For those who are not morning people for the parks, I need your help.

[fla4fun]

I understand where the OP is coming from.

Since you haven’t told the family you want to take them yet, take the time to research a couple alternatives that you feel would give you the quality time you want combined with the value that makes you comfortable. It’s important to have that information before you speak with them.

When you decide to present the trip to the family, speak to the adults without the kids and tell them you want to do a trip with them to make some quality memories. Start with WDW, but mention that you aren’t sure if it will be an inconvenience to get an early start each day and that you have some alternatives in mind if Disney isn’t a good fit for them. At this point they will either tell you it won’t be inconvenient or that it will be and they would like to hear about the alternatives. That way, they won’t feel that you are forcing them to change their routine. It will be their choice. Either way, you get to spend quality time with them and feel good about the decision.

I was in a similar position when I wanted to take my sister on a trip to celebrate a milestone birthday. There was the destination I really wanted to take her to, but wasn’t sure that would be her first choice, so I researched a couple other options as well that I thought would be more interesting to her and presented them as options she could choose from. She did choose the one I hoped she would, although I really had anticipated her choosing one of the other options instead. We had a great time.

I think you can have a great trip with short days in the park, but it definitely doesn’t give you the biggest bang for your buck. And when you are making your one and only visit, short days mean you miss a lot.

 

[Cinderella94]

I'm sorry I can't be more helpful, OP, but just wanted to chime in that reading your post stressed me out. I could never tour WDW that way. I agree with the posters who suggested looking at other vacation venues.

 

[MrKnight]

As a long-time evening park-goer I assure you that you CAN enjoy the parks and get a lot accomplished without having to be there at Rope Drop every time. With that said, here are my recommendations on how to make this happen effectively:

1) Review the Park Operating Hours beforehand and select the Park for each day with the LATEST closing time for that day.. This will ensure that even if you arrive to the park later in the day you will still have the maximum amount of time available to enjoy the park into the evening without feeling rushed for time, in fact, crowds are normally lighter in the late evening which is one of my favorite times to the go to the parks, this is a long-time secret that many rope droppers never get to experience..

2) Take advantage of Evening EMH.. Obviously Morning EMH is out of the question so instead plan on taking advantage of Evening EMH, book your dinner reservations and evening FP+ at your favorite attractions, plan to stay until close. This goes hand in hand with the above.

3) Take advantage of Nighttime Entertainment.. Make that the focus of your park planning. See all the nighttime shows at each park and stay afterwards until park close, if the same nighttime show has more than one showing then select the later show time even if its very late. Once again this goes hand in hand with the above.

4) Enjoy your resort amenities in the morning, especially if some of your family members are still asleep, put your restlessness at ease by enjoying your resort, go for a walk, go for a swim in the pools, dine at the restaurants, go shopping, book a spa treatment, etc.. Lots to do without having to leave your resort..

Hope this helps

 

[TiffanyA]

I'm a late sleeper. I'm also ok with doing three FP a day. I've been a passholder since I was 12 though. I now only take a trip once a year, but out of 8 of us, only my husband is an early riser and he likes his solitude in the mornings anyway. We don't like feeling "rushed" and go to Disney to be together in the happiest place on Earth. My family is ok with lines. We have some of the best conversations in them. If we get that 4th FP, great. If not, sobeit. We're together and that's the important thing.

If you're going to be miserable not touring the way you want, don't go. Not worth it. Go to Disney to make great memories - and realize you don't have to RP or go commando to do so - my family is proof. I wouldn't go to Disney to be miserable. Now THAT is the real waste of money. Not the time others would use enjoying their vacation however they see fit.

That said, by all means make them aware of the pros and cons. You might be surprised about how they feel. I'm all for honesty!

 

[Gehrig1B]

It saddens me a bit that monetary value is the trump card here. Whatever you choose to do I wish you all the best. Happy Holidays.

 

[Cinderella94]

It saddens me a bit that monetary value is the trump card here. Whatever you choose to do I wish you all the best. Happy Holidays.

I don’t know if that’s fair. It’s clearly not the only consideration but it would be unwise to not consider what vacation will give the most bang for your buck. Anyone on this board knows how expensive of a vacation that is. That’s a much larger portion of some budgets than others. No matter what it’s a big factor.

