It’s the 2 phrases each commando Walt Disney World planner dreads listening to: delayed opening. These notorious phrases have ruined many a rope drop run, upending savvy methods and itineraries, leading to frustration, damaged hearts and setting a horrible tone to begin the morning. This will likely look like hyperbole to the uninitiated, however it’s not for many who have skilled a trip being down at rope drop. After getting up on the first light and ready round…to proceed ready round…it actually stings. If , …and actual ones know.
On its first day of normal operations utilizing a standby line, Tiana’s Bayou Journey at Magic Kingdom didn’t open with the remainder of the park for rope drop at 9 am. (In contrast to Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind, this attraction doesn’t take part in Early Entry as a result of solely Fantasyland and Tomorrowland points of interest, minus TRON Lightcycle Run, are eligible for Early Entry. Tiana’s Bayou Journey was alleged to open with the remainder of the park for normal rope drop.)
The opening of Tiana’s Bayou Journey was delayed as a result of “technical difficulties,” a catch-all time period for something unintended. As of 9:30 a.m., the attraction is listed as “Briefly Closed” within the My Disney Expertise app. It’s the one Magic Kingdom attraction affected by the dreaded delayed opening, so this problem is site-specific, not a widespread outage impacting a number of points of interest or lands.
Per social media studies/complaints, company have been allowed to queue up for Tiana’s Bayou Journey within the standby line since 9 a.m., regardless of the trip being down. This occurring versus a wall of Forged Members turning company away means that the attraction shall be operational sooner reasonably than later. In actual fact, we absolutely anticipate Tiana’s Bayou Journey to be up and operating earlier than we hit “publish” on this piece.
So why trouble? For just about the explanations recognized within the opening paragraph. This isn’t about in the present day. The company who’re already in Magic Kingdom and have encountered the dreaded delayed opening of Tiana’s Bayou Journey don’t want an article telling them about it. That is for tomorrow, subsequent week, subsequent month, and so on.
There are particular points of interest which can be predisposed to the dreaded delayed opening, or have been at varied occasions of their existence. For some time, Seven Dwarfs Mine Prepare was one such trip, which was one in all many the explanation why we inspired readers to keep away from the SDMT Shuffle and as an alternative go for Peter Pan’s Flight or Tomorrowland to begin the day. (As famous right here, that dynamic has modified post-TRON Lightcycle Run.)
Now we have but to begin our subject testing at Magic Kingdom and EPCOT following the switching to standby of Tiana’s Bayou Journey and Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind. In all probability, this transformation goes to upend technique solutions at EPCOT and be minimally impactful at Magic Kingdom, and this delayed opening is one purpose why.
At the same time as Tiana’s Bayou Journey has had a greater run of uptime in the previous couple of weeks, delayed openings are nonetheless a top-of-mind concern for us. Between the higher-than-average chance of that taking place and the longer period of Tiana’s Bayou Journey and the lengthier bodily queue and Huge Thunder Mountain Railroad being down till 2026, my intestine says prioritizing Tiana’s Bayou Journey within the first hour will not be the correct transfer.
Fairly, I’d tentatively advocate sticking to our step-by-step technique lined just lately in Magic Kingdom Morning Suggestions & Methods in 2025: Rides to Do & Keep away from at Rope Drop & Early Entry.
That gives 4 totally different plans of assault for on-site and off-site company doing Early Entry and/or rope drop, itemizing the primary 5-7 points of interest of the morning. Tiana’s Bayou Journey isn’t on these lists because it was written pre-standby…however at this level, I wouldn’t change any of that.
Clearly, precise subject testing goes to be required to verify or contradict that. However a number of of you could have requested about this and, frankly, my a lot larger precedence for mentioned testing is EPCOT. Cosmic Rewind dropping its digital queue is big, and even when the fruits of that testing are solely legitimate till every time Check Monitor 3.0 opens, I view that as extra necessary. Despite the fact that everybody appears to like Magic Kingdom technique above all else, I’m in all probability not going to focus a lot time/power on this till April.
Within the meantime, I’m going to be carefully retaining my eye on wait occasions information for Tiana’s Bayou Journey and the frequency with which it has delayed openings. My expectation is that it’ll be larger than the common Magic Kingdom headliner, through which case, it turns into a tough promote as a rope drop precedence within the close to time period.
Summer season will in all probability be a special story, however I wished to share these preliminary ideas now within the possible occasion that I don’t share extra strong technique till April. A lot of you could have been asking, and the day one delayed opening of Tiana’s Bayou Journey supplied the proper illustrative excuse for an evidence.
10:25 a.m. Replace: Tiana’s Bayou Journey ended up opening for the day at round 9:45 a.m., leaping to a direct 45 minute wait time. Thirty minutes later, it processed the backlog of rope drop company from the delayed opening and is all the way down to a cool 20 minutes. This isn’t essentially indicative of something. It’s presently 58 levels and overcast in Bay Lake, and we don’t know to what extent Lightning Lane Multi-Go remains to be being throttled (my guess: to a big extent).
Against this, Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind was enterprise as typical this morning, opening for Early Entry earlier than posting a reported 135 minute wait at common rope drop. Somewhat over an hour later, it’s all the way down to an incredibly affordable 65 minutes–that’s solely 5 minutes larger than Soarin’ Across the World. (I’d hazard a guess that the 135 minute wait had a deterrent impact, whereas 65 minutes will induce demand.) In fact, there’s a purpose why Walt Disney World strategically timed the change to standby this week. It’s the calm earlier than the Spring Break storm, and one in all our 10 Finest Weeks to Go to Walt Disney World in 2025.
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Your Ideas
What’s your Magic Kingdom rope drop technique? Will you danger the dreaded delayed opening and prioritize Tiana’s Bayou Journey, or concentrate on different headliners and hit TBA mid-morning or later? Do you agree or disagree with our preliminary recommendation to NOT rope drop Tiana’s Bayou Journey? Any questions we may help you reply? Listening to suggestions about your experiences is each attention-grabbing to us and useful to different readers, so please share your ideas beneath within the feedback!
