A more relaxed strategy?

[jess2022]

Is it possible to plan a more relaxed park strategy? I can't see my family getting out for rope drop, waiting in lines for transportation, then standing in a crowd at the park and racing to our first rides. Are their alternate strategies? While I'd prefer not to Genie+ every day for a family of 5, I'm open to using it strategically. I'm also fine with advanced planning. I just know we won't enjoy racing around once there. We're thinking 6-7 days in the parks, and not doing park hoppers, as that just sounds like it will make it busier.

 

[snikki]

You can definitely do that. We do 8-9 day trips and we RD each park once (we didn't even RD DHS last trip) and then sleep in and start late the rest of the days.

RD for us is arriving 5-10 minutes before opening or as they are letting guests in. We don't arrive an hour early and do all of that.

On the days we start late we close the parks down. We also close the parks down on RD days but we do midday breaks.

You can get so much done at night. Wait times are super inflated late at night. One night TSMM was posted at 50 minutes and it was a walk on. No one was in the actual queue.

I would definitely buy G+ for DHS late start day and start stacking at 7 am. I would also buy G+ for MK day. It is up to you on AK and Epcot days. We had it for each day of our trip and utilized it well but I can see going to AK and Epcot without it and fully enjoying our day.

 

[jess2022]

Thank you! It's good to hear that not everyone RD all the time. This will be our family's first trip (though my husband has been before years ago), and we really want to experience Disney, but want to be able to slow down.

 

[loves to dive]

I would rethink the park hoppers, I know everyone says you spend too much time hopping but it really isn't as bad as people make it seem. We have always had hoppers, I have been twice since Genie+ and have not used it and have ridden everything I wanted to ride. Note I said everything I wanted to ride, not every ride there. I rarely rope drop, rarely do EE and rarely stay to even park close much less the late hours allowed for deluxe guests. I don't plan anything, not even ADRs, we make them day of while walking around. We get away with that because we are open to new things, don't have to do the "must do" don't need character meals and can eat at different hours. With hoppers we can just hop to a different park to eat.

What I tend to do. Say I have a park reservation on Tuesday for HS. It's Monday around 4 or so (I've gone back to the resort to rest a few hours). I head over to HS, maybe ride a ride, get something to eat and ride a few more rides. Depending on the time of year and how late the park is open, I've usually knocked out at least two, if not 3 rides one of which is usually Rise, eaten something and done some shopping. Now on Tuesday, the day of my HS reservation I'm not in a hurry to get there because I've already knocked out a few rides. I can now finish up whatever rides I want to ride, eat, shop, maybe see a few shows. I always take a break, usually some time between noon and one or so I go back to the resort and stay there for a few hours. I always go to a different park after my rest. This works really well if I have more than 4 days, that way by day 5 I can decide what I've missed and go from there. I have changed park reservations mid-trip, I have hopped into a park after 2 for just a hour or two then hopped over to another park. With 6 or 7 days, you should have no problems. If a line looks too long move on and you can always come back to it another day. I don't know how much of a difference hoppers would be compared to Genie+ every day but I always buy my tickets from UCT so there is a discount there.

 

[jess2022]

I would rethink the park hoppers, I know everyone says you spend too much time hopping but it really isn't as bad as people make it seem. We have always had hoppers, I have been twice since Genie+ and have not used it and have ridden everything I wanted to ride. Note I said everything I wanted to ride, not every ride there. I rarely rope drop, rarely do EE and rarely stay to even park close much less the late hours allowed for deluxe guests. I don't plan anything, not even ADRs, we make them day of while walking around. We get away with that because we are open to new things, don't have to do the "must do" don't need character meals and can eat at different hours. With hoppers we can just hop to a different park to eat.

What I tend to do. Say I have a park reservation on Tuesday for HS. It's Monday around 4 or so (I've gone back to the resort to rest a few hours). I head over to HS, maybe ride a ride, get something to eat and ride a few more rides. Depending on the time of year and how late the park is open, I've usually knocked out at least two, if not 3 rides one of which is usually Rise, eaten something and done some shopping. Now on Tuesday, the day of my HS reservation I'm not in a hurry to get there because I've already knocked out a few rides. I can now finish up whatever rides I want to ride, eat, shop, maybe see a few shows. I always take a break, usually some time between noon and one or so I go back to the resort and stay there for a few hours. I always go to a different park after my rest. This works really well if I have more than 4 days, that way by day 5 I can decide what I've missed and go from there. I have changed park reservations mid-trip, I have hopped into a park after 2 for just a hour or two then hopped over to another park. With 6 or 7 days, you should have no problems. If a line looks too long move on and you can always come back to it another day. I don't know how much of a difference hoppers would be compared to Genie+ every day but I always buy my tickets from UCT so there is a discount there.

thanks for the detailed response! I’m not against park hoppers. We just were thinking they’d make us feel busier but I see your point. I never thought about comparing the cost to genie +. I’m guessing the hoppers are a bit less. Thanks again! It’s really good to hear there are other ways to enjoy the parks.

 

[MickeyMice]

everyone's definition of "relaxed" is different, haha.

i like rope dropping, especially at MK, because we can knock out a lot of stuff early that would have long waits later. by around noon, the park is filling up and it's getting hot and i want nothing more than to head back for a nap or pool break. by 4-6pm, i'm ready to close out another park.

 

[bluezy]

We were there in June 2022; party of 11 extended family members -- 9 adults, a 5yo and a 5 mo. (I will mention that the family unit with the kids sometimes kept a slightly different schedule than the rest of us). We had 8-day Park Hopper tickets and had Genie+ every day (back when you could buy it in advance for your length of stay). We didn't do any ADRs on this trip so that we could just focus on rides. If we had to plan around ADRs, we might have had a different strategy for the parks. We only rope dropped MK, DHS, & AK. Most of our group stayed at AoA or Pop so having the Skyliner for DHS & EP was super convenient. Here's the gist of what our week looked like:

Day 1 (arrived around 11:00 a.m.) - Got to EP around 2:00, stayed until about 8:00.

