Any RD people switch it up?

[eeyoresmom]

We are a diehard RD family. We are there for RD every day, break after lunch at the resort and return around 5 pm for dinner, fireworks etc. We are bringing a first timer in 2 days (!) She is a teenager that has a really hard time getting up in the morning. I am thinking of switching up a few days for her comfort and just to see if I like it.....Has anyone switched or ocassionally switched from doing RD to going to the parks from mid afternoon and staying to close? How did/do you like it? Are some parks better suited for this schedule and any tips for making the best of this kind of touring?

 

[grossmansr]

We are NOT morning people, so we definitely like to switch it up. Magic Kingdom is usually opened the latest, and the last hour or so can be very productive ride-wise. When most people are watching fireworks/parades and leaving, rides are practically walk-on. I also love the atmosphere at Magic Kingdom after dark.

 

[davkata]

I would stick with RD if at all possible. Although if it was at a not so busy time, it may work. Perhaps the teen can use the mid-day pool/resort break to nap, that's what my DD16 did! We were there over President's week and found it manageable doing RD (or very close to it at least) and then mid-day break and we used FP+ at a different park later in the day. On our departure day we did AK early, but not RD just to do safari, then went to MK where we had our 3 FP+ and FP for lunch at BOG. Walking around MK that day, (we arrived around 10/10:30) was a madhouse. We were commenting to ourselves why hadn't we seen these crowds all week? Then it dawned on us we hadn't really been in the parks mid-day for the most part and defintiely not at MK mid-day. Since it was our departure day we didn't take a break that day, so we spent the whole day pretty much in MK until 4. SB times were ridiculously long, we used our time to do the lesser attractions we wouldn't have done (Stitch, Philharmagic, Carousel of Progress, People Mover) and then used our FP+'s. I would stick with RD if you are going at a busy time. MK to me, for the time of year we go, is definitely a RD or late night park unless you are using your FP+ or don't mind the waits. The others you could get away with not being there at RD. We did single rider lines at Epcot for TT and never waited more than 30 mins or so, RnRC at DHS single rider was less than 40 most times and Everest, single rider was always minimal. Re-reading my post, my overall comment would be for MK, stick to RD, the others, if you can utilize single rider you can make it work. Enjoy!!

 

[Networth]

Yup I think going "hard" every day is not a vacation. Their will be days we arrive for RD or 5 mins after and those were we don't arrive till 10am or don't go to a park at all. We enjoy dinner so we typically rode drop a park leave after lunch and lounge at the hotel until dinner. Than go to a park after dinner if it EMH and were in the mood. I would say the parks consists of 50-60% of our trip.

Example: Wake up at the GF, monorail to MK for rope drop. Breakfast at Starbucks. Ride rides, see shows until about 1:00 Lunch at BoG. Leave MK, back at the Grand by 2:00 rest/relax/shower/rent a water mouse etc. Leave for dinner by 5:30 for 7:00 reservation at Yatchsmen. After dinner walk over to Epcot for their EMH and Illuminations, no rides just drinks and shopping in WS. Monorail back to GF. Bed I litteraly described what we do on a Friday in WDW. Point being WDW is more than just rides for us.

 

[kmb584]

We've done it, but I still prefer RD. I'm a morning person and awake by 6:00am at the absolute latest every day. I'm also a "get up, get ready, let's go!" type of person so sitting in a hotel room while waiting for others isn't my favorite thing in the world.

 

[loves to dive]

The only time I've done RD was on accident. I'm a morning person, DS and DIL are not so once or twice I was up and decided to go to a park and hit rope drop. Have done early EMH once or twice before fast pass but we prefer late afternoon/night EMH. With fastpass + we tend to book our fast passes later in the day, when I go solo I tend to do it on the fly while in the park.

 

[stormer]

We are not morning people and as my boys are getting older it is harder to get them up early. Now we do two days each trip that are not RD. One is always MK because it is usually open late. When we go, AK and HS usually are not open as late so we stick to RD. We do Epcot two days. One day we do RD. The other we plan for the day they offer evening EMH and we sleep in, go for a swim, and arrive after lunch. We do World a Showcase first and then hit the front of the park where there is more to do during EMH. It works for us, especially now that we can book FP+ for Soarin. Test track doesn't seem to have as long of a line as Soarin late at night. If it is too long we do single rider.

