Rope drop or late nights for shortest waits?

[Autumnslight]

We're going to WDW June 7-14th, which is supposed to be level 8 and 9 crowds. Considering that our group HATES heat and crowds/waiting in line, I can't really say why we decided to partake in this bit of insanity, but we did.

We've been to WDW twice with FP+ so far, so we feel fine about the logistics of using FP+. However, we haven't been since legacy FP was removed, and we've never been during such a busy time. So, I'm pretty concerned about how many rides and character interactions we're actually going to be able to do.

We're also NOT morning people. At all. We've made exactly one rope drop ever, and we got off the monorail just as the opening show was starting, so we barely made it!

Given all of this, I'm trying to figure out if we'd be likely to get more done in the first couple of hours of the day, if we made rope drop, or in the last couple of hours at night. Are crowds later at night comparable to early in the morning?

Either way, we'll definitely be planning to spend mid-day back at the resort and in the pool!

 

[bookgirl]

I've found rope drop to be better than EMH PM.

Of course I've found EMH AM to be better than rope drop.

 

[2Tiggies]

I'd say you're better off with the nights. In terms of temperature and just catering for what suits your needs, it's six and half a dozen. MK is open really late in June so if you stick with the late nights you should be fine. Maybe you could factor in one or two rope drops if you are up to it

 

[morethananyonex]

We've always found rope drop is much better than late night hours in terms of getting things done with lower waits.

That being said, if your family doesn't like getting up early, you might be happier just sticking with the plan of doing late nights even if you go on a few less rides or wait in longer lines. How long are you there? Maybe try out the late night method for the first couple days and see if it works for you guys.

ETA: I read your post better lol, you're there a week. So yea, try a late night or two, and if it's too busy do mornings for the rest.

 

[mco65]

Hands down, rope drop is the best (shortest lines), to do a park. You could go commando and rope drop to park close.. my wife is a commando but the rest of us are NOT so she obliges us and only forces us to do 1 day of commando...

 

[Autumnslight]

Great, thanks for the responses so far! Our first two days are Star Wars weekend, so we pretty much have no choice but to do early mornings for those days. After that, I think we'll stick to late nights, except for the days there's EMH at MK. We'll plan to get to the park at the beginning of EMH that day, and hopefully we'll be able to do a lot that morning!

 

[2Tiggies]

You'll get a lot done in that early morning EMH if you are there a good while before it opens

 

[ars0525]

What if you do both? Get up for RD, stay for a few hours until it gets too crowded or hot for your family. Head back around 7 and stay til close? That is what I do for MK at least.

 

[2Tiggies]

What if you do both? Get up for RD, stay for a few hours until it gets too crowded or hot for your family. Head back around 7 and stay til close? That is what I do for MK at least.

That works very well and we do that for the most part but if parks are open super late at night doing it over a longer trip back to back, there is only so much you can do before you render a full day almost useless due to exhaustion. If you can sleep in the day and you nap during your breaks that's a fantastic strategy and it does work - very well! But, as I posted elsewhere earlier, getting back from MK at 3 am and getting up at 6 for EMH the next day is not something you can do indefinitely for more than a few days.

 

[Disneyhabs]

We do both actually. We are early morning EMH and or rope droppers then love the late night EMH also. We hit the parks for RD or EMH depending on what park it is and stay through till closing.

 

[Autumnslight]

What if you do both? Get up for RD, stay for a few hours until it gets too crowded or hot for your family. Head back around 7 and stay til close? That is what I do for MK at least.

It's the actual getting up in the morning that's the tough part for us, and particularly for our kids. Once everyone's actually up, we're all pretty much fine for the rest of the day - none of us are nappers. But getting the kids up when they haven't had enough continuous hours of sleep during the night is miserable, and makes for a pretty rotten time the first hour or so of the day. Definitely not how we want to spend our vacation! So, we'll mainly have to stick with late nights and sleeping in, or early mornings and going to bed earlier.

Edit: The days we'll be there, MK is open until midnight. If we stay until close, it's totally not realistic to expect to get the kids out of bed before about 9am the next morning.