Disney Trip Report Part 2: Magic Kingdom, Halloween & MORE!

Rope Drop Radio: A Disney Travel Podcast

Doug and Lauren continue their detailed Walt Disney World trip report, focusing on the logistics of rope dropping at Magic Kingdom and EPCOT

Key takeaways

• Magic Kingdom security lines can feel significantly longer than their actual duration when attempting to rope drop.
• At EPCOT, utilizing Lightning Lanes effectively can extend even beyond the initial one-hour booking window.

Main topics

• Magic Kingdom Rope Drop
• EPCOT Trip Report

Notable quotes

Three minutes of a wait in security feels like about 75 minutes, 100 minutes.

Conclusion

A granular, practical guide for Disney enthusiasts looking to optimize

Transcript preview

Speaker 1 (0:00) We parked in Hey Hey row 107 for those keeping score at home. So Speaker 2 (0:05) specific. That's as close as... Speaker 1 (0:06) Nobody Speaker 2 (0:06) cares. Speaker 1 (0:07) Someone cares, Lauren. We want to give a big thank you to our sponsor, Turing and Cruises. Here's something you might not know. Booking with a travel advisor doesn't cost you anything. Disney pays them after you travel. You'll pay the same price you see online, but Turing and Cruises adds an enhanced level of service. Their expert advisors watch for discounts and apply them automatically, even after you book. And it's not just Disney. They can help with cruises, Universal, and all kinds of vacations. Whether you want help planning it all or just someone in your corner, if plans change, they're here to help. And yes, they'll wait on hold with Disney for hours, so you don't have to. So when you're ready to plan your next trip, head to touringandcruises.com and tell them Rope Drop Radio sent you. Now, let's rope drop. Helping you navigate the Disney parks. With the hope that it will be a source of joy and Speaker 4 (1:04) inspiration to all the world. Speaker 1 (1:06) You're listening to Rope Drop Radio. Speaker 1 (1:11) Welcome to another Rope Drop Radio. I am Doug McKnight here with Lauren Shields. And Lauren, we're still back from our trip. We are. Still going. It Speaker 2 (1:24) became a very long trip report because we kind of wanted to cover some details about Rope Drop and stuff. So we're just kind of going back and doing another intro real quick for the second part. Yeah, so let Speaker 1 (1:35) us know if that was the right amount of Into the Weeds or not enough. Into the Weeds are way too deep. We'll see. Speaker 2 (1:42) I'm Speaker 1 (1:42) very Speaker 2 (1:42) curious. We'll see how people react. Speaker 1 (1:44) Never split one up like this before. We Speaker 2 (1:47) haven't. Yeah. Speaker 1 (1:49) So welcome back. And yeah, we still have a trip to the springtime surprise planned. If you want to go on a rope drop trip and meet up with us. And as some people called us celebrities. Speaker 1 (2:02) Yeah. But I don't know Speaker 2 (2:04) about that. Yeah. Speaker 1 (2:05) April 8th through the 11th, we'll be down at Walt Disney world for the springtime surprise where we're both doing races that start with tens. Speaker 2 (2:13) Yep. The 10K and the 10 miler. Yeah. Speaker 1 (2:16) I like that first one better. The 10K sounds better. Speaker 2 (2:20) Well, make sure you keep some strength up for your 10 miler because you need to do that one too. Speaker 1 (2:24) Well, I was talking, we were talking about hotels for that. You and Michelle were, I really wasn't included in the conversation. And I pointed out that Destino Tower does not have a bathtub. And the last time I did a challenge, I did an ice bath. After the first run, and a huge difference for the muscles, Destino Tower does not have a bathtub to ice bath in. Speaker 2 (2:48) Who does? It's thrown Speaker 1 (2:49) everywhere else on property. Pop Century coming in clutch with the bathtub. Oh, Speaker 2 (2:56) they do. Speaker 1 (2:56) Mm-hmm. Speaker 2 (2:58) They do, they do, they do. Speaker 1 (3:00) So might be something that we have to consider for my old achy joints and muscles. Speaker 2 (3:05) Can't you just take a really cold shower for a long time? It's Speaker 1 (3:08) not the same, Lauren. Have you ever done an ice bath? Speaker 2 (3:11) No, you sound just like Jake right now because he won't shut up about the darn ice Speaker 1 (3:16) baths. It's something that I would do more often if it wasn't work and painful, but it's magical. Yeah, Speaker 2 (3:23) he does them when he's got like sorenies and stuff too. Anyway. And your baths. Speaker 1 (3:27) Springtime surprise. You can come find out if I did an ice bath or not in person. You also get a little gift, don't you? Speaker 2 (3:35) Yeah, if you book with Touring and Cruises for a three-night stay with a minimum of three-day tickets, you can do longer, but that's just the minimum. We will give you a $25 Disney gift card, so you can spend that on whatever you would like. You don't have to book with Touring and Cruises to come to the meetups. Everyone is welcome. I just want to make sure that's clear. So if you prefer to book on your own or you are local or whatever it is, please still come to the meetups. We would love to see everybody. Speaker 1 (3:58) All right. And then we have a new merch store out there. Link is in the show notes, but lots of good shirts to run in. There's long sleeve, there's hoodies, there's short sleeve, there's short sleeve cotton blend and a hat. More things to come. I'm excited about Speaker 2 (4:13) the running shirts. Like we got to get that going for April. Yeah. Speaker 1 (4:16) We need to come up with like a rope drop running club logo. I think Speaker 2 (4:20) we need one. Speaker 1 (4:21) Rope drop radio running something, something. You can do Speaker 2 (4:25) something with all the tens. Yeah. Speaker 1 (4:26) There we go. Yeah. Also patrons. Maybe they'll run. Speaker 2 (4:31) Hopefully we'll see some patrons there. We have no new patrons this week that we know of because. Because Speaker 1 (4:36) it Speaker 2 (4:36) was an Speaker 1 (4:36) hour ago. Speaker 2 (4:37) Yeah. We announced our two last year. or last week. But come check us out at patreon.com. Doug does the Disney news once a week. We do a bonus after show where we talk more unfiltered. And you will see when we travel, we tend to do some bonus audio content then as well. So come check us out. Speaker 1 (4:54) Some really odd stuff we threw up there. Speaker 2 (4:57) I forgot. We are due up for that. We also do a $25 Disney gift card. So I will do that next week. Speaker 1 (5:04) Next week. Okay. Yes. All right. And then Apple podcast reviews, leave a five-star review. We will read it on air and love you forever. We don't have one to read this week because we just read them all last week. So leave a review and it will be read tootsweet. So get on there. Five-star review. Make our day special. Speaker 2 (5:24) Yep. Speaker 1 (5:25) From the bottom of our hearts. All right. Stuffie of the week over Lauren's right shoulder. There is a stuffie all the way from Paris, France that Lauren is now flying around in front of the camera. Head over to YouTube and you can see the stuffie of the week and you can leave a comment and say what the stuffie is. Who picked out the stuffie this week? Who's this? That. Speaker 2 (5:46) Lily's Lily. Speaker 1 (5:47) So make Lily's day. See if she gets more comments than her sister. Speaker 2 (5:52) We are still going strong on the Disneyland Paris stuffy. So come check this out. Speaker 1 (5:57) There you go. Head over to YouTube and leave a comment. If you know who that stuffy is, the gotta be the exact answer on that one. It's Speaker 2 (6:05) a Speaker 1 (6:05) very specific, very Speaker 2 (6:06) specific. You Speaker 1 (6:07) could do the wrong one easily, but we're not. We drive a hard bargain here. Oh, Speaker 2 (6:13) so you know who it is then I can tell you based on what you just said. Okay. I wasn't sure. Speaker 1 (6:17) Sometimes I worry about you. Speaker 2 (6:18) You Speaker 1 (6:19) should, you should worry about me. All right, well, now we're going to go record the after show that you heard last week from the future after this break. Speaker 4 (6:31) Amazon, a great Indian festival out there. The festival of making greats has come. The Speaker 3 (6:40) phone Speaker 2 (6:40) has Speaker 3 (6:40) been upgraded from exchange. The beautiful salsi has arrived. The Speaker 4 (6:45) great deals on fashion have been found. The pandal hopping has been done for sure. Speaker 3 (6:49) The house has been decorated. India celebrates. Mumbai, Lucknow, Kolkata, Kochi. The Speaker 4 (6:54) festival Speaker 3 (6:54) of making Speaker 4 (6:54) greats. Amazon Great Indian Festival has come. From 8th October. Speaker 1 (7:02) Hey Nebraska Rope Droppers, getting to the Magic just got easier. The Lincoln Airport now offers non-stop flights to Orlando twice a week on Breeze Airways. Every Wednesday and Saturday, skip the layovers and get straight to Mickey faster than ever. I've flown Breeze myself. It's a great experience with one of the youngest fleets in the sky flying only Airbus A220s. So next time you're planning a Disney vacation, start at Lincoln Airport, your shortcut to the Magic. Speaker 1 (7:33) Time for the Magic Kingdom Rope Drop. All right. Magic Kingdom Rope Drop. We got to