Our approach to WDW must be odd?

[Darkside]

We rarely make a rope drop, we tend to get up out of bed late and wander to the bus stop to go to a park. Most days breakfast turns into lunchfast. Maybe make one or two fast passes. We hit every extra magic hour, mainly because the rides are easier to get on and also avoiding the blazing heat of staying in line at Magic Kingdom. We love to take in the "Feel" of WDW and don't get in a hurry for anything if we can help it. Guess we are not park commandos, where we have to conquer every ride in the park. If we make it back to the resort by midnight, we have had an early night. I guess we are odd???

 

[redsbe]

We rarely make a rope drop, we tend to get up out of bed late and wander to the bus stop to go to a park. Most days breakfast turns into lunchfast. Maybe make one or two fast passes. We hit every extra magic hour, mainly because the rides are easier to get on and also avoiding the blazing heat of staying in line at Magic Kingdom. We love to take in the "Feel" of WDW and don't get in a hurry for anything if we can help it. Guess we are not park commandos, where we have to conquer every ride in the park. If we make it back to the resort by midnight, we have had an early night. I guess we are odd???

likely more common than many would think, regardless of what some posters believe there are actually many different ways to plan trips and experience WDW and any changes (including now with MBs and FP+) have a range of impact to visitors and not all are negative.

 

[Patabel]

If that makes you "odd"...then so are we! That sounds exactly like our touring plan each and every time we head down to see The Mouse!

 

[Stephaniesue]

We just kind of go with the flow. Last time we didn't use FP at all, I really didn't need to. We did look at wait times, hopped on if it was not too long.

Disney for us is not only about the rides, we just enjoy the experience of being there.

 

[lazy daisy]

We just kind of go with the flow. Last time we didn't use FP at all, I really didn't need to. We did look at wait times, hopped on if it was not too long.

Disney for us is not only about the rides, we just enjoy the experience of being there.

Same here!!

 

[MomofKatie]

Not odd at all! You are in the majority of WDW goers. And if it works for you, great! Sometimes looking at the DISboards can make non-commandos feel like they are weird for doing the parks the way they do, since so many here tend to be planners who really "work all the angles" to maximize park time.

We tend to be rope drop people. We go to WDW at cooler, slower times of the year when parks close early, so late nights aren't really a possibility. We don't need a midday break, since we aren't enduring the heat of summer. We aren't commandos, but we do have a plan for hitting the popular attractions at times when we won't have to wait in long lines. It works for us, so it is all good.

 

[ArwenMarie]

oops wrong thread

 

[jimim]

We rarely make a rope drop, we tend to get up out of bed late and wander to the bus stop to go to a park. Most days breakfast turns into lunchfast. Maybe make one or two fast passes. We hit every extra magic hour, mainly because the rides are easier to get on and also avoiding the blazing heat of staying in line at Magic Kingdom. We love to take in the "Feel" of WDW and don't get in a hurry for anything if we can help it. Guess we are not park commandos, where we have to conquer every ride in the park. If we make it back to the resort by midnight, we have had an early night. I guess we are odd???

ur not odd at all my good friends who's kid is out of the house now and my parents r the same way. We used to be like that too when we didn't have kids. Now that we do have 2 young ones we get in early but are out by noonish and then back in after a nice long dinner. Deff not out of the norm. Other friends of our that we usually meet up with are lucky if they get to the park by 1 anymore.

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[jimim]

We just kind of go with the flow. Last time we didn't use FP at all, I really didn't need to. We did look at wait times, hopped on if it was not too long. Disney for us is not only about the rides, we just enjoy the experience of being there.

+1 that's why I don't really care about fast pass even in the past. We r there so much rides don't really matter. They do for our favs but we fast pass those and before kids we did a lot of people watching. Just chillin and hangin out. It's amazing what u see. Lol

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[MeridaLove]

That's just how we do it as well We sleep in as long as we want, then head over to the park and do whatever we feel like! We stay out late because we LOVE the parks at night with all the lights and the cool night breezes - that's when we feel the real magic of Disney

That being said, we do go at non-peak times, so we don't really have to worry about the long waits and crowds that some people have to who can only go at peak times. And we've been to the world fairly often so we don't have that panic to do EVERYTHING in case we never get back. It makes for a more relaxing, magical time together and probably why we love it so much!!

 

[pad406]

We're also like that, we plan a few RD days but very few, maybe 2 or 3 at most in a 2-3 week stay. Most of the time we're all waiting for DS to wake up, man that kid SLEEPS at Disney. Guess FP+ will be good for our types

 

[slickpoetry]

your way must be common. It explains why afternoon lines are longer than morning ones. If there weren't people like you (and me), there would be no advantage in arriving at rope drop.

 

[NJ Goofy]

I don't think it's odd at all. It is a vacation and should be treated as one. I agree some posts make it sound like if you don't get on every ride your trip is a failure.

I do plan out out trip pretty well (i enjoy the planning almost as much as the trip) and we try to get to the parks early but we do make changes as we go and if we don't get on a certain attraction it is not the end of the world.

Reading the posts over the last few months regarding the FP+ I think people are going way overboard with the doom and gloom. We are going in May and maybe I'll sing a different tune after our trip but I think we'll still have a good time and make the best of the new systems.

