Animal Kingdom dropped its rope drop holding pens, with one Pandora catch

Guests can now walk into most of Disney’s Animal Kingdom before the park opens. Cast Members check for Early Entry at each ride instead. Pandora still has a gate.

Rope drop at Disney’s Animal Kingdom just got a lot less crowded at the front.

The park has stopped holding guests in the middle of Discovery Island before opening, per WDW News Today on Sept. 27. Everyone can now walk into the lands ahead of the Early Entry start time. Cast Members stand at each attraction entrance and scan tickets there to see who’s staying at a Disney hotel.

If you’re not, you can line up near the ride or wander the land until the park opens to everyone at 8 a.m.

How does the new Animal Kingdom rope drop work?

Scan at the ride, not at the rope.

Under the old setup, off-site guests were bunched together in a holding area while resort guests with Early Entry got waved through to the rides. WDWNT’s photo shows the new version at Pandora: hotel guests with Early Entry go left, everyone else lines up on the right.

At the other lands, there’s no split at all until you reach the ride. Cast Members at the entrance to Expedition Everest or Zootopia: Better Zoogether check whether your ticket carries the Early Entry benefit. If it does, you ride. If it doesn’t, you wait right there and go in at 8.

Can you get into Pandora during Early Entry without a Disney hotel?

No. That’s the one exception.

Only Disney resort guests with the Early Entry benefit can enter Pandora, The World of Avatar before official opening, per WDWNT. Off-site guests line up at the land’s entrance instead of at the rides inside it.

That makes sense when you look at what’s in there. Avatar Flight of Passage and Na’vi River Journey are two of the four Early Entry attractions at Animal Kingdom, along with Everest and Zootopia, per Disney Tourist Blog’s guide to the park’s opening process.

When did Animal Kingdom change its rope drop?

This is the second change since summer.

In early July, Disney moved the off-site holding area from the Oasis, the walkway just past the turnstiles, up to Discovery Island. Disney Tourist Blog documented that version on Sept. 6: two checkpoints, one in front of Island Mercantile toward Pandora and Africa, and one near Zootopia toward Asia and Everest, with off-site guests waiting in zones beside them until 8 a.m.

Now those zones are gone too. WDWNT reported the holding areas removed this weekend.

Disney hasn’t posted anything official about either change. Rope drop procedures tend to shift without announcement, and the Cast Members on the ground are the ones who’ll tell you where to stand.

What is Early Entry at Disney World?

Thirty extra minutes, every day, at every park, for hotel guests.

Guests at Disney-owned hotels and select partner hotels can enter any of the four theme parks 30 minutes before the posted opening. At Animal Kingdom, that means 7:30 a.m. on an 8 a.m. day. Only some rides run during that half hour, which is why the scan happens at the attraction.

Disney has confirmed the perk runs through 2027, per Park World.

Should you still rope drop Animal Kingdom?

If you’re staying on site and want Flight of Passage, yes. That ride still posts the longest lines in the park most days, and Early Entry is the cleanest way to ride it without a Lightning Lane.

If you’re off site, the new setup helps in a smaller way. You get to spend the wait standing near the ride you want instead of packed into one spot, and you’re first in line the second the clock hits 8.

Tom Bricker’s advice from earlier this month still holds. On-site guests who want specific rides should use Early Entry to “get in and out of DAK as quickly as possible.” Everyone else can sleep in a little and not lose much.

The rope is mostly gone. The 8 a.m. crowd at Everest is not.

Article compiled with the help of the Pirates & Princesses newsroom.

Pirates and Princesses is your destination for Disney news, theme park updates, and the pop culture you love. From Disney cruises and travel tips to Disney fashion, food, collectibles, and movie news, PNP covers it all. Visit us at piratesandprincesses.net for daily coverage. Follow PNP on Facebook and Instagram, and listen to the Pirates & Princesses podcast on Apple Podcasts and YouTube.

Hat Tips:

• WDW News Today (Sept. 27, 2026), the removal of the holding areas and the scan-at-attraction process

• Disney Tourist Blog (Sept. 6, 2026), the July checkpoint layout, the Early Entry attraction list and Tom Bricker’s strategy

• Park World (2026), Early Entry confirmed through 2027

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