just after we had exited the Casa de la Tires at 9:10, cast and guests at Radiator Springs Racers were waving their hands and shouting that the ride was now open. All we had to do was pivot our bodies slightly, take a few steps, and we were now in line for RSR. At 9:23 we were on the ride vehicles, about to pull forward and have our seatbelts checked. The saga of us trying multiple times this day to do WEB Slingers is another long slog too. It seems we were fairly close, but just missed you a few times during our trip. Perhaps another time I'll get to yell out "Fresh Baked!"

FRESHBAKED is DISNEYLAND!!! This video dropped while watching another Freshbaked Video! State of DCA 12/2023

Disney in the morning w/ a coffee is a vibe. Still wish I could have a cigar & go full Walt

Friday my friend and I rope dropped Guardians in DCA. The cast memebr walked rope drop people to the que. Using genie plus and watching the que times, between DCA and Disneyland we completed 22 rides the first day and 19 the second day!

I can’t tell you how much I appreciate this post! I actually was in the process writing on the live feed asking for this and suddenly heard you saying you were doing a dCA rope drop video.! Thanks for the warnings Dave.

Very useful videos! Love this "rope drop Series" 👏🏼

I like to look at the tip board and look at the time to come back for the lightning lane because it has been a good indicator of when it will open for me.

I was in the rope crowd with ya, and didn’t see ya until the last second . Also my family were also bummed that most of attractions were not going til 830 or even after 9 so rope drop was a waste of time, my family and I are veteran rope droppers but had a lot better experience when we came to dca two days later and walked into dca at 815 . No security or gate lines and still had like 5-10 min waits for most of the morning . We even lucked out and got to be the first to ride incredi- coaster when it reopened early last friday . Great seeing ya though. I always watch your videos when we are preparing for a Disney trip

To start! We were there that day and we saw you and to keep ourselves entertained by playing “Where’s Waldo.” Since your bright yellow jacket made you easy to spot! We had the same disappointment going to Radiator springs, and it seemed that most of the rides in California Adventure were down that day. Which is always a bummer especially as an out of state Disney visit. When you do drop rope radiator springs and it is working you can be on the ride in 20ish minutes but I’ve only been able to accomplish that once! 😂

yess love your rope drop videos

We are at Disneyland now. Hope all who are watching are smiling and happy!

Love your videos

Handy Dandy Note Book. Blue’s Clues 😂

We go once or twice a year. Our best days at DCA have been rope drop to Mission and Web via Hollywood Land, a stop for breakfast (ordered while in line for Web)and short waits making our way to Soaring. We usually have those three "big" rides done by 11 am plus a good chunk of "small" rides. RSR has been consistently closed at rope drop for our visits, and we prefer a nighttime ride. So, we leave it for our last ride of the night when it's open. Midway Mania and Inccredicoaster, we pick up when we see a wait under 20 or 30 mins.

we did early entry last sunday (11/26) and got on incredicoaster, racers, and mission breakout before 8:15

Love the video 😊

That’s exactly what happened our last visit. It was super frustrating since it was the one thing I really wanted my son to see, but ended up having to buy a lightning lane later in the day (which I’m sure was their plan $)

man... I miss the old days. I have pics from 10 years ago.... my family of 3 were the ONLY people in Radiator Springs one morning.... and not rope drop. Disneyland used to have empty days. I miss it

Thank you for your vlogs, suggest to anyone planning to watch your channel. Your rope strategies are the best. We are planning a trip to WDW and was wondering if you know of anyone doing your type of vlogs.

I tried to rope drop the Cars ride and after seeing hundreds of people walking to the ride, I bailed and instead did Incredicoaster 5 times! And funny enough, the Cars ride broke down about an hour in.

We visited last May for 5 days of parkhopper...rope dropped every day and were only successful 1 day with space mountain. Ride closures constantly. Planning a trip either May or June 2024 and will use your getaway today link!!!

Nice running into ya last night on Space Mountain! We hotel rope dropped DCA this morning and they let us on Radiator Racers 7:50.

I watched a lot of your videos so we can be prepared for my son’s first Disneyland trip at Dec 25-26. Do we need genie plus since we would stay there from rope drop till 12 am?

How is the Starbucks in downtown Disney before rope drop? Does it take awhile to get your drink?

Radiator Springs makes $10,000 more per day if it is closed for 45 minutes in the morning. When a quick standby is unavailable 450 more people will pay $22 to skip the line.

There is nothing more frustrating than this. You get there early, beat the crowd, and then they tell you to go somewhere else. And then one or more rides go down at the same time!!! That's when this dad usually expresses his anger outwardly.

Thanks for sharing your experience. One question, as a Magic Key holder, you have the luxury of coming back into the park at you convenience and trying to ride Racers again. If you were to put on your “tourist hat”, how would you get your Racers ride in for the day?

Is most of the soarin queue outside??

The one and only time I rope dropped DCA Radiator Springs was down

You got the best ride sequence on Guardians!

