When did it stop?

[joedplumber]

So just curious for those that tour the parks "commando style" at what age did you slow it down?

My DW & I are in our late 30's and still do RD to park close or 11pm, which ever comes first. We just love spending every moment in the parks. As of now the heat and long days don't take a toll on our bodies and we barely even use an alarm clock to start the next day. My assumption is that eventually time will catch up to us and we will have to slow it down.

Has anyone else had to slow it down?

 

[tileman]

Well I'll be 50 this November
And still get to the parks early and leave late lol

Just love being there.
I am blessed with a job that keeps me
Moving and active. I feel as long as you keep moving your n great shape
For me it's when I slow down then it takes a toll on me.

 

[alliecat523]

We aren't RD people (although I'd like to do it someday) but we go full force in the parks every visit often staying until we are about to collapse. I'm 41 and my daughter is 11. I can't imagine doing anything else.

 

[pepe of ohio]

Yup, we've slowed down many years ago...as of now, 54 trips, we've found thru the years, by extending our stays makes us relax, enjoy the resort and pool more, and just do choice hours in the parks..

We are rope drop people, especially the MK, our most visited park, we arrive early, do our thing, shop a little and am out the park by noon....resort pool time ( only time we wear swim suits and immerse in pool water ) so enjoying the pool with some adult beverages is a must and also to beat the heat and crowds....

We have our favorite things to do and other stuff we avoid since all our trips...we avoid AK entirely, just don't plain like it....so we're down to 3 parks and not much fans of EPCOT, so we concentrate mainly on the MK and HS.....take a 7+ night stay and those 2 parks, we don't have to stay in them, opening to close...even before, if I had to do that, I'd shoot myself....too crowded and hot, midday on and never saw any reason to do that...we most always stay deluxe and the resort has so much to offer.....

So, yes, we've slowed down, we pick our resort close to the park we're going to spend the most time in, ( we're huge fans of WLV and BLT )...we've started renting villa points from brokers for the cheaper accommodations....and we're senior citizens now.....

 

[Dr Gevil]

I am getting ready to turn 45 in a couple weeks, but the real answer for me was when we bought into DVC. I can still go RD - close, but it's getting tougher and tougher each trip.

I have fully embraced the lifestyle of hitting (or close to) RD, leaving at lunch, swimming/pool bar at SAB or equivalent DVC pool, having dinner, then going back to the parks in the evening or watching the daily movie on the beach. This happens on more days than not now.

We know we'll be back soon, so if we miss something, we'll catch it/prioritize it next trip. We are scheduled for Xmas this year and Spring Break in 2016.

 

[disney world dreamer]

So just curious for those that tour the parks "commando style" at what age did you slow it down?

My DW & I are in our late 30's and still do RD to park close or 11pm, which ever comes first. We just love spending every moment in the parks. As of now the heat and long days don't take a toll on our bodies and we barely even use an alarm clock to start the next day. My assumption is that eventually time will catch up to us and we will have to slow it down.

Has anyone else had to slow it down?

my parents (68 and 72) still go RD to AFTER park close.

 

[DisK]

We slowed down when we joined DVC. No longer was it a "will we come back next year?" - it was a "we WILL come back next year".

 

[lustergirl]

Never moved at a fast hectic pace. Our very first trip years ago was in September and the heat set us back. We have heat in the summer but nothing like Florida heat. We go early to the parks, take a mid day break, and go back at night.

 

[Mikie]

I was RD to close as an adolescent and college student. Slowed WAY down with my toddlers when i was in my 30s. I'd consider us "medium" in our 40s with kids & pre-teens (RD to 9-10ish). Should be interesting to see what we do on our next trip when we're upper 40s, the kids are 10-16 and we aren't bringing any other family along for the first time.

 

[BarbieGal457]

We never have. Even when I was young and went with my parents, we were sort of go with the flow but still had some ADRs to keep to. Now we plan our ADRs and FPs but it's generally whenever we wake up until whenever we want to leave, and we're mostly still "where the wind takes us." My boyfriend and I don't really sleep late, however, so usually we are at the parks pretty close to opening anyway and we love staying until close, but we are not against going back for a swim or nap at all!

I think being so easygoing was what made us have such a successful day/night at MK on this past NYE. We ended up with 6 FP and had and ADR for dinner but otherwise, whenever we saw a sea of people going one way, we went the other and it basically felt like almost any other park day (except trying to get to Tony's for an 830pm ADR - WHAT a mistake! The trip was so last minute though that I barely had any good selection left for ADR times so I took whatever I could grab).

