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

Bete

DIS Veteran
Joined
Sep 14, 1999
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.
 
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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.

If you accomplish a fun and memorable trip then you've done what you set out to do. Disney isn't cheap but for many people vacation is not setting foot in a theme park by 7am each morning. I think you should adjust your expectations and have a great time. A vacation should not be a race to get stuff done.
 
We just got back from Disney also, and because of the increase in crowds from a past early Dec. trip, we never plan to go again at that time. We are not rope droppers anymore, but neither would we ever wait until 11am - 1pm to enter a first park of the day.
Sounds almost like you would be dragging 'weights' with you everyday, and from my perspective not fun at all.

But, under the circumstances (a one and done trip for the Greats) only you can decide the worth of it. I 'hate' with a passion to wait forever on someone, so know I could not handle it. Also, 'time' at Disney is definitely money. But, again, good luck with your decision as only you can decide if it's worth it under the circumstances.
I was a SAHM all the years with our children also, but I did know how to value time - in fact, no sleeping in with children and a hubby to get off to work. Would a pep talk with the parents help, maybe?
 
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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.
 


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.

It sounds like you haven't decided what's most important to you for this trip to justify what you will spend. On one hand, you're saying "We have been there so many times that we will not care about what we see," but also saying "If we can't accomplish enough with the late start each day it might be better not to go." As a PP alluded to, you need to think about whether the value of this trip would be the quantity or quality of what you are able to do.

Edited to add: Would it be possible for you to go with them sometime other than December? I think that could make a difference in what you're able to accomplish with a late park arrival.
 


I'm also not a morning person. But, I would never wait till 1pm to set foot into the parks. Could you compromise with them and let them know they must meet you at the bus stop/car at 10am sharp? Another thing you could do to "trick them" into becoming morning people I suppose is set breakfast ADRs and hoping they awake on time for those.
 
Sometimes, I feel we should pick a different vacation like going to Dollywood instead.

That is so sweet of you wanting to take your family to Disney World, especially if they wouldn't get there otherwise. I would say there is no comparison between WDW and Dollywood. To me, Dollywood is a 1/2 day park at best. So I'd encourage you to stick with your original plan, especially since you are so familiar with the Disney parks.

I think you can still have a great time, even getting to the parks later in the day, with careful choices of Fast Passes. It might give yo some time to enjoy the resort with your GGD if she is an earlier riser. No matter what time we start out grandkids cannot do 12 hour park days (they are 1,4,5,5). So we will have a mix of late starts with evenings or early starts and back to the resort at lunch. As others have said, you don't have to go early to have a great time.
 
I do think we need a family meeting about it and see if we can compromise on time somewhat. I'm still concerned about our granddaughter living up to the compromise once we get there. Words are cheap and actions speak louder as they say. We really are at her mercy. Hopefully, she will think about her kids more and try to get to the park earlier for their sake.

Maybe, we can take turns with an early day and then have a later day the next day. Perhaps by experiencing how much more can be done going early may help to convince her to do more early mornings. Afternoon naps would be fine and then return for some evenings at the parks.

What I like about going in early December is having all the holiday decorations every where. Also, maybe, we can do a MVMCP one night. At least if we don't get do as many rides we will have wonderful decorations to enjoy.

I want to say just doing 3 fastpasses a day will not be enough for me to justify the cost of the trip.
 
I'd personally book the really good FPs for 9:30-10:30am each day. If anyone asks that's the only time you were able to get it. Kids and mom should be used to getting up early due to school routine. I get wanting to sleep in on vacation but it shouldn't be hard to get to a park before 11 if most people are used to getting to school by 8-9am every day.
 
You say the trip is for the boys. What is their schedule like? They'll be six next year and at 6, my son could dress himself. If they are early risers like you, take them and have mamma join you later. If they are NOT early risers though, you can't count on them to NOT want to get up early. Many people feel it isn't vacation if you can't sleep in. Please remember you said this trip is for THEM. If it's truly for them, you should go with their flow. If you don't feel you can, then this is probably not the right trip for you all.
 
Are the boys on a late morning sleep in schedule too? The first time we took our oldest, my husband also wanted to not rope drop and sleep in but it's pretty hard to sleep in when sharing a room with a kid excited to get to the parks. This might resolve itself.
 
We just got back from Disney also, and because of the increase in crowds from a past early Dec. trip, we never plan to go again. We are not rope droppers anymore, but neither would we ever wait until 11am - 1pm to enter a first park of the day.
Sounds almost like you would be dragging 'weights' with you everyday, and from my perspective not fun at all.

But, under the circumstances (a one and done trip for the Greats) only you can decide the worth of it. I 'hate' with a passion to wait forever on someone, so know I could not handle it. Also, 'time' at Disney is definitely money. But, again, good luck with your decision as only you can decide if it's worth it under the circumstances.
I was a SAHM all the years with our children also, but I did know how to value time - in fact, no sleeping in with children and a hubby to get off to work. Would a pep talk with the parents help, maybe?

Wow, I have seen you on here for many past years. No more Disney at all? Wow, the crowds must have been bad. We usually go the end of August but I am not fond of crowds, so if it becomes too crowded, we will probably not go either. I am not big on spending a vacation waiting for everything. That is not enjoyable to me.
 
I get up at 3am to go to work, so my indulgence on vacation is sleeping in. I usually leave the room around noon to head to the parks. I generally schedule my FP with windows starting at 1:00, 2:00, and 3:00. Then, depending on crowds I might do another ride or two before heading back to the hotel. I have the perfect balance of relaxation and theme park action.

The big difference for me is that I have an AP and I spend about 45 nights a year on property, and I am a local so if I really need to experience something (such as when UoE and GMR were closing) I can easily do it. I never feel like I’m missing out because I know I will be back.

I would not recommend late park entry for a once in a lifetime vacation. I would either plan to be there at rope drop, or plan on the late sleeper meeting up with the rest of the party later in the parks. Even staying from open to close won’t allow them to experience everything, and if stamina is going to be an issue for you or for the kids, the days will naturally be shorter.

She may surprise you though by wanting to make the most of the opportunity and getting up early.
 
I think you are asking the wrong questions.

What is the purpose of the trip? Is it to make memories with your great grandchildren? Is it so long after you and great grandpa are gone they will have amazing memories (and photos) of the time you took them to Disney World?

If that is why then get over your notions of what a Disney World holiday "should" look like (for you) and follow their schedule and watch their eyes light up and just enjoy yourselves. If you can't do that because you aren't able to rid yourself of what you "think" a Disney trip should be then the problem really is with you and not the kids' mom.

Sorry if that is kinda blunt but I think the problem is you and not them. Those kids are gonna have the time of their lives whatever time they get to the park. You just have to get over the idea that it was your money and it is not being spent most efficiently. My two cents.

I think all these suggestions regarding trying to change mom or switch the kids schedule or trick them with early ADR's is a prescription for disaster...
 
Late nights can be just as nice as early mornings in the park. Is the 5 yr old used to staying up until midnight? If so, hitting the park around noon and staying until close might work for them, but it sounds like this may be an unhappy trip if you are expecting to do everything together.
 
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.
 
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