Come on, 'fess up: You don't get to the parks at opening either.

[anneofgreengables]

It's hard to get to the parks for opening, much less EMH, when you're coming from the West Coast. The West Coast is three hours behind. So a 9 a.m. opening at the park is 6 a.m. West Coast time, which means we have to get up 4:30 a.m. West Coast time if we want to catch the bus in time for opening. We have two little ones and I don't know if I can wake them up at 4:30 a.m. (West Coast time).

 

[kesha]

We've only been to one opening and that was at AK. We're more of the stay till closing people. We never set an alarm while we are on vacation. We still get to do everything we want and have a Great Time doing it.

 

[TreslovesWDW]

I would love to get there at opening ,but with 4 kids and a husband that are soooo hard to wake it is impossible.The earliest was 9:00 for CRT breakfast.It was nice to be there early.But I also feel that I run the risk of everyone being tired and cranky if we start to early.

 

[jebond]

We have found that getting there for opening makes the BIGGEST difference in our day! If we can ride a few of the "big ones" before the real crowds get there, the rest of our day runs really smoothly with little wait for any ride. We've even been 2nd in line at the turnstiles before waiting. I guess we're some of the crazy ones (especially since we're from the West and have 2 kids to get going, too!)!

 

[airtime]

My family is composed entirely of night owls, and we HATE getting up early. Nevertheless, we do it, because we know our choice is getting out of bed and missing the crowds, or sleeping in and waiting our day away in the heat. It's an easy choice.

We just take an afternoon nap, which is almost as good as sleeping in!


Tim, who wishes someone else in the family would take up the mantle of trip nazi! (Hey, someone has to get them out of bed!)

 

[kparc]

I am not a morning person. . . except on vacation! I was shocked by how much we could get done when we arrived at park opening. I am now a faithful observer of arriving before park opening.

That's me, too! We always go at the end of the summer so we have to get back into the routine of getting up early for work or school anyhow!

 

[Amy&Dan]

In five trips to WDW I think we got there at opening once. It was great but it never happened again! The two hour time difference is just killer for our family. And at Christmas when MK had EMH every day that week, meaning we would have to get there at 5:00 a.m. our time, well forget it! I do TGM, follow his advice, save one thing, and we still see and do everything we want to. One night during our December trip we slept in, hung out at the pool, got to MK at 7:30 P.M., and stayed until 4:00 a.m. Now that was great! Too bad they aren't always open til 4:00 a.m., my family would love that. Now at Disneyland, where the time difference works in our favor, thats a different story.

 

[keishashadow]

We used to be @ the gates an hour early (even on an EE day); I've lowered my standards to 1/2 hour .

Family quit whining long ago when they realized that we could "do" 5 or 6 attractions in the first hour, then be deep in the park & able to pace ourselves for the rest of the day.

Of course, we're usually snoring by 9:00 or 10:00 p.m. - just like @ home.

 

[kimberlym4]

This is a great thread. Talk about taking the pressure off!! Thank you everyone who sleeps in! We are going to try to do openings but I have planned only every other day in the parks so we can rest on the off days.

 

[Deb & Bill]

We always hit the parks at opening. You can get a lot of attractions in when the crowds are a bit smaller. We usually head for the resort or to swim about 11:30 or 12 Noon. We don't stay all day.

 

[PrincessKitty1]

Never! Never! Never! On non-arrival days, we get there around 11 AM. On arrival day ( we live 2 hrs 15 minutes away by car) we usually arrive bwtween 11 AM and 4 PM.

If we go during hot weather, we've been known to not hit the parks until 5-6 PM. We'll have dinner and hope the sun has gone down.

We're just not morning people.

 

[Izeesmom]

I am not a planning person as far as what park....but I would like to see the opening of MK just once. Last time we were there we slept late and stayed out late. Worked for us.....

 

[ryley26]

Always there at opening unless we plan to get there late and stay out late. WE get the big rides done and coast til lunch adn leave and return for evenings. My brothers and I went on my 40th birthday trip last week One brother had never seen the park opening in all his trip b/c his family can't get ready in time. MY one brother told him to enjoy the exp. B/c he never see it again.

 

[HeatherMo]

Okay early birds- does Disney have character wake up calls? We're staying at All Stars Movies in June and would love to have Pooh wake us- any chances? Also if we go to AK Lodge for dinner in the evening, could we stay and use the pool or is this generally frowned upon? Thanks for the help!

 

[nliedel]

Okay early birds- does Disney have character wake up calls? We're staying at All Stars Movies in June and would love to have Pooh wake us- any chances? Also if we go to AK Lodge for dinner in the evening, could we stay and use the pool or is this generally frowned upon? Thanks for the help!

Yep we had Mickey and Stich. One morning my son accidently hung up right away and there were a hundred tears till I called and they set another one for us. This was the 8 year old, "I am too old for Characters Mom" boy.

 

[riopooh]

Personally, I'm a big fan of waking at the crack of noon and then closing down the parks at night!

 

[RobInBigKC]

Okay early birds- does Disney have character wake up calls? We're staying at All Stars Movies in June and would love to have Pooh wake us- any chances? Also if we go to AK Lodge for dinner in the evening, could we stay and use the pool or is this generally frowned upon? Thanks for the help!

Disney does have character wake up calls but I don't think you can pick the character -- at least not at the Value resorts (maybe at the Deluxe ones you can because I have read references to picking your character in some posts about the CR? ). When we stayed at ASSpo a couple of weeks ago, we had a different character from one day to the next with some repeats (I think we got Stitch and Mickey a couple of times each) but I don't remember ever getting a call from Pooh.

If you're staying at ASMo, you can swim at any of the pools at any of the All-Star Resorts but you are not supposed to swim at any of the other pools on property.

-- Rob

 

[HeatherMo]

Thank you.

 

[kizmac]

We keep trying and we are getting better! This past year we made it about 15 minutes after opening at the earliest a couple times. Much better than our usual 1-2 hr after opening. So there is hope for us! Maybe this year we will do it! We are up plenty early, but for some reason can just not make it there. Kinda sad, but I always seem to run 10-15 minutes late for everything I do in life.

 

[hookedup]

I don't think we have ever opened a park before at WDW. We have at DL.

We normally try to get to the park around 10ish then we close them down.

But I guess coming from the "Left" coast the time difference starts to really get to me. Getting up at 8am in FL is 5am to my body

So true! Getting up at WDW is brutal when you are on West Coast time still. My poor ds - he is not a morning person and getting him up before 9:00 was frightening for us all! LOL!

When we go to DL we always get there before opening and man what a difference it makes to beat the crowds!

Our upcoming trip to WDW we are going to try to do it if it kills us!