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

[married2mm]

I am most definitely not a morning person.
If I wasn't at the parks I'd be off out in the pm
Sometime after 2pm.

I shake it up on vacation though-and go out early and be back early in the afternoon....hopefully fatigue eases and we have a further park outing later.

If we weren't onsite I'd perhaps go with the chilled approach....
But I fear the allure of wdw would be too much for me
-bed loses and Mickey wins.

 

[Raeven]

We usually sleep in, we’ve tried to plan earlier mornings and have found that isn’t really realistic for us. (Aside from when we leave or an event every once in awhile). Typically we eat at 9:30-10:30 ish if we’re doing breakfast, but more often we eat lunch first between 11-12 pm. Then make our FPs for after that. We don’t always use more than 3 however, and we take advantage of night EMH. We also usually do 1 day in Ds, then night emh at some point, most the parks more than once, or a hard ticket event (last trip we did Mvmcp).

I don’t know if I’d recommend this for everyone as aside from night RD can be the other less hot and crowded time of day, but it works for us because we go more than once a year, and we don’t mind if we have to skip some rides.

 

[Tomh]

We usually Rope Drop, but there are occasions where we meander into the park a bit later. We try to schedule the first FP+ for around the time we expect to get to the park, so if we are planning on getting there at 11, we will make our first FP+ for 11 - 12 so that we have a bit of wiggle room in case we get there a bit later than we expect, we have the full hour window to work with.

I think that the FP+ system has really been the most beneficial to those who do sleep in and arrive at the parks later in the day. Under the old system, if you got there too late, all the FP for the big rides were already distributed, and you were stuck with hour plus lines for all the headliners. Now, you can have an FP+ for Flight of Passage at 3:00 in the afternoon. This means you can arrive at the park at lunch time, and still do that headliner with a very reasonable wait.

 

[DiaryofaDisneyKid]

We usually make our first FP for 10:00 or 11:00. My kiddos are early risers but I feel at home we are always rushing out the door in the morning for school. It is nice to relax and go at a slower pace on vacation. We have tried rope drop twice and we all found we enjoyed the day more if we took our time and got to the parks around 10:00.

 

[rally]

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.

I just did this on February 17 (Saturday of Presidents weekend) MK was open until midnight. I got to MK around 4 had FP's for HM, SM and BTMRR, It was a bit hot for me at first but around 5 or 6 it had cooled off nicely. The crowd thinned out once the fire works were over. The last part of the night was great. I was able to get FP's for other stuff (even 7DMT around 11pm) and had a blast. I went solo so I am able to move pretty quick from one thing to next through the park, compared to larger groups so this helps for sure. I would definetly do this again. Less heat and crowd and spent the first part of the day at the pool.

 

[SpaceMtnGirl]

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!

Sounds like a great day! I hope they extend MK hours for our trip. Right now I think it’s closing at 9. Our dates are 4/28 to 5/5.

 

[jkh36619]

We have always been RD'ers. As our daughter gets older we are starting to shift to the late crowd. I have noticed that every year, it seems RD gets more and more crowded and it seems the late evenings are becoming more open.

 

[JJZMgailey]

... 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!

We're totally the family who gets a late start when we're at Disney. We usually stay out late and don't want to get up and moving early. This is a great thread - we chose to feature it today on the DIS Daily Fix!

 

[scrapquitler]

We usually get to the park around noon. I make our FP for early/mid afternoon, then we get extra ones. We stay until closing most of the time.

 

[Dee McGee]

Did rope drop at AK once. Cant remember any other time we've intentionally scheduled rope drop on our itinerary. We usually wake up around 8am and by the time we arrive at the park its 10am. We do this because we always stay til park close no matter what time that is.

 

[loves to dive]

It's easy for us, we don't schedule. We rarely know what park we are going to until we get up in the morning and we rarely rope drop. If we are staying at a resort where we ride the bus, we go to the bus stop and hop on the first bus to come, unless we were there the day before. We book FPs while on the bus. The only time we do rope drop is if we happen to be up and ready.

 

[TeeDisney1025]

Our schedule is not the norm but it works for us. We are DVC and AP though so we go often. My mom likes to sleep late (really late! LOL) so I don't create any fast passes till like 2PM. My sister, baby boy and I then just usually do Disney Springs or hotel pool or parks (no long lines) until about lunch time. We then meet back up with my mom for afternoon schedule. My mom and sister don't like jam-packed schedule so this works for us.

 

[Klayfish]

The only time we do rope drop is if we happen to be up and ready.

Yeah, and for us that falls somewhere in between "forget about it" and "never".

