As of January 1, 2019, we have closed our forums. This is a decision we did not come to lightly, but it is necessary. The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk. The server software itself must be updated, and it cannot be without removing the forums.
So it is with a heavy heart that we say goodbye to our long-running forums. They came online in 2000 and brought together so many wonderful Disney fans. We had friendships form, careers launch, couples marry, children born ... all because of this amazing community.
Thank you to each of you who were a part of this community. You made it possible.
And a very special thank you to our Guides (moderators), past and present, who kept our forums a happy place to be. You are the glue that held everything together, and we are forever grateful to you. Thank you aliceinwdw, Caldercup, MrsM, WillCAD, Fortissimo, GingerJ, HiddenMickey, CRCrazy, Eeyoresmom, disneyknut, disneydani, Cam22, chezp, WDWfan, Luvsun, KMB733, rescuesk, OhToodles!, Colexis Mom, lfredsbo, HiddenMickey, DrDolphin, DopeyGirl, duck addict, Disneybine, PixieMichele, Sandra Bostwick, Eeyore Tattoo, DyanKJ130, Suzy Q'Disney, LilMarcieMouse, AllisonG, Belle*, Chrissi, Brant, DawnDenise, Crystalloubear, Disneymom9092, FanOfMickey, Goofy4Goofy, GoofyMom, Home4us123, iamgrumpy, ilovedisney247, Jennifer2003, Jenny Pooh, KrisLuvsDisney, Ladyt, Laughaholic88, LauraBelle Hime, Lilianna, LizardCop, Loobyoxlip, lukeandbrooksmom, marisag, michnash, MickeyMAC, OffKilter_Lynn, PamelaK, Poor_Eeyore, ripkensnana, RobDVC, SHEANA1226, Shell of the South, snoozin, Statelady01, Tara O'Hara, tigger22, Tink and Co., Tinkerbelz, WDWJAMBA, wdwlovers, Wendyismyname, whoSEZ, WildforWD, and WvuGrrrl. You made the magic.
We want to personally thank Sara Varney, who coordinated our community for many years (among so many other things she did for us), and Cheryl Pendry, our Message Board Manager who helped train our Guides, and Ginger Jabour, who helped us with the PassPorter-specific forums and Live! Guides. Thank you for your time, energy, and enthusiasm. You made it all happen.
There are other changes as well.
Why? Well, the world has changed. And change with it, we must. The lyrics to "We Go On" for IllumiNations say it best:
We go on to the joy and through the tears
We go on to discover new frontiers
Moving on with the current of the years.
We go on
Moving forward now as one
Moving on with a spirit born to run
Ever on with each rising sun.
To a new day, we go on.
It's time to move on and move forward.
PassPorter is a small business, and for many years it supported our family. But the world changed, print books took a backseat to the Internet, and for a long time now it has been unable to make ends meet. We've had to find new ways to support our family, which means new careers and less and less time available to devote to our first baby, PassPorter.
But eventually, we must move on and move forward. It is the right thing to do.
So we are retiring this newsletter, as we simply cannot keep up with it. Many thanks to Mouse Fan Travel who supported it all these years, to All Ears and MousePlanet who helped us with news, to our many article contributors, and -- most importantly -- to Sara Varney who edited our newsletter so wonderfully for years and years.
And we are no longer charging for the Live Guides. If you have a subscription, it's yours to keep for the lifetime of the Live Guides at no additional cost. The Live Guides will stay online, barring server issues and technical problems, for all of 2019.
That said, PassPorter is not going away. Most of the resources will remain online for as long as we can support them, and after that we will find ways to make whatever we can available. PassPorter means a great deal to us, and to many of you, and we will do our best to keep it alive in whatever way we can. Our server costs are high, and they'll need to come out of our pockets, so in the future you can expect some changes so we can bring those costs down.
Thank you, thank you, thank you for your amazing support over the years. Without you, there's no way us little guys could have made something like this happen and given the "big guys" a run for their money. PassPorter was consistently the #3 guidebook after the Unofficial and Official guides, which was really unheard of for such a small company to do. We ROCKED it thanks to you and your support and love!
