For those who schedule all FP's later in the day...

[McFlea]

I've read the excellent FP sticky (thanks for that!) and many other FP threads (apologies for adding yet another one). I'm not a newbie, have used FP in the past (last trip was in 2015), and understand the reasons for different strategies. I think I know how I'm going to plan this trip, but want some advice and real world experience from anyone who has any. We're travelling in August for the first time this year. We've never been in summer, and I plan to take the oft-repeated advice of touring early, taking mid-day breaks and returning to the parks in the evenings. For those of you who go in summer, has anyone planned all their FP's for later in the day, after the mid-day break? I'm thinking of arriving for rope drop, doing whatever we can until lunch, taking a break, and having FP's for later in the day. I understand this limits the opportunity for additional FP's. I'd just like to hear from anyone who has used this strategy and whether or not you'd recommend it? TIA

 

[Cinderella94]

I'll follow along to read replies. We've done this for one or two nights of our July trip for this year. I don't think we've done it in practice yet. I, like you, just figured that I wanted to have my evening FPs guaranteed when our morning park is (for example) Epcot, and really only one of those FPs would be valuable to me, whereas all three of my evening ones in MK will be.

 

[AllThingsMickey4]

I'm thinking of arriving for rope drop, doing whatever we can until lunch, taking a break, and having FP's for later in the day. I understand this limits the opportunity for additional FP's. I'd just like to hear from anyone who has used this strategy and whether or not you'd recommend it? TIA

This is how we tour most days when we go in May when it's not even terribly hot. We get up early, rope drop and can usually get in 5 or 6 rides on average before the crowds arrive. Then we leisurely walk around and take pictures, usually eat a TS lunch and then go back to the resort for an hourish break. We head back out around 3-4 PM (usually to a different park) where we have FP+ booked and stay until closing (unless there is EMH- we don't do evening EMH).

We find this works well for us. I know the earlier you book your FP's, the more same day FP's you can get, but with our method we can ensure we hit the headliners. For example, we can rope drop MK and do SDMT, Space Mountain, Thunder Mountain, HM in the first hour or two. Then we can head to HS and use FP+ for ToT, TSM, and Star Tours (we don't do Rock 'n' Roller Coaster).

 

[spleuchan]

That is what we mostly do. Rope drop, enjoy lower crowds until lunch, go back to hotel and swim, go back to the parks at dinner time and use our fastpasses then. When lines are short it is a waste to use a fastpass. Some will say that rides like 7 dwarves have long lines even at rope drop and that is true. That is why you ride space mountain, buzz light year, etc. at rope drop and save your fastpass for 7 dwarves for the afternoon when lines are long for all rides.

 

[McFlea]

I'd just like to hear from anyone who has used this strategy and whether or not you'd recommend it? TIA

I'm realizing that this didn't come out the way I intended. It sounds rude and I apologize. I didn't mean for only those people who have used this strategy to reply. All feedback is welcome and would be helpful! Thank you to those who have replied - my FP day is tomorrow!

 

[bettybooplove]

Yes that's what we're doing for our upcoming trip in July. We're hitting rope drop in the morning, a break for 2-3 hours and then FastPasses start during the late afternoon/evening.

It makes it easier to know we have those FastPasses for the evening so we can go mini-commando during the day and then take a break.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

That's what we did when we went in August.

RD with some AM EMH thrown in there, midday break by the pool starting around 12ish and PM park with FP+ starting around 5. We never pulled additional FP. We rode all of the headliners multiple times and never waited in a line longer than 20 minutes.

One morning we did RD at DHS. We rode ToT 3 times, RnR 3 times and TSM twice by 1030 am. We then went to Epcot for lunch, back to the BC for our break and back to Epcot with FP+.

Another morning we did AM EMH at MK. Rode about 10+ rides (plenty of headliners) by 11 am, ate lunch, back to the resort for pool time and then DHS with FP+ and watched Fantasmic!.

This strategy works for us and I plan on using it the next time we go. If I were going during the cooler months when park hours are shorter I would skip midday breaks and book FP+ for midday or after our lunch break.

