What to do about late risers?

[Dug720]

like all kids grew out of it.

Not all! I never have been able to sleep in - I joke that I was absent the day they handed out that gene. My mom has often said that she could always tell when I was really sick because I'd sleep later than 6/6:30.

 

[mwmom]

Maybe consider getting up and going to a park by yourself in the morning. You get to do what you want to do without worrying about what they want to do. Then they can meet up with you later. When you are ready to go back to the hotel, do so and let them finish up their day together. That way you still have family time and everyone gets their needs met.

 

[Dug720]

Maybe consider getting up and going to a park by yourself in the morning. You get to do what you want to do without worrying about what they want to do. Then they can meet up with you later. When you are ready to go back to the hotel, do so and let them finish up their day together. That way you still have family time and everyone gets their needs met.

I agree with this!! And if DD gets upset that she is not able to do everything she wants to do, gently tell her everything you were able to do and see if that doesn't "encourage" her to get her rear in gear earlier.

 

[trompettecon]

I’m a morning person but DD and DH are not. It takes them until 10 to get out of the hotel room and they don’t eat breakfast. The issue is that On our next trip DD wants to do more parks but I know that we can’t get on all the rides without rope drop and strategy. Last year DD and I did AK because DH isn’t into spending the money and doesn’t like the crowds. I know we could stay at the park later but I’m not a night person! Is there any strategy that can work in the parks with this kind of family dynamic? Thank you!

Go without them. Leave them at home.

 

[_19disnA]

It sounds like parks tend to get less crowded later in the day. The early crowd has come/gone and likely already worn themselves out. Go later in the day and enjoy being at the park after the peak hours have passed. We are never in a race to get up early when at Disney. That isn't our idea of how to relax on vacation.

 

[Babe the Blue Ox]

I’m a morning person but DD and DH are not. It takes them until 10 to get out of the hotel room and they don’t eat breakfast. The issue is that On our next trip DD wants to do more parks but I know that we can’t get on all the rides without rope drop and strategy. Last year DD and I did AK because DH isn’t into spending the money and doesn’t like the crowds. I know we could stay at the park later but I’m not a night person! Is there any strategy that can work in the parks with this kind of family dynamic? Thank you!

Split the family up into morning and evening groups. You’ll probably find that the evening group gets more done and with a lot less stress. Mornings are just too crowded.

 

[lovethesun12]

Split the family up into morning and evening groups. You’ll probably find that the evening group gets more done and with a lot less stress. Mornings are just too crowded.

Not sure I'd agree with that, but it does depend on the park, opening time, and the time you visit.

On average we have always gotten way more done in the morning, but evenings are nice too. Haven't tried since genie+ has been introduced though.

 

[bas71873]

This is why we stay on-site. You can get up and go when you want too! Meet ya later! You can leave and go take a nap if you need too. Bye! DD and I are get up and go and go all day! DH, not so much. It's the reason he's not even coming on our next and likely last trip (just myself and DD19 in December).

 

[Bork]

We are a family of early risers, but we've found that our starts get later and later as the week wears on. WDW is exhausting so it's good to be flexible.

 

[Babe the Blue Ox]

Not sure I'd agree with that, but it does depend on the park, opening time, and the time you visit.

On average we have always gotten way more done in the morning, but evenings are nice too. Haven't tried since genie+ has been introduced though.

You would be surprised how efficient an evening plan can be if you do it right.

Just as an example, a few weeks ago we hit Rise of the Resistance twice plus Tower of Terror once in an hour and twenty minutes (posted waits were 85, 85, 80). No Genie +, $ILL, or running required. How early would you have to arrive in the morning to do that?

 

[lovethesun12]

You would be surprised how efficient an evening plan can be if you do it right.

Just as an example, a few weeks ago we hit Rise of the Resistance twice plus Tower of Terror once in an hour and twenty minutes (posted waits were 85, 85, 80). No Genie +, $ILL, or running required. How early would you have to arrive in the morning to do that?

I'm not surprised. I've had good evenings in the parks. I've also had crowded evenings (and crowded mornings) in the parks. I just find for the most part mornings tend to be better, especially when the park opening is earlier.

I haven't been since ROTR or genie+ though. I also could see how HS is a better evening park now. If we were discussing Magic Kingdom though for example I've spent evenings both regular and with extra magic hours and found it more way more crowded with longer lines than the morning of the same day. Also nothing beats those cool, early morning openings of AK in my opinion.

 

[Babe the Blue Ox]

I'm not surprised. I've had good evenings in the parks. I've also had crowded evenings (and crowded mornings) in the parks. I just find for the most part mornings tend to be better, especially when the park opening is earlier.

I haven't been since ROTR or genie+ though. I also could see how HS is a better evening park now. If we were discussing Magic Kingdom though for example I've spent evenings both regular and with extra magic hours and found it more way more crowded with longer lines than the morning of the same day. Also nothing beats those cool, early morning openings of AK in my opinion.

Those MK lines can get pretty short too. We recently did Space Mountain 4 times in 35 minutes, but that one did take some running as it’s a long way back to the entrance.

The longest we’ve ever waited for 7D was 20 minutes and that was during opening week in 2014.

These days, I just like to sit on a bench somewhere and watch the kids run back and forth between Splash and Big Thunder over and over again.

One time at AK, there were so few people around that we had to wait on the Safari truck for enough guests to arrive to fill the vehicle. I guess they didn’t want to send it out partially full so that one didn’t go as well as planned.

 

[rwdavis2]

Leave them behind and let them catch up later. WDW is not a day at the beach. It's like an expedition to Everest as it requires money, planning, and stamina.

 

[abbyandangel]

You would be surprised how efficient an evening plan can be if you do it right.

