How do you tour?

[jessg]

So whats your touring style? For example we have 2 days in each park therefore we want to do a rope drop for every park at least once maybe both days on parks like AK but not surr yet. On ropedrop mornings how do you tour each park? What's YOUR way of doing things? What about days we do not rope drop but arrive at 9 - 10- 11 am instead whats your way of doing those days? I dont want to plan down to the T therefore I would like to get ideas of how everyone does their own thing and incorporate what I think would work for our group. We dont have ADRs So they wont decide how we do things... everyone one usually leaves what we do up to me so I want to make sure we get as much done as possible without wearing ourselves down too much....

 

[Klayfish]

This is SO dependent on personal style. You'll get all kinds of responses, all of them are "right".

We never rope drop, we don't find it of value. We usually show up around 10am, give or take....unless it's a day we planned to be in the parks at night, in which case we show up around 2-3pm. We show up at the back end of the time slot for FP+ #1, so when we get off, it's already time for FP+ #2. We then move #3 up, so that we finish all of them within an hour. From there, we very much wing it. If our goal is rides, rides, rides, we just grab FP+ after FP+. We can go through 10-12 in a 5 hour period if we try. If we are more leisurely, we will stroll around, window shop, get on rides not needing FP+, etc.. We're very much non-planning people. However we still get a ton done without wearing ourselves out.

 

[TinkSassy]

I rope drop most days - I look at what headliners I don't have FP for later in the day and head for those. I do try to get FP for the hardest ones (7DMT, FoP and SDD) so I don't have to do that crush (everyone is headed to these). We don't stop for photos, breakfast or even coffee - first 2 hours is rides! Skip long duration rides and shows - I circle the park once getting all the e-ticket rides and then circle again for 2nd tier rides that are still low lines. We save rides that usually have low waits or abundant FP availability for afternoon and evening when the parks are the most crowded - along with shows.

On late arrivals - I don't plan on getting on any E-tickets that I don't have a FP booked (if I get one - bounus!). I use these days to book longer meals, see the shows, ride the transportation and just have a relaxed day of doing whatever is low line or I can get a FP for.

 

[BrandonH]

I like getting there for rope drop. It helps to have short wait times on 2-3 super popular attractions, as that makes the flow of the whole day easier. It's also fun to be there when everyone is at their most excited for the day. No matter what, I like to try to do something indoors or shaded when it is the hottest part of the day.

 

[clm10308]

We plan fast passes for mid-morning or early afternoon. If we happen to get up early enough for rope drop that is great, and we can do stuff with shorter lines before any FPS. If we don’t get up early then there is no pressure. We actually prefer to do really late nights. We will look for more fast passes after the first 3 are used up.
We tend not to park hop. If we want ADRs I will pre-plan which park we go to advance. We don’t usually bother to eat at different resorts on park days, and we always plan 1-2 days/evenings at Disney Springs.

When we have 2+ days per park, I will usually plan certain areas of each park each day rather than running back and forth to get to the different rides and shows.

 

[magsnwonderland]

I have little kids who wake up early, so we rope drop and take afternoon breaks. Either stroller naps while we stay in the park and do things the kids have no patience/interest in or back to the hotel, depending on the day/heat/crowd level.

We have pictures of us eating ice cream on a bench while kiddo #1 slept in the stroller. Ice cream we didn't have to share with him. It was peak parenting.

 

[Zippa D Doodah]

We get FPs starting at 11. If we arrive around that time we enjoy as planned. If we accidentally end up at rope drop we enjoy the two hours of lesser crowds and the begin the FP cycle.

