For those that do NOT do rope drop...

[autismgoesdisney]

How do you plan your FP+? We have decided this trip not to do any breakfast ADRs so we will have all lunch or dinners.

We usually do not set an alarm anymore but I'm trying to figure out what time to set up FP. We normally wake by 8, get ready, head for a snack or breakfast at our resort and then drive ourselves to the parks.

Just trying to get a plan from other non rope droppers?!?!

 

[IWannaBuildASnowman]

We have rope dropped twice in three visits. In your case I'd try to schedule things starting around 10 and the last one around 1ish, to fit in room for lunch and still have room for a 4th fp. Alternately you could book everything for later in the afternoon and have a chill morning by the pool.

 

[TeamSy]

We have NEVER rope dropped. EVER. It's too early for me lol. I don't know if we've just ALWAYS visited during slow times, but we have never NOT hit a ride (and we go on them ALL). In fact, even though we don't need a map, we walk around with them anyway so we can mark off EVERYTHING to ensure we hit every little thing. We also eat a table service restaurants and have never had a problem with missing anything. With that said, we are NOT parade people. That's usually a pretty big time to go on rides. We always Fast Pass the "major" rides, and we usually just wait on lines like everyone else for the rest of them. Never had a problem. I don't usually stress on what "time" to do a ride when I set up FP… I just think about when I think I will be in that "land" or area.

 

[DisneyFive]

Right before and after lunch gives us the most flexibility.

Dan

 

[nkereina]

I plan my FP+ reservations for late afternoon/early evening regardless of whether I'm doing rope drop. For us, this seems to be the most crowded time of day which would necessitate FPs for minimal waits.

 

[ZephyrHawk]

I haven't done FP+ yet, so take my info with a grain of salt. I've never rope dropped, and don't really intend to start. I've got a toddler and 3 sets of grandparents coming with me on my next trip. My plan is to schedule my 3 FPs fairly early in the day, and take advantage of any additional fastpasses in the afternoon (after we return from nap break). I don't know how great of a strategy this will be, but it's okay to me if we miss some things (I'll be back in a little over a year's time anyways).

 

[DisneyCowgirl]

We have rope dropped twice in three visits. In your case I'd try to schedule things starting around 10 and the last one around 1ish, to fit in room for lunch and still have room for a 4th fp. Alternately you could book everything for later in the afternoon and have a chill morning by the pool.

This. I try to get my family to do one rope-drop day, but other days we don't go to the park until afternoon, sometimes very late afternoon. FP+ is great for that kind of planning. Determine what area of the park you will be in and book accordingly. I have not based any planning on possibility of 4th FP+. But we also are not concerned about skipping things.

 

[autismgoesdisney]

I plan my FP+ reservations for late afternoon/early evening regardless of whether I'm doing rope drop. For us, this seems to be the most crowded time of day which would necessitate FPs for minimal waits.

Do you book ADRs? If so, when do you do those?

 

[GaSleepingBeautyFan]

I set my first FP for 11am just in case I decide not to do rope drop. That way I don't have to rush.

It means I don't get a 4th FP sometimes (like Epcot or DHS) but it worked for me on my last trip.

On my ADR's I made late lunch ones and later dinner like 7pm. I go solo so I'm not dealing with young children which makes a big difference.......

 

[anniemae]

Right before and after lunch gives us the most flexibility.

Dan

This is what we do too.

 

[autismgoesdisney]

Right before and after lunch gives us the most flexibility. Dan

So do you do ADR at a table service for lunch and sandwich those with FP+ so it gives u open morning and evening?

 

[prudence64]

We did 10:00 ish, 11:00 ish, and noonish.

 

[FeralCatRogue]

I never do rope drop and i'mnot into the very busy rides so I don't really rely on fp at all. The last trip i stayed 10 days and my only fp were for anna and elsa and fantasmic.

 

[Shaden]

If you don't RD, which we do and don't depending on the day.

I think your best bet is to Burn them as fast as you can in the parks, and try to book your 4th, 5th, etc.

Take a break, and return in the evening and check again.

A pointer, and this is VERY IMPORTANT.

Always book something before leaving the park if you are planning to return to the park later, because you can move that around.

Otherwise, I think its become clear you can visit the concierge desk at your resort and have them book something at the park you plan to attend in the evening ... then you can change THAT around on your app. Even if what they find initially isn't want you want.

 

[DisneyKidds]

We have NEVER rope dropped. EVER. It's too early for me lol. I don't know if we've just ALWAYS visited during slow times, but we have never NOT hit a ride (and we go on them ALL). In fact, even though we don't need a map, we walk around with them anyway so we can mark off EVERYTHING to ensure we hit every little thing. We also eat a table service restaurants and have never had a problem with missing anything. With that said, we are NOT parade people. That's usually a pretty big time to go on rides. We always Fast Pass the "major" rides, and we usually just wait on lines like everyone else for the rest of them. Never had a problem. I don't usually stress on what "time" to do a ride when I set up FP… I just think about when I think I will be in that "land" or area.

You mention that you don't stress about what time you 'set up FP'. Does that imply you have employed your park touring routine both pre-FP+ as well as with FP+? As for waiting in lines, do you jump on whatever ride you happen to be passing, regardless of how long the SB line is, or will you bypass longer lines and come back to those rides later when the line might be shorter? Do you find yourself waiting in many long lines? We are usually rope droppers, but each trip seems to find us wanting to not set an alarm at least a couple of days.

