Do you ever hit rope drop at a park, leave, then go back to same park at night?

[adisneyaunt]

I will routinely hit 3 parks (Epcot every day) in a day. One for RD and then Epcot and then shut down a late night one.

Oh boy... fun ( great memories) but those days are long gone for me, lol

 

[pigletto]

We did away with Hoppers as an unnecessary expense after our first or second trip. We just didn't hop that much and they went to waste. We prefer to do exactly as you are describing. We hit rope drop for smaller crowds and cooler weather on summer trips. We start marching out of the park as hunger and overheating sets in. Normally that's 12 or 1pm. We go back to the room, eat something, and nap or swim. Then around 4 or so we head to dinner, wherever that might be, and back to the park until close.
This plan will work especially well for your AK strategy.

For our family, not taking a break of some sort mid-day means at least one of us is going to be cranky and no fun at some point.

 

[PoohsFan1]

We are not park hoppers, we always are at a park at RD, or a lot of times we like to get a reservation for a restaurant before the park opens. We would stay at the park until after lunch and while we are heading out, we like to grab another FP for later in the day. We would then head back to the resort to swim (at least the kids go swimming while DH and I lay around by the pool) or to take a midday nap. Then we would head back to the same park for dinner and the night time activities. The only park we don't do this is at DHS because it is such a small park, and it is the only park where we aren't tired and wanting to go back for a nap or some R&R.

 

[d-train]

We've done this for MK, Epcot, and HS. With AK open later hours now, might be worth it there too.
Only way to tour until the little ones are old enough that they can go commando from PPO to close!

 

[mb187143]

Sometimes we do, sometimes we don't. For a while we automatically got PHs and I felt like sometimes we hopped to MK or Epcot at night only because we had hoppers. A few years ago PHs weren't in the budget and I have to say it completely changed our trip, in a good way. We really enjoyed our time at the resort, we actually felt like we had a vacation. Sometimes we stayed at the hotel until 1 or 2 and headed out for the rest of the day after spending the AM at the pool. Sometimes we went to a park in the morning and went back at night and sometimes we just did all day at one park, taking it slower and indulging in some of the things I usually pass by when we are in commando mode. We still get PHs sometimes but it's not an every time thing for us anymore and I like it that way.

Enjoy your trip!

 

[Mom2Stitch]

We almost always do this. I make sure we are up and ready to go and at RD for whichever park we are going to. We go until lunch or a little after and then head back to the room for a swim and/or nap. We have dinner and usually return to the same park. We do get PHs because lunch/dinner might be at a different park and it also keeps options open. The only park we have never taken a mid-day break from before is AK because it always closed early, but now it will be like the others so that we can experience the night activities there.