 

[JennyDrake]

You are going during a VERY busy time of year. If you do not do RD, you will need to adjust your expectations of what you hope/plan to accomplish. IF the teenager is YOUR guest, then she should adapt to your schedule--or at least that's what my mother taught me......

But to better answer your question, MK is best adapted to staying late as it tends to stay open until the wee hours--but don't expect a HUGE drop in crowds. As far as "mixing it up," if you stay at MK until midnight, how ready is *anyone* going to be for RD the next day??? _I_ would do much better with a consistent schedule of either all early mornings or all late nights.

 

[Canuck16]

We are a RD family and would never think of arriving at the parks later than opening........but we are early risers anyways so it's easy for us

 

[lacrosse_lady72]

We switch it up often. We have to. While we're generally morning people, between the time change (9am in FL is 6am for us), and the being out late the night before, it's hard sometimes. Typically we do RD once per park. And we don't plan on doing one the morning after MNSSHP.

I'm not sure if you'll be able to get a non-morning person up early without some bribing. I know it's easy to say just wake up early but I used to not be a morning person when I was a teenager and there's nothing that would wake me up.

 

[XYSRUS]

When DH and I go alone we always do RD. When the kids are with us, well, teenage boys love to sleep. They're just on a different schedule. We are usually in the parks by 11am. That being said they can can stay up most of the night. We end up park hopping to the latest park and when we come back to the resort they are up awhile still. My advice is to go with the group's flow. Every trip is different and every trip is fun! Don't sweat the small stuff!

 

[finedice]

I think it's something you should discuss in advance with her. As a first timer, she likely has no idea as to the advantages, but you will also want to feel her out as to her attitude toward it. Will it be uncomfortable? I would hate to ever push someone else's kid into an uncomfortable place. She will have a better time if the schedule allows relaxation by the pool in the afternoon. I would guess most teenage girls love that...

 

[ellie05]

We switch it up once and only because my father in law was super late. We will never do that again! It makes a huge difference.

 

[tcherjen]

We sometimes switch it up. Like next Saturday MK has EMH in the evening. We don't have anything scheduled to late in the day at HS.

 

[senadler]

My kids are definitely not morning people. The only park we consistently do a RD at is one day at the MK. There are just too many attractions there to get to them all without the low crowds at RD. We also go to the MK another day during the trip for a late night. For the other parks, we typically do not get there until after 10 AM. I make sure to review the crowd calendars when scheduling parks and use FP+ for the must do attractions. Since we go at lower attendance times, this works well for us.

 

[eeyoresmom]

Thanks everyone. Since we are going at a busy time I decided to stick to RD except for one day in the middle where we get to Epcot around 2 and stay for Illuminatiins. The up side to this is we get to see some of the WS entertainment that we usually miss. We take long afternoon breaks so sge can nap then.

 

[Tarheel girl 1975]

I wouldn't say that we are morning people, but we generally hit rope drop. On our past two trips we added in a few morning EMH too. On our next trip, we are going to switch it up and do two nights at MK with PM EMH. We'll sleep in and sleep, maybe hit DTD, and get to MK around 4. We plan on following up one late night with late arrival at AK the next day. I figure, we can FP the 3 headliners we want and the park usually starts to empty out after 3 anyway. The other late night is the night before we leave, so we can sleep in a little on that day too. I'm a little nervous about it since it's such a change to our normal planning strategy, but I'm hoping it will work out well.

 

[Magic Band Defender]

Perhaps just go to the park that opens at 9 without EMH? That way you can still do rope drop without getting up at the crack of dawn?

 

[BuzzandAriel'smom]

How can anyone sleep in? It's Disney World!!!

 

[grossmansr]

MK is open till 1 am every night the week that we're going. Since we prefer late nights anyway we will definitely be sleeping in.