Just as an example, a few weeks ago we hit Rise of the Resistance twice plus Tower of Terror once in an hour and twenty minutes (posted waits were 85, 85, 80). No Genie +, $ILL, or running required. How early would you have to arrive in the morning to do that?

Please explain how you did this? If you did not use Genie + or ILL, how did you get around the wait times?

 

[snikki]

Two choices here. Either go to RD and have them meet up with you or compromise.

I’m an early riser by nature but my family can sleep pretty late. I am also a morning person so I am ready to go when I get up (been like this since I was a kid). When at Disney I’ve offered for them to meet up with me later but they don’t want to do that, especially the kids. So we compromise.

Next trip is myself and DD16. For 9 park days I have us RD each park once with a midday break and back for a PM park. (RD for me is arriving 20-30 minutes before park opening). The other 5 days are later starts with pool time in the morning or a late breakfast ADR. Although I’m ready to go in the mornings since I know we have a plan I’m ok with chilling out these mornings. I also put them in after long days so even though I’m awake and ready to go my feet and legs need a rest and are thankful. We have G+ everyday and I’ll be stacking for our late start days. We did this same strategy last trip, but with FP, and it worked well for us.

 

[DisneyFive]

My rope drop anecdote is we were at MK for Early Entry waiting with the masses for rope to drop and the rush to SDMT. The family next to us was discussing the current situation. Dad and daughter were of the opinion that this is all madness, why had they gotten up early for this! Mom was trying to explain the glory of rope drop, but Dad and daughter were not having it. Comments like, if we come later the lines will be really long were met with retorts that, we're waiting really long NOW. What's the difference? I kind of felt bad for the mom, since we were rope drop proponents too. But Kid and Dad had good points. There were tons of people at MK for early entry and the benefits of rope drop were not nearly as good as they used to be.

The kicker? SDMT was down at rope drop. A bunch of rides were down at rope drop or went down shortly after opening. It was a bad morning at MK.
I feel so bad for that mom.

I say this because you know your family best. If they aren't going to accept rope drop (and the risks!), then you might be better off skipping rope drop. Rope drop isn't as shiny as it used to be.

BTW, after that MK rope drop fiasco (and our attempt at Epcot when Remy was down at EE opening) we, who were avid rope drop proponets, stopped rope dropping for the rest our vacation. So maybe try it once, and be willing to skip future mornings if it isn't great?

It’s true, you easily stand in line just as much at rope for that one headliner versus waiting in line later in the day. The difference is, waiting at rope drop leaves you with more park time for everything else. That dad and daughter have very valid points, I agree.

We struggle with this too. One of the biggest reasons I miss FP+ is that we can’t sleep anymore in knowing we already have 3 good rides booked. Now, there are huge trade-offs if you don’t rope drop. At least G+ eases the pain, but that STILL requires you to get up at 7am to book that first one. Hopefully you’re lucky enough to fall back asleep if you want to sleep in.

Dan

 

[Babe the Blue Ox]

Please explain how you did this? If you did not use Genie + or ILL, how did you get around the wait times?

The posted wait times are intentionally exaggerated in the evening to discourage late riders. We learned about this technique, called Line Stacking, in the 1998 Unofficial Guide so it’s nothing new. Posted waits are often 4x the actual wait time during the last hour or two of operation.

We’ve been using this to our advantage for years and can probably do twice as much in the evening as most guests can do in the morning.

On the example above, we arrived at Rise around 7:40 pm. The posted wait was 85 minutes but it was easy to tell that there were nowhere near that many guests milling around. We waiting 15 minutes for the first ride then 5 minutes for the 2nd.

We could have done a 3rd trip but opted for Tower instead. The posted wait over there was 80 minutes with an actual wait of 10.

That’s how you close a park.

 

[Jacq7414]

Since 2 aren’t morning people and 1 isn’t a night person, I’d probably just suck it up and stay at night.

Last time we went we didn’t rope drop. We used Genie+, but we stayed later at night and I feel like the parks got so much less crowded later. It wasn’t as hot and it was really very nice at night. We were able to get everything done that we had wanted.

 

[MomOTwins]

One thing that works for my family is assigning everyone in the family a special day, where we go at their preferred pace, prioritize their favorite parks, rides, foods etc. With five in our family, there is no pleasing everyone all the time. On "mom" day we go to Epcot, ride Soarin and Frozen, and wander around world showcase exploring every corner, and see fireworks. For my twins, it's HS thrill rides/coasters allll day rope drop to park close. My youngest gets character meals and lots of tame spinner/boat/dark rides. On "dad" day it's a sit down breakfast, a few hours at some point during the day at AK for pandora, with the rest of the day at the resort pool and a signature restaurant for dinner with an early bed time.

Not everyone gets everything they want every day. But at least everyone get's one "perfect" day.

I'd recommend something for your family. You should do a rotation, you get a rope drop day; your DH and DD should each get a sleep in day, and repeat the pattern.

 

[ofcabbagesandkings]

Go to UO/IOA instead and stay onsite at a deluxe. Our last trip, DS1 and I wanted to get there before early entry to rope drop Hagrid's, which meant getting to the gate by 6:30AM. My mom and DS2 wanted to sleep in. So my eldest and I rode the first boat over from Portofino and were third in line at the scanners, we walked right onto Hagrid's, grabbed some pumpkin pasties at Honeydukes and then walked right onto Velocicoaster, at which point my mom and little one were awake. They road the boat over and we met them at the gate because I had all our tickets on my phone. Then we rode everything we wanted with our included Express passes. It was so much less stressful than WDW, they could have slept another hour or two even and it would have been fine, and the boat made it so easy for my mom even with the stroller we rented.