 

[GOOFY D]

Well I'll be 50 this November
And still get to the parks early and leave late lol

Funny, I will be 50 in November as well and we still do the same. We cannot justify sleeping in, knowing the parks are opening. I also have children who have done it that way all their lives, so they expect it.

 

[MataHari22]

For me, it wasn't my age that had anything to do with slowing me down, it was having cancer 2x. My friend I travel with is 68 and she can out run me. We do stay in the parks from open to close a lot of our days, but we take our time and also see shows, and do at least one table service meal. Plus, we go at non peak times when the park hours tend to be shorter.

 

[Lsyves]

We were never RD to close people, but we definitely slowed down once we had kids and started our own business. We'd get to Disney and realize how exhausted we were! Kids took naps so all of a sudden we found ourselves in the parks in the mornings, hotel for naps and swimming in the afternoons, and early dinner and a few rides somewhere at night. Now, we are out of the tiny tikes years and our kids still want that same rhythm (minus naps of course) because they love to swim and then be out late at night (which still isn't very late). One of us will usually close our eyes in a lounge chair at the pool while the kids swim. I'm not a big napper so I am the one most of the time to keep an eye on them, swim with them, or enjoy a drink.

 

[PSUGuy]

For us it's not an age thing, it's a saturation thing. In 2005 we were on our 6th WDW trip plus we got there on New Year's Day. We had done pretty much all we wanted over the years and from the 3rd of January on the place was dead. The 2nd of Jan featured the first ever (I think) EMH, DHS (MGM) in the evening, we went to see Osborne and haven't done EMH since. We now hit a non-EMH park at rope drop and tour in a leisurely manner, we'll hustle a little in the AM but with FP+ we can do a ride or two early then walk on FP rides later, every afternoon we hop to WS for a relaxed late day.

Bill From PA

 

[OKW Lover]

Like some of the PP's for us it was not an age thing. Instead it was a combination of how many prior visits we had done and how frequently we went. After 20+ visits in just a few years we got to the point where we had seen/done pretty much everything. At that point we started to just enjoy a relaxing visit. Not rushing to the parks at rope drop, not staying until the park closes, not scheduling something for every minute of the day. Thats when we decided to just head for the park whenever we were ready, and go back to the resort for a mid-day break. We did many a 4-5 day trip with only going on 1 or 2 attractions. We just enjoyed being in the parks and seeing all the little details.

 

[smiths02]

For WDW, I don't think we've ever been commando types. I grew up around Disneyland, but I grew up poor, so we only got to go a few days a year (birthday present or a friend would invite me). Now, those days would be as commando as possible (we didn't own a car, so we didn't always get to stay until close) because we were paying A LOT for that one day ticket and wanted to do as much as possible.
All of our WDW trips, the tickets aren't the biggest cost (especially extrapolated over multiple days), so we want to spend time at the hotel as well. 3 out of 4 trips have also been with children under 5 in June/July. There is only so much we can push them. Late nights won't work (unless it is 1-2 nights followed by a rest day)

 

[DisneyFive]

Looks like the determining factor is how many times you've visited, moreso than how old you are. We are still park open to close too. Don't know if that would ever stop...

However, we have found that we need to sleep in around our 4th-5th day or we turn into the walking dead. Learned that after our 2nd trip when we tried to go open to close, plus go back and swim at the resort at night. After about day 4 we HAD to get some proper rest.

Dan

 

[casperthegm]

No slowing down yet. Our son is 14 now, so we'll be going all out with him through at least high school. Once it gets to the point where our son has moved out and we are on our own I think we'll slow down. Maybe.

 

[Mousemommy1]

It wasn't so much an age but it was the number of visits. Once we started going annually and stretching out our visits to 10 nights/11 days, we realized that we didn't need to cram everything into one trip and that there would always be a next time.

We actually spend just as much time enjoying our resort as we do in the parks now, and Disney has actually become a vacation that we don't come home exhausted from.

 

[minnie mum]

I don't know if its an age thing or the number of visits. I've been visiting since I was 25. I'm now in my 60s. And we now visit smarter, not harder. Instead of non stop RD to close every day of a 6-7 day visit, we spread things out over 10-12 days Still do RD to close, but with a relaxing afternoon break at the resort and a non park day or two. UNLESS we are travelling in Jan/early Feb when the parks close earlier and the weather is cool. Then the afternoon breaks really aren't needed.