Is it REALLY that important to get to the parks early?

[Mommy2Jameson]

We are not early morning people. We usually plan one early morning with CRT breakfast before park opening to get some good castle shots alone, but the rest of the mornings, we go when my son wakes up. I'd rather not have a cranky preschooler all day! Haha!

We've never had an issue doing it this way! We always go in October and still have plenty of time to see everything.

Also, i should add, while we don't take advantage of Early EMH, we ALWAYS take advantage of the evening EMH. My son isn't an early morning kid, but has no problem staying up till midnight while at Disney! Haha!

 

[JVelasquez]

I think it can go both ways. Myself I want to see and do as much as I can in my time at WDW. It really depends on your family and what will make you all the happiest. I dnt think waking up at 7-8 like u said is too late. You can shower at night before bed then wake up at 8 get dressed and be out the door! But whatever you choose to do I hope you enjoy your vaca.

 

[BYC]

I have not read through all the responses, but all I can say is 9:00 PM Adr's with two small children?? Really?? Not in a million years would I even consider it! No dining experience is worth that! And yes, it does make a world of difference getting to the parks early!

 

[Suellen]

We never get to a park early. We prefer to stay late. We see all we want.

We also have done late dining as late as 9:50 with two children under 3. No problems. I mean... you know your kids.

 

[katybug34]

I keep hearing about how vital it is to get to the parks at rope drop. But I'm thinking that my family would be better off to sleep in a bit. We're not super late sleepers - we're a high energy bunch, and we're always up by 7 or 8 no matter what, but this trip will be a much needed vacation for DH and I don't want to rush him in the mornings. Also, we have some late ADRs (Chef Mickeys and CP at 9:00 PM) , and it seems like the evening EMHs and MVMCP are worth sleeping in the next day.

I know we could go early and take a nap break in the afternoons, but we're staying at POP and I'm not looking forward to riding the bus back to our hotel more than once every day (my kids are good at napping in the stroller! .

So do I really need to get everybody up and at 'em in the mornings?

Yes...yes it is!

 

[Pixie Princess]

So, despite my attempts until our trip first week of Oct. I only made rope drop a couple of times and only at HS. This last trip I finally made rope drop to MK and Epcot, and it made all the difference in the world. Normally we arrived within the first hour of park open, and while you still can get a good bit of stuff done before the crowds really start arriving, it is nothing like getting there at rope drop. Especially at MK. I don't necessarily think it is mission critical, but that it does make a world of difference in how you experience the parks.

I think what is more important is the crank factor. If pushing everyone to get up and out to be at the parks at open will result in folks "circling the drain" (as my friend says) pretty early then I say skip it.

 

[KellyWasHere]

Don't get me wrong, we're not planning a "relaxing" vacation, and I'm a super OCD down to the minute planner. I just want my kids (6 and 2) to get enough sleep and have the best time possible. I don't believe in being miserable in order to have "fun"! So if early mornings are the way to go, then that's what we'll do and I'll just plan more breaks for naps.

I've gone to WDW several times and have never, ever been to a park at rope drop. When I have gone with just adults we have gotten there pretty early, at least within an hour after opening. On the trips with the kids we need more time in the morning so have arrived 1-2 hours after opening. It was crowded, I specifically remember MK main street, and the bakery being PACKED, but as far as attractions, we have been able to do everything we wanted with little problems and never waiting too long for anything. As long as you're going during a relatively slow season I think you'll be fine.

 

[mom2rtk]

There is no "right" answer. It really just depends on what you were looking to get out of a vacation when you booked it.

Some will go home full of regret if they didn't sleep in, and ran too hard trying to do it all on vacation.

Some will go home full of regret if they missed doing everything they ever dreamed of doing at Disney.

If your family has some in both groups, you have to negotiate and have some days one way, some another.

But if you ARE in the second group, rope drop is an awesome way to do many of the things you are longing to do with the least hassle and wait.

 

[tinkalicious]

I have not read through all the responses, but all I can say is 9:00 PM Adr's with two small children?? Really?? Not in a million years would I even consider it! No dining experience is worth that! And yes, it does make a world of difference getting to the parks early!

Thanks for the enthusiastic reply! I feel like the worst mom in the world now!

At this point our only late ADR is Chef Mickeys. I agree that no dining experience is worth too much trouble and stress, but I don't see a problem with a late dinner here and there - especially when the day includes a late lunch, long afternoon/evening nap, and sleeping in the next day. Just like I would if we were going to a party or late dinner at home.

