Entering parks later in the day

[pawla68]

I know this is way in advance, but I'm bored and have nothing better to do! LOL

DS and his fiancee are planning a Disney Memories Wedding May 2018. DH and I will be staying at Disney for 9 days. We just recently went to Disney in October 2016. I know there will be new things open, but this trip we are thinking of doing something different. Normally, we hit the parks at rope drop and stay until about 6 or 7. This time, we are thinking of hitting the parks around 2 or so and staying until closing. Anyone with experience doing this? We want to spend time riding a few rides, but mainly taking in the parks and the sights. We feel that going at rope drop and staying until we are ready to drop isn't what we want to do this trip.

Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

 

[CarolynFH]

When we're going late to MK, the main thing we look at is the parade schedule, because the afternoon parade ends on Main Street. We want to avoid arriving right afterwards - due to the crowds who are exiting then. We'd rather arrive before the parade gets there so we can cut through stores to get to Adventureland or Tomorrowland or see the parade there. Otherwise, I can't think of anything different that we do.

 

[Accident]

Welcome to the relaxing disney vacation lifestyle!!! I think there is phases to visiting disney and you just hit the next phase. Sleep in, pick the park when your ready to go to a park, do as little or as much. Maybe preplan a meal or fastpass but most likely you'll just go with the flow and how you feel... You are going to discover so many thing that were under your nose and you just wandered by before... It'll probably be the first time you come home feeling like you actually had a vacation.

My preplanning for a vacation is pretty simple, get 1 maybe 2 adrs for places I want to make sure I get to try. Then I'll get fastpasses for the long line rides but randomly for each park. most days I just delete the fastpasses and get new ones because we didn't feel like it.

Actually at disney is basically sleep until I wake up. Maybe it's in time for breakfast but a lot of times it's not. have much coffee, eventually get to the parks, generally getting there between noon and 3.. There will be some days we're aiming for the afternoon parade at mk. some days after about 30 mnutes I'll realize I wanted a different park and just leave and head there. maybe I'll still be there at dinner time or have went back to the resort and then go somewhere we want to do the night entertainment. We end up at mk a lot even if we were at 2 other parks for brief moments during the day. Then there is days we just never get out of the resort..

If your ok without the fastpasses in advance, I started to get less tickets than I need. I'll generally get 5 or 6 for 7-9 days. I'll just keep adding them on if needed while there, so far only 1 person has needed 1 more day and we saved some good money doing it like that.

@disneysteve in my mind is the master of not planned trips that include a lot of not on disney property things added into it.

 

[pawla68]

Welcome to the relaxing disney vacation lifestyle!!! I think there is phases to visiting disney and you just hit the next phase. Sleep in, pick the park when your ready to go to a park, do as little or as much. Maybe preplan a meal or fastpass but most likely you'll just go with the flow and how you feel... You are going to discover so many thing that were under your nose and you just wandered by before... It'll probably be the first time you come home feeling like you actually had a vacation.

My preplanning for a vacation is pretty simple, get 1 maybe 2 adrs for places I want to make sure I get to try. Then I'll get fastpasses for the long line rides but randomly for each park. most days I just delete the fastpasses and get new ones because we didn't feel like it.

Actually at disney is basically sleep until I wake up. Maybe it's in time for breakfast but a lot of times it's not. have much coffee, eventually get to the parks, generally getting there between noon and 3.. There will be some days we're aiming for the afternoon parade at mk. some days after about 30 mnutes I'll realize I wanted a different park and just leave and head there. maybe I'll still be there at dinner time or have went back to the resort and then go somewhere we want to do the night entertainment. We end up at mk a lot even if we were at 2 other parks for brief moments during the day. Then there is days we just never get out of the resort..

If your ok without the fastpasses in advance, I started to get less tickets than I need. I'll generally get 5 or 6 for 7-9 days. I'll just keep adding them on if needed while there, so far only 1 person has needed 1 more day and we saved some good money doing it like that.

Thank you!! You are absolutely correct. We are looking for the relaxing vacation. Love your plan! We are doing the dining plan, so we'll have to do ADR's, but may try a few 2 credit restaurants that we have never done before so that we don't have reservations every day.

