Rope drop question for west coasters

[sleepymouse]

Our family usually does rope drop at DLR. We have two boys (4 and 9). We have a red eye flight from Seattle and arrive in Orlando at 7am. If we can make it through the day and get too bed at a decent hour, do you think 8am rope drops with afternoon breaks are doable or should we just shoot for entering late afternoon and staying in the parks until close? I'm really struggling with this since we have to reserve things in advance. Also, though we would take afternoon breaks, I highly doubt that my kids will nap.

 

[dwwlmw]

Our family usually does rope drop at DLR. We have two boys (4 and 9). We have a red eye flight from Seattle and arrive in Orlando at 7am. If we can make it through the day and get too bed at a decent hour, do you think 8am rope drops with afternoon breaks are doable or should we just shoot for entering late afternoon and staying in the parks until close? I'm really struggling with this since we have to reserve things in advance. Also, though we would take afternoon breaks, I highly doubt that my kids will nap.

Hi, we are from the Seattle area also and have never been able to do rope drop! My kids are older than yours (20,17, and 13) but we have been going for years and everyone is just too tired for that. We also are usually there when it is hot and we enjoy being in the parks after the sun goes down. If your kids are early risers at home they may be able to adjust. Mine would sleep half the day if I let them so it is just too stressful for us. We usually schedule TS breakfasts a few days of our trip but try to get them around 9:30am so everyone is happy

As far as scheduling fastpass+ you could always schedule for later and if you do rope drop it would be easier at that time to ride standby. That would give you the option to do rope drop but if you're too tired you would still have your fastpasses later.

 

[bumbershoot]

We have a VERY hard time doing rope drop for the first week in Orlando. It doesn't matter how exhausted we are, we can't go to sleep until our bodies' bedtime (we start bedtime at 9 just for DS) and that doesn't help us get to sleep nice and early. And no matter if we can go to bed early, waking up in time to be at the turnstiles for an 8am opening is just too hard for us.

If you won't be napping, why take breaks? That's just adding tons of travel time for not much bonus. If you'll end up swimming, recognize that it might very well exhaust everyone (or sunburn everyone).

OH gosh I just saw you're doing a redeye. Yeah, I don't know. Those don't work for *me*, let alone for my son. Let alone for when he was 4. If you have kids like my kid, I give you all the hugs right now, because my kid falls to sleep for an hour on a plane, wakes in a miserable panic and won't stay quiet, then passes back out, wakes up an hour later, panicking, etc. He does NOT do this at home. It's the plane, the dehydration of a plane, sitting up, etc... Flying from Vancouver to Heathrow we got approximately 20 MINUTES of sleep the whole flight. It was a joy. I really hope you have a better experience than we have while flying during sleeping time. The 4 year old will be the wildcard for staying up.

And remember you almost certainly will not have a room, and aren't supposed to until after 3pm, so if people are miserable, plan on pool time or something. Sunscreen and swimsuits need to be in the carryons, absolutely.


I wouldn't plan, under any circumstances, on entering LATE afternoon, though. The excitement of disney will get you up earlier than that!

 

[Meriweather]

Seattle for years and years, now in AZ.
We always do rope drop.
They way you mention is the way we do it.....red eye, keep going. Go to bed fairly early and we are good to go after that.

 

[afan]

Seattle for years and years, now in AZ.
We always do rope drop.
They way you mention is the way we do it.....red eye, keep going. Go to bed fairly early and we are good to go after that.

I agree with this. Grew up in Seattle, but lived in NC for 6 years. I always took the red eye back to NC so I could adjust to EST quicker since I generally had to work in the following day or two. I might take an hour or two nap when I got home, since it'd still be before 8 by that point. Otherwise it was stay up and go to bed at my normal time or a little earlier. I also could generally sleep 2/3 to 3/4 of the flight depending on many factors.

I'll use this strategy when we go next year for the wine and dine half to make it easier to sleep the night before the race. I took an 8am flight out of Seattle last May and maybe got 5 hours of bad sleep our first night in Orlando. It made the first day rough.

ETA: We did rope drop or close to it for 5 days at WDW and 1 day at Universal. Most days we were there before open or just as, and saw the welcome show at MK once. We didn't stay late except for fantasmic though. No kids, so we didn't take outside breaks and we out of the parks by 7ish each day, our choice.

 

[Deanie1]

I am from the west coast also and we have three kids. We always did rope drop. Sometimes we would go back to the hotel for a break to swim and one or two of the kids might nap for an hr or so. Othertimes, DH would bring our 6yr old back to the hotel around 3pm for a swim as she loved the pool. He would meet us later on for the evening (with 10yr old and 12yr old). We fly out of Seattle, after driving 6 hrs, and we could either fly all day and get there in the evening or fly all night and get in about 7am. We did the red eye at least once and of course, the room is not ready when you get there. A few little meltdowns that day but we would leave the parks around 3pm, check-in, swim, and get to bed early. And be raring to go for rope drop! Best of luck!

 

[sleepymouse]

Thanks for all the advice and sharing what worked for you! I think I will just do my best to make one plan for ropedropping and one plan for parkclosing. Let the chips fall where they may.

 

[DougEMG]

We're from the west coast as well. We've been going since my daughter was 4.5 and she's 20 now and we've rarely ever made rope drop. We have been scheduling all out FP for between 12-3 which lets everyone sleep in, which is what happens most of the time.

 

[sleepymouse]

We're from the west coast as well. We've been going since my daughter was 4.5 and she's 20 now and we've rarely ever made rope drop. We have been scheduling all out FP for between 12-3 which lets everyone sleep in, which is what happens most of the time.

Do you ever head to the parks at noon in August? Maybe not so bad if we have FP scheduled as you do and fill in with lots of air conditioned no wait attractions/shows.

 

[DougEMG]

Do you ever head to the parks at noon in August? Maybe not so bad if we have FP scheduled as you do and fill in with lots of air conditioned no wait attractions/shows.

Last year we were there in Aug and Sept and most days we entered the parks around noon. Usually the first thing we'd do is go eat or do a little shopping while waiting for our first FP+ to become available.