Has anyone reversed the usual touring advice?

[Shelly888]

By the usual advice I mean, wake up at rope drop, tour the parks until lunch, swim(or other rest) and then head back for dinner and repeat. I am wondering if anyone had experience sleeping in, swimming, relaxing, staying at the resort until later, and then going. Are FP useful at these hours? Do EMH help?

 

[jknc]

If forced to choose between going at RD versus sleeping, swimming and then going to the park I would rather stay home.

However, we found AK to be very manageable when arriving at 4 and staying until 10:30.

 

[Shellyb84]

By the usual advice I mean, wake up at rope drop, tour the parks until lunch, swim(or other rest) and then head back for dinner and repeat. I am wondering if anyone had experience sleeping in, swimming, relaxing, staying at the resort until later, and then going. Are FP useful at these hours? Do EMH help?

That's definitely not our touring style! However, if that's your thing, if you use FP+ you could at least ride 3 things...Evening EMH are unpredictable really as far as crowds. I've never noticed much of a difference, but others say they have.

 

[maxiesmom]

If you can stay until the bitter end of the night time EMH you will do ok. Still, getting up early and being to the parks prior to open is best. More people will stay up late then get up early.

 

[AshleyLovesDisney]

We sleep in, go to the parks mid-morning. We never have any issues getting on all the rides we want, seeing characters, etc. I am just not an early-morning person, so it's worth it to me to be able to relax a few more hours in the morning.

And after our last trip, I don't think I'll be at RD anytime soon. We had some early breakfast ADRs (CP and 1900PF) cause my husband likes breakfast food and wanted to do some buffets, and it was such a circus getting through the RD crowd. The bus lines were enormous and security took forever when we went to CP. When we go a little later, we can usually walk right up to the security tables.

It's really up to the individual. We're more casual tour-ers, some people prefer maximizing time to a "T."

 

[WayTooExcited]

That's the problem with FP+. It takes a lot of the spontaneity out of the trip. You have to PLAN to sleep in instead of going, "You know what? I'm still tired. I'll go later." Farewell, ressies!!

/rant. Sorry.

 

[maxiesmom]

That's the problem with FP+. It takes a lot of the spontaneity out of the trip. You have to PLAN to sleep in instead of going, "You know what? I'm still tired. I'll go later." Farewell, ressies!!

/rant. Sorry.

That is exactly whey I like FP+. I book my FP later on in the day. I can hit the parks at open to get on a bunch of rides, or I can sleep in and still get on my favorites.

 

[anneboleyn]

I have never been to rope drop. I have also never been to the parks before 11:00 am. Sometimes not even until later than that if my daughter wants to swim. I prefer staying until close rather than being at rope drop. We have never missed out on riding anything that we wanted.

I also only go during the non-peak times, though. I know that if I went during peak times that our routine would have to change.

 

[amyy]

It is rare we make it to RD. Maybe 1x every 2 or 3 years. We don't even make it to the park everyday. I think it is easier to book Fps for later in the day because it seems the early morning ones go quickly. Just thinking that from looking at the times available when I book them. We are part of the minority that actually spends time at our hotel. My favorite is to stay at Kidani because I love all that is offered.

 

[lroger01]

If going for a week you can do both!. Go to AK in the PM of arrival day. Then hit rope drop at MK, Epcot, and AK the first three full days. Stay as long as you want, but don't go back. On day 4 either hit DHS early then break and go back in the PM. Or just go later and stay till close. Then the next two days, sleep in and do Epcot and MK in the PM and stay till close. The 3/4 days allows you to see plenty, minimizes travel, doesn't require park hoppers and provides sufficient break time to avoid hitting "the wall". You also have time to enjoy your resort. If the resort time is too slow for you, use it for other non-park fun.

 

[DisMommyTX]

We travel and peak times and myou famity has never seen a park opening. Mid-July, Christmas, Spring Break, 10+ sometimes 'insane' crowd levels and evenings are great! We sleep in, enjoy the pools, arrive about noon, schedule FP throughout the afternoon interspersed with shows and less popular attraction. By early evening, lines at character meets and kids' rides are low. Late evening hit the headliners again, fireworks, leave when they kick us out because it is amazingly easy to ride everything at the end of the day. Crash about midnight, sleep in the next day, no alarms, wake up whenever, do whatever we want until first FP about 1-2pm. Repeat for 7-10 days.

Down side is that afternoon storms tends to disrupt plans during the summer, but they thin out the crowds even more, and afterwards we often have 'anytime fp' to play with.

We have done this since our kids were toddlers, and it works great for us. SO much more relaxing, no struggles getting everyone going together or arguments about not wanting to leave.

 

[MinnieSweetheart]

By the usual advice I mean, wake up at rope drop, tour the parks until lunch, swim(or other rest) and then head back for dinner and repeat. I am wondering if anyone had experience sleeping in, swimming, relaxing, staying at the resort until later, and then going. Are FP useful at these hours? Do EMH help?

We did that before, but the limited hours make that much more difficult. We actually considered a trip in August with our "Vegas" touring plan and the hours are just too short this summer to make it worth it.