 

[mikedoyleblogger]

I used to be rope drop to closing, every day. When I met my partner, he was definitely not into that kind of Disney day. So we learned to think of our days in two parts. Some days we rope drop and stay until lunchtime, some days we arrive at a park in the afternoon and stay until closing. The other half of the day, for him, is usually the resort/pool. For me, sometimes it's hopping to/from another park. My advice is that FP+ is much more important in the second half of the day than it is in the first half of the day. It's harder to "wing it" later in the day. So whatever you want to ride or watch that requires or has an option for a FP, you want to consider nailing those down in advance. Then you can relax in between your FP times while everyone else is grousing that the afternoon/evening lines are so long. Sometimes we'll just schedule an ADR and a single FP for an afternoon/evening visit and just wander. But we always have at least an ADR or a couple of FP reservations to serve as a backbone. We don't bother trying to add that structure for morning park visitis because it's not really all that necessary. But winging it later in the day after the parks crowd up is asking for trouble IMO.

The bottom line is going later in the day, you'll basically be doing a "greatest hits" visit of each park, because crowds, afternoon and evening entertainment, and dinner will add friction to your touring plans. That can really change the park experience. For example, we really didn't like Epcot until we started doing "greatest hits" late afternoon/evening visits built around a single FP and an ADR. Now we love doing that. Same with DHS. In fact, if I weren't such an MK rope-drop junkie, I'd probably never get up early at WDW.

 

[OKW Lover]

We long ago "graduated" from the rush, rush WDW vacation style. We used to play "bus roulette" on some days. You play by going to the bus stop (when you're good and ready) and getting on the first park bus that comes. You go to that park, stay for a while doing whatever pleases you. Then you go out to the bus area and get on the closest (or furthest) resort bus. Go there and get something to eat. After lunch, go to the bus stop and get on the first park bus that comes. Spend time in that park, then either repeat for the evening or just return to your resort.

 

[Tattylou]

I've always heard ppl say go early or stay late bc early and late is when ride wait times are lower....so it sounds like you're going to do the stay late version. Sounds relaxing and fun.

 

[ckb_nc]

Here is where FastPass + has made this so much easier; having the ability to walk into a park at say 2pm with 3 FP in my "pocket" versus having to get there early to just get FP makes going later better. I was a rope drop person but now schedule at least one day that we do not hit the park for a while

 

[Lightsoutx12]

I find my self entering the parks frequently in the middle of the day. A lot of times I'll get out of work and since I'm so close I'll meet up with friends and we'll go to the parks from around 3- close or so. If I know a day I'm going to do that we'll try to plan fast-passes around when I get out. If not then we just go and see what the actual wait times are. Sometimes we'll get lucky and it'll be relatively a low wait time but other times the rides will be packed and we'll only get on a few rides. However as the day goes on and it gets to closing time a lot of people start leaving and you can get lucky with some low wait times.

 

[GaSleepingBeautyFan]

When I fly in, I usually enter a park around 3pm on my arrival day and stay until it closes. I usually have 3 FP+ and enjoy those.
Plus as the evening goes on, the ride lines get shorter. If they don't, I do things like Mickey's Philharmagic in MK or American Adventure in Epcot.

 

[mikedoyleblogger]

When I fly in, I usually enter a park around 3pm on my arrival day and stay until it closes. I usually have 3 FP+ and enjoy those.
Plus as the evening goes on, the ride lines get shorter. If they don't, I do things like Mickey's Philharmagic in MK or American Adventure in Epcot.

That's our day one strategy, too! Except it's always Epcot for us. We started that to get Epcot out of the way since we didn't originally like it. And then magically it made Epcot a lot more fun. We never get to Epcot before the afternoon now.

 

[SweetMissy]

We went to MK late a couple weeks ago after spending the morning at EP...arrived at 3pm. Don't ever do this! The parade was going on and it was a mad house trying to move once we got in.

 

[Madonna3]

I know this is way in advance, but I'm bored and have nothing better to do! LOL

DS and his fiancee are planning a Disney Memories Wedding May 2018. DH and I will be staying at Disney for 9 days. We just recently went to Disney in October 2016. I know there will be new things open, but this trip we are thinking of doing something different. Normally, we hit the parks at rope drop and stay until about 6 or 7. This time, we are thinking of hitting the parks around 2 or so and staying until closing. Anyone with experience doing this? We want to spend time riding a few rides, but mainly taking in the parks and the sights. We feel that going at rope drop and staying until we are ready to drop isn't what we want to do this trip.

Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

My husband and I do this all the time.

