To all my fellow non rope droppers...

[JARNJ3]

During our last visit, we hit Peter Pan shortly after the fireworks show. The posted wait was 40 minutes but there were actually only about 10 people in line and we were on in less than a minute. I still don't think you can have that result in the morning, no matter what time you arrive.

I'll look into that this year. My experience with nighttime is that it is always unbearably crowded. Perhaps its because I get sucked in watching the fireworks shows & just want to get back to my resort.....

 

[Babe the Blue Ox]

I'll look into that this year. My experience with nighttime is that it is always unbearably crowded. Perhaps its because I get sucked in watching the fireworks shows & just want to get back to my resort.....

Just keep in mind that the posted wait times are intentionally exaggerated at night to discourage late riders. The goal is to get you toward the exits and into the gift shops before closing time.

A good example is Space Mountain, where you can't see the line and wouldn't know if the time estimate is accurate or not without asking the attendant. During our last visit we arrived at the attraction 35 minutes before close. The posted wait was 50 minutes but we were able to ride 4 times before they shut the door.

 

[loves to dive]

I'm an early riser, even on vacation so I could do rope drop every morning but just because I'm up doesn't mean I'm going to. If I'm solo, I get up around 6:30 or 7, go for a walk around the resort for about 1/2 hour, get my shower and a cup of coffee in my room, go to the food court and get breakfast and take it back to my room. Then I either walk to a park if I'm at an Epcot resort or amble over to the bus stop if I'm at a moderate and get on the first bus to come. I'm very relaxed and my WDW vacations aren't all about rides. If my adult son is with me, I'll get up and go for my walk, then soak in a hot bat tub and read, then wait on him to get out of bed. He can sleep until 9 or so, not me.

 

[KenHutch]

I really wish I could sleep in like many of you. But 7 days a week I wake up between 04:15 and 04:30 to wake up a platoon I no longer have. And while on vacation (we do rope drop) we usually close the parks as we;;.

 

[wareagle57]

We are not rope droppers. We just enjoy sleeping in too much. This is our typical day: We sleep until we wake up, have a leisurely breakfast at food court while sipping coffee. Back to room to brush teeth, put on sunscreen etc. Head out to park. We don't like rushing and we get to the parks when we get to the parks, it's usually late morning. Gasp. The rope droppers just fell over. LOL!

Can confirm. Am rope dropper. Just fell over.

I am a total night owl and can't STAND getting up early. Except at Disney. I just can't let that sweet RD time slip away. But if the parks were open later, I could definitely see myself enjoying my vacation this way instead. The problem is, the parks close so early, and it's getting earlier every year. I just have no desire to go to Disney Springs more than once a trip, and I'm not a bar/nightlife person either. With the pools closed, that leaves...uh...walking around the hotel. I definitely dream of a Disney vacation where I can sleep until noon and hang in the parks until 2 am.

 

[Wes1stTrip2016]

I can't imagine being there at rope drop, especially for an 8am park open. Why would you want to get up at the crack of dawn on vacation? Simply makes no sense to us, especially with the current FP+ system. In our opinion, a rope drop person really won't get much...if any...more done than we will...but we'll get a little extra relaxation and not have to rush around at 6am.

We sleep until we're ready to get up. Usually not that late, probably around 8am or so. Get a shower, have breakfast, a little coffee and head out. We'll get to the parks around 9:30am, maybe 10:00am. Why rush it??

We have only done 1 family Disney trip so far but I never felt "rushed" and we pretty much did park opening all 4 days. My son, god love him, is an EARLY riser regardless of bed time, so we naturally get up and get going. Our first day at MK, we rode the Flying carpets 3x, Jungle Cruise 1x, POTC 2x, Splash Mtn 3x and BTMR 3x before 11am. My son LOVED every 2nd of it and we still had 3 FP's to go! We will tour the same way next trip because riding rides is important to us and we want to get on as many as possible. We did take a mid day break for a swim & a short nap before closing out MK (2 days) with more rides and fireworks. HS we stayed open to close with no break but AK we were done for the day by 2pm. We also take a full day off to just relax, which I thoroughly enjoy. I can't wait to do it again in October!

