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

[SpaceMtnGirl]

... 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!

 

[Farro]

We switched the way we schedule last trip. Normally we were up at rope drop everyday, but this time we slept in more than we were at rope drop.

Now we had 9 full days, so we were able to do each park (at least) twice.

We didn't make any fast passes before 11:00 am (sometimes later), regardless if we did rope drop or not. We did make our fast passes pretty much one after the other though, then grabbed fourth fast pass, etc.

As we did a lot of rides on the mornings we did rope drop, making the later fast passes worked out great on the days we wanted to relax at resort in morning.

Have fun!

 

[AngiTN]

We do ours for 10:00-ish. If we do make rope drop we ride stand by. If not we get there for our first FP

 

[mousehockey37]

Just pick times that you know you'll be at the parks and go from there. It's really not that big of a deal.

 

[ChristineOH]

We do ours for 10:00-ish. If we do make rope drop we ride stand by. If not we get there for our first FP

This is what we do too.

 

[leebee]

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!

 

[DisneyWishes14]

We do ours for 10:00-ish. If we do make rope drop we ride stand by. If not we get there for our first FP

Ditto. If we happen to get there earlier, we may ride something standby or grab something at Starbuck's and just sit and enjoy the atmosphere wherever we are. We are definitely not commando types!

 

[CarolynFH]

We always sleep in now, and we schedule our first for 10 or so and keep in mind that we have until the end of the hour (11 or so) to actually use it! Sometimes we make our first even later if we know we’ll be out later than usual the night before - we went to DAH on 2/15, stayed until midnight, and our first FP the next day wasn’t until 1:00!

 

[reluctantredhead]

We always sleep in now, and we schedule our first for 10 or so and keep in mind that we have until the end of the hour (11 or so) to actually use it! Sometimes we make our first even later if we know we’ll be out later than usual the night before - we went to DAH on 2/15, stayed until midnight, and our first FP the next day wasn’t until 1:00!

This is what we do too.

 

[ears2BWV]

We like to make our FP for around 1pm and stack them as tight as possible after that. This gives us plenty of time to sleep in, have a lazy morning, and if people are motivated we head out earlier and catch rides that don't normally have long waits. We seem to go through our three early enough to be able to get a couple extra FP's. The only park that we tend to head out earlier is AK as so many things besides the rides tend to end by 4pm.

 

[ITALIANNYC]

... 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!

I never do rope drop. I usually make my passes for 10 11 12ish and go from there. If I want a pool day I’ll do from 1 2 and 3.

Either way I’m not getting up at 6 or 7am on my vacation. Lol

 

[BrookieM2001]

We always like to try to get 10, 11 and 12ish. Maybe 10, 12 and 1. we usually have lunch around 11 and then once we hit the first 3, then we start looking for our additional ones. Also, we always have a super touring plan. We dont enjoy the waits, so we use TP to really plan out our days and keep our wait times low. We hate mornings, so it is unusual for us to arrive at a park prior to 10. We generally try to hit our dinner ADRs at around 6, and close down the parks. Its definitely possible to see everything you want on a weeklong trip without doing morning EMH or RD, but if you are trying to squeeze all 4 parks intoa a 3-4 day trip, morning stuff would probably become more of a necessity.

 

[puffkins]

... 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!

On the fly. You can PF a few key rides in the afternoon but, unless it is you first time, which I know it is not...or you are compelled to ride everything every time you visit, going unstructured is very relaxing and enjoyable. No pressure...no running from attraction to attraction (or even park to park.) The best thing about Disney World is being there. During a non peak/holiday period, my wife and I have ridden plenty each day without making a single FP and arriving an hour + after opening. For me, restaurant reservations are almost more important that FP. Have fun no matter what.

 

[Klayfish]

We don't rope drop either. Usually show up at the parks around 10:00am, give or take. We set our first FP+ for maybe 9:20-10:20am. That way when we arrive at the park, we're at the "back end" of our first FP+, so we use it. Then by time we get off that ride, it's just about time for our second FP+.

 

[KenHutch]

I have learned to adjust to sleepers with the fastpass system. My daughter, god daughter and I hit rope drop every day. My daughters relatives love sleep more than anything so we hit rope drop and I schedule all fastpasses for 11:00 hours and later. I try to schedule the 1st for 11:00 and I warn them if you can't be at the park by then not my problem. It does seem to work but I have found that I have to warn them how far they will have to walk for the 1st one.

 

[clm10308]

We have gone two different times for the week of Christmas (which I know is a special kind of hell for many people). I love the nights when the parks are open until 2:00am. From 11pm to 2:00am, we can ride all the rides that might take two days to get through at that time of years.

A plus for us is that we live in the mountain time zone, so 2am eastern time isn't that late for us, but a 6am wake up would be a killer.

 

[DisneyFive]

With or without making rope drop we try to schedule ours like this:
FP1-10am-11am
FP2-11am-12pm
Lunch
FP3 - 12:45pm-1:45p

That way we can do standby when Park crowds are low at rope drop, or sleep in. With the third fast pass being done right after lunch, we can book more for later in the day in case we want to head back to the resort for a nap or relaxation, or get more right away

Dan

 

[maryj11]

With or without making rope drop we try to schedule ours like this:
FP1-10am-11am
FP2-11am-12pm
Lunch
FP3 - 12:45pm-1:45p

That way we can do standby when Park crowds are low at rope drop, or sleep in. With the third fast pass being done right after lunch, we can book more for later in the day in case we want to head back to the resort for a nap or relaxation, or get more right away

Dan

This is exactly what we do. We go in the summer and it gets scorching hot out by the time we are done with lunch. We get that 3rd FP done after lunch so we can book a 4th later on. We usually head back to the resort to swim after the 3rd FP before we melt lol. We have stayed in the park before but did a lot of things in the air conditioning like Hall of Presidents, Carousel of Progress ect..

 

[Klayfish]

With or without making rope drop we try to schedule ours like this:
FP1-10am-11am
FP2-11am-12pm
Lunch
FP3 - 12:45pm-1:45p

That way we can do standby when Park crowds are low at rope drop, or sleep in. With the third fast pass being done right after lunch, we can book more for later in the day in case we want to head back to the resort for a nap or relaxation, or get more right away

Dan

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.

 

[MaryLovesPoohBear]

Like so many others, we start our passes at around 10.

Sometimes 11 if we know that we are going to be up really late the night before.