the bus station at 723. We weren't on the bus till 738. So we had a bit of a wait there. Speaker 2 (7:46) We waited that long? Speaker 1 (7:47) We did. Yeah. And then we got in a really long line for security at 753. Yep. We're through it, though, in three minutes. Three minutes of a wait in security feels like about 75 minutes, 100 minutes. When you're trying to Speaker 2 (8:04) rope drop, yes. Yeah, it's Speaker 1 (8:05) the Speaker 2 (8:05) longest. Yeah. Speaker 1 (8:06) In the park two minutes later and walking past Starbucks to Tomorrowland where they did not have a rope at 8.03. So Animal Kingdom would have stopped us going into the land until 8.30 where Magic Kingdom was just like, come on in. And then we got in line for wherever we wanted to go. I got in line for Buzz at 8.04. So park doesn't open for 26 minutes. I'm in line for Buzz. They opened the doors to Buzz and I walked in at 8.13. I was maybe 30th in line. I was on Buzz 8.15, 15 minutes early there operating Buzz. And then I did not get glad to Kiro. Speaker 1 (8:52) And then I was on people mover by eight 23. Speaker 2 (8:56) Yeah. So Speaker 1 (8:57) I did two rides before you guys got on space mountain. You got on space mountain at eight 31. So that's kind of a crap shoot of when they're going to open. And then I found you guys again at eight 39. And then we walked over to get to the other rope, right. To double rope drop. And on the way, what did we see on the way to the other rope? Lauren, do you remember? Speaker 1 (9:21) All the characters. Speaker 2 (9:22) I remember a British woman. Oh, yeah. I was like, I remember a British woman yelling at her mom. Speaker 1 (9:28) Were you there for that? No, I missed that part. Speaker 2 (9:30) Oh, she was like. Speaker 1 (9:32) Do tell. She was in the Speaker 2 (9:32) front of the line. And her mom was basically stuck behind the group. And she was like, come up here in her British accent. And her mom was like. Nailed Speaker 1 (9:42) it, by the way. Speaker 2 (9:44) I can't do it, but you know, like, honey, you're wound up. You need to calm down. And like spoke very nice and British-like. And then the daughter was like, we're leaving today. We have to get on this ride. And like, like a grandma was trying to calm her down. She's an adult woman. Like she was probably in her twenties, mid twenties. And she knew what was at stake Speaker 1 (10:03) then. Speaker 2 (10:04) She did. She was very intense. And her mom was trying to calm her down. And then like, mom's talking to, I don't know if it was like her. adult brother next to me or whatever and she was like she's Speaker 4 (10:13) all wound up she Speaker 2 (10:14) just needs to calm down it's gonna be okay so that was my my british story from rope drop i Speaker 1 (10:20) love the accents by the way i Speaker 2 (10:22) can't do it so this Speaker 1 (10:23) was at the rope or after they dropped the rope it Speaker 2 (10:27) was while we were waiting for the second rope okay and i was Speaker 1 (10:29) not with you i hunted mansion Speaker 2 (10:31) no you weren't with us Speaker 1 (10:32) when we walked over there we saw all kinds of characters out in fantasy land Like, Rapunzel and Finn were meeting together. Stitch, I got yelled at for trying to form a line for Stitch. I'm like, well, this kid's like hogging Stitch then. Speaker 3 (10:46) Like, I Speaker 1 (10:47) just want a selfie. I've been standing here for 30 seconds. Don't yell at me. Yell at that kid to stop hugging. Like, let's move along. I mean, I got you. So then I left and came over by you guys, by Finn. You were Speaker 2 (11:01) also concerned that they... Like as much as I liked that they had the characters out, but I agreed with you that it was kind of a almost bad time though, to have characters out because. They're trying to slow Speaker 1 (11:12) you down. Speaker 2 (11:13) It was causing, yeah. It made it harder to rush anywhere. Yes. I posted Speaker 1 (11:18) a picture of Tigger and I, here's what quote Doug, 842 and Tigger is out here being a traffic hazard. Speaker 2 (11:26) Yes. Speaker 1 (11:26) Because he was. I mean, it was true. Speaker 2 (11:28) Yeah. I was like, I love what they were trying to do, but. Maybe wait until like the actual park opening. So Speaker 1 (11:35) you were on the second rope at 847 and that's after stopping to see some characters on the way there. Speaker 2 (11:41) And Speaker 1 (11:41) so the second rope opens when the regular park opens. So if you do early entry into Marlena Fantasyland, you can get on that second rope. And then you guys went to Thunder. I went back and did Small World and I walked right on Small