Rope Drop vs Close the Park Down

[Turk February]

We do both. I prefer closing out MK, it's just fun to be in there until 12-2am and be one of the last to leave. I like RD for AK and DHS to get the safari and main rides done early.

 

[Iowamomof4]

Is there a significant difference then with PM EMH during the "slow" times? It seems those who have a negative view are seeing the long lines during the summer and other super busy times at WDW. I'm thinking maybe there is more advantage when the crowds are a little lower to begin with. (I put slow in quotes because I understand some feel there is no such thing as a slow time anymore)

 

[DisneyPrince1982]

The only park I've found closing the park down advantageous for is MK. Haven't seen much of a benefit at DHS, Epcot, or AK. And for MK, as Jimmy already said, I've only found it especially useful if the park is staying open past 1. If it happens to be open till 3 or 4, then once you get to 2am, you'll pretty much have the park all to yourself which is pretty sweet. But then you won't be able to wake up and do RD the next morning so you need to decide.

 

[Christopher Ripley]

I'm always the last one out! Hehe

 

[bcrook]

i used to be an early morning touring person. (I'm not generally a morning person, but at Disney I always was) and I still prefer to do AK and HS early in the day.
But over the years, our touring style has become more relaxed, and we like to hang out at the resort more, have a more vacation-y feel.
So now, particularly in hot weather, I plan our trips around late evening EMH's, and on those days we sleep in, get some pool time, have the child take a good nap, and head to MK or Epcot late and close it down. FP+ for all its faults, has really helped facilitate this, because we can arrive late ands till have FP's.

I agree with everything you have said. FP+ has facilitated this.

Unfortunately, I feel like I have been facilitated into making everyday a half day park. Which I guess was their plan all along. I do feel like I need more days now.

On my last trip we tried doing both Rope Drop and Late Stay. My grown kids kept up well. By the third day I was wiped out, and needed recovery time.

Overall I prefer the evening time too. The lights and cooler temperatures at night make for a good experience. My 4.5 year old niece handled the late nights quite well on our trip.

 

[wdwobsessed]

So in looking at the Magic Kingdom hours where are these 2AM and 3 AM days? Looking through the rest of the entire summer the latest they have is 12 AM with no evening EMH.

I am a RD person because I've never been during a time where the parks are open that late… And when the parts are closing at 10 or midnight it's really not an advantage to stay late

Even going in August it doesn't seem the parks are going to be open that late

 

[Iowamomof4]

I don't know what the posting rules are here so I'll just tell you that when I Google "Disney World Operating Hours August 2015" I get a link to a calendar that shows the currently scheduled hours of each park and which ones will have emh for morning or evening. For example, according to that calendar, August 8 has MK with EMH until 2 AM.

 

[danceintherain]

So in looking at the Magic Kingdom hours where are these 2AM and 3 AM days? Looking through the rest of the entire summer the latest they have is 12 AM with no evening EMH.

I am a RD person because I've never been during a time where the parks are open that late… And when the parts are closing at 10 or midnight it's really not an advantage to stay late

Even going in August it doesn't seem the parks are going to be open that late

Christmas/New Year's and Spring Break have them fairly consistently. Summer does sometimes (I think the 4th of July and weekends). Maybe Thanksgiving. Basically, any time of the year, when a park is open until midnight on non EMH days.

 

[wdwobsessed]

Christmas/New Year's and Spring Break have them fairly consistently. Summer does sometimes (I think the 4th of July and weekends). Maybe Thanksgiving. Basically, any time of the year, when a park is open until midnight on non EMH days.

Yeah I see them listed in July and the very beginning of August on Saturday nights…

My Disney Experience doesn't have them listed but they have the morning and the other evening ones listed.

Go figure.


I don't know if I will ever attend during holidays or in the month of July so I'll probably miss out Lol.

 

[lilclerk]

Is there a significant difference then with PM EMH during the "slow" times? It seems those who have a negative view are seeing the long lines during the summer and other super busy times at WDW. I'm thinking maybe there is more advantage when the crowds are a little lower to begin with. (I put slow in quotes because I understand some feel there is no such thing as a slow time anymore)

I only go during the "slower" times, and I don't feel like evening EMH gives any advantage line-wise. I do still love them because I prefer being in the parks at night, but I am not expecting to see super short lines like at morning EMH and rope drop.

 

[Aurora0427]

We were never RD people until we had kids. Now, since our daughter is little, we have to rope drop, and we get a lot done. We ride with minimal lines until 11an, eat, and then start our FP. My husband and I did an adults only trip when DD was 1, and we tried to do the late night EMH, but I was exhausted by midnight. But in my 20s? We'd stay at Magic Kingdom until 3am!

 

[Babe the Blue Ox]

Not last week, it was much too crowded for that.

Evening EMH isn't the best night of the week to find the shortest lines, although early summer nights until 3 am are pretty slick.

We like to go on nights when the park opened at 8 am. Those people get tired and leave early.

