Is sleeping in on a disney vacation wasting time?

[TiggerTrigger]

It depends...on one hand, we all know you get to ride a lot more if you're there early, but on the flip side...it can be pretty nice to sleep in and make it feel like more of a vacay. I suppose if you can take advantage of evening EMH, it might make up for some of it. i.e. if MK is open until 2am and you take advantage of it...rolling out at 11am the next day doesn't sound like as big of an issue IMO.

 

[kwitcherkicken99]

Because while they go rest, those who slept in are arriving at the parks and filling up the queues. Very few people (comparatively to the non-planners) go back for a midday rest.

 

[kaligal]

So....if so many people are posting and saying they go back to the rooms for pool/nap time in the early afternoon....why are the line so long at that time????

Most people sleep in. If they sleep until nine and get out at tenish, stop to eat...they aren't in a park until eleven or twelve.

That's why the few, the proud, the commandos are outta there between eleven and twelve. Not only is it getting hot, it's getting crowded, too.

Those folks who showed up late are tired of running around in the hot, crowded park. They are tired of arguing about whether they should stand in line for 70 minutes to ride Space Mountain or just find something with a short line. They are tired of waiting 40 minutes for crappy rides. They are hot and tired and crabby. They need to get out of Dodge by five or six...when the commandos are returning. Again, the parks are cooler and less crowded. And they are fresh from their naps and showers, ready to ride again.

 

[AshleyAnn]

DH is not a morning person at all. But we always make it to the parks within an hour of opening. Rarely do we make rope drop though. But we find we have more fun if we are there early, rather than on days where we've made it there closer to 11:00. But just as lots others have said, to each his own!

 

[k3chantal]

Let them sleep. It's not how I would want to spend my day....with whiny, tired kids. I would rather have them wake up on their own and be happy to get going.

I do have to say that generally my kids get up pretty early but they do sleep in later when we are on vacation because we like to stay up much later and close the parks when we can.

I am kinda disappointed because when i checked the parks' hours when we are there next, most parks will be closing at 10 pm except one night at MK that will fortunately stay open until 1.

 

[wahoostampingirl]

I'm not a morning person in my real life and neither is most of my family. However, at WDW, we manage to drag ourselves out of bed most mornings and make it to a park before RD. We started doing this when the kids were little and we knew they wouldn't be able to do late nights. Now that they're older, we all realize how much more we can do if we're there early.

BUT, as they get older (they are both 10), I'm also finding that some mornings they really just want to hang out for awhile before going to a park. I'm trying to change my park ways so everyone can have a relaxing vacation.

You could do some early mornings and some later mornings to see which suits your family better.

 

[alicia080979]

You need to do what is enjoyable for you on your vacation. You are paying for it, so make it a vacation that you will enjoy!

This is what I was going to say. At end the end of the trip when you and your family get back home are you going to look back and say that you had a great vacation. That is going to be different for everyone.

We have APs and slowed down considerably our last trip. We made RD maybe once but we spent more time looking at the Christmas decorations than riding rides. We slept in late, explored the resorts and had an incredible time. We had just gotten over a few very stressful months and needed that.

We have a trip planned next month that will be similar to our last but have one in September that will be more RDs with early mornings, mid day naps and late nights.

Find what works for your family and make memories that will last a lifetime...that is a good vacation!!!

 

[stitch34]

We sleep in! Never have done a rope drop after about a dozen trips... and really doubt we ever will.
For us, it's a character breakfast each day - usually the latest they have, whether it's 10:20 - or even 11:00 - and then hit the parks.

For us, depending on what time our ADR is and travel time... the earliest we get up is 8:30 - and dread those early days!

For us... tired and cranky equals NOOOOO fun in the parks.

We really don't take breaks - an occasional swim break... but hit the park and stay till fireworks and then are up late hanging at our resort.

 

[KYfriedPanda]

I hate getting up early, but I find when I'm at WDW I have a lot more energy in the morning. That being said, I still need a good night's sleep every now and then when on vacation - so I alternate! As someone already mentioned, the one you really should get to RD for would be HS.

 

[KYfriedPanda]

Oh, and I guess AK if you want to see the most animals on the safari, according to a lot of people on here.

 

[elaine amj]

all depends on what you want and what's most impt to you, as pointed out by PPs.

We dislike waiting in lines and like to go, go, go. So RD is very important to us. My family would sooner get up for RD than wait in longer lines later. My friend likes to sleep in and hates following a touring plan. So, she doesn't care for WDW. Too crowded, in her opinion.

