To all my fellow non rope droppers...

[momimouse27]

I've always felt the opposite. All of the rope droppers make the wait times shorter in the evening.

That, plus the Disney practice of intentionally inflating the wait times, makes the lines for the headliners the very shortest at night.

I don't remember a time when the lines aren't short or even walk-ons an hour or so before close. It's just a magical time, at night, the castle and Main Street all lit up. Plus, I'm not dragging around like a zombie! I have found that when I push myself to wake up early, do a whole day at the park til close, by the time I leave I'm exhausted. By day two or three, coupled with the heat, I am spent...so I sleep in and take it easy. We have been enough times that if I miss a thing or two, it's not a big deal.

 

[reluctantredhead]

When the parks close early how do all of you non-rope droppers get enough park time each day? Granted we are commandos who are there from open to close every day (and visit 2-3 parks each day), but a lot of the time every park is closed by 10:00. During times of the year with earlier closing times the parks don't empty out that much at night so the waits aren't that short for the headliners.

My feelings and needs have changed on this since I've gotten older. When I was in my 20s and 30s I had a lot more stamina and ability to push through my feet hurting...but now that I'm a decade older I find that I'm more than ready to head back to the hotel by 9 or 10. And if the parks close earlier than that, we'll either go to DS or just hang out at the hotel. I think too that the fact that we've been going once (or sometimes even twice) a year for the past 20 years (with just one 2-year break) has made me feel less urgent that I have to see/do everything on every trip...though I definitely had the "we've gotta do it all" attitude in my 20s and early 30s. Plus we just try really hard to make good use of FPs, and we always get all of our must-dos done.

 

[GPC0321]

Why would you want to get up at the crack of dawn on vacation?

My reluctance to get up early at home usually has more to do with not wanting to go to work than simply not wanting to get up early. I'll bounce out of bed at ungodly hours to go do things I find fun.

Every morning at WDW I'm like a kid waking up on Christmas. As soon as I crack an eyelid and remember where I am...BING! I'm up! LOL!

That said, I don't necessarily need to get up and make tracks to rope drop a park. I'm happy just getting out and about at the resort. I can sleep for free at home.

 

[Cinderella94]

My reluctance to get up early at home usually has more to do with not wanting to go to work than simply not wanting to get up early. I'll bounce out of bed at ungodly hours to go do things I find fun.

Every morning at WDW I'm like a kid waking up on Christmas. As soon as I crack an eyelid and remember where I am...BING! I'm up! LOL!

That said, I don't necessarily need to get up and make tracks to rope drop a park. I'm happy just getting out and about at the resort. I can sleep for free at home.

I totally agree with this (except we do always trek to the park, haha). I could have written everything else that you wrote.

 

[mom-2greatkids]

My feelings and needs have changed on this since I've gotten older. When I was in my 20s and 30s I had a lot more stamina and ability to push through my feet hurting...but now that I'm a decade older I find that I'm more than ready to head back to the hotel by 9 or 10. And if the parks close earlier than that, we'll either go to DS or just hang out at the hotel. I think too that the fact that we've been going once (or sometimes even twice) a year for the past 20 years (with just one 2-year break) has made me feel less urgent that I have to see/do everything on every trip...though I definitely had the "we've gotta do it all" attitude in my 20s and early 30s. Plus we just try really hard to make good use of FPs, and we always get all of our must-dos done.

That's interesting, because we've also been going to WDW at least once a year for the past 20 years (except the year we went to DL). I think our "issue" is that we LOVE the parks and LOVE to ride the rides. There are very few rides that we only ride once in a 7 day trip. We ride most rides 2 to 3 times and our favirtie rides are ridden 5 to 10 times a trip. Actually, there are also a couple of shows we see more than once a trip (American Adventure--I'm looking at you). Rope drop to close allows us to hit 2-3 parks a day and ride our favorite stuff just about every day.

Luckily we don't have issues with stamina (yet). Not sure how things will change once we start to slow down.

 

[kittyab]

It is impossible to do it all, you are better off to slow down, take it easy. You are on vacation. It is OK to sleep in or take a nap, or stay up late. There is no wrong or right. It is what works best for you and your family. I am on my schedule and no body else's.