Welcome BACK, Jennifer!
I am not one to get up early on vacation, as I'd much rather shut a park down. But I've woken up at O'dark:30 many times this year to Rope Drop a few different parks with my Moms Panel pals, and oh my goodness, you really can get so much done in that first hour of the day before everyone else starts showing up! I might have to convert to "team midday nap" so I can do both.
Currently, there are only a few hard-ticket early morning events at Walt Disney World Resort's four theme parks. These are early morning tours,
Disney Early Morning Magic in Fantasyland, and
Disney Early Morning Magic at Toy Story Land. Generally, guests participating in these events are walked back to that specific land or area and cannot go elsewhere until the parks' official opening time.
Rope Drop procedures can differ depending on the day, the season, and the park. Magic Kingdom Park will usually allow guests to enter through the turnstiles 30 minutes before the official park hours to shop, get breakfast and take photos up and down Main Street U.S.A., but that's as far as you can go as the paths to the various lands will be roped off, hence 'Rope Drop'. I visited Disney's Animal Kingdom in March where they walked those of us who were there for Pandora - The World of Avatar back to that land 15 minutes before the park officially opened, yet we still had to wait for the clock to strike opening time. And I've also been at the parks where no one was allowed to enter before that day's listed opening hours.
It certainly doesn't hurt to get to a park before the official opening hours as you never know what will happen. But no, Rope Drop is usually unaffected by the specially ticketed events listed above.
We'll See You Real Soon, Jennifer!
~Kristen