Disney’s Hollywood Studios to Test New Park Opening Procedure

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Disney’s Hollywood Studios to Test New Park Opening Procedure

Saw this posted today over at touringplans.com:

Beginning Sunday, January 15, 2012, and running through Friday, January 20, 2012, Disney's Hollywood Studios theme park at the Walt Disney World Resort will be testing out a new opening procedure. Disney internally refers to this process as "rope drop without a rope." Here are the finer points of the changes:

* Turnstiles open at 8:30 a.m. Operational attractions at that time: Toy Story Mania!, Rock 'n' Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith, and The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror.

* All other attractions open at 8:45 a.m. If you arrive at one of these attractions before then, you will need to wait in an exterior queue until the attraction opens.

* Signups for Jedi Training Academy begin at 8:30 a.m. at the ABC Sound Studio (former home of Sounds Dangerous).

* FASTPASS distribution is available at all attractions beginning at 8:30 a.m.

The most basic take-away is that the park is ostensibly now open at 8:30 a.m. on days listing a 9:00 a.m. opening. Arrive early and leave your home or hotel earlier if you're following an early morning park touring plan.

Wonder if that means the end of the opening ceremony that happened when they opened the turnstiles but stopped you once inside the park. That would make me sad.

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Interesting. Wonder how this will impact morning EMH. Will they start at 7:30? Will it be 8:00 which will only give resort guests an extra 30 minutes instead of an hour?

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JoAnn C wrote:
Interesting. Wonder how this will impact morning EMH. Will they start at 7:30? Will it be 8:00 which will only give resort guests an extra 30 minutes instead of an hour?

Nevermind, forget I said anything. I just looked at the calendar and the only day this week DHS has morning EMH is Saturday after this test is over.

However, the question is still valid if they decide to make this permanent.

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When we were there in November we went for rope drop and they didn't do anything so I'm wondering if they got rid of it. We were looking forward to seeing it because people here had said it was a good one. Wonder why they got rid of it

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Jess wrote:
When we were there in November we went for rope drop and they didn't do anything so I'm wondering if they got rid of it. We were looking forward to seeing it because people here had said it was a good one. Wonder why they got rid of it

Thats what I would like to know. All I know is it changed sometime between when I was 14 -31. So in a 17 year period they got rid of it. They use to do a skit... the rope drop was literally a rope on the ground, and the actors would act with the rope. Tell jokes, interact with the guests.... you know.... how they currently do now anyways when they perform. It was really cool. But they got rid of it.

Anyways...

I wonder how this will affect Toy Story Mania. They really need to think of some way to alleviate the pressure that ride gets. During down times that ride is still an hour to 2 hour wait! Doubt this will help it... but I like that you get to ride a bit before getting into the whole park.

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Jess wrote:
When we were there in November we went for rope drop and they didn't do anything so I'm wondering if they got rid of it. We were looking forward to seeing it because people here had said it was a good one. Wonder why they got rid of it

I was also there in November, and there was no opening ceremonies or anything. They just let us in, held us at the rope, and then walked us over to Toy Story Mania.

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When I was there in Nov. 2010, I had seen rope drop at Epcot, Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom. I asked my friends if they had one a DHS. They weren't sure. They usually went there in the afternoon or evening. I asked at the front desk at Pop and was told they have one but not every day. One morning when we didn't have anything planned I went to DHS and was able to catch it. I picked the right day.

I didn't go in the morning during my last trip. So either they stopped it all together or they're still only doing it certain days.

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It will be interesting to see if this alleviates the mad rush for TSM.

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