Welcome to the relaxing disney vacation lifestyle!!! I think there is phases to visiting disney and you just hit the next phase. Sleep in, pick the park when your ready to go to a park, do as little or as much. Maybe preplan a meal or fastpass but most likely you'll just go with the flow and how you feel... You are going to discover so many thing that were under your nose and you just wandered by before... It'll probably be the first time you come home feeling like you actually had a vacation.

My preplanning for a vacation is pretty simple, get 1 maybe 2 adrs for places I want to make sure I get to try. Then I'll get fastpasses for the long line rides but randomly for each park. most days I just delete the fastpasses and get new ones because we didn't feel like it.

Actually at disney is basically sleep until I wake up. Maybe it's in time for breakfast but a lot of times it's not. have much coffee, eventually get to the parks, generally getting there between noon and 3.. There will be some days we're aiming for the afternoon parade at mk. some days after about 30 mnutes I'll realize I wanted a different park and just leave and head there. maybe I'll still be there at dinner time or have went back to the resort and then go somewhere we want to do the night entertainment. We end up at mk a lot even if we were at 2 other parks for brief moments during the day. Then there is days we just never get out of the resort..

If your ok without the fastpasses in advance, I started to get less tickets than I need. I'll generally get 5 or 6 for 7-9 days. I'll just keep adding them on if needed while there, so far only 1 person has needed 1 more day and we saved some good money doing it like that.

@disneysteve in my mind is the master of not planned trips that include a lot of not on disney property things added into it.

Exactly this. I have found this is the way to do Disney now. I get up whenever I wake up. I go to whatever park I feel like. I open my phone when I get there, look at available fastpasses and go from there. Hungry? Want a sit down? Open the phone and go from there.

 

[loves to dive]

Another late park goer. My son is not a morning person, wasn't when he was a kid and isn't now that he's an adult so he doesn't do mornings. We tend to just do as Accident mentioned, go with the flow. We have also done the bus roulette too. Park hoppers are your friend since if the park you start with is just way too busy, you move on. We never book ADRs in advance, just day of walking around the parks and we eat TS just about every day so being on the dining plan shouldn't make a difference to the go with the flow attitude. I love the parks at night, there is just something special when the lights are on. Have fun.

 

[disnut8]

My husband and I have hit rope drop once in our over 60 trips. And we felt like a couple of cows in a cattle storm so never again. Now we just sleep until we wake up and then get going when we want. If we hit a park before 11, that's considered early for us. We also don't stay until closing either so we just do what we want when we want and how we want. The latest we will stay is for Illuminations and only one night of a trip. We get to relax and take our time and not bother with rushing around. True, we've been there many times and have seen just about everything we want to see but not having an "agenda" is simply pleasant.

 

[Babe the Blue Ox]

We've always found the evening hours to be much more efficient for touring than the morning. More and more guests are arriving early and they will eventually tire out and leave early. Here's just an example of what we've been able to accomplish on a recent summer evening from 8 pm - midnight with no FP+. Just keep in mind that posted wait times are intentionally inflated at night to discourage riders.

Big Thunder 3x
Splash Mtn 2x
Space Mtn 2x
Mine Train (10 min wait right a closing time)
Pirates
Jungle Cruise
Haunted Mansion
Pooh
Peter Pan
Speedway
Barnstormer 2x

We also watched the parade and fireworks and had a couple of Dole Whips.

 

[Disneyhayes]

We were thinking of doing this on our next trip. DH was not a fan of my RD plans every day

 

[Disney fan from Wisconsin]

Love the parks at night! We usually never leave the hotel room for breakfast until at least 11am. Somedays we don't go to the park until 2pm. It makes for a much more relaxing trip. I have teenagers. If I had little ones, I would probably be stuck with going at the crack of dawn. Whatever works right? My preference is definitely go late and stay late.

 

[rwdavis2]

We essentially did this in November. Late mornings for park entry and staying late at parks. Loved it. We did 2 rope drops in 8 days.

 

[Accident]

We essentially did this in November. Late mornings for park entry and staying late at parks. Loved it. We did 2 rope drops in 8 days.

I think once you reach the point that you know your key rides that are must dos and being there becomes more exciting even if you do nothing but be there that it really changes how you enjoy the place. To me, I think it changes for the better. I'm still walking around and noticing things I can find in pictures from the 70s that I had never noticed. There is something new to discover every single trip in and it's amazing. I think this is why as you get older and certain rides just stop being something you can or want to do you start to hear discussions about the details from them.