Closing the Parks instead of RD?

[erineab]

We will be visiting August 22-31. We are die hard rope drop enthusiasts, but I am considering a change of pace this time around, primarily because I am concerned about the August heat and think it might be easier to tour the parks when the sun is down. Because all of our trips have been with young children, we have never closed a park. Are the wait times significantly lower during the last few hours or not necessarily? MK is currently scheduled to close at 10 each night. We have also never taken advantage of extra magic hours. Is it worth it to try out evening extra magic hours or are the crowds no lighter? Any thoughts on closing the parks instead of opening them would be greatly appreciated!

 

[mombrontrent]

This is how we tour. My family is a family of night owls (well besides me, but what does my opinion matter). I don't even bother trying to get my family to a rope drop, we have never seen one. In general we head to the park between 10-12 but sometimes we do something else during the day and don't head into the park until 4-5pm. We stay until close wether that is 8pm or midnight. If we started early we might leave for an afternoon swim and dinner and then park hop. In general the closer to close you get the shorter the lines are, especially if you ride during parades or fireworks. We LOVE nights in the park, it's cooler and the atmosphere is more relaxed and exciting to us. We love squeezing in one more ride before the cutoff. My kids are older (15, 12 and 8) and have no trouble staying out late. This plan would not have worked so well on our first trip in 2008 but it's perfect for us now.

 

[BuzzinDownToDisney]

We are gonna be there the same time (20th-30th) and were there last year the same week. We found RD to be very tolerable regarding the heat, by 11 it was hot though, so we usually bailed till evening then. Night time was still very hot and the crowds on the weekdays were manageable, but on the weekends it was very crowded in the evening.

 

[Anniefrances]

Since transitioning to FP+ this has become our standard strategy (me and 2 kids ages 9 and 11). We sleep in, start the day around 11 AM with a long, leisurely swim and brunch, then enter the parks around 4:00 PM until closing, with a nice sit down dinner ADR. We schedule FP for within the first few hours of park arrival and find that waits for non-FP attractions greatly decrease over the course of the evening. It's also really easy to catch the 2nd parade at MK this way (we tend to catch Wishes only once per trip). We also have been going earlier in the summer (June, July--not August), so there are almost always extended hours, along the line of 2:00 AM closing, at least for MK. One of our most favorite things is repeatedly riding an attraction (e.g. Buzz, Dumbo, BTMR) toward the end of the night with no wait in between.

I realize this might not work for everyone, but for me it takes the pressure off of forcing kids to get up early and also lets us escape the hottest part of the day in the parks. I find that I relax more now on our WDW trips than in the days prior to FP+. I'm certain that starting the day poolside contributes to this.

 

[mullysisters]

This is only how I do it and I'm a solo. We get up very early at home so I can sleep in at Disney and still get to RD. I wouldn't miss it. I count on families not wanting to make it, especially EMH RD. I love being in the parks in the morning especially MK/AK. I ride standby till about 11am then I go back to the resort for a siesta, or I may go shopping or for a lunch at another resort/DTD. I go to another park in the afternoon/evening depending on how late it stays open. I use my FP+ here. I love Epcot late at night and find I can everything again after 10pm. I love MK at night but it remains busy especially on Sat/Sunday nights. Going early and staying late is my touring style, if I had to do one or the other I would probably go early to MK/AK and stay late at Epcot and HS.
I now find early May the best time for me, I don't find it too crowded, weather great, a reward for surviving the winter. I hope it all works out for your family.

 

[kwdw]

I went last August and I'm usually a die hard RD person. By 11 am, it was too hot for me. So, I switched to the arrive at 4 pm strategy and close the park, like you are thinking about. It worked for me. Just book your FPs for the early evening.

It was more crowded at night than early morning and getting around during the MSEP a and Wishes at MK is a pain, but the shade/no sun was a huge benefit. You gotta plan your parks based on hours open though! AK always closes early....

I never thought I do this, I'm such a morning person, but I couldn't take the heat midday.

 

[Chitownpeeps91]

EMH times are great! No fast passes. So if you want to ride things you did not get fast passes for EMH is the time.

When we were there last week we had no EMH in the evenings so most nights even very late after 11 rides were packed with fast pass plus folks. Fast pass plus I believe goes to the park closes

 

[BuzzinDownToDisney]

EMH times are great! No fast passes. So if you want to ride things you did not get fast passes for EMH is the time.

When we were there last week we had no EMH in the evenings so most nights even very late after 11 rides were packed with fast pass plus folks. Fast pass plus I believe goes to the park closes

This was our experience as well. The hours prior to the EMH at the MK were absolutely slammed. We waited an hour for BTMRR after Wishes. However after midnight it (and much of the rest of the park) were walk on.

 

[BelleBriarRose]

Evening EMH in Magic Kingdom are the best!! Whenever I go, crowds clear out significantly after the fireworks and then again after the park closes and those who can't take advantage of EMH leave. We did Space Mountain and other headliners as walk-ons this way, and accomplished more in just a couple EMH than we did all day! Plus, I love Magic Kingdom at night. I always plan to close the park this way!

 

[DisneyPiPhi]

I love being in the parks when they close! It's been since college for the MK (that was fun - EMH until 2:00 AM with my best friend senior year) but I have been in Epcot when it's closing many, many times and I just love it. I can't wait until my daughter is older and we can tour this way.

 

[sdomino11]

Never been to RD because we're night owls. During planning for our upcoming May trip, I thought it might be worth doing one RD at MK. So I dumped the attractions I wanted into a touring plan to begin at rope drop. It had us accomplishing everything we wanted to do in five hours. I thought that was great! Show up for RD, stay till lunch, go back to the hotel to swim! Sounds good, right? Well, I then dumped all the same attractions into a touring plan beginning after lunch time and including a dinner ADR. Turns out, if you subtract the time for the ADR, the afternoon plan had us covering the EXACT same attractions as the morning plan in exactly the same amount of time. So I can keep sleeping in and enjoying all the beautiful sights of the parks at night! Love the evening EMH so much! I agree with others who've said their families enjoy back to back walk on rides just before the park closes.

 

[mrzrich]

We also love this approach when touring AK. Arrive after 2 when everybody else is leaving

 

[Retro Magic]

We rarely if ever Rope Drop. Usually I will do it at least once at Animal Kingdom because I love being there when the park opens to the Circle of Life. Otherwise, we love the nights! So much more peaceful.

 

[kaetra]

How do they keep off site guests from staying for evening EMH?

 

[Figmentmommy]

How do they keep off site guests from staying for evening EMH?

Technically offsite guests can stay and wander around, but magicbands/cards need to be scanned at the rides so they will not be permitted on if they are not staying onsite.