If you miss us, you can still find some of us online. Sara started a new blog at DisneyParkPrincess.com -- I strongly urge you to visit and get on her mailing list. She IS the Disney park princess and knows Disney backward and forward. And I am blogging as well at JenniferMaker.com, which is a little craft blog I started a couple of years ago to make ends meet. You can see and hear me in my craft show at https://www.youtube.com/c/jennifermaker . Many PassPorter readers and fans are on Facebook, in groups they formed like the PassPorter Trip Reports and PassPorter Crafting Challenge (if you join, just let them know you read about it in the newsletter). And some of our most devoted community members started a forum of their own at Pixie Dust Lane and all are invited over.
So we encourage you to stay in touch with us and your fellow community members wherever works best for you!
Welcome! We're happy you've found the PassPorter Community -- the friendliest place to plan your vacation to Walt Disney World, Disney Cruise Line, Disneyland, and the world in general! You are now viewing the PassPorter Message Board Community as a guest, which gives you limited access. As our guest, feel free to browse our messages by selecting the forum you want to visit from the list below.
To post messages and ask questions, join our FREE community today and you'll get access to tools and resources not available to guests, such as our vacation countown timers, "living" avatars, private messaging system, database searches, downloads, and a special PassPorter discount code. Registration is fast, simple, and completely free. Just click the Join Our Community link.
If you think you've already joined, log in below now. If you don't remember your member name or password, please visit our Member Name and Password Recovery page. You are also welcome to contact us.
This may seem like a silly question, but what is the rope drop and what time is it exactly? all the times we've been and we always get there after the park is open so we've never seen it! any advice or tips on getting the most out of each park would be awesome
The CM's will start admitting people into the park about 15 minutes or so before the actual park opening time. Several CM's lead the way up to a certain point (or points) with a rope stretched between them (hence the name rope drop). Guests are not allowed past these points until the official park opening time, which is announced over the speaker system with a welcoming speech.
We've only been at MK but we didn't go out of our away to make it in time for rope drop. It just sorta worked out that way.
We couldn't go past the train station until Mickey and friends arrived at the station to welcome everyone to the park for the day. It wasn't overly spectaular (could be blamed on the fact that it was darn cold). Though, you do have the advantage on knocking off several rides before the masses arrive.
At Magic Kingdom, they let you in as far as the end of Main st before the circle. ou can go into the stores up to the rope drop. There is an opening show they do around 20 minutes before opening. This is where you enter after running your ticket but before you can enter the actual park. In front of the lawn Mickeyhead. They do a really cute Welcome and then the train comes with the first family that arrived( i think thats how you are selected) They ride in on the train with all the characters and welcome you to the Park. It usually makes me cry. ( verlklempt) At DHS ... they let you go as far as the end of the street and they do a little movie scene using a couple or two people selected early on. Then the CM's walk you ... the hysterical Masses to TSMM...... the other 10 people go to TOT and RNR That rope drop is a frenzy to get to the fastpasses and the ride line. Epcot is a bit better as people split between Soarin and Test track, with most going to Soarin. They have a welcome thing with the characters and then they walk you up MT Epcot past all the Counter service Workers who are lined up and cheering you on like its a marathon as you race by to get in line. ( I love that part) Animal Kingdom has a really cute welcome with Minnie, Mickey, Goofy and Pluto... I forget.. does Donald have a role? Now this one again the crowd splits off to either EE or KS and its a loooooonnnnnng walk to either one of them. I need a Yak Attack by the time I get to EE. I do enjoy the Park openings with MK being the favorite.
