Sleep in or RD - feedback please!

lovndisney12

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We will be at WDW 12/21 - 12/27. We have been over this time before and completely understand the crowds. We have always done RD every morning and stay on property. Now that we have two teen sons, we are thinking of taking one morning and sleeping in and then staying later in the parks. However, I continue to second guess myself. Would appreciate your feedback. Here are two possible scenarios involving our MK visits and BOG dinner reservations. (And please don't comment on whether having BOG breakfast, lunch, and dinner is a waste. We are on free DDP and have eaten at a variety of places before but not BOG and want to give this a shot - even if it ends up not meeting our expectations)

Option One / Sleep in one day:
12/24 is another MK day. 7 AM RD. We will have late BOG breakfast and then a late BOG lunch. Leave the park mid-afternoon. FP all scheduled for late morning or early afternoon.

12/26 sleep in. Head to MK early afternoon leaving plenty of time to be at our first FP scheduled for 4 PM followed by BOG dinner at 5:15. Wishes FP and an evening Jungle Cruise FP scheduled (so we can ride in the dark). Stay late and enjoy the evening in the park.

Option Two / Stick with rope drop:
12/24 stay at MK all day wrapping up the evening with a 9:15 PM BOG dinner. We would then drop the lunch this day. (We RD AK the next day)

12/26 7 AM RD and hit as many rides as we can. 11:15 BOG lunch. Head out of the parks after lunch if lines / crowds are too much. (All our fast passes for this day are currently late afternoon and evening so if we go this route, we will had to see what we can switch to earlier in the day. But not overly concerned as we have FP for our favorites at MK on other days or will hit at RD)

Right now I'm thinking of just having both plans in place and get a sense of the crowds on 12/21-12/23 and then adjust ADRs and FP at that point. But would love to have your thoughts on what you would do too. My biggest concern is the park reaching a level 4 and not being allowed in or getting in but the crowds just being too much to enjoy the park.
 
I think the sleep in plan is FANTASTIC! I've heard enough success stories here and other forums from people that do reverse RD (stay until after closing) that I'm absolutely going to give it a try on a future trip when our littles are less little. Frankly, if it works out as well as RD (which I fully believe it would), I may just join that clique cuz I'm WAY more of a night person than an early morning person - especially on vacation.
 
We have APs and went Christmas week last year (and will be there for Christmas week and the week between Christmas and New Years this year). We are NOT early risers, so we do late evenings. We make our FP+ beginning at about 8 pm and stay at the parks till close. We've managed to do everything we want to do over the course of a week and we're all happier not having to get up at the crack of dawn.
 

We've had great success staying until close that time of year. But we are NOT RD people at all. We would rather stay late and wake up late every day. Now with FP+ that would work even better, as long as you realize that any time you spend in the parks before Wishes will be IN-SANE. But you've been before, so you should be good. :)
 
I think with teenagers the sleeping late, staying late plan would work best. I know when my son was a teen (who are we kidding even now that is in his mid 30s) sleeping in was more important than anything. They tend to like to stay up late so if you can hang with that, that is where I'd go.
 
Since you can schedule fastpasses now sleeping in is less of a penalty in regards to some of the attractions. We plan to do exactly that next year. take a day or 2 to sleep in with fp+ reservations later in the day.
 
I think sleeping in one day is a great idea. I know DS asks for a couple of sleep late days every trip.
 
We scheduled two late dats this trip. Here now. It's working out great! No rush to get back to resort because we have to get up early the next day. We are wicked relaxed!
 
Option 1 looks really good. I'd stick with that. As long as you keep your expectations light you guys will have a great time. Looks like everything falls in place perfectly for that first plan you mapped out so I wouldn't second guess another thing.
 
We are definitely a RD family, for now. My kids are young, I suspect we will change strategies when they get older. My youngest does not sleep in after a long night, so it gets ugly I'm looking for some late nights in the park when they are older.
 
Actually - the whole family gets up early with various school activities starting at 7 or 7:15 most mornings. DH up at 5 AM and DS (17) up at 5:30. So, they actually don't mind getting up and doing RD but when I put the idea out there about sleeping in one morning - they welcomed it with open arms! - but they also don't like the crowds.

Thanks everyone for your feedback. I'm trying to convince myself to stick with the plan to sleep in on the 26th!
 
We just did the out late plan one day over our Thanksgiving trip. Older DD (age 9) and I stayed at MK until 2:00 for EMH. By the end, we were just walking on PP over and over. Even at RD you can't do that. I finally got to see the new queue for PP, and it was fantastic, even just zooming by it at a quick pace. If I didn't have a three-year-old, we'd be out late every night.

At RD, it just gets more and more crowded as the day goes on. You wait in line outside the park to avoid waiting in line inside the park. And you have to get up early. Three strikes and RD is out for me :)

At park close, it gets less crowded each hour, there is no wait to get into the park, and you can sleep in. And as a summer bonus, the weather is actually generally fairly pleasant once the sun is down.

We still do early days from time to time, but I am definitely becoming a convert away from RD.
 
We are RD all the way. However, DS is only 9, so getting up early is much easier for him than staying up late. DH and I are not normally early risers, but with kids and school, you just don't get a choice. Plus, I really love how much we get done and the lower crowds.
 
We just did the out late plan one day over our Thanksgiving trip. Older DD (age 9) and I stayed at MK until 2:00 for EMH. By the end, we were just walking on PP over and over. Even at RD you can't do that. I finally got to see the new queue for PP, and it was fantastic, even just zooming by it at a quick pace. If I didn't have a three-year-old, we'd be out late every night.

At RD, it just gets more and more crowded as the day goes on. You wait in line outside the park to avoid waiting in line inside the park. And you have to get up early. Three strikes and RD is out for me :)

At park close, it gets less crowded each hour, there is no wait to get into the park, and you can sleep in. And as a summer bonus, the weather is actually generally fairly pleasant once the sun is down.

We still do early days from time to time, but I am definitely becoming a convert away from RD.

While I agree this works really well in summer, OP is going over Christmas. The parks aren't open that late, so crowds don't die down quite as much, and it can be down right freezing the later it gets. It's still not a bad option, but that 7 am opening at MK is golden!
 
With the crowds at Christmas there is no way I would stay in the park all day. I would definitely go with the one RD and one sleep in.
 
We're going that week too. I've got a little so we're splitting MK in half, one early RD day and one sleep in, show up for afternoon parade and Wishes day. And we'll be sleeping in the day after xmas too. If I had teenagers I would sleep in every day! Bliss.
 
My DH and I just got back yesterday from our trip and we did a combination of rope drops and late evenings. We got in far more rides during the late nights than rope drop. Best night was evening extra magic hours at MK because with no FP returns lines were super short.
 
We could never sleep in.........we would hit RD each day.

But I do agree with OP that being in the parks later at night is a great experience as well especially during EMH.
 


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