In an outrage-inducing decision, Disneyland has ended Early Entry for Disney hotel guests as of 2026 and replaced that perk with a free Lightning Lane per stay. Most fans who stay on-site have been annoyed or angered by the change (conservative estimate: 99%), with some vowing only to stay off-site in the future.
The silver lining of this controversial change is that the elimination of Early Entry is actually good news for guests staying across the street in third party hotels, as well as Annual Passholders and everyone but guests of those 3 Disney-owned hotels. This is something that’s been surprisingly under-discussed. The discontinuation of Early Entry actually levels the playing field and benefits off-site guests, who are the overwhelming majority of visitors to Disneyland.
It’s mostly understandable that this isn’t really coming up in the comments. Who really wants to be that person who says: “Well actually, Disney eliminating this guest benefit is a good thing for me!” I guess we are right now, but I should add the caveat that applauding cost-cutting measures is a slippery slope, and we are not doing that. Sooner or later, there are ones that do impact you negatively. But I digress. We’re here to discuss how morning strategy at Disneyland has changed thus far in 2026, and share some of our recent rope drop field testing results.
Even beyond Early Entry ending, a lot has changed with rope drop over the last several years. Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway opened in Toontown, and before that Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge debuted along with its two attractions, Millennium Falcon Smugglers Run and Star Wars Rise of the Resistance. That changes the rope drop dynamic, as many guests are drawn deep to the Star Wars stuff.
Additionally, Disneyland replaced free FastPass and paid MaxPass with Lightning Lane Multi-Pass and Single Pass (both paid), which were previously called the Genie+ service but were renamed (with no substantive changes). See our Guide to Lightning Lanes at Disneyland & DCA for more on how this line-skipping works.
With that out of the way, let’s lace up our power walking shoes and prepare for beating morning crowds at Disneyland!
What Is Rope Drop at Disneyland?
We’ll start by addressing what rope drop is for the Disneyland first-timers. It’s simply when the lands and attractions officially open, which is synonymous with the published park opening time.
However, since the turnstiles usually admit guests before park opening, Disney fans have demarcated the two times with the ‘rope drop’ term. If it’s easier, just think of “rope drop” as “first thing in the morning” at Disneyland. In addition to rope drop being a time, it’s also a verb (“we’re rope dropping Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride”).
Rope dropping things has spread beyond the realm of Disney parks, too. We have been known to say, “we’re rope dropping In-N-Out Burger,” which is really just us banging on their door at 10:20 a.m. yelling, “WE WANTS THE DOUBLE DOUBLE!” (A joke I’m recycling for like the fifth time despite no one ever laughing.)
What Time to Arrive for Rope Drop at Disneyland?
Conventional wisdom is to arrive an hour in advance of park opening. This means being through bag check and standing in the Esplanade (the area between Disneyland and Disney California Adventure) an hour before official park opening time.
If you’re at a hotel directly across the street, this would mean leaving your hotel 75 minutes before the published park opening time. Down the street a bit farther? Plan to leave your room 80-90 minutes early. If you’re staying far off-site, driving and parking, it could mean leaving your hotel two hours in advance.
I’ll be the contrarian: this is too early for most guests. In our view, arriving at the turnstiles approximately 20 to 30 minutes before park opening is sufficient for most guests. This is the ‘sweet spot’ for maximizing overall time-saved.
While we obsess over efficiency and strategizing, we also like to think about things in holistic terms. Not all vacation time has equal value, but it all does have some value–and there’s an opportunity cost to every strategy or decision.
One common pitfall we see planners making when discussing how much time they’ve saved is not counting the time when they arrive at the crack of dawn to, for lack of a better term, hurry up and wait. Meaning that if you’re at the turnstiles at 7 am for an 8 am park opening, you just spend 60 minutes of time doing nothing whatsoever.
Consequently, your all-in total wait for Peter Pan’s Flight or Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance or Space Mountain wasn’t 10-15 minutes, it was that plus 60 minutes. Or at least, some amount of extra time.
Pulling forward that wait to before park opening means it’s happening at a potentially less valuable time of day. Maybe this makes sense for guests coming from the East Coast or early risers who would be awake anyway. But that’s not necessarily true across the board.
If it’s coming at the expense of sleeping in and will prevent you from staying until the end of the night, perhaps it’s not a sacrifice worth making. This is especially true since Disneyland is often open from 8 am until 11 pm or midnight, and it’s difficult to burn the candle at both ends.
Although this guide concerns the beginning of the day, we should also point out that the end of the evening is essentially the mirror image of mornings. Which is to say that crowds are similarly low, and you should do everything possible to stay until the bitter end. Whether that means sleeping in just a bit and showing up ~15 to 30 minutes before rope drop, or taking a midday break, or just powering through…that’s up to you!