 

[Disneyhabs]

We rarely make a rope drop, we tend to get up out of bed late and wander to the bus stop to go to a park. Most days breakfast turns into lunchfast. Maybe make one or two fast passes. We hit every extra magic hour, mainly because the rides are easier to get on and also avoiding the blazing heat of staying in line at Magic Kingdom. We love to take in the "Feel" of WDW and don't get in a hurry for anything if we can help it. Guess we are not park commandos, where we have to conquer every ride in the park. If we make it back to the resort by midnight, we have had an early night. I guess we are odd???

We are early risers and rope drop BUT like you we also hit EMH some are morning EMH like at AK for the simple fact we love the early safari when the animals are all out. We too stay till park closing and get in late each night. We seldome stop for longer than 15 min to grab a quick snack for lunch then eat dinner once we return to the room whenever that happens to be.

 

[ajwolfe]

We rarely make a rope drop, we tend to get up out of bed late and wander to the bus stop to go to a park. Most days breakfast turns into lunchfast. Maybe make one or two fast passes. We hit every extra magic hour, mainly because the rides are easier to get on and also avoiding the blazing heat of staying in line at Magic Kingdom. We love to take in the "Feel" of WDW and don't get in a hurry for anything if we can help it. Guess we are not park commandos, where we have to conquer every ride in the park. If we make it back to the resort by midnight, we have had an early night. I guess we are odd???

This is us for the most part. We don't sleep in super late, but we usually aim for being in the parks by 9. We use all the EMH and love staying super late in the park. We tend to not overstress and most trips we get to ride everything is open. I can only think of one ride we've ever had to miss and that is Toy Story Mania.

 

[Alesia]

That is actually what most people do, which is why people advise getting there at ropedrop - to avoid the huge numbers of people who arive late morning through early afternoon.

 

[CinderElsa]

I plan for the headliners and make a few ADRs, but I generally just wing it for the not-so-busy attractions, and I only hit RD two or three days in a week. I don't go to Disney just for rides - if I want a day of thrill rides, I go to Universal or Six Flags. That's just not what Disney is about for me.

I don't think everyone is even ABLE to be a park commando. If you have small kids, you really can't be a park commando, because your kid is inevitably going to find some fascinating rock/flower/cardboard box that housed an $85 souvenir you just purchased for them and want to play with it for 45 minutes while you're chewing off your fingernails and constantly revising your itinerary. That doesn't sound like much fun to me!

It really depends on who's in your party.

DBF likes to make RD every day and keep going tirelessly until closing. (This plan is usually vetoed.)

DDad would sleep until noon every day if we let him (unless it's SWW). DMom would never leave the resort. DBro would camp outside the entrance in a sleeping bag if he was allowed to do it.

DBFF cares way more about shopping than about rides and would probably be just as happy if that was the only thing she did.

Whatever works for you!

 

[hops&dreams]

OP - we do the same. Sleep in, get to parks between 10 and noon. Eat lunch during he blazing heat of the day, and then stay late, although we go in the winter, which has earlier closing times.

I told my friend this and she was APPALLED! She was like "I wouldn't feel like I'd be getting my money's worth!" I told her I wouldn't feel like I was getting my vacation time's worth if I was getting up earlier than I normally do for work to make it to rope drop and RUN to the most popular attractions and fight for fastpasses.

To each their own... I still get to ride everything I want to, and generally have a more relaxed time doing it. Hearing about her trip was all "we're on a schedule" and stressy... we were more like "eh, if we do it, we do it. If not, we'll do it tomorrow or next time..."

Dh said I am NOT to EVER plan taking a trip to Disney, our two families together. He doesn't want to cramp our touring style. ;-)

 

[DisneyMim]

If you are odd then so are we. This is how we have been doing Disney forever. We are not morning people, but stay late all the time. We are almost always the last ones out of the parks. We don't care how many rides we go on, in fact we were there for Christmas and didn't even bother to get FPS ahead of time. It's never been about how may times we can go on a ride, although I will say we have done a ton of stuff at night. We also just love the atmosphere of Disney, love to have dinner every night and linger over wine and tea. We are never in a hurry. Our feeling is we are on vacation and don't want to rush to anything. This is not for everyone and I will say we are DVC members since 1991, AP holders and go often. It might not work for everyone, but it works for us!! So Darkside you are not alone!!! Have Fun!!!

Enjoy The Magic!!

 

[MarineVet]

When I am retired, I will likely do the same (sleep in and arrive later in the day). For now, due to the peak times of work at my job, I can't take off work from July until mid October, so I can't go at those low times of late August and September. Neither do I go in the peak times, but crowds are generally about an occasional 4 up to a 7. I have some foot issues, and while I can walk fine, its the standing in one place for a long time, in a long line that really makes them hurt. Mostly for this reason, we get up early and make rope drop, and hit all the things we know will grow long lines by noon. Then we work on the less crowded things, eat lunch, and if its getting hot or my feet hurt, we go back to the room and rest. Then we return later around 6 or 6 or 7 for another round. It all works out, if we were all there the exact same hours it would be a mess.