How many west coasters do RD in WDW?

[CloveLeaf]

I have been wondering about this for a while. Assuming arriving at the park 30 minutes before official opening time, doing RD for a 9 AM opening day for me means getting up at 3 AM Pacific Time. I need an hour to 1.5 hours to get ready and I know this sounds ridiculous to some people.... I have never did an RD since I moved to the PNW

 

[22Tink]

We’re from western Canada and while we don’t RD every day of our trip we still manage to get there reasonably early. Our 2015 trip we had 3 PPO breakfasts and this last trip we had 1 plus a couple of RD days. I thought I’d struggle more with the time change but I don’t find it bad while I’m there. It’s when I come home that it really gets me.

 

[Momoftwins+1]

We do. You adjust to the time difference pretty quickly if you start out at the new time zones schedule right away, or at least we do.

 

[theone74733]

I'm a west coaster that does rope drop. I am a morning person so waking up at 6:00 - 6:30 am EST to get ready, eat breakfast, and arrive to make rope drop is no problem for me.

We normally don't go to the parks the day after travelling from the west coast to Orlando so we sleep in on the official first day and either head to Disney Springs or resort hop. We are usually adjusted to the time change by the second day to do rope drop though.

 

[Tksolomom]

We are from Vancouver, BC and we always do rope drop. We get up at 3:00 AM before our first park day for our 6:00 AM flight. That normally gets us to bed early so we jump right into the new time zone.

 

[bumbershoot]

I have a very hard time with it, as does my son. Doesn’t matter how we try things, we don’t bounce onto a new timezone easily.

 

[Cindylieu]

We are from Idaho, in MST. We typically get up for work at 4:30am here. 6am there will feel like 4am here. Shouldn’t be too bad. I’ll be at rope drop.

 

[rg35]

I don't want to be insensitive in case it is related to some kind of medical condition, but is there anything you do to cut down on your prep time? 60-90 minutes to get ready for a theme park visit seems like a lot of time.

 

[afan]

I don't want to be insensitive in case it is related to some kind of medical condition, but is there anything you do to cut down on your prep time? 60-90 minutes to get ready for a theme park visit seems like a lot of time.

Not if you are including eating, coffee, showering, blow drying hair that can take anywhere from 10 to 30 min depending on the thickness and length of someone's hair. Some people aren't in a huge hurry and speed through things either.

 

[jeast]

I have always rope dropped, but this will be the first time after coming from the west coast. We plan to wake up early the day of our flight just to make sure we are tired enough to get to bed at a decent hour. It will be tough that first day, but those first two hours of easy rides are worth the exhaustion.

West to East is always easier for me. It's going in the other direction that messes my time rhythms up. Not sure why.

 

[nemodeb]

Sometimes we do RD, but more often we "stay" on west coast time, which allows us to stay out later in the evening, closing parks or heading to Disney Springs for a late dinner (read Ghirardelli).

 

[Deanie1]

I fly out of Vancouver, BC and we always do rope drop. It takes the whole day to fly to WDW so we are tired the first day.

 

[CJN]

Another one from the PNW here. When we visited for six days last April we hit rope drop twice (AK and Epcot), and did EMM once. The other three mornings we arrived 9:30-ish or later. Our next trip will be longer and closer to the holidays and since we’re night owls we’re hoping for park hours that will let us stay out late. If that happens we’ll sleep in. If it doesn’t, we’ll get up and go earlier.

We don’t find adjusting all that difficult. Besides the long flight, we’re also 90 minutes from the airport so that can mean getting up at 2am. Travel day is tiring. It’s usually pretty easy to get to bed at a reasonable hour and sleep well, even if it is only 7pm back home.

 

[BellaandMickey]

We are from Idaho, in MST. We typically get up for work at 4:30am here. 6am there will feel like 4am here. Shouldn’t be too bad. I’ll be at rope drop.

Same here. We’re in MST. Get up 4:30am for work. So yes we RD at WDW. It’s never been an issue for us. But we are also morning people.

 

[Lyn-CA]

We're from California and we make it a point to do rope drop. I'm not normally a morning person but I will wake up early only for vacation in general and Disney in particular.

 

[gillep]

Sometimes we do RD, but more often we "stay" on west coast time, which allows us to stay out later in the evening, closing parks or heading to Disney Springs for a late dinner (read Ghirardelli).

This is us too, it is one of the nice things about FP+ that we don't have to hit RD to get on some of our favorite rides. For some reason I have a really hard time adjusting going from the West coast to the East coast, but no issue at all in the other direction.