 

[SaintsManiac]

Sleep until we feel like waking up. Find something to eat. Head to parks.

I will say we did rope drop every day on our recent weekend trip and it was really nice to get so much done. It's fine for us for 3-4 days, but we would never do it every day if we are there longer.

 

[MamaMaleficent2016]

I am not a rope dropper . I am an early riser. Here is my typical Disney morning:

I wake (without an alarm) between 5 and 6. (No matter what time we went to bed)
I stealthily slip out of bed. (This is MY quiet time)
I make coffee in the room and sit on the balcony. If it’s still too early to wake up everyone else I’ll also take a walk around resort or surrounding area.

Once it’s time for folks to start moving, usually between 7 and 7:30, I start getting ready, turning on lights and making noise. Once everyone is dressed we head to breakfast. Sometimes in hotel, sometimes in park. But it’s never quick service. We love breakfast and that time together before the day starts.

Then our day begins. We won’t go back to our room until after dinner sometime, depending on the plan for the day. We use fast passes and ADRs as frameworks for our day but we don’t let them rule us. We’ve yet to ever ride Toy Story Mania because of missed fast pass windows. I should also note we stay 10 or more nights when we go so we can be a little more leisurely and still do all we want to do.

 

[nutshell]

I find crowds lighter at night. It's also cooler, no sun beating on you, no need for hats/sunscreen/sunglasses etc. and there are less little kids (nothing against the little ones, just easier not dodging strollers and toddlers!). We are up early all year, so we like to sleep in on vacation. It works for us. Different strokes.

I love rope dropping and I Love late night! I take a nap in the afternoon. My favorite way to do a Disney.

 

[reluctantredhead]

I think the vampire attack is just a way of saying that they do disney like a vampire would. Sleep in the daylight hours and head out at night, staying out well into the night. Like a vampire. Just a silly saying, not a formal thing. At least that is my take on it.

Lol! That's basically it.

Allears.net used to have a column I enjoyed reading called "Anita Answer", where a seasoned WDW guest named "Anita" would answer questions from people who wrote to her...kind of like a "Dear Abby" for WDW. In one column, she recommended that if you're not an early riser, are sensitive to heat, like to stay up late, and are visiting WDW in one of the hot and humid months, you adopt her "vampire strategy" of sleeping in late, spending a leisurely afternoon by the pool/at a resort restaurant, and then heading to the parks when the sun starts to go down and the temperature starts to drop. After an absolutely miserable spring break trip one April (temps in the 90s with high humidity) where my H and I kept having to go back to the hotel at around noon because we felt so exhausted and ill from the heat and humidity, we happened upon her "vampire strategy" and decided to adopt it on a July trip the next year. It worked great for us -- we got to ride/see/do everything we wanted, we weren't exhausted, and we loved being in the parks at night when the weather was cooler and it was less crowded. Granted, this strategy doesn't work well for the months where the parks close early...but in the summer it worked like a charm.

 

[epcotty]

We can't really rope drop as we usually drive down 2 hours for a day trip and we couldn't get up that early. But we usually get into the park within the first hour, and just do the best we can with everything. If the wait's too long on something then if we can't find a FP for it later then we go in the last hour.

 

[oufpat]

In the summer, we like the pool in the morning before the threat of thunderstorms. Then we enjoy the park in the afternoon/evening and watch people leave if it storms.

 

[Silvermist999]

I think we did the rope drop thing on our first WDW trip. After that trip, we just set the alarm to wake up at a reasonable time, to get to the parks by 9:30 at the latest. We always take afternoon breaks at our onsite resort. Our kids are older now, so in recent years we try to do the evening EMH as much as possible!