 

[GPC0321]

The best thing about Disney World is being there.

Amen. The rides are certainly fabulous and fun, but it's the place as a whole that keeps me coming back. I still haven't ridden 7DMT, and somehow I have a wonderful time anyway, LOL!

 

[SpaceMtnGirl]

We're totally the family who gets a late start when we're at Disney. We usually stay out late and don't want to get up and moving early. This is a great thread - we chose to feature it today on the DIS Daily Fix!

Very cool! Thanks for posting!

And thanks for all the ideas. We are looking forward to Disney in 49 days!

 

[Max and Ruby]

Great thread. We've done rope drop in 2011 and 2014, but I don't remember ever having to arrive 45-60 minutes before opening before. Do more people do rope drop now? We had a great time in the mornings. This time however, my husband and 13 yo DD balked at getting to the park 45 minutes before opening. "Why eat our granola bar in line and stand there doing nothing? " they said. So this thread has given me some ideas. I pretty much plan on making my Fast Passes between 9:30-1, but we'll see what's available.

The only question I had for the majority of those who responded are "What time of the year did you go?". We are going in June, but before Toy Storyland opens. We also have no illusions of getting the popular rides without a Fast Pass.

I just checked the app for wait times and Fast Pass availability. I know it's Easter week, but it's bad! Lines so long. Makes me nervous for trying non rope drop.

The best time we ever had at Disney was at Magic Kingdom New Year's Day. We didn't stay up late for NYE and walked right in at opening. Had the park all to ourselves until 10:30/11!

 

[mi*vida*loca]

Great thread. We've done rope drop in 2011 and 2014, but I don't remember ever having to arrive 45-60 minutes before opening before. Do more people do rope drop now? We had a great time in the mornings. This time however, my husband and 13 yo DD balked at getting to the park 45 minutes before opening. "Why eat our granola bar in line and stand there doing nothing? " they said. So this thread has given me some ideas. I pretty much plan on making my Fast Passes between 9:30-1, but we'll see what's available.

The only question I had for the majority of those who responded are "What time of the year did you go?". We are going in June, but before Toy Storyland opens. We also have no illusions of getting the popular rides without a Fast Pass.

I just checked the app for wait times and Fast Pass availability. I know it's Easter week, but it's bad! Lines so long. Makes me nervous for trying non rope drop.

The best time we ever had at Disney was at Magic Kingdom New Year's Day. We didn't stay up late for NYE and walked right in at opening. Had the park all to ourselves until 10:30/11!

When I do RD I arrive about 10 minutes before the park opens. Some people like to be in the front of the pack. Even arriving 5-10 minutes before they let people in we always have extremely low lines for a few hours. I can see the ones in the front of the pack having one ride on us but it can't be much more than that.

 

[gometros]

We have been on 25+ Disney trips, so have learned that (a) we don't HAVE to do everything, and (b) there will always be another trip, in case we miss something! Our goal each morning is to leave our hotel by 10am, which gets us to the parks by 11. We ride whatever is available, then have lunch around 1-ish. I make our FPs for mid-to-late afternoon, when I know the parks will be pretty busy. We don't eat dinner until fairly late (7-ish or so), thereby taking advantage of "ride time" when many people are eating dinner. We always stay until park closing and later, if we can linger on our way out, and sometimes will stop on the way home for a drink, or hit Disney Springs (although now that AK is open at night, that probably won't happen anymore). We are night owls, so being up by 8:30 and out by 10am is a good plan for us. And yes, we traveled this way even when the kids (DD and my nieces) were quite young, although we'd skip the stop at a bar!

You sound just like us. DVC and AP holders, we go 3-4 times a year. We don't sleep late per se, but we don't ever make rope drop. Also leave our room around 10:00. Schedule our fastpasses for late morning, early afternoon, day dinner between 6:30 and 7:30 and stay until near closing. We have our favorite attractions we shoot for and everything is whatever has short lines.

 

[zomama]

We don't plan on hitting rope drop much either. Our kids (even the baby) dont nap but will sleep in until 8:30-9 am most days. They all are able to stay up fairly late too so getting that sleep in in the morning is important. Even the 2 year old doesn't fall asleep until 9pm most nights and that is WITHOUT a nap. My kids are energizer bunnies! The only day I am going to wake them up for rope drop is HS day so they get a shot at doing the Jedi Training.

 

[solfan68]

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.

This may be the strategy I am looking for during our upcoming trip in June. My crowd are night owls and this will be our first time playing with the new Fastpass system. Thanks for the insight !