World. Yeah, which Speaker 2 (11:58) timed out great. Because then we got done and did Tiana's with you. Yeah, Speaker 1 (12:02) and I almost did Peter Pan instead just to see how long the wait really would have been. But then I was like, I don't really want to go on Peter Pan. I want to go on Small World. And then I was like, what if they get on and off Thunder and I'm still standing in line for Pan? Because you can't see how long the line is back there. So it was a mystery. I think it would have been less than 10. I should have just done Peter Pan for the sake of research. Speaker 2 (12:26) But is the Superior a ride? Speaker 1 (12:29) No. So, yeah. And then we did Tiana's. We did not wait long for Tiana's. Speaker 2 (12:36) No. No, I think we hit it at the right time. Because I think the people who were rope dropping that instead of Big Thunder were done. And it was like the next wave coming in. And I think it Speaker 1 (12:45) wasn't open right. It was not. They were like, we're not open yet. So a lot of people went past it and then like, we're open. Speaker 2 (12:54) Yep. Speaker 1 (12:55) So this is true. Yeah. We waited five minutes for that. Speaker 2 (12:59) And Space Mountain did actually run before 830, a few minutes early. So yeah, they are running the rides. People are rope dropping a few minutes early for early entry there. Yep. And Speaker 1 (13:09) then I think after that, we got some pictures on the hub and we did. in there or something else. We debated a lot of options because we're trying to get our lightning lanes open. They Speaker 2 (13:20) got messed up. And Speaker 1 (13:21) they're being weird. Speaker 2 (13:22) Because Haunted Mansion was down. Wasn't that our first one? Speaker 1 (13:25) And instead of getting a multi-pass thing, it just vanished on us like a ghost. Speaker 2 (13:33) Well, that happened several times, but it was still there. Speaker 1 (13:35) Yeah. We figured out. So we figured out we got, did get a multi-pass because you were like, let's just go tap at pirates and see what happens. And lo and behold, we both, we did not have a pirates booked, but we tapped in it, used that Haunted Mansion multi-pass. Yeah. Speaker 2 (13:50) Yeah. Speaker 1 (13:52) Multi-experience, not multi-pass. Sorry. I'm getting my terminology right before they come at me in Speaker 2 (13:57) the Speaker 1 (13:57) comments. Yeah. Speaker 2 (13:58) Usually you can see that it's up there and it says like what you can use it on, what you can't use it on. And Michelle was mostly in charge of the lightning lanes and she was like, I don't see it. I don't see it. And then I was looking in my app and I couldn't see it either. So we just used it on pirates because we were trying to get it used so that we needed to Speaker 1 (14:15) tap something so that we could book Epcot for that. Yeah. Speaker 2 (14:20) Which Speaker 1 (14:20) we got plenty of lightning lanes with our multi-pass every day. I would say it was not. ill-spent money at any point. Speaker 2 (14:31) No, and it was a slower time of the year, but it still came in handy because you could still get good lightning leaves at the next park. Speaker 1 (14:39) We Speaker 2 (14:39) were able Speaker 1 (14:39) to get a tier one multiple times later in the day. Which Speaker 2 (14:43) is unusual. Like that's not happening at Christmas break. Speaker 1 (14:46) Yeah, it's not. So Speaker 2 (14:49) we Speaker 1 (14:50) took advantage of that pretty well. All right. That was our Magic Kingdom. And then we did get coffee. Lauren got a croissant that we had to wait for for like 35 minutes. Speaker 2 (15:00) It wasn't that long. It felt Speaker 1 (15:02) like it. It felt like it. Well, I Speaker 2 (15:04) also taught you the proper Starbucks terminology so that you could actually get your pink drink with energy. I said, make sure you said energy. Otherwise, they're going to give you very light caffeine. I said it the first Speaker 1 (15:14) day. I Speaker 2 (15:15) don't know how to say it. You have to say Speaker 1 (15:18) energy. All right. Anyway, next day, we rope dropped at Epcot, the experimental prototype community of tomorrow. So we're in our car at 742. We were parked at 751. Yes. Coronado is very nicely positioned. If you're doing the math there. Speaker 2 (15:35) Yeah. We Speaker 1 (15:36) parked in Hey, Hey row 107 for those keeping score at home. Speaker 2 (15:41) So specific. That's as close. Nobody Speaker 1 (15:43) cares. Someone cares, Lauren. You remember that one time a year show we did and I kept doing the temperature like nobody cares. They came out of the woodwork saying, hey, hey, 107, somebody please comment about