Son likes to sleep, how to do all we want without rope-drop?

[My3Princez]

Honestly, at 15, I would tell him to get on a bus to the park when he gets up and text you when he's on his way. Then meet in the park, lol.

 

[robinb]

I would just make your FP+ for later in the day and take full advantage of evening EMH.

 

[KimK2006]

Maybe he would consider alternating days. Rope drop one day. Sleep in next day. He might see how much you can see and do while everyone else is sleeping in. (My kids would sleep all day, but, in Disney, they are all in for RD and go come back to the resort in the afternoon while the parks are the most crowded.) But...if he is adament about sleeping in, just go with it. (Nothing worse than being at park with a cranky kid. I've been there! ) Make sure he knows, though, that there is a lot you won't be able to do without waiting in long lines. Either way, you will have a great trip!

 

[davidl81]

If you don't like getting up early and he does not then don't fight it. Just figure out what times you feel like you will be getting to the parks and set your FP starting at those times. It will get hot during the day so maybe you do the parks from like 11-3, go back to the hotel and relax then hit the parks at night. That is how we visit. We take full advantage of EMH and will stay till midnight many nights. The trip to disney is more than just hitting rides, its about enjoying time with each other. You might as well be relaxed as you spend the time together.

 

[maryj11]

I have gone in the summer with my teen for the past few years and yes she needs sleep. If we go in the morning we usually arrive about 9:00 or 10:00 do our Fast passes starting around 10:30 and go in the air conditioning for lunch. The go do some air conditioned shows in the heat of the day or go back to the room. If we don't go in the morning we arrive around 3:00 and stay until closing. This year she wants to skip the parks during the day and just go at night. Her mood is not good when she is hot in the middle of the day but perky and fun during evening EMH. We love the evening EMH and plan to do the after hours at MK if there is one for our days.

 

[DisneyWishes14]

My son and I are early risers, while my wife and daughter would sleep 'till noon if they could. When we go to Disney, everyone understands in advance that we will have to get up early (even earlier since we live in the Central Time zone) to get to the park before RD. My wife and daughter accept it because they realize that we can get a lot done if we go at RD. We also lay out clothes, shoes, backpacks, etc., the night before and they take their showers before they go to bed.

I would talk with your son in advance and let him know he will have to get up early. Stress that it is just for that vacation. If he's excited, and wants to do Disney, he'll agree to it.

On the fun side, one of our favorite videos is from the morning of my kids first day at Disney. My daughter is eating breakfast, half asleep, and really wants to be left alone. Her sleepiness disappeared the moment we pulled into Epcot!

OP has already said this is not how she and her son want to experience WDW on this trip. There are as many ways of experiencing WDW as there are guests visiting WDW. I have taken DS9 to WDW over 30 times. We both get excited, we both want to do Disney, but we do not get up early and we do not do rope drop. We both have a fantastic time because we do not push ourselves to do things we don't want to do on vacation which includes depriving ourselves of sleep. The worst times we've had are when we've pushed ourselves too much and became exhausted. I'm really not trying to flame you, but, the original question was about maximizing and strategizing tour time knowing they will be getting to the parks later not about trying to convince her son to wake up earlier.

 

[Tuffcookie]

I am a single mom who took my youngest DS to WDW many times. He is an adult now. I did the planning and told him when we got up and did things. You snooze, you lose!

TC

 

[Oneanne]

When I had my teen aged nephew with me, which was also an August trip, we hit MK at RD the morning after it had been open for late EMH. We literally walked on to about 12 attractions before noon, and that satisfied the need to get as much done as possible. Other days we were more laid back about getting going in the morning, always took afternoon hotel/pool breaks and went back in the evenings, after the heat and storms had cleared.

 

[cinnderly]

Her definition of a lot seems to be "everything". I'm working from her post, not from anyone else's perspective. They won't get everything done if they leave the room at 11am. I don't personally know a teenager that moves quickly. That would be awesome, though! Bus to park 20-30 minutes, go through security, grab food...yeah it will take a while. Best to anticipate longer times than be frustrated, but I'm a plan for the worst/hope for the best kind of person.