 

[RDarling]

Sleeping. I wish I could say I was naturally an early riser, but I'm just not, and never will be. Before we had our D, my H and I would set alarms and get there at rope drop and struggle through the foggy brain and crankiness. But when we started taking our D to WDW at around age 2, we started working around her schedule (she's not an early riser either), and we found we could still get to do everything we wanted...we just had to plan/strategize differently (we often adopt the "vampire strategy" from Allears.net in the hot summer months). Once we made this discovery, there was no going back to being rope-droppers for us...H and I have to get up early most of the rest of the year, so we really enjoy not having to on vacation.

But I totally envy the people like my sister who are up at 5 am with a smile on their face every day, weekend or not, raring to go!

 

[RDarling]

What is the vampire strategy?

 

[disneyseniors]

Splatt...........oops...........Just picked myself up! Rope dropper here! Love reading about the "other side" who sleep in and go at a leisurely pace for the rest of the day! LOL
Wish I could. I am chronically up early, about 5:45 or 6am all the time, even though I am retired
My husband and I get up about then at Disney. He goes to the Mill at POR and gets our coffee when it opens at 6am. He likes the quiet stroll around the resort in the early am. Then we get dressed and go for a light breakfast of a nourishing cinnamon roll with all that icing
Then it's off to the parks before opening.
It's just the way we do things. I've always envied people who can sleep in. It's something I seem incapable of doing. Fun thread!

 

[k5thbeatle]

We are not rope droppers. We just enjoy sleeping in too much. This is our typical day: We sleep until we wake up, have a leisurely breakfast at food court while sipping coffee. Back to room to brush teeth, put on sunscreen etc. Head out to park. We don't like rushing and we get to the parks when we get to the parks, it's usually late morning. Gasp. The rope droppers just fell over. LOL!

Pretty much the exact same for us too...minus the coffee!

 

[kiford]

We book ADRs anywhere between 8:30-9:30 so we get up in time to get to the restaurant - how early depends on how far away the restaurant is from our resort. We spend about an hour at least for breakfast and then wander over to whatever park we've chosen. Usually we pick restaurants that are sort of on the way to whatever park we've chosen. We get to the parks normally about 10-11 which is fine by us.

 

[Cinderella94]

I can't imagine being there at rope drop, especially for an 8am park open. Why would you want to get up at the crack of dawn on vacation? Simply makes no sense to us, especially with the current FP+ system. In our opinion, a rope drop person really won't get much...if any...more done than we will...but we'll get a little extra relaxation and not have to rush around at 6am.

We sleep until we're ready to get up. Usually not that late, probably around 8am or so. Get a shower, have breakfast, a little coffee and head out. We'll get to the parks around 9:30am, maybe 10:00am. Why rush it??

At 8 AM, the park is much less crowded and much cooler than at, say, noon. Also, we like to be swimming at our resort pool at noon, so it makes sense for us to get up and take advantage of more morning hours.

 

[reluctantredhead]

What is the vampire strategy?

Allears.net used to have a column I enjoyed reading called "Anita Answer", where a seasoned WDW guest named "Anita" would answer questions from people who wrote to her...kind of like a "Dear Abby" for WDW. In one column, she recommended that if you're not an early riser, are sensitive to heat, like to stay up late, and are visiting WDW in one of the hot and humid months, you adopt her "vampire strategy" of sleeping in late, spending a leisurely afternoon by the pool/at a resort restaurant, and then heading to the parks when the sun starts to go down and the temperature starts to drop. After an absolutely miserable spring break trip one April (temps in the 90s with high humidity) where my H and I kept having to go back to the hotel at around noon because we felt so exhausted and ill from the heat and humidity, we happened upon her "vampire strategy" and decided to adopt it on a July trip the next year. It worked great for us -- we got to ride/see/do everything we wanted, we weren't exhausted, and we loved being in the parks at night when the weather was cooler and it was less crowded. Granted, this strategy doesn't work well for the months where the parks close early...but in the summer it worked like a charm.