 

[mombrontrent]

We are a family that in four trips have never made a rope drop ever and I highly doubt it would ever happen. I’m the only early riser in my family and it does get frustrating when I have been up for hours ready and waiting to get to the parks and the rest of family is happily snoozing the day away in bed. It happens no matter where we are traveling and I have learned to just let it go and relax in the morning by drinking coffee, making breakfast (we stay offsite in a condo) and getting everything ready and packed up for the day so that when everyone else drags their butts out of bed they only have to worry about getting themselves ready. I do eventually wake them as I have teens and they could easily sleep well into the afternoon. In fact our trip to the Smokey mountains a couple years ago I didn’t bother fighting or waiting on my then 16 year old son and we went to Dollywood and other local attractions many days and left him in the condo alone. He seemed happy enough with the arrangement. He actually stayed home the last Disney trip we went on.

So as far as touring goes we usually get to the parks around 11-12 and stay until closing time. We usually accomplish a lot but I also don’t travel during crowded times. My kids have always been night owls so staying up past midnight has never been an issue with them. My kids have a much better time if they are able to sleep in a bit, relax a bit and eat a good breakfast before a long day at the parks. We also don’t spend every day at the parks, we might spend half our days at parks and the other days at water parks, shopping, dinner shows etc. My teens need to have some down time to really enjoy the vacation.

 

[disneycountrygirl]

I can relate. I am a stay at home mom, and I really do not like being exhausted all day at Disney.

That said, most people do not understand the immense value of early mornings at Disney. The value is more important than the sleep sometimes. Explain to her that you would be better off doing the first 3 hours of the day and the last 3 hours of the evening than any 6 hours in between to stress the importance of not relying on the midday/afternoon hours to do it all.

If you are able to, and especially if you are paying for it, I would talk to your granddaughter and invite her, but tell her you don't want an immediate answer because you want her to consider first if she is willing and able to comply with just one unnegotiable rule for this trip - and that is the plans for the mornings....and then lay out how many mornings you want the whole crew to be at rope drop and what other arrangements can be made the other days. Perhaps something like this:

1. There are some parks and some days that will be critical to rope drop - lay out those days for her. On our last vacation, of 7 days, 3 of them were absolute-must rope drop days.
2. Maybe 1 (or 2 - whatever you feel) day(s) she can sleep in as long as she wants with the understanding it will be an "on your own" day where her family and you guys may only meet up for an hour or two before you head back to the hotel and she stays with her kids as late as she wants. If it were me, I would schedule these toward the end of the trip.
3. Maybe 1 day like you mentioned, you take the kids and she and hubby can head out alone that night.

And then she has the option to agree to it and go or not, but then it's settled before hand, expectations laid out, and it shouldn't be a point of contention on the trip as long as she abides by the agreement.

 

[3gr8boys]

I keep coming back to one thought......I am not sure why the Dad can't get 5 year old boys ready and out the door for a fun filled morning if Mom wants/needs to relax?

 

[Zarahti]

I really believe it's mom standing in our way to getting to the parks early.

You haven't even told them you want to take them yet, for pete's sake.

I'm very much not a "morning person"; if allowed to pick its own sleep period, my body reliably chooses ~4 am to ~10:30 am. We just visited WDW from November 11th to 18th and we didn't get to any park later than 10, even with using Pop buses instead of driving; that we weren't there sooner was down to the teens, not me. I just got myself up and got ready to go in the mornings, because I was in a place that I was happy to be in with people who actually liked me who I liked back.

Is your granddaughter's husband capable of getting the boys dressed if you think she won't get up early enough to suit you? If so, you can go on and be at the parks at rope drop and she can join you a little later if necessary; the boys will be excited enough that I doubt it will be any big deal to them to start the mornings with just their father and you. Obviously I don't know your granddaughter, but a once in a lifetime trip with my children would be worth getting up uncomfortably early for, though.