At the end of August she's looking at park closings at around 8-9pm, MK 10pm or 11pm with emh. And, reading easywdw, ride capacity has been reduced pretty regularly. This increases both FP and standby waits. I would anticipate having to deal with this at the end of August.

By everything I mean the big thrill rides -- SM, EE, RnRC, etc. We have no interest in Ariel, Frozen, etc.

 

[cinnderly]

OP has already said this is not how she and her son want to experience WDW on this trip. There are as many ways of experiencing WDW as there are guests visiting WDW. I have taken DS9 to WDW over 30 times. We both get excited, we both want to do Disney, but we do not get up early and we do not do rope drop. We both have a fantastic time because we do not push ourselves to do things we don't want to do on vacation which includes depriving ourselves of sleep. The worst times we've had are when we've pushed ourselves too much and became exhausted. I'm really not trying to flame you, but, the original question was about maximizing and strategizing tour time knowing they will be getting to the parks later not about trying to convince her son to wake up earlier.

Thank you! I really appreciate everyone's time, but I'd just love to just hear about strategy from people who go to parks later in the day.

 

[cinnderly]

Just wondering -- why was this moved? I posted this in a forum with "strategies" in the title, which is what I'm looking for.

 

[Dis703]

I'd try for a compromise. Pick some of the days where he sucks it up and gets up early to make rope drop and on other days you let him sleep. Maybe even go to the park on your own and have him meet up with you. I'd be okay with that at 15.

 

[Sparkly]

No one touring style works for every family. We are not rope droppers either- we usually wake about 8am, eat breakfast in our room (or condo when we stayed offsite, and some mornings before arriving at a park we would go to a buffet or similar for breakfast.) and usually arrive at the parks at around 9:30/10am. Do our fastpasses, go on some of the smaller attractions in between and take advantage of late park hours and we usually do all we want to do and have a great time.

Only one of us is really a morning person (too cheery if you ask me), and Mum and I, although we don't complain about having to be up early normally, don't really want to be up with the sun on holiday. I get very grouchy if I don't get enough sleep!!! (and boy does this show by about day 4/5 of our holiday!)

 

[clutter]

Great advice, thank you! Getting to the parks around 10 or so, coming back around dinner, heading out until closing is exactly what I imagined. We have park hoppers, and I was thinking we could schedule our FP+ for the evening park. Will we still be able to get FP's at the park we hit in the late morning? Are the only FP's available to us the ones we schedule ahead of time?

Is there a reason you head back around dinner? (We're not big swimmers, so the pool wasn't a big draw.) When we went pre-FP+, we'd get to a park anywhere between 10 and noon and pretty much go until bedtime. We usually were on the DDP, so we'd have a late lunch/early dinner. There were really only a few times that we'd go back to the room.

With FP+, I'd grab fastpasses between 12 and 3 or so, then you are free to see if there are other fast passes available there or in another park. But late August, you'd be surprised what you can ride without long lines. Dinnertime is a great time to ride standby - because people do go back for dinner (especially if they were travelling in larger groups), but for just the two of us it was a bonus time. And evenings at non-evening emh parks are also a great time for standby. Even after park closing, we could go to Disney Springs, or play mini-golf. But we found that it was easier to plan only a few necessary things - certain meals, certain rides - and let the rest just play out. The point of your vaca is to spend time with your son, and really some of our best times were spontaneous and unplanned. You're lucky that late august is a great time for that!

 

[clutter]

double post

 

[angierae]

We did a trip with a 15 year old and a 17 year old. We did rope drop exactly once. And that was pre FP+. With FP+, I'd just set my FP for the afternoon and roll with it. What good is a vacation if you're harassing a teenager to get up all morning, and then dragging around a surly, tired teenager? Nope, not my idea of a vacation. I'd rather hit night EMH and sleep in. (We went during Spring Break, and had a LOVELY trip and other than the very first day, we never once hit rope drop.)

 

[disneyvoice]

Let him sleep in while you go do some things he probably wouldn't be interested in doing. He can meet you later on. We do this all the time with our teenage son. When the two of us went together without DH that is exactly what we did. We even did this when we were already in the park together - DS got to ride Space Mountain over and over 500 times and I got to see Hall of Presidents, the Tiki Room, etc.

