Park Planning in July

[houseofmouse5]

We will be visiting WDW the middle of July. How do you plan your July trips?
I'm hoping the hours will change and the parks will stay open longer but for now they close at 9:00 or 10:00. The last time we went in the summer we arrived at the park early then left after lunch to relax and shower then went back. Is that the best plan for summer? I thought it might be nice to not have to be at the parks so early, maybe somewhere around 11:00 or 12:00 but then that is when the peak heat starts. It will be me, DH and two teens. What is your advice?

 

[GADisneyDad14]

We will be visiting WDW the middle of July. How do you plan your July trips?
I'm hoping the hours will change and the parks will stay open longer but for now they close at 9:00 or 10:00. The last time we went in the summer we arrived at the park early then left after lunch to relax and shower then went back. Is that the best plan for summer? I thought it might be nice to not have to be at the parks so early, maybe somewhere around 11:00 or 12:00 but then that is when the peak heat starts. It will be me, DH and two teens. What is your advice?

Might not be a bad idea to eyeball the park hours for last July here: http://www.wdwinfo.com/wdwinfo/hours/july17.cfm

The past is not always indicative of future results in these circumstances, but you can see the general pattern. Last summer Pandora was new and AK had longer hours, this summer TSL will be new so we’ll likely see new hour trends there.

Our summer plan? Rope drop through lunch, back for resort/pool time, maybe back out in the evenings and/or more resort time. Afternoon showers can play a factor as well. But my kids are young, so RD and nap time are still a part of the typical mix.

Personally, I love the summer. Happy planning!

 

[RLGNC]

Post moved to another thread

 

[TXDisneyFan1]

We have been several times recently in July and had a great time!

One thing we like to do is eat lunch early. We hit our targeted QS place at 11 am each day. We are usually some of the first people there and have no trouble finding a great table in the AC. Since we rope drop, we are definitely ready for a break. Usually, by the time we leave, the line is long and the restaurant is crowded.

 

[dsanner106]

We will be visiting WDW the middle of July. How do you plan your July trips?
I'm hoping the hours will change and the parks will stay open longer but for now they close at 9:00 or 10:00. The last time we went in the summer we arrived at the park early then left after lunch to relax and shower then went back. Is that the best plan for summer? I thought it might be nice to not have to be at the parks so early, maybe somewhere around 11:00 or 12:00 but then that is when the peak heat starts. It will be me, DH and two teens. What is your advice?

We have made a few July trips and by far the best way to do it is to get there EARLY, do a park from 8 or 9 until about 1 or 2. Leave for peak heat 2-4, enjoy dinner elsewhere or return for dinner and the evening hours at that park or hit a second park. This has made for the more enjoyable days for us.

 

[Klayfish]

Like many things here, there's no one "right" way to do this. I would completely disagree with those who say that getting there super early, then leaving midday and coming back later is the "best" way to do it. Maybe for them it is, but to me it makes very little sense. I'm not saying we never do that, but we don't do it pre-planned. If we do it, it's spur of the moment...we were in the park earlier in the day and went home because we were done. If we eat dinner and decide to go back out, we just do.

We don't show up until 9:30 or 10:00am. We don't leave midday, unless that just happens to be when we're done. Yes, it's very hot, but that's the beauty of WDW...you don't need to be in the heat. A majority of rides are a/c, and even the queue is a/c. So you can spend the overwhelming, vast majority of the midday out of the sun and heat, easily. Just do rides that are indoors, so your only exposure outside is walking from spot to spot. Water rides are also good for midday.

So really, my answer is do whatever fits your style. Don't let the fact that it's July influence you too much. The worst of the heat can be largely avoided with some common sense. If you want to do a midday break, great, but it's not the "best" or "right" way.

 

[HydroGuy]

I have never been to WDW in July but this summer our last day will overlap onto July 1 or 2 with our late June trip. The whole question about the wisdom (or lack thereof) of a July trip is a topic for another day LOL!

From my May and June trips what I have often found is that when we take "afternoon breaks" with a plan to go back to the parks at say 5 or 6PM, and it is really hot and humid out, and that hotel is oh so nice and air conditioned, and the pool is oh so nice and close by, it is often hard to get my crew to go back to the parks even when they were dead certain when we left for the break that they would come back. Rather than try and push them, I often go back solo (or with a partial crew) or sometimes I just skip the evening also to hang with them.

What I am saying is that the afternoon break thing can backfire if you really want to experience Disney during a hot and humid time.

Some pragmatic advice I therefore usually follow is to schedule all the FPs in the morning before our break. Typically 10-11AM/11AM-12PM/12PM-1PM. Then we can use our final FP at Noon and be ready to head for a break if that is the vote. Also pragmatically we will sometimes push a break until 2 or 3PM because we kind of know the desire to come back out to the parks after the break will be lower.

Also, I have to be careful about in park ADR's for dinner. As we often stay at Swan/Dolphin, then an evening ADR at Epcot World Showcase or DHS is safer than at MK or AK just because it is a little easier to get to those from the hotel and the crew is more likely to be willing to go back to the parks - if only for dinner and maybe a ride or two or a show.

 

[tchris4]

We are going late July with our 2 littles. Our plan is to go in the morning early (our kids get up at 6 am regardless) and then go until lunch and go back and take naps/swim. Then we'll go back to the parks or swim more. We're also going to try a water park this time. Coming from south Louisiana, we're used to the heat, so I think we'll have a great time!

 

[houseofmouse5]

Thank you for all your advice. I will talk to the girls and see what they prefer. Maybe it will be a mix of RD and later start days. Personally I love to get up and go as I feel I'm missing part of the excitement. We are bringing my DD friend and want her to have a wonderful WDW experience. I have a difficult time creating relaxed trips. I always start out by saying this trip will be more relaxed than the last but somehow the schedule gets filled up and we do a lot.

 

[kj2mom]

When we went over 4th of July I told my teenagers that they were getting up and being there for rope drop on the 4th itself because it was our first day and because we were off site and I didn't want to deal with traffic/crowds etc etc. After the first day I would leave it up to them about rope drop. We had such a lovely morning that first day, we walked onto almost everything prior to our lunch ADR. It really made an impact on them and we did rope drop at every park for the rest of the trip. What we did was just do what we could in the morning, have a nice lunch ADR in an air conditioned establishment of some kind then have our FP scheduled for after lunch. Once we finished with those it seemed the worst part of the heat was over, we could figure out something for dinner and enjoy the night time entertainment. We actually closed the park and still opened them the next morning for our entire trip. We were off site (just beyond Disney Springs) but we had a large place where we all had our own bathroom. We could all get up 30 minutes prior to needing to leave and all be ready without even seeing each other, never mind bumping into each other/waiting for the sink/bathroom. I think this played a huge part in the kids being okay with rope dropping because even if we got home at midnight, if we wanted to leave at 7:30 we could sleep until 7 which was usually 7 solid hours because of our long day prior.

I know the rope drop, lunch then FP schedule isn't for everyone but it worked out really great for us!