Parks in the afternoon only?

[greg9x]

Doing this a lot on upcoming trip. Mainly plan on doing casual things during the day like water parks, sorcerers of the magic kingdom, etc. Grab lower wait rides then, and have FP's for evening. This works for us because there is quite a few things have no interest or low interest in doing, so not trying to cram as much in. Also not the going on rides 5x in a row types, so if get on 1 or 2 times during the trip is fine.

Will do a couple early mornings, but agree that doesn't make for a relaxing vacation getting up and moving that early.

 

[MomOTwins]

Just want to point out, we are there at park opening every day and we are never up at 6am like some people say. We stay onsite. Get up around 7:30 which is our normal schedule. Shower/eat a quick service breakfast. Then take disney transporation to the parks around 8:15/8:20. We arrive right around 9am when the park opens and it is never crowded. You don't have to get to the park 45 minutes early if you are just there to enjoy "normal" rides rather than the really big ticket item that everyone queues up for; we use fast pass for those (7DMT/FOP etc.)

 

[MusicalAstronaut]

It's not unreasonable. I personally like to RD, then avoid the parks in the afternoon, and close them out at night. But with good fastpass planning you could totally do afternoon - evenings only.

 

[parkhopmom]

Here's my favorite Rope Drop story: I had a co-worker recently telling me about her trip to Disney World. They seemed to be pretty good planners and tried to maximize their time the best they could. She was very excited to tell me about her experience riding Midway Mania without a Fast Pass. The got up really early, got to the gates about 45 minutes before they opened and waited in a pretty large crowd. Then they hurried as fast as they could to the ride and the wait was *only* 15 minutes. By the time they got off the line was almost an hour long. There were people all over the place.

I rode the same ride 4 times in about an hour late at night and didn't have to deal with the crowds.

...so they still waited an hour for the ride

 

[mi*vida*loca]

This is another solid approach to WDW in general: alternating between early days and sleeping in.

We rarely arrive before RD. Though sometimes you can get in a few minutes early,we find it more relaxing to avoid the RD burst and some of the a-type personality folks rushing to be FIRST.

We usually try hard to use the night hours though. I absolutely agree with everyone who says the lines are shorter at night.

I dare say though, when it comes to WDW, we have yet to fully master what other folks call a slower pace.

In addition to thinking about sleeping later, we find it also helps if we don't have many ADR's, and if our ADR's are at our hotel. Some days we also just do a kind of quick breakfast on the go and have an early QS lunch. Those early morning lines in the food courts aren't relaxing.

I agree.

We have 4 ADRs for a 9 night trip. I'm really looking forward to trying some lounges, QS and same day ADRs if we feel up to it.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

...so they still waited an hour for the ride

But they waited most of the hour before the park opened and didn't waste the first hour of valuable park time waiting in line.

I do a mix of both RD and late starts. Both have benefits. If you RD and have no intentions of staying late (small kids, can't stay up late, etc.) I do agree you should arrive a bit earlier so you aren't waiting in 45 minute lines the first hour of park opening.

 

[Babe the Blue Ox]

...so they still waited an hour for the ride

They rode once in an hour. We rode 4 times. Same ride.

This is the main reason we don’t do rope drop. It’s too crowded and there are more efficient options available.

 

[Babe the Blue Ox]

They have little ones that need to go to bed.

Those little ones might surprise you. My fondest Disney memory is chasing my then 3 year old daughter back to the entrance of Space Mountain moments before midnight with her screaming "One more time Daddy" all the way.

 

[Babe the Blue Ox]

But they waited most of the hour before the park opened and didn't waste the first hour of valuable park time waiting in line.

Yes, but time isn't free. Getting up too early probably prevented them from staying late when they could have used that time enjoying the attractions instead of waiting outside the locked gate.

 

[ClapYourHands]

Yes, but time isn't free. Getting up too early probably prevented them from staying late when they could have used that time enjoying the attractions instead of waiting outside the locked gate.

Some families do better at night and others prefer early morning. My husband turns into a pumpkin around 9 pm, but is naturally awake before 6 most mornings. No matter how late he goes to bed, he is incapable of sleeping past 7am unless he’s sick or jet lagged. I would rather ride once when everyone is rested and happy than multiple times when they’re tired and grumpy.

We’re all much happier if I work with my family’s circadian rhythms rather than against them.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

Yes, but time isn't free. Getting up too early probably prevented them from staying late when they could have used that time enjoying the attractions instead of waiting outside the locked gate.

They could have kids who are up at zero dark thirty crack of dawn anyway so might as well get there early and avoid the hour wait once the park opens. They would have to miss late nights either way. There’s so many reasons people tour the way they do. There’s pros and cons for both ways of doing the parks. That’s why we mix it up and do early mornings and late starts. It works for us.

