Who sleeps in instead of doing Rope Drop?

[sdomino11]

If you have a subscription to Touring Plans, you can get a very good idea of what the exact same day would look like using rope drop vs arriving later. Choose the date, choose the arrival time and departure time and then drop in your selection of attractions. Do the same for both variations of schedule. TP estimates wait times and you'll be able to see how much more you could accomplish at RD. Trying this out actually convinced me that I'm happy to sleep in because rope drope isn't worth it IMHO.

 

[Forevermarypoppins]

For a 7 night vacation, I'll plan 1 or 2 early days.
That's it and they aren't truly RD.

 

[JoeyEmmaMomma]

If we could, we would do a mix of rope drop and going later.
My small children are up early, even when they are up late.
So going for rope drop makes sense for us right now.

 

[Tonka's Skipper]

Not us, we are up early and on the first bus or boat to whatever Park is that day.

AKK

 

[sherezada]

I had so many plans to do RD and take advantage of EMH. NONE OF THEM materialized. Either I could not get my husband to get up early enough to have breakfast and be at the parks for RD or something happened along the way that made us late (monorail broke down, CMs were late to pick up our luggage, etc). It really bummed me out. But in hindsight we really didn't miss that many attractions, so we didn't do too bad after sleeping in.

 

[cakebaker]

We usually are at a park opening every morning. We don't participate in the rush to rides, but we like to be there early while the crowds are low. This year though, we're staying a bit longer than usual and have a few mornings scheduled for resort time. But the days we are going to a park in the morning, we will be there before they open.

 

[jmkjr72]

What's rope drop we made pre opening adrs at the parks

 

[PollyannaMom]

Generally over the years, we've been rope drop people. But that's mostly because were early birds in general, and didn't stay late at the parks when DS was little. With FP+ on this last trip, we did relax and get there later a couple of times.

 

[Goofy_Disney_Dad]

I've never been to rope drop, nor do I have a desire to be at rope drop at any point in my life.

 

[teddygurl28]

I really haven't made it to rope drop in the past 7 trips ( with the exception of 1 day where we had the keys to the kingdom tour and 1 day where I wanted the CP before park opening) we get there between 9-11 depending on when we wake up (really no alarm). Granted the majority of our trips were in September so it was slow season. we would take afternoon breaks too...always saw everything and enjoyed the pace we did it at
...next trip though I think we will be seeing lots of rope drops this is because our LO loves waking up by 7am haha so we might as well

 

[Vernie822]

Last September we did not really rope drop, but we still got up early and got there by 930-ish every day. I think we were fine because crowd levels were low. In June, we booked a short weekend trip and plan to rope drop. We know it will be hot and crowded so we thought we would get some rides done, have lunch, head back to relax, and come back in the evenings.

 

[mickey1968]

Like I mentioned earlier, I am not a rope drop person nor a morning person in general, but I may try to make a couple of 9am rope drops on my trip next week but only as a measure to beat the heat. I also have planned to take a few breaks in the room in the afternoons. Although in the past both of those plans have been ignored as I go, go, go!

 

[phinz]

I never get there when the park opens. I like to sleep.

 

[Monykalyn]

Sounds like you have a balanced plan. One other tip to avoid family exhaustion... Rest day! I picked this up from the DIS. After two years of hitting parks and reaching meltdowns on day 3, we had a rest day (day 3, or mid trip) and found it was actually our favorite day! Now we will always repeat! We sleep in, do a fun ADR outside of the parks, swim if it is warm enough, fish or do something else low key if it is not. Some or all of our family hit Epcot around 6-7 just to walk shop, maybe eat. But no rides, no rush. It perks us back up for the second half of the trip.

Thanks to awesome Disboard advice I had a planned rest day last year; AK RD-stay til about 4-swim and relax rest of day; DHS -1st FP around 10 so no rush to get there-stayed through Fantasmic. 3rd day-sleep in, water park, dinner, late night MK (MK is a must see at least once at night!); 4th day-off day (ended up driving to beach later); Epcot day-no rush, late dinner and Illuminations; last park day was MK open to close (kids wanted to stay-our plane didn't leave til late afternoon on the next day so we slept in. The opening show at MK is nice-but the rest of the parks (possible exception is AK-can get most of park done RD-11) RD didn't really seem to be necessary with FP+ in place.

Love hearing about everyone's different styles of touring! Pick up so many tips/tricks

 

[Monykalyn]

Like I mentioned earlier, I am not a rope drop person nor a morning person in general, but I may try to make a couple of 9am rope drops on my trip next week but only as a measure to beat the heat. I also have planned to take a few breaks in the room in the afternoons. Although in the past both of those plans have been ignored as I go, go, go!

@mickey1968 did you do your CP in spring 1991??? Am I reading that correct? I was there too-EPCOT merch!

 

[marie8461]

When my daughter was young, we did rope drop all the time. She's 30 now and we never do it and still manage to have a wonderful time. Depends on what's important to you.

 

[lborne]

This needs to be a question on dating site profiles, or at least something you need to discuss with your significant other BEFORE marriage. Nothing is worse than being up at 7 am ready to go and having a spouse still sound asleep at 10 am. Evidently, I'm told nothing is worse than trying to sleep in on vacation and having a spouse fidgeting loudly around the room making not so subtle remarks about "How we will miss everything and spend most of our vacation waiting in lines."

 

[gschon]

We usually make one, early in the week. The bed gets more comfortable later in the week

 

[phillymummer]

Add me to the "no RD club". We have never made a a rope drop and don't plan to. I refuse to set an alarm on vacation (unless we have an early breakfast rezzie. We will rise for good food!).

 

[ZehnJahren]

I *mostly* alternate, but most days if I can make rope drop I do. I once did 10 rides in the first hour and a half or so of operation, on a level 3 day according to easywdw. I then left MK to go to another park while the rabid crowds were coming in, it was a wave of humanity rushing in while I was heading out; I couldn't believe the crowds coming in at once on such a low day in September! I walked in with the crowds at the next park, arriving at my second park when most people were coming in at the usual time, and noted the higher wait times. I always do rope drop every day I can, then take a break in the afternoon and return for nighttime festivities! It just works for me.