The only things we rope dropped on the last trip was DHS (so we could ride SDD) and MK (because we love it even after all these years). Personally, I won't do rope drop for SDD again. The rush to get back there included one woman (not in my party) getting pushed over and nearly trampled, a party of 8 cutting over rails in the queue once we got to the actual ride, and just the general annoyance of having to stand out there in the heat for 45+ minutes to be near the front of the masses. That garbage is not my idea of vacationing

 

[SillySallySews]

We are rope drop people, but we go in the opposite direction of the crowds going for the headliners. Even when the parks are really busy we can still get a lot accomplished, especially in the first couple hours. We FP headliners and if for some reason we can’t get a FP and don’t want to wait in line we just don’t ride them. It’s not a big deal because we know we’ll be back. Lunch is around noon and then back to the resort until dinner time. That probably seems like a big waste of time to most people, but we have little kids and they really need that afternoon break. We usually have one day in the middle of our trip where we don’t go to a park at all, or if we do it’s only at night for a hard ticket event. We use that day to explore resorts, swim, visit DS, and just relax. MK is always the first park we go to, and the park we spend the most time in. DHS is a half day because we don’t do shows and we are not Star Wars fans. We like mornings at Epcot for rides (this is really the only park we like to do morning EMH at), and night time for WS, because even though it’s more crowded at night you don’t have the sun beating down on you. We like Animal Kingdom better at night too because it’s cooler and very empty. We skip Fantasmic and try to see Illuminations once. Skip ROL, once was plenty lol. Wishes on the last night of our trip was always a must, now with HEA if we see it great but it’s not really a priority. We used to absolutely love late night EMH at MK but they don’t have them much anymore. I wish they would bring those back with a nighttime parade.

 

[DSLRuser]

arrive at what ever park we planned for at 9:30ish.......do our 3 fast passes @10, @11, @12 (refreshing where possible to bump up times). Get a 4th FP+ for the evening.

Back at the resort pool by 1pm. Stay till 5pm, then hit dinner and or park for the night.

 

[OKWFan88]

I usually never rope dropped until my last Disney trip a few weeks back... We rope dropped every day (for 6 days) and it was AWESOME. We hit ALL the rides for the park we were rope dropping that day. We rope dropped HS twice, MK two times, AK once and Epcot once. We were able to ride multiple times with little to no wait on all rides that were opened. Just depends on what your strategy is and what you want to hit first to take the most advantage of your time. We aren't big Star Wars people, so we hit TSL first and rode SDD, TMM, AS, multiple times, and then went over to RnR, ToT and rode those several times, majority of the time just walking on. SDD was the one that at the most when we went had a 10-20 min wait but it ended up being much less. We ended up going over to GE a few hours after we rope dropped HS and the single rider line was 30 min for MF and we did that once.

 

[Gehrig1B]

We never rope drop, we don't find it of value. We usually show up around 10 am, give or take....unless it's a day we planned to be in the parks at night, in which case we show up around 2-3pm. We show up at the back end of the time slot for FP+ #1, so when we get off, it's already time for FP+ #2. We then move #3 up, so that we finish all of them within an hour. From there, we very much wing it. If our goal is rides, rides, rides, we just grab FP+ after FP+. We can go through 10-12 in a 5 hour period if we try. If we are more leisurely, we will stroll around, window shop, get on rides not needing FP+, etc.. We're very much non-planning people. However we still get a ton done without wearing ourselves out.

We are hoppers and stay on site. We generally follow this plan for our first park through a late lunch, from 1:00 to 2:00. We then will either return to our resort (we stay either MK or Epcot walkable resorts) during the most crowded time of the day. In the evening we will head out for dinner (5ish usually) to whichever park/area we have an ADR. If in a park we will hit the app for late evening fast passes. We too can often secure 10+ fast passes in a single day spending 4-5 hours at two separate parks.

The only time we rope drop is when we want to experience a park with minimal crowds... we do find value in that. Very easy to rope drop MK and do BTMRR, Splash, HM, and Pirates in the first 90 minutes without using a FastPass.

 

[KenHutch]

Well we do each park for 2 days and sometimes 3 for Magic Kingdom. The girls and I are rope drop commandoes (each and every day) and a fair amount of the time we close the parks, now I try to schedule our FP's for after 10 AM so that the others in my group (lazy people) can get to the park and meet us. It can cause a few problems because by the time the others reach us we have usually done 3-5 rides.