Day 2 Rope dropped DHS. Stayed until about noon and then went back to the resort for a few hours. Back at DHS by 3:00. Stayed until about 8:00.

Day 3 Rope dropped MK. Stayed until about 1:00. Back to resort for a few hours. Returned to MK around 5:00, stayed until closing (watched fireworks).

Day 4 Slept in and got to EP around 10:00. Stayed all day (watched fireworks).
Day 5 Rope dropped AK. Stayed until about 2:00. Back to resort. Hopped to MK in the evening to ride rides while everyone else was crammed in front of the castle to watch fireworks. Stayed until closing.

Day 6 Slept in. Went to DS for a few hours. Went to MK later in the afternoon and hopped to EP in the evening. Left EP before fireworks (saw some of them from Skyliner).

Day 7 Slept in. Went to DHS late morning to ride ROTR and TSM. Hopped over to AK by early afternoon to ride FOP. Back to the resort for a few hours. Went to MK in the evening.

Day 8 Slept in. Packed up the room. Went to MK around 11:00 for about 2 hours to do some Photopass pictures and get one last ride on POTC. Had lunch at the Poly. Hopped to EP until about 8:00.

We bought ILLs for 1 or 2 things every day and had several LLs every day. On the days we rope-dropped, we didn't head to the headliner ride at RD. We bought ILLs for RoTR, 7DMT, and FOP on our rope drop days so that we could head to the not-as-popular rides during those low-wait times. For example, on our DHS rope-drop day, we went to ToT and then MMRR -- got on both of those before the park opened to the general public. At MK, we did PP and IASW (that was a mistake -- I wouldn't do that one during rope drop time, the ride is too long and eats up too much time. We clearly weren't thinking straight that morning.) This was probably our most relaxing trip ever. We used to be rope-drop-everyday people but gave that up a few trips ago. Even when we do rope drop, we almost always head back to the resort for a few hours in the afternoon and then return to a park in the evening. We're creatures of habit, so I'm not sure *we* could give up our park hoppers, but I do think it's possible to plan a trip without them...especially if you've never been to Disney or have only been once or twice or have young kids who need to stay on a schedule. There's a lot to do in each park and if you know you can't hop to a different park, you'll plan accordingly. We like having the flexibility of park hoppers so we can just go to a park for a few hours to hit a specific ride or two and then hop to another park to do the same thing. I don't think I could give up Genie+, though. We found it was worth every penny for us. Yes, it's expensive. We were paying for a family of 4, so G+ and ILLs cost us over $800 for our immediate family -- and that was before dynamic pricing went into effect. It could easily cost us another $3-400 now. But, it also allowed us to be super efficient in our touring. We planned an 8-day trip because we hadn't been there in 4 years and knew we had a lot of "catching up" to do -- lots of new things since our last trip. With Genie+, we had actually experienced all of the new stuff and all of our favorites/must-do's by day 5 of our trip. The last 3 days were spent just going back to parks and hitting things a 2nd (or 3rd) time or doing things we didn't think we'd get to do on this trip. We will probably do a 6 or 7 day trip next time just knowing that Genie+ will help us accomplish a lot during our stay.

 

[JodyK]

I think with 6-7 days in park it is a lot easier to have a more relaxed strategy because you won't just have 1 day/time in a park and have to get everything done. If this is your first trip you'll learn a lot in your first few days you can apply to your later days.

I think factors like the age of your family, weather, time of year visiting all contribute to what the best relaxed strategy is for your family. Some examples:

* You have young kids who are too young for the big-ticket thrill attractions so the time saved with RD may not even make sense for you. On the other hand we had my young nieces this recent trip who tended to wake up early anyway so we would get to the park at opening / early entry and not be at the front, front for like a true rope drop racing to 7DMT but we'd just head over to Dumbo so they could ride it like 5x in a row with no line and that made them happy. So I think that's more of a relaxed rope drop.
* You don't think your family is up for being up early to rope drop but your trip is in July and you realize you aren't about the humidity and mid-day sun and you want to do everything you can to avoid it so RD may be a consideration. On the other hand, maybe your kids are teenagers so 3/4PM - 10PM everyday and waking up late and pool day till then sounds great to your family.

In the end it is your vacation though and although it is hard I think your family should do the things you want to do and what is fun for you.

 

[kylenne]

thanks for the detailed response! I’m not against park hoppers. We just were thinking they’d make us feel busier but I see your point. I never thought about comparing the cost to genie +. I’m guessing the hoppers are a bit less. Thanks again! It’s really good to hear there are other ways to enjoy the parks.

I think it also depends on where you're staying. If you will be at a resort where you can walk to a park, or will have quick access to one by Skyliner, I think it's a no brainer to get hoppers if you can afford it. We generally stay in the MK area or at the Epcot resorts and so it makes a lot of sense to have hoppers. We rarely hop directly from one park to another, rather we will start the day in one park, head back to the resort for lunch/pool/nap, then head to a different park in the evening. No busy feeling. Especially if you're staying at the Crescent Lake resorts. Once on a stupid busy Food & Wine weekend I did Epcot in the morning just to hit the booths, but after a nap and dinner at Crew's Cup lounge in YC I decided on a whim to walk over to HS to see Xmas decorations rather than fight Saturday night F&W crowds at Epcot. That's the other benefit to hoppers, you can always go to another park if the one you're in gets to be too much.