My DH does likes mornings with a slower pace (not a headlong dash out the door) so I plan at least a few "slow start" mornings where it's OK if we get to the parks about 10am. Our last trip, for every one of our 10 days, we still made it to the parks by 9:30am, even the days I didn't plan to get there until 1pm! We always felt, "well, if we're up anyways...."

I woulld suggest talking to your kids - do they want to get up early and get lots of rides in, or is sleeping in more important and you deal with longer lineups. To each, his own!

I find doing RD reduces the need for FPs for me,. Also reduces the time to ride stuff, allowing me to fit in more rides. e.g. Space with FP takes a solid 20 mins. If I'm belly up and get there at RD, I often wait in no line at all. Same with Test Track. Even with FP, it takes a while but if I'm there at RD, I walk right on. Soarin's the worst with FP - it took forever to get through the FP line. So now, i avoid FPs for Soarin and stick to doing it at RD.

 

[Phatoomch]

When I was a kid, Circa 81', my parents used get me up at sunrise so we could get to the park (yes...I said park...singular...there was only one then) when it opened and I hated it. At the tender age of 6...I just wanted to sleep!!! Especially after a late night of video game playing at the Family Fun Center at the Contemporary. OK..Who remembers the original game room from 20 years ago???

Fast forward 20 year's later (wow, I'm getting old) and I have a DS6 and DD9.

Do I rip them out of their AKL bunk beds as the sun rises to drag them to a park and sentence them to a day of walking?

Or should I say, the heck with it. It's their vacation too and the parks aren't going anywhere. We get there when we get their. Even if it's 11am.

I'm really not sure how to handle this one. But before anyone chimes in, let me say I myself like good nights sleep and seldom get it thanks to the stresses of a demanding job and being a parent of two kids. You all know what I'm talking about!!!

Anyway, I also don't like to waste time. I'm usually the last one up but always the first one ready.

How should I handle our May trip?

Thanks All...
Jwill

I hate to be the one to point this out but fast forward 30 YEARS later, not 20

Made me when I did the math because my first time was the year before you

 

[BillBrasky]

Sleeping in at Disney is insane to me. You get up and get to the park before opening. You ride the major attractions, fastpass where you need, and get out of dodge in the early afternoon. Go for a swim, hit the pool bar repeatedly, hang around the room, head to DTD or a different resort to explore and have lunch, pleasure yourself while watching the Must-Dos, whatever you want really... and then head back to the same or another park in the early evening and experience the stuff that doesn't have long lines. The alternative would be rolling into DHS around 11 AM, your kids see TSM and want to ride it like NOW, and there's a 70 minute standby line, and fastpasses are for 7-8 PM. Oh, and it's nearing mid-day in central FL in May so it's about 90 degrees and humid. And it's friggin crowded. Want a snack at Starring Rolls? So do 40,000 other people.

Just got back from a Spring Break trip... we were able to ride pretty much everything at MK in one day (including Splash and Space 3 times each, HM 2 times), without ever waiting more than 25 minutes (for Dumbo at night), with a 3-4 hour break in the middle of the day. If you are capable of complex thought and are able to walk back and forth across a park multiple times in a day, you have a distinct advantage over the mouth-breathing hordes at WDW. Don't throw it away by showing up late to the party.

 

[BUTTERHEAD1]

We have been to WDW 17 times and I personally have yet to see a rope drop. Our vacations are usually 8-10 days long and we always take a day or two to just relax and use the pools do a little mini golfing or head to DTD. I have done and seen just about everything there is to do at WDW and have no problem sleeping in while on vacation. My family is more of the type to stay in the park to 2am on EMH nights than they type to get up at dawn to do a rope drop.

 

[brockash]

It's really just whatever you want to do. If you want to sleep in, sleep in -it's not wasted time to you if that's what you want to do.

To us, yes, sleeping in is wasting time. We take a family (with extended family) Disney trip every year and our motto is "we'll sleep when we're home." It's just what we prefer. For us, our Disney vacations are not "rest" vacations; they're get up and go do/experience kind of vacations. My ds and I are not really morning ppl. at all. On the weekends we're always the last ones out of bed, but Disney is a different story. I know my kids, and even though there are days that my ds (10) would rather sleep in at the moment I'm waking him; I also know that he'd much rather get up early and make rope drop with lower crowds, than to have to wait in long lines or not do rides. My dd is only 4, so she's always good to go...we'll see when she hits the teen years Once we're all up, we're fine and happy to be up and doing stuff. However, my dsis's and I have another motto when we're up really early for other reasons (like flights to visit other family ect.) -It's that "it's just not worth it, if it's not Disney." Disney brings out a different side in us

It's really whatever works for you and your family. If you know your kids or you are going to be grumpy or unhappy for the day because of lack of sleep or not sleeping in, then I'd def. sleep in, but just know that there are pro's and con's of both.