Security & Parking Pain Points
One thing we should add here is that you need to account for parking, taking the tram or walking to the park, and getting through security. Do not underestimate the lines or congestion in any of these scenarios.
While Disneyland is much more compact than Walt Disney World, its crowd flow infrastructure outside the parks is noticeably worse, and this has become a more pronounced problem in the last few years. Whereas we often breeze through bagcheck within seconds at Walt Disney World, it can frequently take 15+ minutes at Disneyland. Unlike WDW, screening is still manual, with searches by hand and metal detectors.
All of these friction points can be significant and stress-inducing, and you eliminate some of them just by staying at a hotel within walking distance. That’s doubly true when you’re staying at one of the 3 Disney-owned hotels with their own, slightly more predictable security checkpoints and lines that are usually shorter.
In fact, I’d argue that the biggest upside of arriving over 30 minutes before park opening is breezing through bagcheck. The later you show up, the greater the likelihood that security is backed up.
To each their own, but I’d rather spend that same time waiting in the Esplanade between Disneyland and Disney California Adventure for the turnstiles to open than I would backed up at security. The Esplanade is spacious, inviting, has a great background music loop, and is just flat-out a better way to get you in a good mood for starting your morning at Disneyland.
In any case, you can expect security to start screening guests around 1 hour before park opening, and the turnstiles to start scanning guests into the park about 30 minutes in advance. These times are not exact, especially not security (and admittedly, I have less anecdotal experience with bagcheck’s opening time since I’m seldom arriving 60+ minutes in advance).
Turnstiles Open for Rope Drop
Once the turnstiles open, Disneyland begins admitting guests to Main Street (MSUSA).
We enjoy savoring the leisurely stroll up Main Street, getting family photos and enjoying the atmosphere. Perusing the many gift shops that are open on Main Street without people is an enjoyable experience. You can also grab a cup of coffee at Starbucks from the Main Street Bakery as a pick me up. Ideally, you’ll send a “runner” to do this while everyone else secures spots.
Towards the end of Main Street or near the Central Plaza, you’ll encounter Security and other Cast Members who won’t allow you to proceed any farther into the park. Here you’ll find multiple different ropes blocking the paths that will later be dropped once the park officially opens. (Hence the term rope drop!)
You’ll want to stand at the relevant rope for whichever land and attraction you’re doing. Note that rope dropping Fantasyland means you can start from either side of the Central Plaza or the center in front of the Partners statue.
The middle is narrower (and goes around the pinch-point of that planter), so we’d only recommend this location if you’re at or near the front of the pack.
Part of the reason it’s not imperative to be at the front of the pack for the turnstiles is because there’s a long walk up Main Street, and then multiple separate ropes blocking off the various lands.
All of this has the effect of both dispersing crowds and mitigating pre-arrival positioning. You might be the first person in line at the turnstiles, but a professional power walker who was 10th in line at a different turnstile might have a better spot than you at the rope. It’s also possible to end up in the second row at rope drop, behind an unexpectedly slow party.
Examples like this abound, but the salient point is that there being multiple phases to park opening introduces an element of uncertainty and unpredictability. It’s entirely possible someone arriving 70 minutes in advance ends up worse off than someone who arrived 30 minutes in advance. There’s an element of chance.
Book Lightning Lanes Early…But Maybe Not Too Early
If you are using Lightning Lane Multi-Pass, you’ll want to book your first selection of the day at some point early on. There is absolutely zero advantage to being front of pack for the sake of Lightning Lanes.
Ideally, you’ll have a return time that allows you to do your first Lightning Lane attraction after your first wave of attractions, once lines start building. I like to have a return time around an hour after park opening (at earliest), which gives me a window of ~2 hours to ‘ride the wave’ of shorter lines.
Don’t make the mistake of returning to a Lightning Lane when the standby line is a walk-on; it’s a waste. See our 1-Day Disneyland Itinerary Using Lightning Lanes for specific strategy.
Best Strategy: Fantasyland First
The entire park opens at regular rope drop, but there are basically three main starting points. A lot of the crowd will head to Fantasyland, but now many guests also head to Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge and Tomorrowland.
There are a bunch of competing theories about how you should ‘zig when others zag’ and go to some other land instead. Those are all ostensibly compelling, especially if you’re a contrarian or want to think you’re smarter than everyone else. But unless you have a great reason not to begin in Fantasyland, it’s the best approach.
This is true even if you don’t have small children. Not only are these timeless attractions a quintessential part of the Disneyland experience, and are easy to knock out in the morning in quick succession.