 

[bettybooplove]

This strategy works for us and I plan on using it the next time we go. If I were going during the cooler months when park hours are shorter I would skip midday breaks and book FP+ for midday or after our lunch break.

That's a good point. During cooler weather it's much easier to stay in the parks all day or for extended hours. In the summertime heat it's crucial to take a break in the afternoons.

 

[ppjluvsdvc]

We did this for a 4day quick last minute trip in early June and it worked out great. The only thing was we really didn't have the opportunity to get any 4th fp. I was hoping we would but we ended up being pooped out by the time we used our last FP. It was rainy most of the days we were there so we were tired of taking the ponchos on and off all day. We did persevere - have poncho will ride.

 

[mickey1968]

I am not a morning person so I usually sleep late and drift into a park mid afternoon. I have my FP lined up for late afternoon or evening. I will close out what ever the latest park is because I love the fireworks shows. For my upcoming trip over the July 4th week, I am going to try to rope drop AK on one day because I couldn't get a Nav'i River Journey FP, then I will go back to the room for the afternoon and go back in the evening for my Flight of Passage FP and Rivers of Light.

 

[briggscreek]

We just got back and all of our fastpasses were scheduled each day after 4pm because I was at a conference during the day. There were four of us and we didn't have problems getting additional fastpasses after the first three. Sometimes I had to keep checking, but everything we wanted popped up.

 

[KristyBox]

We did mostly morning passes, but for Pandora, we did the Navi River one morning, and another day we did FoP in the afternoon with Rivers of Light. The combo lets us ride both new rides.

 

[CAS239]

We usually always schedule our FP's for the afternoon. We're AP's and we park hop everyday while we're at wdw. We rope drop the first park and ride whatever we want while lines are low and leave around 11 or 12. We go eat offsite, back to hotel to relax/shower/nap/, then head to second park usually around 4 or 5 with FP's starting around 5pm.

We do this because then we have 3 FP's set up for when crowds are big and we don't have to worry about what we can get with a 4th or 5th FP.

We like it and it works for the way we do the parks. We park hop everyday, always take a break, and usually never stay from rope drop to close in one park.

 

[scrapquitler]

I've read the excellent FP sticky (thanks for that!) and many other FP threads (apologies for adding yet another one). I'm not a newbie, have used FP in the past (last trip was in 2015), and understand the reasons for different strategies. I think I know how I'm going to plan this trip, but want some advice and real world experience from anyone who has any. We're travelling in August for the first time this year. We've never been in summer, and I plan to take the oft-repeated advice of touring early, taking mid-day breaks and returning to the parks in the evenings. For those of you who go in summer, has anyone planned all their FP's for later in the day, after the mid-day break? I'm thinking of arriving for rope drop, doing whatever we can until lunch, taking a break, and having FP's for later in the day. I understand this limits the opportunity for additional FP's. I'd just like to hear from anyone who has used this strategy and whether or not you'd recommend it? TIA

We usually schedule our FP for the late afternoon and evening, because that's our favorite time to be in the park, and it's the time of day when we function best. We are not morning people, and never do rope drop. We usually go to the park around 10-11am, leave around 2 and go back 6pm or later and stay until closing. I know that this goes against the conventional wisdom to schedule them late morning so that you can get extras later in the day, but we are not that worried about maximizing every moment, and we are just as happy experiencing the 'lesser' attractions as the more thrilling ones.

 

[McFlea]

Thank you all for sharing your experiences! Your replies have helped confirm what I'm going to do tomorrow when my FP window opens.

 

[barbliny]

This is almost always how we tour!! And it worked again just a couple of weeks ago. I want to go on record and say that I am 150% not a morning person - Except at Disney. My pixie dust at WDW is the ability to rise with the fishes!! I am the one waking up all the morning people in my family and herding them to the parks. We rope drop - some EMH mornings and some regular opening mornings. And we don't just rope drop, we are there twiddling our thumbs for quite some time before they open the park. You can 'rope-drop' all you want, but if you're not at the front of pack - you are already never going to catch up!!