 

[jujube]

OP, what part of May? If it's before Memorial Day, then I would not worry about crowds too much. Except for Memorial Day weekend given a 7, the rest of the month is 4s, 5s and 6s. Talk to your family about it. Maybe get up early a few days and sleep in a few days. We used to rope drop freaks but now we usually take our time and relax. Go to some late EMHs. Those are crowded for the first couple of hours but then the crowds drop way off. These are great for night owls and those who enjoy sleeping away their mornings.

 

[smidgy]

I read ONLY the original post... and am positng BEFORe I read any others, (so as not to be influenced, wishy washy as I can be)

If any of you know me and hubby nebo, you know I am NOT a morning person, and he is.

but I waitress and tend bar. my normal wake up time is 10 am. i really do NOT like mornings.

however, much as I hate to admit it.. it is SO>> WORTH it to bite the bullet, get up early, get to the park at rope drop, and do a bunch of stuff before the lines get long.

that beig said, then you can go back to the resort, eat,take a nap, swim, etc, then go back at night .

(here is where I USED to say.. "use the fast passes you collected in the morning,.. never mind!)

but, as much as I despise waking up early (which, to me is anything before 9 or 10), it really is worth it at wdw.


now, for kids, esp. teens, you have to have a trade-off. even hubby gives me a day or two to "sleep-in"

depending on the length of the trip , give them a day (or 2) where they can sleep as long as they like, eat and swim, relax. (warning: our last day, back in 94, the boys spent the last day at the resort, just at the arcade and pool.. they eahc have one day left of the never expiring super duper passes..they jsut did NOT want to go to the parks again (they were 12 AND 15) AND WE DIDN'T MAKE THEM)

 

[smidgy]

So....if so many people are posting and saying they go back to the rooms for pool/nap time in the early afternoon....why are the line so long at that time????

probably because most of the people here on the DIS stay on property.. even if they dont, they are savvy to the "ways of the mouse"/

there are Copious Quantities or guest s who have never heard of the dis, or are staying at timeshares splitting their time between wdw and universal and sea world, etc etc. and plannign to stay for the whole day. so they start out later.

if you were staying at a timeshare in kissimee. would you drive to th eMK parking lot, take a tram to the TTC, take the monorail or ferry to MK.. ride a bunch of rides, do the same secenario in reverse, eat at your time share then go back? no. you would either eat breakfast in your timesahre or hotel, and spend the rest of the day at the park, or the reverse.

the busiest time is mid day. this is the time we like to chill out at the pool, eat at the resort (on property, even if it's a salami sandwich with chips in the room) and come back later.

 

[Disney_Princess83]

It really depends on you and your family. If by making the kids get up early, are they going to be cranky, moody, snappy, crash earlier in the evening then if you let them sleep? If the answer is yes, then let them sleep! If it's just going to cause problems, rope drop is NOT worth the added issues.

We had an adults only trip in February and slept in nearly everyday! It was fantastic, we felt well rested and could go to 1AM-2AM (we had several very late EMH) If we had done rope drop, we would have crashed out by 11PM

 

[chmurf]

of course rides are great, but for us sleeping in is an attraction in itself, so we don't feel like we waste time if we sleep in.

maybe it's because we come from far away (old europe) 14 hours on a plane each way, you only go once a year, so we stay longer, like 3 weeks. And even with our 14 or 21 days tickets there is no way we could do the parks every day without becoming slightly mad.

sleeping in is part of our vacation, and if we get up to late for the parks, so be it, let's play minigolf, hang by the pool, go shopping, go to beach in Clearwater, go to the strawberry festival in plant city (if it's the right time of year) or go pick oranges at pick your own farms, or whatever.
There are so many things to do in central florida.

Of course if you're on a 5 days trip, it's a waste of time, because it's already too short a vacation (IMHO) to go to WDW. I wouldn't do that because I'd feel compelled to go commando style, and that's not the way I want my vacations to be.

I stay on property, but the parks are not my main objective. They are on my plans but it's not mandatory to go every day. So I guess, for us, sleeping in is as good an "attraction" as anything else.
And staying in bed until 9 or 10am feels equally as good as riding TSM or EE 3 times in a row