I do appreciate the advice, and we very well may decide Chef Mickeys will have to wait until next time. And that's cool too.

 

[tinkalicious]

I just got back from 8 full days in WDW and just wanted to chime in (haven't read most of thread, just responding to OP's original question). We were two families, 4 adults with 5 kids (ages 2 to 9) in tow.

My DH loves to sleep in on vacation, but even he swears by getting into the parks when they open and leaving in the afternoon for a break. Then, we're ready for our dinner ADR's, fireworks, and even some PM EMH if we feel like it.

Our companion family experimented with arriving at the parks a little later (took their time at b'fast, etc). They quickly figured out how much more enjoyable the parks are in the morning as compared to the afternoon.

We all got on the same page and did early mornings/late nights with relaxed afternoons by the pool. Worked great for everyone, even the two year old (who was a trooper).

And as a bonus, it's gonna be a lot easier for my kids to get up for school tomorrow morning since they never got accustomed to sleeping in!

Just my two cents. Enjoy your trip!

Thanks! I like the early morning/late night idea.

 

[havoc315]

Not sure if you posted when your trip is --- Is its during a high crowd time, then the early morning arrival is far more important.

But to see the difference it makes, I'd suggest purchasing ridemax and playing around with it -- Plug in the attractions you want to do, and try it with the early arrival, compared to the mid morning arrival. See the difference it makes, in the wait times, and in what you will be able to accomplish. You might find that the lines are just a bit longer, and worth "sleeping in." Of you might see lines change from 5 minutes, to 30 minutes, and decide that pulling yourselves out of bed is worth it. But either way, ridemax may give you an excellent idea of what to expect.

(example, on a very high crowd level day, I plugged a ton of attractions in, with hours of 9-4 pm, ridemax calculated that I could get in all the rides, with total wait times of about 104 minutes, AND a 90 minute mid-afternoon break. I then changed the hours for the same day, to 10-5. ridemax wouldn't let me do all the attractions -- After removing a couple of the attractions, it came back with 229 minutes of waiting, plus no real breaks. So effectively, arriving one hour later, during a ultra-high crowd day, that 1 hours, really cost about 3 hours. An extra 125 minutes of "line time," loss of mid-afternoon break, and loss of a couple of attractions. All due to arriving an hour later.)

 

[tinkalicious]

Not sure if you posted when your trip is --- Is its during a high crowd time, then the early morning arrival is far more important.

But to see the difference it makes, I'd suggest purchasing ridemax and playing around with it -- Plug in the attractions you want to do, and try it with the early arrival, compared to the mid morning arrival. See the difference it makes, in the wait times, and in what you will be able to accomplish. You might find that the lines are just a bit longer, and worth "sleeping in." Of you might see lines change from 5 minutes, to 30 minutes, and decide that pulling yourselves out of bed is worth it. But either way, ridemax may give you an excellent idea of what to expect.

We're going the week before Thanksgiving. I'll try Ridemax! Thanks!

 

[LWatson]

I'm going to start off w/ I HAVENT READ THE RESPONSES

For us we like to get to MK by RD because of the opening show. My kids love to see mickey ride in on the train and stuff. We also found we were able to complete all the big rides, the usually busy rides, and our fav rides by 11-12. Then we picked up FPs for the rest of the day to ride them again.

At Epcot if you want to get a ride on Soarin I heard you need to go there first thing in the morning. We still have yet to get to ride it in 3 trips (we had been sleeping in for that day). We are planning to be there at RD so DH can go get us FPs for it.

At DHS there is a show to open the park too, and the TSM FPs go quickly too so we usually go get FPs then hop on the ride and by the time we are done w/ our ride its time for the fast Pass ride. It makes it so the kids can ride it 2x and we are done w/ it for the day.

Animal Kingdom we found the Safari got crowded ifyou werent there quickly.

We like EMH mornings at MK, but dont really do them at others. This next trip we are doing EMH at DHS in the evening because they have Playhouse Disney Dance Party in the evenings and the kids love to dance w/ PHD characters. Then we our last day at the parks is EMH morning for MK so we can get in, ride the rides and have fun, but leave the park early enough we can pack and get ready to leave after our breakfast at Chef Mickeys the next day.

There are perks to getting to the parks early esp if there are specific rides you want to ride that are High Demand. But, for us sleeping till 7am is sleeping in because our kids are up at 0630 and DH is up at 0515 for PT.