The additional layer to this is that almost nothing in Fantasyland has a Lightning Lane, which means you’ll have to do these via the standby lines sometime or another (or not at all). By contrast, every other potential priority at rope drop does offer a Lightning Lane.
If you’re a first-timer, you’re probably going to want to purchase Lightning Lane Multi-Pass (we don’t recommend Single Pass or Premier Pass, but to each their own on that). If you have LLMP, that makes rope dropping Fantasyland an absolute no-brainer.
The reason that Fantasyland is the “correct” place to start is quite simple: the minimum completion time for every attraction in Fantasyland is significantly less than alternatives around Disneyland. In particular, Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance takes forever from start to finish, and it often has delayed openings.
Fantasyland dark rides are mostly old school, no-nonsense attractions. They have short queues, no pre-show, and dump you right out near other attraction entrances. The minimum ride time for most Fantasyland attractions is under 5 minutes. You can easily accomplish a half-dozen Fantasyland attractions, if not more, in the first hour that Disneyland is open.
By contrast, the duration of Indiana Jones Adventure, plus walking through the queue, boarding the attraction, and exiting is over 15 minutes. Space Mountain is over 10 minutes. Haunted Mansion is over 15. And so on. Then, when those attractions dump you out, you still have a modest walk to the next attraction. At most, you can only do 3-4 of these attractions in the first hour that Disneyland is open.
Here’s our optimal front-of-pack Fantasyland step-by-step strategy:
- Peter Pan’s Flight
- Alice in Wonderland (move below Dumbo if more than ~10 minutes)
- Matterhorn
- Dumbo the Flying Elephant
- Snow White’s Enchanted Wish (optional)
- Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway
- Roger Rabbit’s Car Toon Spin
- Toontown Characters
- Other Fantasyland Attractions (optional)
Ideally, you’ll start with Peter Pan’s Flight, which will have the longest line later in the day. However, if you’re further back in the pack or have to park a stroller or its line is spilling out of the indoor queue, skip Peter Pan’s Flight. We cannot overemphasize this (hence the bolding), as doing Peter Pan’s Flight at all costs is the biggest mistake many guests make.
Peter Pan’s Flight is a low-capacity attraction, and it frequently has an above-average wait time first thing in the morning because guests blindly follow the herd and do it at rope drop no matter what. Not only does this mean waiting as long or longer than you would during the middle of the day, but it also means not riding other attractions during that time, while they have below-average waits.
The goal here is to ride the wave and stay ahead of the crowds–that requires thinking on your feet and skipping rides as necessary. You have to consider the opportunity cost, and it’s a high one when it comes to Peter Pan’s Flight. As a parent of a toddler, we honestly have a hard time being at the front of this pack–it was so much easier when we were just two Childless Disney Adults. (You might notice fewer kids in the front of the line for PPF at rope drop, and that’s why!)
Here’s our optimal Fantasyland first strategy for guests who are not at the front of the pack:
- Alice in Wonderland
- Matterhorn
- Dumbo the Flying Elephant
- Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway
- Roger Rabbit’s Car Toon Spin
- Toontown Characters
- Peter Pan’s Flight (optional)
- Snow White’s Enchanted Wish (optional)
- Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride (optional)
- Other Fantasyland Attractions (optional)
You could also flip-flop Matterhorn and Alice in Wonderland, and potentially do Matterhorn a few times while it’s a walk-on. Your chiropractor will thank you for that.
This is mostly what you’d expect based on the first strategy, right? The big surprise is probably that Peter Pan’s Flight has dropped so far down the list. This is where the ‘zig when they zag’ strategy comes into play.
As noted above, guests will blindly follow the pack and continue lining up for Peter Pan’s Flight at rope drop, long after it makes sense to do so. At least, up to a point.
When the posted wait time is 40+ minutes and the line is visibly long while everything else is a walk-on, the scales begin to tip and the wait time starts decreasing. As with most high-profile attractions, there’s a morning lull after that first wave for PPF, and that is what you want to hit.
Second-Best Strategy: Racing Around Disneyland
Even though these Fantasyland attractions never peak as high as Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, Space Mountain or Indiana Jones Adventure in terms of individual wait times, the time you’ll save in aggregate by starting in Fantasyland far exceeds the time you can save by rope dropping a different part of the park.
