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

[Alice42]

DH and I never get to the parks at opening. We like to sleep in when we are on vacation and enjoy a nice breakfast. I love relaxing at the resort in the morning while everyone else makes a mad dash to the parks!

 

[TLC371]

We are both morning people, so we get up and like to get going...but that doesn't mean that we are there opening the parks...we usually get there usually a half an hour after the park opens or so.

 

[Leota]

We always hit each Park pre-opening at least once on a trip, esp. MK. We have hit every E attraction & many smaller ones just as the hordes arrive to face those nice, hour long waits. We leave the Park to the crowds & come back to close it later.


Now, if we do Pleasure Island the night before, we don't even contemplate a Park until after lunch.


For us, a blend of waking up early (we wake up naturally very early anyways) and late night/sleep in works best for us.

 

[kellyanne731]

We're generally there within an hour of opening. For our next trip, I'd like to actually BE there for at least one opening "show."

Since we'll only crawl out of bed for one, which park opening do you think we should see?

 

[DisneyDreamer8]

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

 

[NMAmy]

DH and I are early birds and almost always make opening. This last trip, I went with dd, 15, and a friend. They did manage to make it within the first 15 minutes of opening which was pretty good--considering how much I was having to crack the whip for them to consider themselves beautiful enough to face the world. Sheesh, you're 15--you're never going to look this good again, girls! Plus, you'll be on a rollercoaster right at the beginning of the day--all hair styling will be gone within the first half hour.

Next time, DH will come with us. He and I will hit the parks early and let the girls catch up to us once they're done primping. Less frustrating for all of us.

 

[grimley1968]

Not a morning guy here. We're lucky to get to any park before 10 AM. It doesn't bother us in the least. We're on vacation! I want my rest. It doesn't keep us from doing everything we want to do, though.

 

[civileng68]

We go to Disney about once per month but take 2 big vacations there per year.

During our longer vacations, when we first started them, we used to get up early and go go go to get to the parks before they opened or right at opening.

What we noticed was.....at the end of our vacations, we started ending the vacations earlier and earlier so we could hang out at home for a few days to relax before vacation ended. Then we noticed when we got back to work that we felt like our true vacation (relaxation) was missing.

So we've learned to take it easy.........I work to hard to not sleep in on vacation. So we like to take our longer vacation during the March times when it's most crowded (because the parks stay open later). We like the parks at night best.............so we go (even though crowded) and just sleep in until 10:00 or so, get up, chill out and get ready, eat lunch and get to the parks around 1:00 and stay until around 11:00.

We used to do the leaving at 11:00 thing and returning in the evening but if you dont stay on-site, leaving and returning can be more tiring than just showing up later and relaxing.

One thing we've learned to do is to just take it easy (we dont have kids). We just go in and sit on a bench a while and just enjoy the atmosphere.

 

[RobInBigKC]

In past trips, we never made park openings but two weeks ago, we made the park opening five out of six mornings. The only day we didn't we were at Chef Mickey's for a 8:15 character breakfast.

I was prompted to do so by the tips on the DIS and was so glad we did. It made a huge difference. We walked right on most rides that first hour (had to wait 20 - 25 minutes for Dumbo though) and had 5- or 10-minute waits the second hour.

On Saturday, 2/18, the first two hours at MK (9am - 11am) and the last three hours at MK (9pm - 12am) were the only times of the day when we didn't feel like we were in a can of sardines, especially when we were in Fantasyland.

The opening pre-show at the MK was great fun also. We saw it twice in the same week and enjoyed it both times.

-- Rob

 

[RescueRanger]

We're early birds. We always get there at opening. We can get so much more done in the mornings and we like our afternoon resort breaks. But like Bill said, sleep in pleeeaase...just means smaller lines for us.

 

[nliedel]

Early to bed, early to rise. I am like those ads with the kids and parents who can't sleep!

 

[HydroGuy]

Actually, we do open the place, but we hope that folks like yourself are in the majority, starting tomorrow!

Bill From PA

I agree! I think everyone should get to the parks 1-2 hours after opening.

 

[WDWNicole]

If DD wakes up early, we're there early. If not, then we get there when we get there. We've never had to wait in terrible lines either way and the whole day is more fun if DD has had her sleep.

I could have written the above myself
There's no way I would wake up my kids.

 

[jonestavern]

We do like to be there standing right next to the rope chatting with fellow early birds & the CMs! Way too excited to be in bed!
DH is usually up & out to work by 4:30 am so he considers 6 the height of luxury~
We have a big ts lunch maybe a little more park & head back to the resort to swim, rent a boat or bikes, take a short nap & head out to the parks, usually until they shoo us away!

For a few days each trip, I admit to going later in the day & meeting up with DH & DS17, especially this last trip when I was under the weather for a few days
I poop out a lot faster than they do.

Jean

 

[tomerin]

i think that in all of our WDW vacations we actually made one opening. i have tried in vain but with a DW and 2 DS's who are teens and love to sleep i guess the only way ill ever get to an opening again is to go solo. being an early riser does have its benifits. i was able to go and enjoy and explore each resort we have stayed at. its kids of surreal walking around a failry deserted resort when just 6 hours earlier it was quite a good amount of activity

well on our next trip i told them that i will be going to open each park at least once because i want to go and take some picture with my new camera and tripod. this way they can enjoy breakfast and just cacth up with me later.

 

[aterriq]

I and one DD are early birds. DW can get up early when the occasion calls and WDW will be calling. (Those years in the army helped). One DD likes to sleep but were talking maybe another half hour than we would like.

We try to make it easy with showers the night before, clothes laid out. Wake up, do our business, change, eat in the room and off we go within about 30-45 minutes.

The only opening we missed was AK and were about 10 minutes off.

Now if we closed the parks also, I could see us being miserable by the end of the trip.

 

[islandbeachnut]

We slept in every day of our last trip in February. The sleep was just too good & even my kids slept in . We had plenty of time to enjoy the parks without dragging our butts out of bed too early. We usually arrived within an hour of park opening & we NEVER made morning EMH!!

 

[Micca]

My name is Micca, and I'm a recovering park commando. For many years we were at the parks gates prior to opening. Some 30 trips later, it's no longer any big deal when we arrive, although we still arrive within the first hour of opening.

 

[Kitty 34]

Well half my family (me, DH and youngest DS) are the early birds and have done many an EE morning! My other two sons who are 26 and 19 this trip will definetly sleep in. That's why we get two rooms!!

 

[kath1210]

For us, it's not vacation if we "have to" do much of anything, especially getting up early! We would much rather sleep in, have a leisurely breakfast and get there when we get there. WDW will still be there for our next trip! We try to go at off-times, so the crowds are not bad no matter when we get there.