 

[DisneyFive]

So do you do ADR at a table service for lunch and sandwich those with FP+ so it gives u open morning and evening?

LONG reply.... sorry....

Actually, we have strictly done counter service (QS) meals for lunch the last two trips. There are reasons for it, a lot of them just our personal preference.

Here’s our family’s touring style…
Visits to Disney: 4 - averaging 8 nights each.

We are one park per day people. Never felt the need to park hop. (we might try them this year just for something new)

We tend to stay in a park from roughly open to close. (we go in Sept when park hours are typically 9am – 8 or 9pm) with exception of AK which closes at 5 or 6pm. So even staying to close isn’t THAT late. Later in the trip we do sleep in, so no riope drop, getting to the parks as late as 10:30am or so.

o.k…. now for our touring style…
After our first two years of ADR’s at both lunch and dinner, we now almost exclusively make them for dinner now.

We found that ADR lunches are just too much food at that time of the day, for us. 1) it slows us down and makes us tired, especially with the onset of the afternoon heat. 2) We tend to get a LOT of our main stuff in from 9am until about 2pm. Those are our prime hours. We like the flexibility of not being scheduled to ADR’s at lunch.

We schedule ADR’s for dinner on the earlier side, 5 – 5:30pm. Around this time of the day we’re ready for a long break to cool off, sit down, and recover, talkabout our day before the evening events.

Optimally, our FP+ schedule would go something like this:

• FP+ number 1 – 10am-11am. However, we wouldn’t use it until about 10:45 to give us more time to do other rides standby with short lines in the morning
• FP+ number 2 – 11am – Noon. Use this one towards the beginning of the window. Probably done with the ride/attraction by 11:30 am or so.
• FP+ number 3 – 12:30 – 1:30pm Use it when we’re done with lunch.
• So lunch can span anywhere from 11:30am until about 1pm. We’ve used our 3 FP+’s and are then free to do anything we want the rest of the afternoon. We eat dinner, typically done by 7pm at the latest, and can either stay in the park, or head back to the resort to swim, have a drink or two, etc…

Scheduling a lunch ADR works perfectly fine with this concept too, we just tend to prefer dinner ADR’s. If you do an ADR for lunch instead of dinner, it adds evening flexibility for sure.

Dan

 

[Mikie]

Right before and after lunch gives us the most flexibility.

Dan

I lke this approach, even if we actually make rope drop. FP, lunch, FP, FP. then we could use a kiosk to try for more (Pesonally I don't bother with this, as kiosks had lines or were inconvenient to where I was at the time) or simply see what had reasonable posted waits nearby or use the wait times app to see where we should head next for the rest of the day.

 

[DisneyFive]

I lke this approach, even if we actually make rope drop. FP, lunch, FP, FP. then we could use a kiosk to try for more (Pesonally I don't bother with this, as kiosks had lines or were inconvenient to where I was at the time) or simply see what had reasonable posted waits nearby or use the wait times app to see where we should head next for the rest of the day.

We've done it and liked it, and it really does work well.

The ONLY thing that throws it off is HS and AK. If you want to see the shows, which are at set times, it can mess with the ability to schedule the FP+s so neatly around the lunch timeframe.

Dan

 

[autismgoesdisney]

I lke this approach, even if we actually make rope drop. FP, lunch, FP, FP. then we could use a kiosk to try for more (Pesonally I don't bother with this, as kiosks had lines or were inconvenient to where I was at the time) or simply see what had reasonable posted waits nearby or use the wait times app to see where we should head next for the rest of the day.

I don't know how to do more than one quote on a post or I would quote both of you but to answer your questions. We are there for 10 days and going the end of August/beginning of September. Lines are normally low. We never have a need for a 4th FP actually.

We have decided to do away with breakfast ADRs this trip totally. I like getting them out of the way and love breakfast BUT I do like getting to the park a little bit earlier so we can get that prime attraction time without the crowds.

I'm liking the FP idea for 10-11 at first. Then going from there. Most likely early dinners will be our thing this trip...and maybe lunches too in case we do not want to spend all our time at the park (which we usually do the first 4 days and then the next 5-6 days taking it real slow and more resort time).

 

[DisneyFive]

I don't know how to do more than one quote on a post or I would quote both of you but to answer your questions. We are there for 10 days and going the end of August/beginning of September. Lines are normally low. We never have a need for a 4th FP actually.

We have decided to do away with breakfast ADRs this trip totally. I like getting them out of the way and love breakfast BUT I do like getting to the park a little bit earlier so we can get that prime attraction time without the crowds.

I'm liking the FP idea for 10-11 at first. Then going from there. Most likely early dinners will be our thing this trip...and maybe lunches too in case we do not want to spend all our time at the park (which we usually do the first 4 days and then the next 5-6 days taking it real slow and more resort time).

Sounds like a great plan.

This is our WDW year to relax too. At least that's what we keep telling ourselves. With that in mind, we might schedule a lunch ADR here or there just so that we're not tied to anything else that day after our 3rd FP+ is up early afternoon.

Dan

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