How to plan park days with different touring styles?

[housetomouse]

I'm an early riser and the rest of my family likes to sleep in, take it slow and get a later start. We visit the parks during crowd level 10 times of the year. Last time we went, we ate breakfast at the hotel, swam at the hotel in the morning and got our FP+ for after lunch, park got crowded so we'd bail out and I thought we didn't spend enough time in the parks overall. If this happens again, it's still a great trip, but has anyone else encountered this situation and what did you do? I can go places by myself while the others are sleeping or being slow, but I'd rather stick together. We used to be rope drop people before teenagers. Maybe a compromise where we get up early half the days would be best? Which parks would you suggest we get an early jump on on the early days, if we do that? We're planning on one day at Universal/IOA (because teenagers and thrill rides) and 3 days at WDW parks. Thanks!

 

[Beer Me]

Designate one day as a sleep in day. Try and get them to commit to a couple of early mornings. Play the rest by ear.

 

[Klayfish]

Kind of a no win argument. They're not going to be happy having to get up early, and in fact it could make for a cranky day. You won't be happy with a later start. Perhaps the best solution is a compromise. One day is an early morning start, and the next day is later, so that the late sleepers can catch up on the sleep they missed.

 

[VillainFavs]

We're all early risers when at Disney and hit rope drop pretty much every morning. But my husband crashes right around dinner time and is done. He's happy to go back to the resort room and watch whatever game in on TV that night. NOT ME! I want to see night time shows, experience the parks after dark. My teenage boys float somewhere in between. So we pretty much spend the day together as a family and then come evening we all do whatever we want! I head back to the parks after dinner. Sometimes DH will decide to come along for a little while, sometimes not. Oldest DS is about the same. Youngest DS will stay in the parks with me most of the time. But they're old enough to come and go on Disney transport as they want. Only rule is we still all get up in the morning!

 

[eeyoresmom]

Our kids are al in their 20's and early mornings are not their preference. We do Disney like this: rope drop at a non emh park-late morning fast passes-early lunch in park-return to resort for swimming or NAPS-return to park for dinner, a few more attractions and night time shows. Last year we brought DS's GF who is a really late riser. I planned 2 days for later starts (lunch onward in the parks), and my kids hated it. We arrived with the crowds, were there during the hottest part of the day, they didn't get a chance to swim and they were still tired from battling heat and crowds. They told me they would rather suck it up and arrive at rope drop and rest in the mid part of the day so we are back to that schedule for this year. I do try to plan an off day from the parks but we have AP's usually and the kids end up going to a park early anyway. For our family, once we know how much we can do that first hour and a half we really do miss it when we arrive late.

 

[xjillianpaige]

One year my family went to Disney when I was 20 and my brother was 17 and regularly sleeping until 12 or later. My brother agreed to wake up on the (much) earlier side so we could get to the parks in a more decent time frame. My parents would wake up early to shower and get ready, then run down to pick up breakfast and bring it back to the room where my brother and I would eat and get ready to go to the park. We ended up making it to the parks and had good time. This was in August, so very hot and very busy, but it was a good amount of time in the parks!

This year, my brother and I were both on grown up schedules (I was turning 26 and he 23 a few days/weeks after the trip) so the early wake up was not a problem and we all went to breakfast together.

 

[loves to dive]

I'm an early riser and my son likes to sleep a little later (when he was small that was reversed) so I've been known to get up, go for my morning walk/jog, get breakfast, take a shower and head off to a park. When he gets up and gets stirring he just texts me and asks me where I am, we either meet there or I go back to the room. Win/win for both of us.

 

[housetomouse]

Designate one day as a sleep in day. Try and get them to commit to a couple of early mornings. Play the rest by ear.

Thanks, I like this idea.

 

[housetomouse]

Kind of a no win argument. They're not going to be happy having to get up early, and in fact it could make for a cranky day. You won't be happy with a later start. Perhaps the best solution is a compromise. One day is an early morning start, and the next day is later, so that the late sleepers can catch up on the sleep they missed.

That's the problem, I definitely don't want to make anyone cranky. If sleep-in touring is the only way to make the gang happy, that's what we'll do. If we do that, I want to make up for it on the other end of the day, though. I think they'll go for a compromise though.

 

[housetomouse]

We're all early risers when at Disney and hit rope drop pretty much every morning. But my husband crashes right around dinner time and is done. He's happy to go back to the resort room and watch whatever game in on TV that night. NOT ME! I want to see night time shows, experience the parks after dark. My teenage boys float somewhere in between. So we pretty much spend the day together as a family and then come evening we all do whatever we want! I head back to the parks after dinner. Sometimes DH will decide to come along for a little while, sometimes not. Oldest DS is about the same. Youngest DS will stay in the parks with me most of the time. But they're old enough to come and go on Disney transport as they want. Only rule is we still all get up in the morning!

Oh yeah we have that too (husband crashing after dinner). Oh well, if they're coming to Disney at all then I am happy. We will make it work, and like you mentioned they're all old enough to take Disney transportation as they want.

 

[housetomouse]

Our kids are al in their 20's and early mornings are not their preference. We do Disney like this: rope drop at a non emh park-late morning fast passes-early lunch in park-return to resort for swimming or NAPS-return to park for dinner, a few more attractions and night time shows. Last year we brought DS's GF who is a really late riser. I planned 2 days for later starts (lunch onward in the parks), and my kids hated it. We arrived with the crowds, were there during the hottest part of the day, they didn't get a chance to swim and they were still tired from battling heat and crowds. They told me they would rather suck it up and arrive at rope drop and rest in the mid part of the day so we are back to that schedule for this year. I do try to plan an off day from the parks but we have AP's usually and the kids end up going to a park early anyway. For our family, once we know how much we can do that first hour and a half we really do miss it when we arrive late.

Thank you for sharing your routine, it seems like it would work for us too. I just have to figure out if they'll go for the swimming mid-day instead of morning.

 

[housetomouse]

One year my family went to Disney when I was 20 and my brother was 17 and regularly sleeping until 12 or later. My brother agreed to wake up on the (much) earlier side so we could get to the parks in a more decent time frame. My parents would wake up early to shower and get ready, then run down to pick up breakfast and bring it back to the room where my brother and I would eat and get ready to go to the park. We ended up making it to the parks and had good time. This was in August, so very hot and very busy, but it was a good amount of time in the parks!

This year, my brother and I were both on grown up schedules (I was turning 26 and he 23 a few days/weeks after the trip) so the early wake up was not a problem and we all went to breakfast together.

Thanks for sharing! If any of my gang are sleeping until noon, they will have to meet me at the park I need very little sleep and I have to do something! I'm glad I posted this thread though, it has gotten my thought process going and we'll have a family chat about what everyone's ideal day looks like.

 

[housetomouse]

I'm an early riser and my son likes to sleep a little later (when he was small that was reversed) so I've been known to get up, go for my morning walk/jog, get breakfast, take a shower and head off to a park. When he gets up and gets stirring he just texts me and asks me where I am, we either meet there or I go back to the room. Win/win for both of us.

I think this would work for us, but I want to go together as much as possible. But we'll do whatever makes everyone happy. Thank you!