 

[Poohbear123]

YES YES YES ANY TIME OF YEAR it is important to get to the Parks EARLY! This past Sat. for example, we got to MK around 11:30am.....BIG BIG BIG Mistake! LONG LINES FOR EVERYTHING! If you didn't get a fastpass you were not riding ANYTHING! The crowds thinned out some, after 3pm, but it was really busy and I was surprised as usual.

 

[tinkalicious]

I'm going to start off w/ I HAVENT READ THE RESPONSES

For us we like to get to MK by RD because of the opening show. My kids love to see mickey ride in on the train and stuff. We also found we were able to complete all the big rides, the usually busy rides, and our fav rides by 11-12. Then we picked up FPs for the rest of the day to ride them again.

At Epcot if you want to get a ride on Soarin I heard you need to go there first thing in the morning. We still have yet to get to ride it in 3 trips (we had been sleeping in for that day). We are planning to be there at RD so DH can go get us FPs for it.

At DHS there is a show to open the park too, and the TSM FPs go quickly too so we usually go get FPs then hop on the ride and by the time we are done w/ our ride its time for the fast Pass ride. It makes it so the kids can ride it 2x and we are done w/ it for the day.

Animal Kingdom we found the Safari got crowded ifyou werent there quickly.

We like EMH mornings at MK, but dont really do them at others. This next trip we are doing EMH at DHS in the evening because they have Playhouse Disney Dance Party in the evenings and the kids love to dance w/ PHD characters. Then we our last day at the parks is EMH morning for MK so we can get in, ride the rides and have fun, but leave the park early enough we can pack and get ready to leave after our breakfast at Chef Mickeys the next day.

There are perks to getting to the parks early esp if there are specific rides you want to ride that are High Demand. But, for us sleeping till 7am is sleeping in because our kids are up at 0630 and DH is up at 0515 for PT.

Thanks for the info on the Playhouse Disney Dance Party! The Playhouse Disney stuff is a must do for us!

 

[mmay60046]

The ONLY time I've pushed to be at rope drop was when it was my oldest's first visit. Our first full day we went MK and got there for rope drop. When she saw the performance that opens MK and that train pulled into the station with Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Donald, etc. the excitement and magic reflected on her face and in her reaction was one of the most endearing memories for me from that whole trip.

This May will be my youngest's first visit and we will be at MK rope drop on our first full day. But other than that we just go along at our own pace for the rest of the trip.

 

[elainesj]

Like everyone said, it's all up to you and your family and how you like to experience WDW.

I'm a late sleeper and so are my kids. That said, I am a bit of a "commando tourer" and it drives me nuts to wait in lines when I want to see more, do more.

When I went in June, we only opened a park once, and the rest of the trip we slept in til 2 (pfft, teenagers ) But in all honesty, we were fine. The longest we ever waited was like 85 minutes for Toy Story Mania. (Everything else was 20-30 minutes)

The above poster's experience would drive me batty. We went on a long weekend (Columbus Day) in October and the parks were pretty busy. All told, we waited an average of 10 mins in line all weekend with many being walk-ons.

I did use Tour Guide Mike - and understanding those strategies made an OCD planner like me very happy indeed.

So it all depends what you like. I just came back from a trip to Cedar Point and with no FP system, it was super tough waiting in all those lines...even though I tried to plan it out as best as I could. My dd was not impressed with the 45 min lineup to ride a coaster. But...Cedar Point is only 2 hours away and we just bought season passes so can minimise those lineups by being able to spread out our visits over 2 mornings.

So it's just a matter of deciding - do you prefer to sleep in, or do your prefer to wait in some lines. If you plan your FPs right, you can still get to see quite a bit even with missing RD. Since we don't care for 20-30 min lineups, we prefer to open the parks and have a commando strategy. (hey we still made time to take pics of ourselves in all the awesome hats in the Emporium!)

E

 

[MikeandReneePlus5]

Am I the only one who finds the phrase "rope drop" annoying?

I don't know why...I just do, like nails on a chalk board.

 

[Mama Mouse]

For us rope drop isn't happening. I would love to be able to see the ceremony every day but my ds is and has always been a difficult sleeper. He hasn't napped since he was 3 so mid-day naps are out for us. And once he begins to drop too low on sleep he begins to get very miserable, very, very fast. And it's AWFUL for him and every single person he comes into contact with. However, if he's well rested, we're good to go. So for now, letting him get a good amount of sleep at night is the only way we're going to enjoy our vacation. And we had a blast doing it that way in July.

 

[FlightlessDuck]

I don't know about this time of year, but in the summer. YES.