If you don't rope drop but instead sleep in at Disney...

[DisneyFive]

Just an unsolicited suggestion. Maybe try making your third FP+ 12pm to 1pm. Hit it right at noon (technically you can get in line at 11:55am). That way, you're done all three right before you eat lunch and you can look for a 4th FP+ while eating. Maybe you can get one for 1pm to 2pm...or whenever you're ready, so that when lunch is done, you've got a ride waiting for you. Maybe even a Tier 1 ride. We do this a lot.

That is a great alternative. We've done that too, but we typically eat lunch (and dinner) on the early side, like 11:30 for lunch, and 5 - 5:30 for dinner. If we waited until noon to tap our fastpass we might not be done with the ride until 12:30 and then still walk to our lunch location, order etc... it just pushes too close to our dinner plans.

If we had a QS planned for dinner, and are more flexible for our dinner time, then your schedule works great.

Dan

 

[E.Jane]

Our very last day on our last trip, we arrived at MK about 2 pm, I think. Normally we are rope-droppers, so we loved the fact there were no lines for security or turnstiles. Walked up Main Street and into Starbucks - not a single customer in there. We got our coffees, turned around and caught a parade going by. Had FP for Peter Pan, rode the carousel, mad tea cups and people mover. Then had an ADR at Crystal Palace for 5pm. Two more FP for 7Dwarfs and Big Thunder following dinner. We walked onto space mountain, and rode 7dwarfs 4 times in a row between 7:40 and 8:00. It was by far our most enjoyable day at MK!

 

[TheSouthernBelle]

I think this is only a question you can answer, just really depends on how you like to do Disney. We are early birds but we go ALL DAY LONG since we usually never do longer than 4 day trips so we maximize our time. If you aren't going to hit a park until later in the day, I would start the FP+ at around the time of your arrival. If you plan to arrive after 10:30 or 11am at most of the parks, you'll need FP+ around that time regardless of when you get there.

 

[Catvondita]

So it depends on how you define sleeping in. I never do rope drop (except once when Pandora opened and we barely got there exactly at park opening) but I don't consider what we do sleeping in. We basically go an hour or so after park opening. If MK opens at 9AM we go around 10/10:30AM, spend half a day there, then take a break at one of the near by hotels (poly, Contemporary, get a drink or 2 and get off our feet for an hour or two) then go back to the park to finish the day. We usually try to do full days at each park first (except our most recent trip re really only went to Hollywood studios for about 3 hours, did one ride, got a drink and hung around the launch bay). We tend to go an hour after ark opening rather than go through the chaos of a rope drop and we still find we are able to get a lot done. After we do the first couple days dedicated to a single park, we like to mix it up with some half days either by sleeping in until 11 and then enjoying a non park disney thing (like the pool, lunch somewhere, Disney Springs etc) then park for a few hours, or wake up early (still not early enough for rope drop) back to the hotel for a nice break and then go to another park for a few hours for the evening. We feel the need to do MK and Epcot at least 3 times, with HS and AK at least once. We also like to start our first day at MK and end the trip with MK.

 

[fla4fun]

I usually book mine either 12, 1, 2 or 1, 2, 3. I usually sleep until 9:30-10:00, and try to get to the bus stop about 11:00-11:30. I usually grab a QS lunch, then hit my FP. Sometimes, depending on how busy it is I can fit in an additional ride between the three FP. I can usually grab one or two FP after my three as well. Then I have dinner and decide if I am staying late or heading back to the resort. I don’t like to set an alarm on vacation so this works for me. Fortunately my trips are long enough that I can spend at least two days in each park, so I am guaranteed to hit my six faves in each one.

 

[sachilles]

We usually hit the parks about an hour after rope drop. It lets the crowds dissipate at the resorts for breakfast, bus lines, and even at the gate. We don't miss much, and it allows us to last a bit longer into the night. I find that as the vacation progresses my son, wife and myself grow more tired, and sleep later. My son who is now 9, almost always is up by 6am...yet in disney is tuckered out enough by the second day that he sleeps well past that, despite his excitement. Then again, he was the only kid awake on the bus rides back to resort and the end of the nights on our last trip.

