Favorite FP Strategy for Mid-Day Breaks?

[DisneyJillian18]

Hi all, our preferred FP+ strategy is to normally book our 3 early in the morning, with the intention of booking new ones after the 3 were used. But we found that by Noon, there were no FP's left for the rest of the day. We went November 14-20.

Our next tip is booked for September 8-16th. Since it is a less busy time(hopefully) we are hoping to take mid-day breaks. So my question, what strategy would you use? Book them in the morning? Take a break, and hope for the best for the evening crowds? Or arrive at rope drop, leave after lunch for a break, and return to use Fastpasses?

Just not sure what would work best?
Not sure if it helps, but we will be two adults this trip.

 

[disneyseniors]

Hi DJ: We, too, are 2 adults who do the same thing regarding fp's and mid day breaks! We go to rope drop, ride what we can walk on, the use the fp's for our must do attractions. Then back to the resort to rest up and recharge our batteries for the rest of the day. We like to decide after our rest, what we want to do and where we want to go for the evening. Sometimes it's Disney Springs, Epcot, or some other repeat of the mornings. We like to be spontaneous for our eveings, so fast passes at the kiosks don't work for us. I tried it once, but could not get anything at all.
Don't know if this helps, but we prefer to have a planned half day including all our favorites at each park, and then do what we want when we want for the evenings. It works for us. I've often wondered if we should just hit rope drop, ride, then rest, then use our fp's in the evening. But we never know where we want to go in the evenings. We are early morning people, so this strategy works for us.
I guess this isn't much help, but I think you have to do one or the other because there is not much left in fp's if you have to wait to go to the kiosks. Using the fp in the pm probably would work for you, and probably is a smarter use of fp's, but doesn't work for us. Good luck

 

[DisneyJillian18]

Hi DJ: We, too, are 2 adults who do the same thing regarding fp's and mid day breaks! We go to rope drop, ride what we can walk on, the use the fp's for our must do attractions. Then back to the resort to rest up and recharge our batteries for the rest of the day. We like to decide after our rest, what we want to do and where we want to go for the evening. Sometimes it's Disney Springs, Epcot, or some other repeat of the mornings. We like to be spontaneous for our eveings, so fast passes at the kiosks don't work for us. I tried it once, but could not get anything at all.
Don't know if this helps, but we prefer to have a planned half day including all our favorites at each park, and then do what we want when we want for the evenings. It works for us. I've often wondered if we should just hit rope drop, ride, then rest, then use our fp's in the evening. But we never know where we want to go in the evenings. We are early morning people, so this strategy works for us.
I guess this isn't much help, but I think you have to do one or the other because there is not much left in fp's if you have to wait to go to the kiosks. Using the fp in the pm probably would work for you, and probably is a smarter use of fp's, but doesn't work for us. Good luck

We are like you! We like to be a little spontaneous as well, and I hate to have everything planned out on vacation; Disney has made that hard to avoid. I might split it up, see what we like best. Do one day planned, one day spontaneous!

 

[wisblue]

We do the opposite of the PP. We make our FPs for late afternoon and early evening and hit a park at rope drop and do as many things as we can with short waits before lunch. We have found that this lets us do a number of popular attractions in the morning and then a few more later in the day. Because we almost always have hoppers, we are not committed to a particular park in the morning. If we decide that we don't want to go to the park where we have our evening FPs, we don't worry about giving them up. If we go to a different park we will try to get FPs there, realizing that the selection will be limited.

By using this approach we don't feel overly scheduled, but we do like having FPs lined up for some of our favorite attractions before we leave home.

We do not travel with children anymore, but we often have to travel during the holidays. In early September you should find some of the lowest crowds and shortest standby wait times of the year, so I wouldn't agonize too much about FPs.

 

[bostran1]

This is a great question. We are going with my parents and my two kids (4 and 20 months at the time of our trip) in September. We are expecting to spend significant time at the Magic Kingdom this trip. I was thinking that since we will be up early getting to each park for rope drop to do the popular stuff would be our best bet. Then we get an early lunch, head back to the hotel, nap and pool before heading back out to the MK To take advantage of the FP+ Around 3 or 3:30. We are at Bay Lake Towers so that should be a short trip.

I'm not sold on this idea though. At least not for every day. I expect AK to be a big hit so we may do some FP+ attractions there. Especially with dinner we won't have a ton of time in the MK in the afternoon/evening before bed time and the dinner options are great for sit down meals there.

I'm interested to hear from others on this one for sure.

Edited only to watch the thread