 

[mickeyluv'r]

Yes, but time isn't free. Getting up too early probably prevented them from staying late when they could have used that time enjoying the attractions instead of waiting outside the locked gate.

This is always our thinking as well. Every time arrive before the gate opens, I'm thinking, "This is time I could have spent doing something else, like sleeping."

I also don't care to interact with the me-me-me element of the rope drop crowd. Mind, I'm not a huge fan of standing behind slowpokes either, but something about RD at WDW brings out the worst in some folks.

 

[mickeyluv'r]

They could have kids who are up at zero dark thirty crack of dawn anyway so might as well get there early and avoid the hour wait once the park opens. They would have to miss late nights either way. There’s so many reasons people tour the way they do. There’s pros and cons for both ways of doing the parks. That’s why we mix it up and do early mornings and late starts. It works for us.

Sure, sure, sure, but if you read the DISboards regularly, many folks don't explain RD that way.

Generally, our approach is to arrive close to RD, AND to close the park. We try to use almost all the peripheral hours.

If we want to take a break, we do it in the middle. And we're also opportunistic in the middle. If BTMRR or Space Mtn has a ten minute line- we ride multiple times.

I will say again though, in summer, we find mornings beneficial. It is possible to tour in the afternoon, but there's a significant trade-off. If you only have one AK day planned, and EE is closed for a significant amount of time in the afternoon- you might not get to ride it, or see the animals, or anything else that closes during a storm.

Another time, we waited 20minutes for a boat that never came. The CM at the dock didn't know it has stopped running. It was sunny, but a storm was in the area. More or less, that made us late for an ADR, and that was kind of frustrating.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

Sure, sure, sure, but if you read the DISboards regularly, many folks don't explain RD that way.

Generally, our approach is to arrive close to RD, AND to close the park. We try to use almost all the peripheral hours.

If we want to take a break, we do it in the middle. And we're also opportunistic in the middle. If BTMRR or Space Mtn has a ten minute line- we ride multiple times.

I will say again though, in summer, we find mornings beneficial. It is possible to tour in the afternoon, but there's a significant trade-off. If you only have one AK day planned, and EE is closed for a significant amount of time in the afternoon- you might not get to ride it, or see the animals, or anything else that closes during a storm.

Another time, we waited 20minutes for a boat that never came. The CM at the dock didn't know it has stopped running. It was sunny, but a storm was in the area. More or less, that made us late for an ADR, and that was kind of frustrating.

My RD consists of me arriving ten minutes before park opening. Sometimes i get there right at 9. But ten minutes before is my max. ON those days we do midday breaks by the pool and return to close out a park. Usually FP at the PM park. Some days we start late and close the park down with no midday breaks.

 

[photo_chick]

Is this a crazy idea?

My DH agreed to a quick trip after I found super cheap airfare, but his caveat is sleeping in and not rushing in the morning. We will be there during the first week of August, so I know it will rain in the late afternoons. But will it be a complete washout? Will we regret this? The plan is to not get to the parks before noon, and stay until park closes. Thoughts?

While I had every intent of doing early mornings this trip, we haven't made it into a park before 11am. This week we've been going in, using or FP's, getting lunch and doing a few things then heading back to the room around fiveish. We swim then head back into the parks to close it down. Being there at the end of the night got us on Flight of Passage with only a 45 minute wait and Slinky Dog with a 20 minute wait. We walked onto things like Toy Story Mania and Soarin. Characters have been walk ups this week that late as well. We have taken advantage of late night extra magic hours when available, too.

The only caveat is to make sure if there are shows and characters you want to see that end earlier then make sure you get them in.

 

[wishicouldgomoreofte]

We just got back from July 4 week and we closed down parks three nights running. It's fine. We did go to breakfast meals (9:30-10:30) and then would go back to the hotel or to Springs to shop. Then back to the parks with late hours around 3.

What parks were open until 3AM?
I haven't seen any hours like that.

 

[Iowamomof4]

What parks were open until 3AM?
I haven't seen any hours like that.

Poster meant they returned to the parks at 3 pm.

 

[Babe the Blue Ox]

What parks were open until 3AM?
I haven't seen any hours like that.

the last 3 am EMH I attended was in 2014 right after 7 Dwarfs opened. Those were the days.

 

[Klayfish]

MK was open until 3am on one of our recent trips, I don't remember which...I want to say Xmas or New Years. It was a 1am closing with EMH until 3am...I distinctly remember the parking lot tram driver making jokes about the tram running until 4:30am.

 

[rentayenta]

3 am? Wow!