 

[Christopher Rydberg]

We aren’t before 6 each morning(comes with the territory having young kids) so go for rope drop. But we rarely are there for fireworks each night, we plan like two days in ten to do closing fireworks but we are also able to get on all the rides we want with starting early.

 

[Nanceliz319]

We usually do rope drop and follow a touring plan schedule to start and will either continue with plan or make some adjustments. We split magic kingdom and Epcot into 2 days. Starting with frontierland one day. Then tomorrow land the next. For Epcot we split it down the middle and did 1/2 world showcase each day. if we have a 3rd day, we pick up whatever we missed. HS use to be a 1 day park. that may change now with Star wars. We are actually planning 2 days for that park next trip and only do 1 day MK hitting the hightlights. Animal kingdom will still be 1 day. We also use FS wherever possible. We are all adults so many of the younger rides and the characters meet/greet we skip.
We also take a break back to hotel to rest and then back to park in the evening.

 

[holden]

I always say we will take it easy and not go commando...and then we go commando. Rope drop, early FP+ so we can pull more all day, stopping only to eat/use bathroom, basically run ourselves into the ground. We close open and close the parks. Then I fall asleep at 11pm only to do it all again the next day and hate myself for it.

Now that I think about it...it's kind of like an addiction.

 

[cheerguin]

We rope drop and hit the headliner that we don't have a fastpass for or one that we want to ride twice. Then we go to the more popular rides that will get bigger lines. Fastpasses usually start around 11. Typically we do each park once and mk twice, but it really depends how long we are there for. Sometimes each park twice. We usually leave the park around 3:30 and either go back for a night show (only do that once or twice during a trip) or go out to dinner at a different resort. I usually try to plan a day off in the middle to just swim and explore the resort.

 

[Mambo Junkie]

We get crucial fps for our park days. Try to get PPO breakfast reservations in order to get a jump on the rope drop crowd. Get lots done, leave around 11:30 - 12:00. Go chill, swim, etc until afternoon, then go back to the park. Normally we hop, so we may do morning at AK, then evening at MK. Next day, am at EP, then evening at AK, that sort of thing. We have cut back on the dining except the PPO breakfasts, as we can normally grab just about any reservation we want 1 or 2 days before, as people drop all the time.
That way we miss the heat of the day, don't get too tired and burn out, the kids get to rest (believe me, I have been with a hot, over stimulated, over tired child before and no one is having fun), we find early/late is best crowd wise. That's what works for us.

ETA: Our best strategy is to not over plan. Low expectations means everyone ends up happy. Other than the few fps we get, and a random ADR here or there, we pretty much like to semi wing it.

 

[KMarston]

We’ve always been RD people as we tend to get more done that way. When our kids were young through their teens we toured commando style open to close. Now we take our young grandson each year and we do PPO breakfast most days for the characters and to have a good start to our day. We bring him back for a nap most days. We park hop some days and seldom watch fireworks in the park. We prefer monorail hotels and visit MK each day. We tend to plan to the tee but go with the flow of things don’t go as planned. The last day of our last trip with DGS we started in DHS, took the boat to EPCOT, ended up on the monorail to MK before finally returning to the Poly. Three parks with a three year old was a first for us!

We just returned from our first adult only trip and despite saying we weren’t RDing we did most days. It was the evenings we took easy, spending the afternoons in the pool and eating at the resort! I think we’re just getting old!

 

[Delite]

My strategy is for rope drop every other day. Never late night to early rope drop.

Drop to not main rides.

Avoid 7d. Avoid avatar. Avoid RoR. Might retry Slink now to see worth. Avoid frozen.

These are fastpass choices and/or before park close.

Example. Mk June high day of month

8 am be our guest before park open.
850 on 7d walk on
9 run to space park open
920 met Ariel
925 ride mermaid
945 water ac Pinocchio house
955 fastpass pooh
10 fastpass Peter
10 20 dolewhip magic carpets
1030 tree house walk
11 pirate fastpass: I had grabbed 7d 4 months before but moved it to pirate seeing line out door.
12 lunch at the jungle cruise thing was ick.