 

[Erin Martin]

It ultimately comes down to them making the choice and putting forth the effort to go to the parks early. I am NOT a morning person at all, myself. I have absolutely no problem staying up until 2am or later and it is very hard for me to wake up before 9:30am. That is in mountain time, so it is even worse at Disney World! When we go to Disney, my significant other makes sure to get me up on time for park opening. I get excited to visit the parks each day and want to be there early so we can make the most of our time. We go from open to close without any breaks during the day. It is just us so there are no young ones to worry about, and admittedly, that makes our open to close days possible. I suggest that you talk to her and let her know that you want to do this for them, but that they need to be up early and at the parks for opening. I am sure that they will be so excited and looking forward to it that they will have no problem doing it. If she gives you any excuses or doesn't seem to want to do that, then I wouldn't pay to take them.

 

[LSUmiss]

Background: I'm very much an early riser taking advantage of extra morning hours at the Disney parks. Infact, we just got back from an early December week this year and I was thrilled to be in Magic Kingdom at 7 am. My hubby, 81 did fine with our early schedule and being on a scooter. We were able to get done with 90% of what we wanted to see and do by 2 pm each day including having a park table service lunch. We even got a 4th fastpass most days. We really never waited for more than 10 minutes to do a ride. It seemed like we had a charmed trip. We did a few nights at the parks after an afternoon nap, but not every day.

Anyway, my dilemma is taking our male great grandchildren who will be 5 years old and their parents to Disney World next year in December. Mom, our granddaughter, will want to sleep the morning away. She's a stay at home mom; so, to a certain degree her time constraints are not so critical. She's the one most responsible for the great grandchildren; since, her hubby is the one working and sometimes doing overtime. We will have to depend on her to get the boys ready each day.

I want this trip next December to be fun and without drama; so, I know I will never arrive at the parks before 11am. There may be days we don't get there until 1 pm. We will probably stay for part of the evening, but that will depend on how cold it might get and whether the greats can do it without a nap.

This will be a one time only trip. They will fly and we will drive to Disney World. Great grandpa will be 82. I haven't told the family yet that we want to take them. We have been there so many times that we will not care about what we see and we will totally gear the trip towards the little ones. We may give the parents a night out, here and there, while we babysit; so, they can do some of the thrill rides.

My fear is getting enough out of the trip to go under our circumstances. I'm having troubles justifying the dollars spent based on what I feel we will accomplish. If we can't accomplish enough with the late start each day it might be better not to to go. I just get the feeling the parks are at least twice as crowded in the afternoon and early evening which means we will be lucky to do half as much as our recent trip. There's no way we will be in the parks late. I doubt we will see any fireworks. I do want to see Fantasmic and River of Lights with them.

So, would you go under our circumstances? Sometimes, I feel we should pick a different vacation like going to Dollywood instead. I will say if we don't take the great grandkids to Disney World they will probably never get there with their grandparents or parents.

Can they stay up late? We hate mornings so we never do rope drop. We did it once & thought why are we here?! We hated it! We usually get to the parks about 11 & stay til close. With fastpass plus we always get everything done. The later you can stay the less crowded it’ll be.

 

[GADisneyDad14]

Just curious OP, I think you said you haven’t discussed this specific trip in detail yet, but is a group trip to Disney something you all have talked about - in concept - as a family? Have you all traveled together to other places before?

 

[LSUmiss]

Will your family joining you fly in from another time zone? This could help lessen the blow of the early mornings?

Is your great-granddaughter 100% opposed to getting to the parks early? It may be good to direct her towards the DIS Boards and have a talk with her to highlight the benefits of getting to the parks early and why a mid-day break is the most ideal touring plan. I'd phrase it as "why fight the crowds if we don't have to?"

I'd do all of this well in advance of the trip to keep tensions at a minimum, but I am with you. Even when I had young kids, we would feed them in our room while getting ready and hit the parks at or near rope drop and then back to the resorts for swimming and naps before going back later in the evenings for eating and more park time.

Depends on the person. We hate crowds & mornings, but mornings win. We would much rather deal with crowds than the morning! With fp+, we find crowds are no longer a real issue.

 

[LSUmiss]

Thanksgiving week we didn't rope drop a single time and we did so much and had great days. We had our 3 FP that we really wanted and simply waited for the rest. You really don't have to be there at 7am in order to have a good time.