 

[puffkins]

So it depends on how you define sleeping in. I never do rope drop (except once when Pandora opened and we barely got there exactly at park opening) but I don't consider what we do sleeping in. We basically go an hour or so after park opening. If MK opens at 9AM we go around 10/10:30AM, spend half a day there, then take a break at one of the near by hotels (poly, Contemporary, get a drink or 2 and get off our feet for an hour or two) then go back to the park to finish the day. We usually try to do full days at each park first (except our most recent trip re really only went to Hollywood studios for about 3 hours, did one ride, got a drink and hung around the launch bay). We tend to go an hour after ark opening rather than go through the chaos of a rope drop and we still find we are able to get a lot done. After we do the first couple days dedicated to a single park, we like to mix it up with some half days either by sleeping in until 11 and then enjoying a non park disney thing (like the pool, lunch somewhere, Disney Springs etc) then park for a few hours, or wake up early (still not early enough for rope drop) back to the hotel for a nice break and then go to another park for a few hours for the evening. We feel the need to do MK and Epcot at least 3 times, with HS and AK at least once. We also like to start our first day at MK and end the trip with MK.

Very similar to what we do...and you did not mention FP once.

 

[mousefan73]

... Can you tell me how you normally "plan" your day? What times do you schedule your FP+? Switching it up this trip; we're looking for a more relaxed vacation but my FP+ day is in 2 days and I'm not sure when to make our FP+. Just hoping to get some inspiration!

The last few years, I plan FP at 2:30, 3:30, 4:30... We enter the parks around 3ish... My only "plan" is to get FPs done before our dinner ADRs.... We usually stay until close.... We sleep in, hit a water park ( only park I will get to right before open) or shop at the outlets..
We might pick one day or two for a morning FP, when we hop, but we usually show up at the parks between 2 and 3pm.

 

[Catvondita]

Very similar to what we do...and you did not mention FP once.

Whoops! Honestly it varies for FP. I find that the first MK day we space FP out more like 2 in the morningish somewhat back to back and then the last one closer to when we return to MK in the early evening. This usually allows us about 4 or 5 FP+ depending on how lucky we get but we still find most rides for us are 15-25 minutes which were fine with waiting for. AK is similarly spaced out for us as we also like to take a break in the middle of the day (we usually stay in the park though and have a drink or two somewhere to get off our feet.) We tend to like to schedule at least one night time ride experience now that the park is open later. We don't switch up the fast passes because we find that while we can do it for Dinosaur r Everest, there's always a point in the day where its like less than 20 minutes, so sometimes well do a show instead and obvs FOP. EPCOT since we find we only stay in future world (where most of the rides are) were only there for like 2-3 hours and the rest of the day is Eating ad Drinking our weight at WS, we do all fastpasses in the morning back to back. HS is in a weird place for us now because we literally only did one ride during our honeymoon and were there for like 3 hours. Toy Story land should be opened when we next go back but I'm not 100% sure how to schedule the fastpasses. In the past before a bunch of the closures we had 2 fastpasses for the morning and one around just after lunch time so that we could still get another one or 2 after. We usually get lucky and are able to score a Fantasmic FP for the evening.

TLDR, it seems like our theme for MK, and HS (when HS is at it's normal- has less ride closures) is get to back two back in the morning and one slightly after lunch time (3/4ish?) so we can schedule more. AK its the same back to back early rides but then one night time ride experience. EPCOT we do FPs in the beginning at once so we can leisurely stroll around WS for the rest of the day.

 

[SpaceMtnGirl]

Thank you so much for all the ideas! FP+ time in about 20 minutes! Still haven't totally decided how to plan the days. I'm thinking I like the idea of around 11, 12, 1:30. (or two before lunch, and one right after lunch, as suggested). interestingly, this is the same plan we used when Rope Dropping, only this time we will just be arriving when our first window opens.

I just got off a very long night shift and am ready to hit the hay, so I think I'll just grab the important ones (FOP and a few others) and leave the rest til later!

 

[BobbyDukes]

ITs always been a tip of the trade to always schedule your fast passes later in the day or mid afternoon. Let the crowds go into the park before your FastPasses are going to be active. Imagine you set up Space Mountain for 930 am and the stand by is only 15 minutes, thats a waste of a fast pass

 

[Heluvsme]

On one of our Magic Kingdom days last summer, I did something I swore I'd never do--- I scheduled our FP's for the evening!

