ETPE rope dropping, Genie+, midday break, fireworks, and parking

[rand0mness]

I’m trying to figure out how families with young children who want to watch fireworks at night but need 10 hours of sleep manage to do Early Theme Park Entry rope drop. The only way it seems to work is with a midday nap between lunch and dinner. Some related questions (assuming a crowded day like during Thanksgiving week):

How much better is ETPE rope dropping with a midday break compared to going late, assuming we purchase Genie+ either way? While we might wait less in ride queues with rope drop, we would end up waiting for Disney transportation to start service or the parking lot to open, waiting for rope drop to begin, and taking time to travel to and from the resort (for us, Pop Century) for the break.

If we return from a midday break via car in the early evening, will we be allowed to park in open spots closer to the entrance where others have left for the day? Or should we just pay for Preferred Parking?

If we do ETPE rope drop, is the current advice still to make whatever Genie+ reservation is usually hardest to get at 7:00 am, then skip that ride in the touring plan until the return time? Or is there a better strategy?

If we do ETPE rope drop, from what I can tell, the recommendations for Pop Century Resort are to drive to AK and take the bus to MK. But I’ve seen various opinions on driving vs Skyliner for EP and HS. Is there a clear advantage to one over the other (assuming either EP entrance is fine)?

Thanks for any advice!

 

[saraheliz]

I can't answer the parking questions since we prefer Disney transportation over driving in every scenario. We adored the skyline for easy transport right to the park entrance but to be fair- we had no rain or storms so it never shut down. I definitely would bus to MK. Adding in the TTC and getting over to MK is silly, imho.

BUT I think the staying up late/EE/midday break question will depend on 1)how your family rolls (will kids nap in strollers? Are they better in the morning or evening?) and 2) how long you're staying. Both of our last two trips where in August (2023 and 2022) and we did a mix. It was HOT so we utilized the early and evening hours whenever we could but the parks aren't open that late and we knew we couldn't do late nights followed by early mornings.

We basically rotated: one day Rope drop, break, later evening, the next day sleep in and hit the parks late morning and in bed earlier (AK closed at 7/8 so we could take advantage of those low crowd hours without being out too late), then the next day early morning, break, later evening...and so on. BUT both of those trips were 8-10 days and my family (kids are 16/14/7) are hard core park goers who do pretty well with being exhausted.

The early morning and later evening hours really are invaluable in terms of lower crowds and rides. We especially found this true at the end of the day for AK and HS (we were able to walk on Rise about 15 minutes prior to park closing) and early in the morning for MK.

The only morning we really waited was one morning at Epcot and even that was only 15ish minutes. AK we waited outside the gates for maybe 10 minutes as well. We honestly did not wait for transportation to the parks more than 5 minutes every our whole last week from Art of Animation and coming back to the hotel, maybe waited 10ish minutes once but otherwise less than that. I have a picture of us on the bus to AK at 6:48 and we were the only ones on it. I'm assuming it was the second bus, maybe?

I don't know if any of that is helpful. Have a great trip!

 

[tinkerjo]

We are early morning rope drop kinda people and typically do not stay up too late. DH hates fireworks/nighttime parades so he would stay back with any littles we had that couldn’t stay awake. I also only stay out late 1 night to make it easier because everyone else will be up early. I personally find the crowds thinner in the mornings anyway

 

[jcourtney]

How long is your trip? Are you hoping to have some resort/pool time? How many nights are you staying? Will you be returning to Disney again soon?

I'm a big fan of breaks in the afternoon but we tend to travel in the summer when you would have to be a little nuts to want to be at the parks in the mid-afternoon. We never seem to make it for rope drop no matter how hard I try, we're always a little late. We also love being in the parks at night.

On our next trip our plan is to sleep in a bit, hang out by the pool, relax, stack our lightning lanes and head to the parks at like 3 or 4pm (depending on park hours and if have an ADR). I find that we enjoy those quiet hours in the park in the morning but the back and forth gets exhausting after awhile and I want to relax a bit on our vacation.

We're lucky enough that we get to go about once per year so we're not overly concerned about seeing every single thing on every trip. I've come to the point where I'd rather slow down a bit and not worry as much about getting everything done (it's HARD though!)

We basically rotated: one day Rope drop, break, later evening, the next day sleep in and hit the parks late morning and in bed earlier (AK closed at 7/8 so we could take advantage of those low crowd hours without being out too late), then the next day early morning, break, later evening...and so on.

I've also done something similar to this and it works well. I think trying to do rope drop everyday of your trip is too exhausting.

 

[sponica]

I’m trying to figure out how families with young children who want to watch fireworks at night but need 10 hours of sleep manage to do Early Theme Park Entry rope drop. The only way it seems to work is with a midday nap between lunch and dinner.

Not lying, I booked theme park view at Polynesian because seeing fireworks in the parks wasn't realistic with my kids. A) They HATE the noise and B) they are up with the birds, there's no way they're making it up that late without the next day being a dumpster fire

My oldest is now old enough where it's realistic on one night, but it's probably a few years until we plan on it with both kids.

As far as which EP entrance to use, I think it depends on your priorities. If it's the Rat, take the skyliner. If it's Test Track, drive and take the main gate.

 

[Anna131517]

Our kids have always been stroller nappers (or baby carrier nappers) so we never felt the need to take a mid day break unless it was for us, the parents. Now that two of the kids are too big for strollers we do have to plan more carefully. We still don’t like midday breaks but will start later if we want to be up late. We try to plan either a late start or day off the day after staying up for fireworks.

I don’t think touring plans work well with Genie+. We plan our top priority LL’s and have a list of other stuff we want to do but that’s about it. The other stuff is in no particular order.

I have no idea what you’re talking about regarding driving to AK and then taking a bus from there. Would they even be running buses that early from AK? If you’re going to drive anywhere I’d drive to the transportation center then take the monorail to MK. Or take a Minnie Van to the transportation center. You really can knock out a lot during the first two hours a park is open but the same can be said for the last two hours.

Edit - we only go in the winter so dealing with heat and rain aren’t issues. Probably why we don’t feel a need to take a midday break. Also, sometimes it’s too cold to want to go swimming so pool time isn’t a big priority for us.