My wife and I have rope dropped Radiator Springs several times and it’s NEVER been open. We’ve had the same experience with Midway Mania. As a result we’ve just given up trying to rope drop them. For Radiator Springs, our favorite ride, we either buy Individual Lightning Lane or we just skip it. The Standby wait is far too difficult to put up with. Fortunately we’ve found decent waits at Midway Mania. - BTW There’s a trick to Soaring. On several occasions we’ve been able to go down to it before the official Rope Drop. It’s not a ride we go on very often though. For the most part we find DCA to be a waste of time compared to Disneyland. We schedule it for every third or fourth trip to the parks. Even then our day usually ends in Disneyland or Downtown Disney.

🎡12/8/23 DCA Rope Drop Incredicoaster 8:07 walk on Toy Story Mania 8:15 walk on Goofys Sky School 8:30 walk on Little Mermaid 8'40 walk on Soarin Around the World 8:53 walk on Smoke Jumpers Grill for breakfast 9:25 Almond Churro Maters Junkyard Jamboree 10:17 Disneyland 11:00

I have two days booked for Disneyland in February, with a starting reservation at Disney day 1 and DCA day 2 but my question is given on-site hotels have early access on Thursday for Disney and Friday for DCA, does it make sense to try and rope-drop DCA Thursday and Disneyland on Friday so that if we wanted to prioritize Fantasyland on Friday that we wouldn't be "out-dropped" if we did Disneyland on Thursday? We are not staying in property

The problem is if you want to do RSR and don't want to pay for ILL and have little kids so you can't do single rider, this is really your only option. The wait times will never go down and it'll be even worse when those who purchased ILL start coming. Even if it's a long wait in the morning you're still better off because no one will have an ILL that early. I swear the wait times for RSR are even worse than Rise lately.

We did early entry on 12/5, hit soarin and monsters inc then headed to RSR and got in line literally at rope drop. It was about 10 minutes to board and by the time we got on the ride it was up to 60 minutes.

Your videos are helping me plan for my Dec 18-20 trip. Thanks so much!

I’ll be staying on property and will have early entry. Is Toy Story open to early entry? What rides are available during early entry at DCA?

Thanks for the picture with you

That's why I don't do rope drop. I like to show up around 10am and stay until closing. The morning craziness is over and closing crowds are great.

Hi there great videos would u recommend walking to Toy Story parking lot early in morning or actually walk to the entrance if I’m leaving the clarion resort hotel about 6.20 am in morning also we’re best place to get a Starbucks that early and we’re cheers

Why didn’t they tell you rsr was down before then? Did it just happen to go down right before or as rope was dropped? I wonder…

If radiator springs, and incredacoaster is down all day. That’s it for me going right to Disneyland no reason to even stay at DCA at all.

Are there three areas for rope drop at DCA? 1. By Cathay Circle 2. By Animation Acadamy 3. By Soarin or does it loop around to Little Mermaid? If wanting to go to Pixar Pier at rope drop, is it best to avoid going by Carsland due to the crowds and going around by Soarin/Redwood Creek area?

I always head for Incredicoaster and midway mania then I go back to RSR and ride single rider.

Hey Fresh Baked!!

Did you wait 45 minutes for rope drop, so that you could go and wait on a line for a shorter amount of time?

My last DCA rope drop we started at Incredicoaster and did that about four times - all walk on's. Then waited about 5 min for Toy story and then maybe 10 for the ferris wheel. We got a lot in. I am tempted to RD Mater's and Luigi's next time though since I use G+ and those are non G+ rides that never seem to drop below 30 min wait after the rope drop hours.

Was planning on doing the ill advised Radiator rope drop on the day I start at DCA later this month. Now I know to turn around the first time a cast member says it's closed. I also know now that Avengers should never be a backup. I'm guessing a good backup would be to knock out the entire Pier. The Toy Story and Goofy lines do get long later. 🤷‍♀️ It is day 2 for us and we do have Genie.

Always rope drop radiator springs, never do early entry. Its never been closed and we usually get done by about 8:20/8:30. Its been our best bet.

They should tell you Radiator Springs Racers is down before they drop the rope. That way everyone can rope drop something else.

Everyone tries to do radiator and guardians and incredicoaster first. Then web slingers Toy Story and Soarin. Then everyone ends with Ariel monsters and The rest. If you get genie plus or use single rider well you can get done with rides by 3. Worst thing is avengers is a must do daytime for the shows and characters that place dies after 5 pm.

They don't give you status of Radiator Springs Racers before opening because it's not one of the early entry rides. You'll only see status of the rides included in early entry before opening.