The blazing sun was brutal, and we go quite often, so we chose to sleep in on day, spend the bulk of the day at the pool, then we went to the park around 4:00. Honestly, it was such an enjoyable time we will repeat it this coming May! We had dinner, used our FP's, walked on everything else, and didn't miss a thing! Also, we weren't in the park for the daily afternoon shower, lol! We were there until about 12:30, had a great time! The only downside was leaving with the masses, the lines for the monorail and the ferry both were crazy!

 

[MaC410]

ITs always been a tip of the trade to always schedule your fast passes later in the day or mid afternoon. Let the crowds go into the park before your FastPasses are going to be active. Imagine you set up Space Mountain for 930 am and the stand by is only 15 minutes, thats a waste of a fast pass

It's only a waste of a fastpass if you can't or aren't able to continuously make additional fastpasses throughout the day. My wife and I make our fastpasses as early as possible to get the initial 3 done with. Then we spend the entire rest of the day getting additional fastpasses and never waiting on any standby lines.

 

[davper]

I plan, with the wife's enthusiastic consent, to get there at rope drop and break before the heat of the day and go back later.

Reality, my wife doesn't get up early and takes for ever to get ready. We end up staying through the heat of the day and leaving before it starts to cool off. We don't go back because I am tired from the hottest part of the day and stay in the AC.

Then my wife complains we spend most of the time in hotel.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

Next trip we have 8 day PH's plus I plan on getting tickets for MVMCP. We will do 4 RD days and the rest are sleep in/start later days. On those later days I plan on starting our FP+ around 11-12 and then grabbing additional passes and staying until closing. On MVMCP day we will try to get FP+ starting at 4 if they don't close that "loophole." My plan on those days is to sleep in, maybe grab a leisurely breakfast, might explore the resort, maybe run over and grab breakfast in Epcot (staying at BWV) or have some pool time in the morning.

 

[maryj11]

On one of our Magic Kingdom days last summer, I did something I swore I'd never do--- I scheduled our FP's for the evening!

The blazing sun was brutal, and we go quite often, so we chose to sleep in on day, spend the bulk of the day at the pool, then we went to the park around 4:00. Honestly, it was such an enjoyable time we will repeat it this coming May! We had dinner, used our FP's, walked on everything else, and didn't miss a thing! Also, we weren't in the park for the daily afternoon shower, lol! We were there until about 12:30, had a great time! The only downside was leaving with the masses, the lines for the monorail and the ferry both were crazy!

This is what we are planning on for one day on our upcoming trip. We will be arriving around 4:00 at MK which will be an evening extra magic hours day.

 

[maryj11]

I plan, with the wife's enthusiastic consent, to get there at rope drop and break before the heat of the day and go back later.

Reality, my wife doesn't get up early and takes for ever to get ready. We end up staying through the heat of the day and leaving before it starts to cool off. We don't go back because I am tired from the hottest part of the day and stay in the AC.

Then my wife complains we spend most of the time in hotel.

We have done that before and was miserable in the middle of the day. You might be better off arriving in late afternoon.

 

[LizGirl]

We are not early risers and were AP holders this year so we had the luxury of time. We much prefer to shut the parks down rather than open them up. I make all of our FP reservations for mid afternoon. It's super busy at that time so it is nice to have something to ride.

 

[PlainJane]

I plan, with the wife's enthusiastic consent, to get there at rope drop and break before the heat of the day and go back later.

Reality, my wife doesn't get up early and takes for ever to get ready. We end up staying through the heat of the day and leaving before it starts to cool off. We don't go back because I am tired from the hottest part of the day and stay in the AC.

Then my wife complains we spend most of the time in hotel.

My mother is not a morning person. Neither am I, but I can overcome this with proper motivation (i.e. Disney World). If I’m traveling with her, we will be doing things together in the late afternoon and evening. She has also shown interest in reforming her ways, but that has yet to materialize, so I try to plan for what I know will actually happen.

Before I had a baby we would go in the late* afternoon and then be there till close. Now when we vacation together (anywhere) my husband, son, and myself get ready and head out. We hang out with my mom once she is ready and then head back in the early evening to put the toddler to sleep. Her day is cut short, but that’s her choice.

If you can go in the late afternoon and then stay until close, that’s what I would recommend.

We have done that before and was miserable in the middle of the day. You might be better off arriving in late afternoon.

Edited to add late*

 

[madzy]

We will be arriving late to Epcot on our next trip. We have a 10:00 breakfast at Ohana that morning and will be heading right to the park after. I was planning on doing our first fp for 1:00. We are rope droppers and getting to the park this late is giving me anxiety.