Managing Your Time in the Parks

[Jedi Mouse]

We're now less than two weeks out from our next trip and I'm getting pretty excited! We've taken our two kids to the parks on yearly trips for the past 4 years but they have always been 2-3 day weekend trips on super tight budgets. We always wanted to maximize park time and generally are at rope drop in the morning and close down the park at night with a 2-3 hour break in the afternoon. This allowed us to take advantage of the smaller early and late crowds but left us exhausted.

Over the past eight years my wife and I have put ourselves through school (hence the tight budgets) and now that all our hard work has paid off we've decided to celebrate by declaring this our Year of Disney by purchasing AP's! We will be kicking things off with a 6 day trip and our normal Disneyland 'til you drop strategy simply wont work. With EMH everyday and the parks being open until 12:00 I'm going to have to resist the temptation and not go early and stay late, at least not everyday.

At this point I'm contemplating a strategy of alternating heavy and light days, but I'd love to hear how some of you schedule your longer trips maximize your time without over doing it.

 

[emmybee]

I like to make a rough outline of things to do during the week. So I generally plan one reservation meal each day and make a plan for whatever parade, WOC, Fantasmic (when it's active, of course) I want to catch on whatever night. I find that most important because as you know, not every activity is necessarily available during the week. We are casual Disney trippers. We sleep in, show up, and stay as long as we have the energy to do so. We soak it in, relax, and love our time there. I also expect the worst in terms of crowds, and always hope to be pleasantly surprised.

 

[chickapin parterre]

decoration!!!!! Decorations!!! And the singing, did you know that there is a dickens era working class band that is around, I found them below the parterre, find the tide line of where the decor starts in theme and ends in theme, photograph the holiday treats and oh yeah, listen to the windows on Main Street

 

[lalasmama]

I've come to love my "early in, late in" philosophy. It doesn't always work, and sometimes it's thwarted by the park hours, but, overall, it's wonderful. Typically, I'm in the parks for 3 or so days, though sometimes 5-7 days. My general plan is this:

Arrival day--no park. Get to bed early, because that alarm is going to get me up for rope drop. If I happen to get to the resort area in the afternoon (I typically take a flight that gets me to the area around 4pm), I'll hit up Downtown Disney for dinner or a drink, and soak in the atmosphere. I may do a little general shopping at World of Disney for non-trip-specific things (ears that I'm taking back for someone, or the stuffy my grandson(s) want(s). I'll visit the hotels for the seasonal decor. But, again, the most important thing here is being to bed early, so I can get my lazy butt outta bed. Of course, on a late opening (say, 9am or 10am) that early-to-bed is much less important, but I still want to make sure I am super well-rested.

Park Day 1--Rope drop and run... No, no running at rope drop. My general meaning with the "run" is that Day 1 is my "everything I miss" day. It's the day I eat two or three Dole Whips, and ride Jungle Cruise twice, and ride Matterhorn until my butt/back can't stand it anymore, and Star Tours so many times I think my nausea pills will stop working, and Tower of Terror until my hair sticks up on end, and... and... and... You get the point. I'm going to be there from rope-drop until the street sweepers come and push me out.

Park Day 2--Rest the day away. Alarm is set, but goal isn't rope drop. Goal is just not sleeping in until noon Get to the parks whenever, and then enjoy every flipping show/chill activity that I can find. Rides are only done if essentially walk-on. This is also typically my picture day (love taking photos at Disneyland). If I have a reservation for a table-service, this is the day I plan for that as well. I leave whenever I feel "done" for the day. Typically, it's a bit early-ish. Again, if the park has an early-closing night (like 6pm on a party night, or 8pm in late winter), then I will stay until closing, but the end results is that I'm back to the hotel before I'm exhausted.

Park Day 3--Rope drop, but go easy the rest of the day. Essentially like Day 1, just not as busy.

Park Day 4--same as 2, maybe a little more motivation to do rides or possible meet-and-greets.

And back and forth they go. Easy day, then more busy day, easy, busy, etc.

 

[Jedi Mouse]

I'm definitely looking forward to the more relaxed pace.

 

[Jedi Mouse]

We will be arriving Tuesday evening and plan on going to the parks that night until 12. Wednesday we plan on sleeping in and then watching shows, riding some of our favorite rides and then leaving by 8 or 9. Thursday we have friends joining us. They only have two days in the park and it will be the first trip for some of them, so we're planning for a big day. After that we'll play it by ear. I'd like to get in two EMH days.

 

[DL_Forever]

We do rope drop everyday we are there and then take a break around noon and return to the hotel for naps/resting. My kids are small so it is essential we get a break in mid-day. We skipped the midday nap one day on our trip last Christmas and its not worth it. My son, 5 at the time, had a meltdown about a light saber and basically told us he was no longer apart of our family and hated Disneyland. My daughter, 3 at the time, had a meltdown because her brothers dinner came with apples and hers didn't. Funny now, but at the time I was never going to take them back to DL. But here we are ready to return in less than a week and I will not make the same mistake as last time