You have to understand the crowd patterns for the most efficient late night touring.

 

[Accident]

Animal kingdom we rope drop and leave early. It's just too hot, nowhere to escape and we make a direct run for the attractions with live animals as they are more lively until they get hot also.

Magic Kingdom, we prefer to go in later. Now take that with a grain of salt because the afternoon parade used to be earlier and we're not sure what to expect crowd wise anymore. We circle this park a few times, so we'll find the ghost town section, enjoy it, then next lap the next section. If your trying to be really planned for where you want to be every minute it's going to be impossible. Kiosks after your fast passes are done usually gets you immediately on almost any ride if your willing to go to the kiosk (or have someone willing to run to get them)

Epcot, we always go in late because future world tends to be empty and many walk on rides. test track we do single so usually not a long wait and soarin, you just have to fast pass that.

Hollywood? no clue anymore, what's still open there? We would plan based on what's happening while we're visiting. Special fireworks, we'll aim for later for example.

We tend to do every park twice in half day visits, we do like to see day vs night and different things are happening in every park. We almost never wait for rope drop though,we just wander in earlier.

 

[lydz]

I'm useless in the morning without my coffee and food so rope drop is tough. I absolutely looooove being one of the last out of the park so I'm definitely a closer.

This trip, we'll have three little ones and a baby so I guess I'll have to suck it up and get my butt out of bed!

 

[Accident]

I'm useless in the morning without my coffee and food so rope drop is tough

me too! I use this to my advantage and have a cup watching the bus pickup. You can easily tell what the empty morning park is

 

[jeneric997]

Just back and late night EMH at the MK was a complete joke. It was extremely crowded until at least 1:30. We still waited almost an hour for the 7DMT. Everyone in my family stays up late anyway and we have always liked the late night EMH. All agreed this trip that it was a waste of our time and we would rather have been sitting in our hotel room than dealing with big crowds.

So I say go with the early mornings if you can get everyone up.

We were in Mk on 7/18 for EMH and were really successful. We arrived at 7:00pm and had FP+ for BTMRR, 7DMT and SM, we then rode almost everything we wanted and watched both Wishes and The Electrical Parade, which took up a lot of time. I agree that if you are going to try to ride 7DMT you will still have long waits- same with PP, but for most other rides the waits are short or walk on.

This was our first trip in July and other than MK, the other parks seemed about as crowded as they do in October. MK was really bad last Wednesday because BTMRR was down for several hours as was 7DMT, we also had a thunderstorm that shutdown all the outside rides. July was not as bad as we thought it would be, but we won't jump to do it again!

OP- we've done both and I think you are always going to get more accomplished at RD. The only park I go to for an evening EMH is MK and I FP+ rides we know will have big waits before regular closing. With that being said, I prefer late nights to RD, I just wish there were more evening EMH!

 

[MomofKatie]

Rope drop or closing the park? We do both! We always go during "lowest crowd" times, so we don't experience late park closing times. I think the latest we've ever seen any park open is 11pm at MK on a Saturday night. We also don't visit EMH parks. Most days, we are up and ready to go at 7:30, and at the park gates at 8:45. We sometimes head back to the resort for a midday swim break, but only on MK or EP days. Then we go back and/or stay at the parks until after closing (AK usually 5-6, DHS around 7, MK 9-10, and EP always 9:30).

We are a commando family...

 

[Babe the Blue Ox]

Here's my best example of the difference between rope drop and late night:

I had a co-worker recently telling me about her trip to Disney World. They seemed to be pretty good planners and tried to maximize their time the best they could.
She was very excited to tell me about her experience riding Midway Mania without a Fast Pass. The got up really early, got to the gates about 45 minutes before they opened and waited in a pretty large crowd. Then they hurried as fast as they could to the ride and the wait was *only* 15 minutes. By the time they got off the line was almost an hour long. There were people all over the place.
I rode the same ride 4 times in about an hour late at night and didn't have to deal with the crowds.

 

[Iowamomof4]

Here's my best example of the difference between rope drop and late night:

I had a co-worker recently telling me about her trip to Disney World. They seemed to be pretty good planners and tried to maximize their time the best they could.
She was very excited to tell me about her experience riding Midway Mania without a Fast Pass. The got up really early, got to the gates about 45 minutes before they opened and waited in a pretty large crowd. Then they hurried as fast as they could to the ride and the wait was *only* 15 minutes. By the time they got off the line was almost an hour long. There were people all over the place.
I rode the same ride 4 times in about an hour late at night and didn't have to deal with the crowds.

When was this? This is the type of thing I'm hoping for!

 

[PollyannaMom]

Your plans sounds fine if both types of day work for the people in your group. I'm a such morning person at home (absolute mush late at night) that it definitely spills over into my touring plans. The most magical time for me at any of the parks is early in the morning when everything is fresh and bright. Now that DS is older, we do usually slip in one late night to catch fireworks, but when he was little, it was all rope drop!