Then mid-day break - usually the pool.

Then back for our evening fp+ for all of the headliners with long waits. If we didn't save them for the evening we couldn't insure that we get at least 3 good rides in.

We had a great time in Disney 2 weeks ago - even with all of the rain we had (and I do not like to go to the parks in the rain) and there was not a single thing we missed doing.

Speaking of the rain the 'rope-drop, out of the park by noon for a swim, and evening fp+' is a huge benefit for Florida afternoon rains (and unexpected rain patterns like the beginning of June). We weren't sloshing through pouring rain in the parks and we were already done with swimming when the lifeguards closed the pool because of lightning.

Also wanted to add that we do schedule 1 or 2 days where we do fp+ in the morning - and then we stay out of the parks for the rest of the day.

 

[DisMommyTX]

We don't do mid-day breaks. We usually arrive 2pm then shut down the parks. However, many lines are already crazy long by noon. LOTS of people go early, so the rope drop benefit doesn't last long. In your case, I would probably book the 3 FP for late morning, then as soon as you've used the other 3, schedule your 4th FP for the evening after your break. With summer weather, quite a few families choose not to return after the break.

I think it also matters whether you consider lunch at 11 or 1:30. If you're only going to be in the park for 2-3 hrs in the morning or have an early ADR planned, then schedule late FP. If you plan to be there for 4-5 hrs before a break, then you will need FP in the morning.

 

[Miss Frankie J]

Yes, this is what I am planning. I have hoppers and found that planning my FP for the evening park to work out better for me. So the park I RD I skip using FP and honestly don't see any reason to as long as I'm there first thing. When I hop I don't wanna worry about rushing to rides so using my fp in the evening makes it more chill for me and I found a lot of success.


I'd only fp the first park if there is a must do ride you have to go on and it's in a tiered park. Like for me, I must have a test track fp because I rope drop and then I use my fp because I love it so much!

 

[mi*vida*loca]

This is almost always how we tour!! And it worked again just a couple of weeks ago. I want to go on record and say that I am 150% not a morning person - Except at Disney. My pixie dust at WDW is the ability to rise with the fishes!! I am the one waking up all the morning people in my family and herding them to the parks. We rope drop - some EMH mornings and some regular opening mornings. And we don't just rope drop, we are there twiddling our thumbs for quite some time before they open the park. You can 'rope-drop' all you want, but if you're not at the front of pack - you are already never going to catch up!!

Then mid-day break - usually the pool.

Then back for our evening fp+ for all of the headliners with long waits. If we didn't save them for the evening we couldn't insure that we get at least 3 good rides in.

We had a great time in Disney 2 weeks ago - even with all of the rain we had (and I do not like to go to the parks in the rain) and there was not a single thing we missed doing.

Speaking of the rain the 'rope-drop, out of the park by noon for a swim, and evening fp+' is a huge benefit for Florida afternoon rains (and unexpected rain patterns like the beginning of June). We weren't sloshing through pouring rain in the parks and we were already done with swimming when the lifeguards closed the pool because of lightning.

Also wanted to add that we do schedule 1 or 2 days where we do fp+ in the morning - and then we stay out of the parks for the rest of the day.

My kids hate mornings and easily sleep until noon at home but they wake up fine at WDW. They know the August heat is brutal so getting a jump start before the worst of the heat hits is important. Also the lines are shorter in the morning so they give me no problems while in WDW.

 

[Amanda999]

My kids hate mornings and easily sleep until noon at home but they wake up fine at WDW. They know the August heat is brutal so getting a jump start before the worst of the heat hits is important. Also the lines are shorter in the morning so they give me no problems while in WDW.

Ditto. DH isn't a morning person AT ALL, but even he is agrees to RD late Aug/early Sep (when we go annually). We leave the park usually early afternoon and never return (except when we stay at BC, we do wonder into Ep or HS for 1 or 2 attractions). But we love the resort pool, movie, campfire (when available), and can see fireworks from some of the resorts we stay at.