__________________
Aug,1978- LBV;Apr,1987-Disneyland;March,1993-offsite;Jan,1997-offsite;Aug,1999- CBR;Sept,2000- ASMo;Aug,2001- ASSP;Aug,2002- ASMU/AKL;Jan & July 2003-POR;June,December 2004- PC;January 2005- ASMU; Aug 2005-PC;Dec 2005-AKL;Jan 2006-CBR ; July/Aug-Saratoga springs; Dec. PC;April 2007- Disneyland;Aug 2007-Disneyland & So Cal;Dec 2007-POFQ; Aug2008-POFQ & Nov 2008 PC,Y&B May 2009 ASmu, June 2009 PC ; Nov 2009 WL & POFQ;Jan 2010 BW & WL; June 2010 POFQ ; Aug 2010 Poly ;Oct 2010 WL; Jan 2011 PC
If you happen to be inside of a park for an early ADR before the park opens there will be CMs with a rope to keep you from entering the rides prior to park opening. Then when the rope from the front of the park with the people that were at the entrance will come up behind the people who had the early ADRs.
I know your question was about rope drop but also at park opening some of the parks also do a little opening show. At MK the characters arrive on the WDW RR and there is a song/dance. When we saw it they had picked a family to open the park for the day that got to ride with them. We also saw an opening show at AK. I don't remember a show at DHS but some of the performers were on the streets doing their acts as people were waiting for the park to open.
Registered Message Board Members Get Our Free Newsletter! When you register you'll have the option to sign up for our weekly PassPorter Newsletter. It's chock-full of feature articles; news; tips; contests; photos; and special offers in our online store.
very cool! I will make it a point for us to do the rope drop/park opening at least once for each park. I guess if we have ADR's we can just go back out to the front for the opening?
This is great! I've seen the MK opening, which was fun, but really didn't know about the other parks. Since I'll be there solo in a few months, I might just check it out. The kids never wanted to get up early...
Registered Message Board Members save 30% off PassPorter guidebooks! When you register you'll have access to a discount coupon good for 30% off the list price of PassPorter books in our online store.
Here is photo of the MK rope drop. The are interesting to see once but we don't make a point of seeing them all the time.
That's actually known as the Welcoming Ceremony.
Rope drop occurs at the end of Main Street up by the ice cream shop. I have video of being on the other side of rope drop while at Disneyland -- we were on a tour that started before park opening and the guide brought us to the Hub so we could watch people as the rope dropped and they RAN to the rides.
that is so cool! I can't wait, i think i'm more excited than my DD will be lol...we're surprising her the day we leave so she won't know anything until then. i at least want to say i did it once in my life.
I love the opening show and rope drop. No one else will get up that early. DH promised he would come with me next time..either way I'll be there for the magic.
We are doing an early ADR at Crystal Palace so I hope it kind of tricks the boys into it.
PassPorter's Free-Book to Walt Disney World It’s hard to believe anything is free at Walt Disney World; but there are actually a number of things you can get or do for little to no cost. This e-book documents over 200 free or cheap tips to do before you go and after you arrive. You could save a considerable amount of money following these tips. Perhaps more importantly; you can discover overlooked attractions and little-known details most people whiz by on their way to spend money. Click here to see free sample pages from the e-book! Get this popular e-book free of extra charges when you join the PassPorter's Club for as little as $4.95. A club pass includes access to all our other e-books; e-worksheets; super-size photos; and more! This e-book is also available for separate purchase in the PassPorter Online Store for just $5.95.
About This Page: 
any advice or tips on getting the most out of each park would be awesome 
Like
Thank
Pixie Dust
That rope drop is a frenzy to get to the fastpasses and the ride line. Epcot is a bit better as people split between Soarin and Test track, with most going to Soarin. They have a welcome thing with the characters and then they walk you up MT Epcot past all the Counter service Workers who are lined up and cheering you on like its a marathon as you race by to get in line. ( I love that part) Animal Kingdom has a really cute welcome with Minnie, Mickey, Goofy and Pluto... I forget.. does Donald have a role? Now this one again the crowd splits off to either EE or KS and its a loooooonnnnnng walk to either one of them. I need a Yak Attack by the time I get to EE. I do enjoy the Park openings with MK being the favorite.
JulieB 
Hybrid Mode