 

[MinnieSweetheart]

If you can stay until the bitter end of the night time EMH you will do ok. Still, getting up early and being to the parks prior to open is best. More people will stay up late then get up early.

that's just NOT at all true during late night peak hours. If what you propose were true, they wouldn't have cut evening magic hours back to 2. Once you get close to midnight, the parks really empty out. If you can go on a night they are open until 1, you can do SO MUCH between 11:40 and 1:00. I'm also SURE that it's less people than rope drop.

As I mentioned before though, there just are not as many of those late, late night hours left anymore. Could that perhaps be because people don't stay awake for them?

 

[Disney Khaleesi]

People vacation in different ways. The vacation you described sounds like a nightmare to me. I don't go to Disney to relax! I go top hit the parks, stay up late, get up early, and have as much fun as possible. If you want to accomplish anything on your vacation, then there has to be some element of planning and you have to give up some relaxation time if you want to be able to enjoy a good day at the parks, at least for me personally.

 

[ajwolfe]

We kind of do the opposite of the normal touring plan. We have only hit RD a couple times over all our trips and that was really more because we had an ADR or something that made us. We prefer to sleep a bit later and miss the morning madness of RD. We don't necessarily swim before we go into the park though. We find that we LOVE EMH in the evenings and get so much done in those late hours and as a family we prefer not to be up at the crack of dawn on vacation so this works for us.

I say do whatever feels right to you; doesn't necessarily need to be what the majority says is best!

 

[Sagginit]

I have done decent on my arrival day at off peak season as a lot of people empty out after lunch for naps. So the first year I went with my mum is was exhausting but we spent 11-10 or so at MK as we got sooo much done in Fantasyland in the afternoon that we kept going from one ride to the other until it was too late to break. I think the RD strategy relies on a lot of people not being morning people and also the logistics of getting a family out the door that early at a hotel. This is much more predictable and works year round. During busier times of day I don't think the park thins out as much in the afternoon into evening. If you are night owls and its a time of year when they have later closing and EMH you might do well at night as a lot of families are worn out from following the traditional schedule.

I have the best luck with character meet & greets in the evening hours, especially if we are skipping the nigh time show/ parade/fireworks in that park.

 

[Mikie]

I haven't traveled in the hottest months in years, so I have the better weather and somewhat shorter hours of fall. We have always gone at "not quite rope drop" because I hate standing around in the initial crowd and the crush of the entrance at the very first minutes. We do use alarms to get up earlier than "whenever" but we do go straight to the park, not lounging around first. Then we stay until we're worn out (no break/return for us) and call it quits whenever we're pooped or the park closes! We've never made it to evening EMH (kids too young to bother to try, so we just avoided EMH parks) and we don't always even make it to regular park closing. Using FP, the Lines app to help us find reasonable lines, going to shows and low-wait attractions in the thick of the day, we do just about everything there is to do, meet who we want to meet, but don't do a lot of re-rides.

 

[jenniy122]

I have, but it was when I was a CP so I didn't have a "gotta do it all" mentality, and non-peak season. Other than the trip in 2011 when I was on a medication that had me falling asleep while walking I've never followed the traditional advice either though. I'm a rope drop til close girl if someone had to pay for the tickets! Even if that's getting up at 6am and pm EMH at MK going til 3am, I'm there. I take "breaks" in the parks (Ellen's, Hall of Presidents).

If you can really hold out for a late late night EMH, which only happens mostly at MK, the 1-3am time slot does make a difference in crowds, but a number of things will be closed/closing then, so plan accordingly.

 

[Shelly888]

Thanks all for replies. It's a lot to think about and discuss with my other half! We are traveling November 5th-> November 13th if that makes a difference. I do like the idea of mixing it up a bit! We haven't been to WDW since 2011 and so much has changed since then. I mean FP+ is completely new to us, and so many other changes. My youngest will be 7 and oldest 12. DH got burnt out on WDW after 3 trips in a row so we got the cruising bug and have cruised every year since. We were planning on going to WDW last year, but I got a severe case of Lyme and babesia and it left me couch-bound. I was severely crippled(like a 90+ year old lady) I would say I am about 75% better, and I really want to try to get the most out of our trip...I know everyone does partly because I'm not sure how I will feel.

 

[Shanti]

By the usual advice I mean, wake up at rope drop, tour the parks until lunch, swim(or other rest) and then head back for dinner and repeat. I am wondering if anyone had experience sleeping in, swimming, relaxing, staying at the resort until later, and then going. Are FP useful at these hours? Do EMH help?

We alternate each. Some days we do rope drop, PPO breakfast or morning EMH, but on those we usually either leave mid-day & don't return, or we hop to another park.

Other days are sleep in, arrive mid-afternoon, use FPs & dine in the park, then watch evening shows & close the park down with EMH.

The main thing to avoid is the clueless tourist trap of arriving at 10:30am and leaving at 6pm each day. Then complaining about how heavy the crowds are at WDW, with no let up.