I also find even in crowded times the 4th fp is easily attainable if you keep refreshing. Not for FOP or mine train or any of those but for the rest. I have been at all the notoriously crowded times of yr & the only day that we couldn’t get a 4th fp was nye.

 

[LSUmiss]

Since you would be gifting this trip to your granddaughter and her family, and it would likely be a one time deal, do you think that might motivate her to want to get up earlier and see and do as much as she can (with her children)? If they have never been, I can't imagine they would not be very excited about it.

Maybe but I also think the level of work required to tour WDW can be overwhelming to those who aren’t expecting it. But I can’t imagine that the kids wouldn’t be up early!

 

[Bete]

Thank you all for your thoughts and suggestions. You gave me some options and it will help when discussing a plan with them. I especially like the idea of dad helping out more with the boys in the morning.

I think we will be able to compromise. I don't want to jump the gun and have pre-conceived notions that are negative. I'm calming down about it.

I think I just needed some nudging in another direction.

 

[LSUmiss]

I was raised to get value and that includes vacation. If you want to sleep in then stay home and do it. I want to share this experience with the great grandkids, but if there's going to be poor value doing the trip then I start thinking about college funds and such. We can do another outing that may not be as great, but at least then the extra money saved could go towards their college funds. I can have special memories with the great grandkids in other places besides Disney World. I still very much want to bring them to Disney World, but not to go there and sleep all day. It's only a week; so, what's the big deal with mom getting to the parks earlier? I really believe it's mom standing in our way to getting to the parks early. The great grandkids will want mom there; so, it's not up to them, either. Of course, I want the great grandkids to see as much as possible. Getting to the parks late will hinder that goal. There are 6 of us on this trip and I would say it's only mom that wants to get up late, but in this case she would trump us all.

Most people here would agree that the best value of doing Disney is to be in the parks early. I'm in that group and that's why I'm having a tough time here. I'm convinced we need a family discussion. Maybe, it won't be as bad as I think.

What I'm trying to accomplish here is get the non-rope droppers to chime in that they manage to get good value and how they do it. I don't see us ever being in the park pass 9 pm even with an afternoon nap.

Didn’t you say y’all usually do the parks at rope drop at get done by 2? Parks stay open way past 2. So average park opening is 9. So that’s just 5 hours. If you get there at 12, you can stay til 5 & that’s still 5 hours. Am I missing something? How is that not value? We get there late every trip, but stay til close so on average we do 8-12 hours in the park. A lot of ppl who do rope drop actually don’t always stay as long. With fp+ I never wait in any lines over 20 min in any park.

 

[LSUmiss]

Thank you all for your thoughts and suggestions. You gave me some options and it will help when discussing a plan with them. I especially like the idea of dad helping out more with the boys in the morning.

I think we will be able to compromise. I don't want to jump the gun and have pre-conceived notions that are negative. I'm calming down about it.

I think I just needed some nudging in another direction.

You mentioned that you are usually an early riser. I think it kinda sounds like many early risers that I know who don’t really get that some ppl are not morning ppl. For ppl like that, it doesn’t matter what is taking place in the morning. We are miserable! Doesn’t matter what time we went to bed either. I know a lot of early risers who see it as lazy, but when they all go to bed at 8pm b/c they’re exhausted from being up at 6am or earlier, I’m still going strong til like 1am or later. On vacation we operate the same way with no problem. Like I said in a pp, we went once at rope drop & thought this is the last thing I want to be doing right now. It was miserable to us. We didn’t care how short the lines were. Now we call sleeping in getting up about 9 & getting out for about 10:30 & to parks about 11. So I don’t know how late you’re talking.

 

[Moliphino]

That said, most people do not understand the immense value of early mornings at Disney. The value is more important than the sleep sometimes. Explain to her that you would be better off doing the first 3 hours of the day and the last 3 hours of the evening than any 6 hours in between to stress the importance of not relying on the midday/afternoon hours to do it all.

Yeah, not to everyone. My early on vacation is waking up at 8 (I have to get up at 6 for work, but sleep in past 10 on days off so 8 is a decent compromise). I've never had any issues getting everything I want done while getting to the parks around 10 every day. We don't go back to the resort during the day and stay until park close. I prefer the late nights to being miserably tired in the morning.