 

[cinnderly]

Is there a reason you head back around dinner? (We're not big swimmers, so the pool wasn't a big draw.) When we went pre-FP+, we'd get to a park anywhere between 10 and noon and pretty much go until bedtime. We usually were on the DDP, so we'd have a late lunch/early dinner. There were really only a few times that we'd go back to the room.

With FP+, I'd grab fastpasses between 12 and 3 or so, then you are free to see if there are other fast passes available there or in another park. But late August, you'd be surprised what you can ride without long lines. Dinnertime is a great time to ride standby - because people do go back for dinner (especially if they were travelling in larger groups), but for just the two of us it was a bonus time. And evenings at non-evening emh parks are also a great time for standby. Even after park closing, we could go to Disney Springs, or play mini-golf. But we found that it was easier to plan only a few necessary things - certain meals, certain rides - and let the rest just play out. The point of your vaca is to spend time with your son, and really some of our best times were spontaneous and unplanned. You're lucky that late august is a great time for that!

Probably not exactly dinner time. I'm thinking get to park around 10/11, go back to resort around 2/3, head back out around 6/7 for dinner reservation or to grab a quick service meal and stay at park until closing. We are staying at the Poly 8/27-9/2. We like to take advantage of the pool.

 

[alex9179]

By everything I mean the big thrill rides -- SM, EE, RnRC, etc. We have no interest in Ariel, Frozen, etc.

Take a look at Josh's cheat sheets. Just delete what you wouldn't do. For instance, my kids don't care about meet & greets so we fill those slots in with a ride or show in the area. He lists FP+ priorities. Out of the those, pick your first 3 choices keeping in mind the amount of walking between the attractions. Schedule them for when you think you'll arrive. He has some late arrival plans on all but MK, I believe. You'll have a good template on which to build your day. At the end, he lists estimated wait times during operating hours for different crowd levels. Parks won't stay open as late in Aug, so don't plan for 2 am when EMH is only to 11pm.
AK is a big ? until Pandora opens, but I'll include the link. I would think the Banshee ride would be the first one you'd want to book because of it's thrill nature and being new. There's a thread on how people think they'll tackle the park.

Luckily, FP+ is easier to book for 1-2 people. You'll have options, though they may be the less thrilling ones Single rider lines will be helpful, too.

MK http://www.easywdw.com/cheatsheets/mk_cheatsheet_fall_2016.pdf
EP http://www.easywdw.com/cheatsheets/ep_cheatsheet_fall_2016.pdf
HS http://www.easywdw.com/cheatsheets/hs_cheatsheet_fall_2016.pdf
AK http://www.easywdw.com/cheatsheets/ak_cheatsheet_fall_2016.pdf

 

[cinnderly]

Take a look at Josh's cheat sheets. Just delete what you wouldn't do. For instance, my kids don't care about meet & greets so we fill those slots in with a ride or show in the area. He lists FP+ priorities. Out of the those, pick your first 3 choices keeping in mind the amount of walking between the attractions. Schedule them for when you think you'll arrive. He has some late arrival plans on all but MK, I believe. You'll have a good template on which to build your day. At the end, he lists estimated wait times during operating hours for different crowd levels. Parks won't stay open as late in Aug, so don't plan for 2 am when EMH is only to 11pm.
AK is a big ? until Pandora opens, but I'll include the link. I would think the Banshee ride would be the first one you'd want to book because of it's thrill nature and being new. There's a thread on how people think they'll tackle the park.

Luckily, FP+ is easier to book for 1-2 people. You'll have options, though they may be the less thrilling ones Single rider lines will be helpful, too.

MK http://www.easywdw.com/cheatsheets/mk_cheatsheet_fall_2016.pdf
EP http://www.easywdw.com/cheatsheets/ep_cheatsheet_fall_2016.pdf
HS http://www.easywdw.com/cheatsheets/hs_cheatsheet_fall_2016.pdf
AK http://www.easywdw.com/cheatsheets/ak_cheatsheet_fall_2016.pdf

Ahhh, perfect! This is what I'm looking for, thank you!