Of course, not everyone cares about Fantasyland dark rides. Or maybe you do, but are willing to “outlast” the children and do them at the end of the evening. In which case, here’s an alternative approach that starts in Tomorrowland:
- Space Mountain
- Matterhorn
- Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway
- Roger Rabbit’s Car Toon Spin
- Peter Pan’s Flight (optional)
- Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance
- Tiana’s Bayou Adventure
This one comes with a couple of caveats. The first is that you are, quite literally, doing a circle tour of Disneyland. There is a logical order to the above list, but it is a lot of walking. Much of that’s reduced if we simply stop after the fourth step, which is what you may want to do.
The second caveat is that you are going to encounter a long wait for Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance. However, this also should be around the mid-morning lull, which is one of two ‘sweet spots’ (the other being later at night) for doing this headliner. Same idea applies as with Peter Pan’s Flight in the previous strategy–you’re aiming for Rise of the Resistance after the rope drop rush has subsided.
One of our unpopular opinions is that you should not rope drop Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance. The walk is too long, the ride is too unreliable, the total attraction duration is too long, and too many other people will be doing the exact same thing.
It’s just not worth it. We strongly believe this, and it’s one of the Disneyland hills we’ll die on.
With that said, in the interest of full disclosure, we have not tested rope dropping Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance in 2026…because it’s been closed for refurbishment since our field testing started. However, we’ve done it enough in the past to be pretty confident in this assessment.
Finally, you’ll notice that Tiana’s Bayou Adventure is after Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance on the above plan. This is really seasonal. Southern California mornings can be chilly, and you will get wet on Tiana’s Bayou Adventure. Consequently, it’s not a great choice first thing in the morning.
Between this reality and its location, the wait times for Tiana’s Bayou Adventure tend to stay low throughout the morning, not just at rope drop. Hot days are an exception, so the higher the heat, the more you should consider bumping that one up.
Third-Best Strategy: Disneyland Headliners, But Easier
Here’s a less aggressive racing around Disneyland strategy, following similar logic but starting on the other side of the park:
- Indiana Jones Adventure
- Haunted Mansion Holiday (August through early January)
- Big Thunder Mountain Railroad (potentially multiple times)
- Haunted Mansion (remainder of the year)
- Tiana’s Bayou Adventure
- Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance
- Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run
Obviously, you will not be doing both Haunted Mansion Holiday and Haunted Mansion. It’s one or the other. The Halloween through Christmas overlay is more popular than the OG Haunted Mansion, hence the different rankings.
I don’t particularly love this strategy. I would rather start in Tomorrowland and simply cut off the plan at Toontown if need be. You’ll save more time with the first 4 steps there than you will with the first 5 steps (accounting for HM redundancy) here.
With that said, you could tweak this to just stick around Adventureland, New Orleans Square, and Frontierland. You can reduce walking by knocking out Pirates of the Caribbean, Jungle Cruise, and other attractions in this area–not to mention some snacking–as it’s convenient.
There’s usually a long runway for doing Tiana’s Bayou Adventure before crowds start to build.
Ultimately, doing a Fantasyland-forward rope drop is far and away the best strategy at Disneyland. There is no counterintuitive ‘hack’ or secret strategy here. Even with “everyone” advising this, it’s still the best approach. Don’t overthink it.
If you really don’t care about the “kiddie rides” or want to do a more roller coaster-centric morning, you can’t go wrong with the one-two punch of Space Mountain and Matterhorn. You should still be able to ride the wave there, and might even be able to knock out multiple headliners before lines build. This is by no means a bad approach, especially for bigger kids and adults, and guests without Lightning Lane Multi-Pass.
There’s also nothing wrong with starting over in Adventureland, Frontierland, and New Orleans Square. These lands are gorgeous in the morning, and we love to soak up their ambiance, maybe enjoy a relaxed meal (Breakfast Chimichangas at the Ship to Shore Market in Frontierland!), and appreciate the “little things” that make Disneyland special. These quiet moments of pure whimsy are when the magic happens, and what keeps us going back.
Planning a Southern California vacation? For park admission deals, read Tips for Saving Money on Disneyland Tickets. Learn about on-site and off-site hotels in our Anaheim Hotel Reviews & Rankings. For where to eat, check out our Disneyland Restaurant Reviews. For unique ideas of things that’ll improve your trip, check out What to Pack for Disney. For comprehensive advice, consult our Disneyland Vacation Planning Guide. Finally, for guides beyond Disney, check out our Southern California Itineraries for day trips to Los Angeles, Laguna Beach, and tons of other places!
Your Thoughts
What is your Disneyland rope drop strategy? Do you follow the tried and true Fantasyland strategy, do you go for thrills with Space Mountain and Matterhorn, or do you lead the crowd to Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance? Do you like to savor the low crowds and have a leisurely experience later in the morning? Do you agree or disagree with our advice? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing feedback about your experiences is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
