Give me your best tips for late touring until park close

[lugnut33]

A little background.

We have been visiting WDW twice a year for about a decade. It's me, DW, DD (18 & 15) and we are DVC members. Have a trip planned for this August 16-24 (we always go at this time, so we know about the surface of the sun hot) staying at our favorite resort AKL Kidani Village.

In the past we have always been at the parks for rope drop and go commando until afternoon break at the resort, then head back in the evening. It's always been hard to get my wife up and going in the morning to the point where we simply let her sleep in and meet us at the parks later in the morning. Since we have done everything, and our girls are well into their teens, I'm thinking of changing up our touring style and not getting to the parks until late afternoon and then staying until close.

So I need your best tips to make late day and night touring a success. Obviously making FP+ for the main attractions is a priority. We would also be choosing any park that has EMH to take advantage of the later hours. What else do I need to know?

I myself will be up early (can't help it) so I need to find things to do in the morning while everybody else sleeps in. Any suggestions?

Thanks

 

[Gr8t Fan]

After years of hounding my family to try to make it for RD (and frustrating myself immensely in the process), I've finally given up even attempting to make it for RD.

We love to get to the parks at about 6 pm and close them down. We start with our first FP+ at about 7:30 and go from there. After the fireworks and the first MSEP, the wall to wall crowds really start to clear out. And not being in the sun all day makes the experience that much more enjoyable (especially in August).

You should definitely plan a nap for yourself if you're going to be up late, considering that you said you'll be up early. Have a great trip!

 

[sleepymouse]

Would love to hear any suggestions too. Planning to do am EMHs but still considering a plan like OPs instead.

 

[Babe the Blue Ox]

The "Late Night Tips" thread may have a lot of information that you're looking for.

But here's an example of what can be accomplished at MK on a non-EMH summer evening from 8 pm to midnight without FP+

Big Thunder 3x
Splash Mtn 2x
Space Mtn 2x
Mine Train (10 min wait right a closing time)
Pirates
Jungle Cruise
Haunted Mansion
Pooh
Peter Pan
Speedway
Barnstormer 2x

We also watched the parade and fireworks and had a couple of Dole Whips.

The most important fact to remember is that posted wait times are often greatly exaggerated at night.

 

[Jenny Sanders]

Watch the second parade, because it's always less crowded.

 

[sleepymouse]

The "Late Night Tips" thread may have a lot of information that you're looking for.

Would you happen to have a link to this thread? Tried searching "late night tips" and nothing obvious came up.

 

[Babe the Blue Ox]

Would you happen to have a link to this thread? Tried searching "late night tips" and nothing obvious came up.

I just bumped it for you. It should be on the first page now.

 

[sleepymouse]

I just bumped it for you. It should be on the first page now.

Got it. Thank you!!! Your post is literally titled "Late Night Tips" but the search wasn't finding it. Ugh.

 

[lugnut33]

I just bumped it for you. It should be on the first page now.

Thanks!!

 

[mom2rtk]

A little background.

We have been visiting WDW twice a year for about a decade. It's me, DW, DD (18 & 15) and we are DVC members. Have a trip planned for this August 16-24 (we always go at this time, so we know about the surface of the sun hot) staying at our favorite resort AKL Kidani Village.

In the past we have always been at the parks for rope drop and go commando until afternoon break at the resort, then head back in the evening. It's always been hard to get my wife up and going in the morning to the point where we simply let her sleep in and meet us at the parks later in the morning. Since we have done everything, and our girls are well into their teens, I'm thinking of changing up our touring style and not getting to the parks until late afternoon and then staying until close.

So I need your best tips to make late day and night touring a success. Obviously making FP+ for the main attractions is a priority. We would also be choosing any park that has EMH to take advantage of the later hours. What else do I need to know?

I myself will be up early (can't help it) so I need to find things to do in the morning while everybody else sleeps in. Any suggestions?

Thanks

We are typically rope drop people, but for our stop in June we're purposely going late to minimize our time out in the heat. I'll be watching for tips as well. We're doing MK on an EMH night and plan to stay until 2 AM.

I love talking photography walks around our resort while I wait for everyone else to wake up.

 

[librarymom2007]

After years of hounding my family to try to make it for RD (and frustrating myself immensely in the process), I've finally given up even attempting to make it for RD.

We love to get to the parks at about 6 pm and close them down. We start with our first FP+ at about 7:30 and go from there. After the fireworks and the first MSEP, the wall to wall crowds really start to clear out. And not being in the sun all day makes the experience that much more enjoyable (especially in August).

You should definitely plan a nap for yourself if you're going to be up late, considering that you said you'll be up early. Have a great trip!

So what do you do all day then if you don't go to the parks until 6?

 

[Lucius Best]

Like someone else mentioned above, we also had a 10 minute wait for Seven Dwarfs Mine Train at MK closing. This was two weeks ago. At MK, if you aren't interested in parades/fireworks, standby lines drop at those times. Of course lines then swell after parades/fireworks, and standby lines crawl with people returning with FP. The last few hours MK was open, 7DMT was listed as 30 minutes standby. Right before closing, 7DMT went up to 40 minutes, but was obviously much shorter just looking at it, and actually ended up being 10 minutes. I'm assuming they inflate standby times when the park is closing to discourage people from jumping in line on the way out of the park. Also, very few people are using FP at that point, so the line moves quicker.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

Our next trip is in August and for 10 nights. I'm usually a RD, midday break and then another park in the evenings kind of person.

Next trip I'm mixing it up and doing 4 RD days and some days starting late and shutting the park down. On our late days we will have our FP starting around 6 and mostly for PM EMH.

On the days we start late we will just sleep in and do the pool.

 

[sky13]

I stayed until MK close 3 times on my recent visit (1am, 3am EMH, and midnight), and also Epcot close (9pm with Illuminations) and DHS close (9.30pm with 10pm Fantasmic).

MK was by far the best park to do until park close, possibly because it closed so late! I found that crowds were significantly lower than during the day, and from around 10-11pm or so a lot of the rides/meets were walk-ons. So absolutely no planning required that late at night. If a ride/meet had a long-ish queue I just went on to the next ride and came back later on. Some of the rides/meets I walked on during my late nights include Splash, Haunted Mansion, Dumbo, Barnstormer, Teacups, Anna and Elsa, Cinderella and Rapunzel, Winnie the Pooh, Peter Pan, ETWB, Under the Sea, Ariel's Grotto...

Epcot and DHS weren't as good for late nights (not sure about EMH though as didn't do late EMH at either), the crowds were generally still quite high until closing. RnRC had a 40 minute wait at 9pm...

 

[Gr8t Fan]

So what do you do all day then if you don't go to the parks until 6?

We wake up whenever, have breakfast and lunch at our condo, shower, swim, walk around the resort, hang out and RELAX. Sometimes we go to the outlet mall or DtD, other times we just have a lazy day. Then we shower, have dinner/snack and head to the park. FP+ and having APs really have changed the way we vacation.