Have not finished the video but NO you shouldn't rope drop Racers. Until they remove daily Early Entry. If you have LL the way to go is... Book LL for Web Slingers or Toy Story but DO NOT use the LL. Fishing for the MEP 8am-830am: Maters, Luigis 830am-9am: Toy Story Mania, Incredicoaster Now start booking LLs to use starting with Guardians. Looking for a return from 10-11 9am-1030am: Pixar Pal Around, Inside Out, Goofy, Jellyfish, Symphony Swings, Zephyr, Mermaid 1030am -11am : Use LL for Guardians, book LL for Web Slingers or Monsters Inc whichever gives you the earliest return time. 11am: Lunch 12pm-1pm: Soarin then Grizzly River. Then use remaining LLs. If you have NO LL the way to go is 8am-930am: Guardians then Web Slingers 930am-1030am: Toy Story Mania, Incredicoaster now get in lines that have a wait around 30 minutes or less for Racers 60 minutes or less.

Disneylands rides are so poorly maintained nowadays, they’ve always had breakdowns but nothing like they do since the lockdown!

My wife and I visited DL and DCA for our first time ever this past week. We were at DCA the same day you filmed this. We saw ourselves in your video lol. We only had one day for DCA and Radiator Springs was at the top of our list for DCA. We were totally disappointed when we tried rope dropping it. We ended up doing the other 2 rides there in cars land then checked out the rest of cars land taking pictures then hung out for just a bit then they opened up the line. We got on pretty quick when the line opened. The ride was amazing. DCA is kind of a strange park. I liked all the sections of the park but it just doesn't have enough big rides in my opinion compared to other Disney parks. We have been to all the wdw parks too many times to count and love all those parks. We absolutely loved DL. I really enjoyed DCA and would definitely go back but it has kind of an odd vibe to it.

I wonder if starting with Avengers Campus is the way to go - Guardians of the Galaxy and Web Slingers first. That minimizes walking between those two. All of the other "big" rides are pretty well spaced out.

Tried rope dropping RSR for the first time last month, and it was a huge fail, still ended up waiting 50 minutes, and by that point the lines for the other rides were already up, but oh well, you live and learn

Being a Disney fan, I would have assumed you would have called Patrick Warburton "Kronk" instead of "Puddy." Nice work pal. 👍

DCA is tricky for rope drop, the race to Cars Land is amazing, best bet is Midway Mania!

Rope dropping Pixar pier is always a good move. That Ferris wheel line is no fun and you can’t use genie to skip it.

Half the park is closed, so EVERYONE has to go on Guardians. They should really do some work to make sure all the rides open with park opening.

Maybe you should try 45 minutes after rope drop at DCA.

Disney should always, at least on the app, let people know EXACTLY which rides aren't available at opening....not doing so frustrates people at an extremely high level and makes people wonder why they aren't prepared for opening. Not enough employees? Technical problems? Manipulation (likely)?

Trucker hat please 🙏

Our family goes all in on our Disneyland day, rope drop until park close. Then we sleep in on our DCA day, and use Genie Plus and ILL to ride everything. Side note: my son said your video is the clearest footage he’s ever seen of Guardians. He said it’s usually blurry and bumpy. He was very impressed with your footage.

❤5

Never do radiator first it opens later a lot. They wanna push everyone to Pixar pier.

I mean I don’t think it’s so much of a fail as it is that between the lower number of attractions and the Grand Californian guests that often get a 30 minute head start on rope drop anyone trying to rope drop at the park gate already has the odds against them.

Rsr is down? Ok, in that case I’m going on the Hollywood limousine ride. ;). I miss Regis Philbin.

Figures. Disney ALWAYS effing up.

Hi how are you doing today

I guess the question is should you rope drop DCA and does it save you time? Maybe. Seems not as much as Disneyland. Those crowds are really scary though! My mom can walk but I'd be terrified someone would knock her over 😭

Even when the rope drop is a fail, the signature FreshBaked smile is there!

It seems to me that rope dropping Disneyland seems much easier than DCA. Wonder why

I keep sending your videos to my own friends & viewers. It’s so valuable! But it’s also a frustrating experience - if YOU (of all people) can’t successfully rope drop, what chance does the average Joe have? You can only do what you can do. I think it (sadly) reinforces the idea that you simply need Genie+ if hitting all the rides is a top priority. Thank you so much for these invaluable videos!!! We really do love them, and they’re so helpful.

I LOVE Disneyland. It holds so many amazing memories for me as a child and a parent. But I HATE the current version of the Disney corporation. I can no longer ignore the harm that they do in the world.

I don't rope drop DCA. RR springs is the only ride I would and its not worth the hasse. use single riders.

The rides I don't think about rope dropping because there's a big chance it'll be closed first thing in the morning: Radiator Springs, Haunted Mansion, Rise of the Resistance, Indiana Jones. A few of the other higher risk, but not as high.... Mickie and Minnie, Big Thunder Mountain, web slingers, Incredicoaster.

28 million subs lost overnight yikes. Cancel the great food over at Tatiana’s.

The AVENGERS CAMPUS E-Ticket will really help things in 2026!

What is WRONG with Disney? UNMITIGATED DISASTER! The company now sucks! Radiator 😊Springs isn't ready at opening?!? UNTHINKABLE!

Just FYI, soft talk = difficult to hear.

Dca not worth rope drop, too few rides, and too many break downs

GO Elon Musk! You tell Bob how it is! 😂