Importance of Arriving Early in Off-Season? With Reluctant Tripmates

[Nuxgwkkw]

Wow, again, thank you so much DISboarders. You have far exceeded the expectations I had when I created this post. Hopefully there are others out there as well who can benefit from all of this advice. It sounds like several people have had similar experiences, traveling with friends or extended family!

Just to clarify, yes, I am a single woman traveling with a family of four, but I am not a member of that family. They are my friends. I’ve babysat for them in the past, but I am not going on the trip as a babysitter (though, I’ve offered to take the kids for an evening so the parents can go to a nice dinner). I can totally see how my wording in the OP might have been confusing, but fortunately it seems like most people understood. Basically, I heard they were going to WDW and I asked if I could go with them, and they said yes. We’ve vacationed together before and we all get along well, and so far it has been a really fun experience to plan the trip together.

We are definitely okay with splitting up, though we intend to spend the bulk of our time together. As far as going early and meeting up with them later, I might do that on one or two days, but for the most part I am fine with following their schedule and I will use my three days after they leave to do rope drop and maximize everything! My main motive with this post was to find out whether or not it would be worth it to try to convince the family to go early. I’ve never gone to WDW or DL during the off-season, and I didn’t want to tell them how wonderful it is to get there early if lines were going to be short all day anyway. I also didn’t want to let them make the decision to sleep in, and not say anything if I knew that they would regret it later. I want them (and me!) to have the best experience possible, whether that means sleeping in or getting up. But it’s not like I’m adamant about going early and if they don’t agree with me then I won’t have any fun unless I go off on my own.

This will be my third trip to Disney World (and I’ve been to Disneyland several times), and I think the mom and dad have been before as well, though not for several years, but this is the first trip for the kids, and I think it will be their last trip until they are old enough to pay for it themselves. Because of that, I am inclined to encourage them to wake up early, because from what I can tell, most of the people who are happier to take their time and get to the parks later are people who are able to go to WDW more often or who have been enough times in the past that they don’t mind if they miss things.

Right now my plan is to gently tell them the benefits of going early, and I will emphasize that while it is the off-season, lines can still get long, and staying late is not as advantageous as going early because the parks close so early that everyone just stays until the end. I’m also planning to tell them that of course it’s up to them and I’m just making suggestions, but that I’ve done research and I’m making the suggestion because I really think they will enjoy themselves more. Then, I’ll go along with whatever they decide, and if I find myself getting frustrated or waking up hours earlier than they do, then I’ll just go on my own and meet them later.

The family does not want to pay for park hoppers (which I understand, $60 per person for four people is a lot of money if you're not sure you even want to use them) and we've already decided which parks we want to visit on which days (and gotten FP+, which might be hard to change), so it would be difficult to change that to accommodate late EMH, but after seeing what's out there, I might get a park hopper for myself and take advantage of those extra hours! (I know you don't need a park hopper to use EMH, but if we're already at a certain park that closes on the early side, I can leave when it closes and take advantage of EMH at another park) Especially on their last day, 1/24, we are going to Animal Kingdom because they have to leave by 2pm to catch their flight, but if MK has EMK until 2am, I could really take advantage of that! I'm actually not by nature an early riser, and I do love my sleep, but at Disney, I throw that all out the window and I can stay up late and wake up early and, as someone else said, I can sleep when I get home!

I also wanted to respond to the person who said that we definitely don’t have FP+ for all the big rides because of the tiers. They are totally right. What I think I meant was, we have FP+ for the things we think are the most important, and we think we can figure out ways to ride the other big rides, even if we don’t go early. For example, we have FP+ for TSM, so we’ll try Single Rider for RnRC. We have FP+ for Soarin’, and we’re going to try to get Test Track as our 4th FP+, even if it’s much later in the day, but we also won’t mind if we have to wait in a long line or even skip one or two rides out of all the rides in all the parks. Actually, to be more accurate, they don’t mind, and I don’t mind because I’ll have three extra days to ride whatever we have to skip! But that’s a good point, because I can use that when explaining why going early is a good idea- we can ride Test Track at rope drop, for example, and then use FP+ for Soarin’, but only if we get there early!

This post is even longer than my first one! Thanks again to everyone for the feedback.

 

[ladyjubilee]

This last trip was the first for us with FP+. Most of my family are early birds (shudder). I am the only night owl.

But, even my family came to the realization that early morning parks just were not for us. Mid way through the trip, I rescheduled our fastpasses for afternoons, and we rested or hung out in the hot tub a bit before heading out.

If getting up early interferes with the fun of the trip, sleep in.

 

[mickeyluv'r]

OP it sounds like you have good ideas and reasonable thoughts on this matter.

One tip- if single rider is an option you are open to using- it can be used for EE, RCRC, and Test Track.
Even still, it works best as an option early-ish in the day.

Even with shorter park hours- well, there are ways to zig when the smallish crowd zags. Arriving later means your group probably won't be among the folks that are die-heard about eating lunch at noon. (many folks are, even though that = long lunch lines.)

You also say you've already got FP+, so no doubt you've already made any ADR's as well, but another way around your situation is to plan later dinners. On like your HS day, dinner at 7:30 or 8pm may be a good way to max your park time.

We've done all sorts of fun things- like eating ice cream for lunch, or having dessert before dinner to tide us over. Generally it isn't really planned, it's just that we don't double back to hit the pastry shop or popcorn stand.


I think the other part to consider is that it also kind of depends how gung ho you are to cover everything or just to see what you can see. I think most folks find- one way or the other, that ten hours in the WDW park is quit a bit of time. Many of the folks who arrive before rope drop are 'done' well before 7pm. The folks who arrive at 10am are still a bit energetic right up until 9pm.

I've also had the misfortune of pushing family members to get up early. It did not go well for me.

 

[hsmamato2]

I;ve always gone off season, and we have never been rope drop or even early people. We've never had many issues doing it either. My sons just won't do anything early, so no point in arguing- we are the 'rollin when we feel like it' people.... and we stay late if we feel like it also..... but it isn't busy when we are there

 

[SplashMo]

My thoughts.

AK: Arriving late not that big of a deal. In particular with FP+ for me this is a three ride park. Safari, EE, and Kali. Being January you might even skip Kali. This park should be fine to arrive late. If it is crowded go to shows and hope it calms down after 3PM. I would skip Dinosaur. I like to eat at Flame tree BBQ for lunch. If the Park closes early that day perhaps hit DTD after or eat at Rainforest Cafe at the exit of the park...

DS: Again this is an easy to arrive late at park. Get your FP+ and arrive late. Try and see Fantasmic and really search out the food options here in advance as counter service is a bit rough in my book. I usually eat at 50s Prime time diner but it is perhaps a splurge... Make sure your FP+ for TSMM are late enough that you will be in the park for sure (perhaps 11AM)... Try and see Fantasmic

Epcot: For me this is a two ride park...SOARIN and TT. I would FP+ SOARIN and hope to single rider line Test Track. Or just wait in line for it... GO space green and you should have a short line... If you hit Epcot a second day (which I would not suggest unless you have 2-3 days in MK) then of course FP+ TT the second time... Try and see Illuminations here...

FOor MK try and convince then to rope drop this park. Place it perhaps on the 2-4 th day and also place the follow up KM days with breaks between them. FP+ at 10 AM. Rope drop and then FP+ and make sure to try for multiple 4th FP+