mi*vida*loca
Collect memories, not things
- Joined
- Mar 29, 2008
- Messages
- 12,599
"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."
I'm skipping ahead to respond to this. I've been a long time disney goer. As a child, my family never did rope-drop. We always got to the parks between 11 and 2 and stayed until we got tired. Sometimes that was until the fireworks, but sometimes it was only after a few hours. We spent most of our vacation time enjoying the resort - swimming, walking around, eating, exploring, etc. My parents are laid-back like that.
As an adult (and the one paying for the vacation), I've been much more concerned with squeezing every bit of value out of our trips. I totally understand your perspective on this. I'm a HUUUUGE disney fan and I get so excited about sharing it all with hubby and the kids. The past few years I spent doing the rope-drop thing and following every bit of advice found on this forum, dragging everyone around on my value-maximizing schedule. And we got so much done! But the thing is..... as it turns out, my family doesn't really enjoy this touring style. My parents are still laid-back and much older now. My husband wakes up at the crack of dawn every day for work and would much rather take his time in the morning. My kids, are, of course, kids, with varying degrees of stamina (2, 6, 10, and 13). Last years trip was the breaking point. I finally realized that if I was going to be more concerned with "getting enough done" to justify the expense, than actually enjoying the moment, then we might as well not go to Disney anymore.
And so we're not going this year. And everyone else is happy about just going to the beach. And I'm sad. I shouldn't have pushed everyone. I miss Disney! I talked to hubs and we're planning a trip for next year. But I'm taking a serious chill pill. Here's our new plan. We're going to take a longer vacation - 2 weeks instead of 1 - but we're only going to the parks for a few hours a day max. We will use our 3 FPs each day and that's it! The rest of the time we will spend relaxing. Eating. Napping. Swimming. Riding the monorail. Walking around the resorts and taking pictures. Taking in the scenery.
Here's my advice. If this is a one time trip, they will never know all the cool stuff the are missing. They will only know about the cool stuff they see. So pick, like, a few cool things and focus on that. And it WILL be worth the money because it's awesome to just BE at Disney.
Edited to add: I don't know your granddaughter, but I understand the "tired mom" thing. Maybe offer a compromise: one rope drop day in exchange for a mom's day off the next day. Just give her the whole next day to sleep and recover in her room. Alone. While everyone else goes to the park. That actually sounds like heaven to me, and I'm the biggest Disney fan I know.
And I had the complete opposite experience with my XH.
A a kid he went and always got to the parks around 12-2. They went in the summer and stayed until closing. They went every year and sometimes twice a year.
We went twice and were pretty laid back on our trips. Stayed offsite and got to the parks by 10 am and went with the flow.
Then I found the Dis and we planned an onsite trip. I told him we were going to RD, I made ADR's, I planned out SOME of our rides (just really our first 3 rides of the day to cut down on longer lines later.) He kinda laughed at me but let me go at it. He did all of it with no complaints. On our last day he turned to me and said "this was the best WDW trip I've ever been on. When we come back we will only stay onsite and always do RD." That was a lot coming from someone who had been on about 20 trips.