Late afternoon trip

[Disneydfb]

Good morning!

We are going February 17-24, staying at riveria with a party of 6, 5 adults and a 2 ½ year old. Every other time we’ve done Disney we rope drop and plan things out to a tee. This year we’ve promised ourselves to take it a much more relaxed approach because of my daughter and so we can finally take the time to enjoy the hotel. Im starting to freak out since we aren’t rope dropping it’s going to be packed because of the busy week and not be able to do anything. We are planning on getting genie + again and trying to stack for late afternoon / evening rides with our ADRs made around 11ish or 4ish. Has anyone ever done non rope dropping during a busy time and have any tips? We are working on shifting our mindset that we probably won’t do all the rides this time which will be fine, but still getting anxious.

Thanks in advance!

 

[CarolynFH]

We never rope drop, and during the last few years we’ve been entering the parks in late afternoon and early evening. In the morning I buy ILL$ for our favorites (FoP, Seven Dwarfs, Slinky Dog, Guardians) in the parks we plan to visit that day. I buy Genie+ for MK and DHS and start first thing in the morning booking, stacking, and modifying Genie+LLs, trying to arrange a reasonable itinerary in each park that prevents crisscrossing the park multiple times. And I’ll blow my own horn and post a report about my most successful day:

One Sunday in January 2023, we had tickets to Cirque du Soleil 1:30 show, which gets out around 3. Our goal at MK was to ride the train, which shuts down at 6. So I didn’t want any LL window that would close too early. Furthermore we had finished one half of MK on Wednesday so were concentrating on the other side. I bought Genie+ just before 9 AM and booked PP for something like 4:30. Every 2 hours I booked another ride, and at some point I modified PP to Jungle Cruise and then booked PP for 6:30. I modified and adjusted when I could, and by the time we walked into MK around 4:30 we had JC at 4:35, BTMRR at 5:35, PP at 6:30, and HM at 6:40. But by the time we rode the train all the way around once and then stayed on until Frontierland, we didn’t get to JC until 5:30 - and as we got into the LL line, I booked Pirates for 5:35.

 

[Disneydfb]

-

 

[Disneydfb]

We never rope drop, and during the last few years we’ve been entering the parks in late afternoon and early evening. In the morning I buy ILL$ for our favorites (FoP, Seven Dwarfs, Slinky Dog, Guardians) in the parks we plan to visit that day. I buy Genie+ for MK and DHS and start first thing in the morning booking, stacking, and modifying Genie+LLs, trying to arrange a reasonable itinerary in each park that prevents crisscrossing the park multiple times. And I’ll blow my own horn and post a report about my most successful day:

One Sunday in January 2023, we had tickets to Cirque du Soleil 1:30 show, which gets out around 3. Our goal at MK was to ride the train, which shuts down at 6. So I didn’t want any LL window that would close too early. Furthermore we had finished one half of MK on Wednesday so were concentrating on the other side. I bought Genie+ just before 9 AM and booked PP for something like 4:30. Every 2 hours I booked another ride, and at some point I modified PP to Jungle Cruise and then booked PP for 6:30. I modified and adjusted when I could, and by the time we walked into MK around 4:30 we had JC at 4:35, BTMRR at 5:35, PP at 6:30, and HM at 6:40. But by the time we rode the train all the way around once and then stayed on until Frontierland, we didn’t get to JC until 5:30 - and as we got into the LL line, I booked Pirates for 5:35.

That makes me feel so much better! We’ve always been a rope dropping family and pretty much open to close, we’ve never really just enjoyed the hotels or slowed down so I’m excited to have a lazy morning, enjoy Riveria, the skyliner etc. thanks for the advice!

 

[CarolynFH]

That makes me feel so much better! We’ve always been a rope dropping family and pretty much open to close, we’ve never really just enjoyed the hotels or slowed down so I’m excited to have a lazy morning, enjoy Riveria, the skyliner etc. thanks for the advice!

Have a wonderful trip!

 

[scrappinginontario]

We took a couple of days when we purchased G+, enjoyed a quieter start to our day and stacked LL return times for later in the day. It was nice not to rush a couple of mornings. We would head to the park mid-afternoon.