Met up with fam. 8ppl group. Added to my 3. ☠
Wanted to leave for pool but first trip with fam so remained with them. Day came to a massive slow they refused to search for passes with their large group. Now I know to split large groups into smaller

Waited 2 hours for splash. Was horrible!
Watched bears, good gosh they are funny but for being ugly vibrating animatronics.
Fastpass nabbed for mansion.
Watched parade. I gave fresh found fast passes for 7d to the visiting kids.
Only got to teacup and Dumbo after that. They waited near 2 hours to finally ride space.

Waited for Dehunk to ride auto stinky Rama. Standby people mover and that roof spinner. Meanwhile, The family chose behind a side castle pillar to try and watch show. Couldn't see any of the castle front. I don't recommend touring with anyone that only got one day tix. That and don't tour with folks that tell you their rope dropping space but go to splash. Karma got them with it not being open

Managed to have second wind for extra hours to midnight. Now that was magical. 1 7d, 3 rides on big thunder, 2 pirates, 3 mansion.

 

[kathy884]

We often are just in Orlando for two days or so, and only doing two parks (MK and SeaWorld) For these types of trips, we are there at rope drop and follow a touring plan we customize on a site like Touringplans.com for our one Disney day. SeaWorld is easier, but we are there at rope drop and at the park till close usually. We pick two or three shows and plan what else we do around those. Recently we've stayed at SeaWorld partner hotels, so have FPs to the SeaWorld attractions, meaning we are able to skip lines for the attractions too (not necessary, but means we are able to get everything we want to do done pretty easily in one day). DS likes to end stays with the MK, so it's SeaWorld day 1 and MK day 2.

Last January was a rare trip where we were in Orlando for a week six days (last minute so didn't have FPs in advance - missed a cruise, due to not having passport along for one family member and government shutdown, so unable to get replacement at passport office, and this was a last minute plan B having the week off and having flown to Florida) where we did five parks. Here we did rope drop for three of the park days and for the other two only got there later (not as many things we wanted to do at many of the parks, so more relaxed pace) -- Epcot - just wanted to explore the countries and do three rides, and we could get a FP for one and Busch Gardens - just wanted to do animal exhibits with cousin from Tampa and got a special FP for DS to do coasters quickly, so he could get those in and still spend a lot of time with us). It was super enjoyable and for us on a longer stay we didn't want to do parks from morning till night every day (needed to pace ourselves a little). Day 1 rope drop at SeaWorld and at park 10 to 5 (nice relaxing day), finished what we wanted to do two hours before park closing. Day 2 Epcot from 11 to 5 (did Frozen ride first, explored all the countries at pace we wanted, FP for test track, and then line for Soarin), AK (rope drop and three FP -- didn't even attempt FOP which meant no super long lines and a nice relaxing day. We were there for about eight hours. Busch Gardens -- took free bus from SeaWorld there between 10:30 and 6 p.m. I just did animal exhibits with cousin. DS did all the coasters once with special FP and was able to join us for most things. Did the little extra Safari thing too -- truck out to feed giraffes. Next did a Titanic attraction and Disney Springs day, and some visiting with my nephew who lives in Orlando. Crowd levels were about level 6s on these days. We ended up with the MK on the last day (rope drop, stayed for fireworks, and did meet and greet with Ariel after that) -- crowd level 10 day actually due to NFL event in area attracting lots of people (my guess). We had three FPs, skipped 7DMT and Peter Pan which if off of your plan makes things way easier and aren't must dos for us, but tend to have long lines. Since we were at the park for 15 hours we were able to get in what we wanted to. We used a touring plan for our must dos (first 10 hours) and then did the night time show/fireworks and extra stuff we felt like doing for the heck of it the next five hours. Crazy busy with even lines for the people mover at 15 minutes, but still fun.

Our next trip is just one day at the MK. It will be a rope drop till 4 p.m. using a touring plan. Dinner with family in area. Cruise next day for a week. (Just two nights/one day in Orlando) and we will have everyone's passports this time lol.