Teenagers now, do we skip rope drop?!

[momto4kid]

I have always done rope drop but now having teenagers who aren’t morning people, although at Disney might be different, can we go late morning or do we miss too many short lines and then have crabby teens waiting in long lines?

 

[pens4821]

If they are a little older you could just have them meet you there when they are ready. I don't have teenagers, but probably wouldn't force them to get up early, but I would stress that it would help get more done.

 

[NYCgrrl]

New strategy for our forthcoming trip will be to allow the newly minted teens (13.5 and almost 13) to sleep later than normal but not pass the CL lounge's breakfast hours. We do not RD as a general rule (did it once and they all hated it) but the adults do like to be out of the hotel by 10:00 AM.
So while the beauties are sleeping, the adults will eat breakfast (peacefully), do some laps in the quiet pool, and walk around the Boardwalk.
I already informed the kiddos that sleeping late will cut into ride time and for the moment they're fine with that.

 

[Randomsoulshine]

For the first time we will not be doing rope drop. They like the parks at night and I can’t do rope drop t 11:00pm anymore. So we will be staying in parks late and sleeping in a bit. I have explained we won’t ride as much more than likely and they are ok with that. They just love that nighttime atmosphere. I think we will get to parks around 3. Now for Universal we will rope drop because we won’t have fast pass.

 

[aggiedog]

I’m here now and if you can get FOP fast passes then no rope drop is fine. If you can’t, and teens want to ride it, I think rope drop may be the only way to ride it and see anything else. Granted, it’s spring break, but wait times were hitting 5 hours while we were there with our school group (no rope drop). I came back with dd on our own, at 8:20, was in the line for FOP by 8:30, and waited just under 2 hours. I honestly don’t even know how early you’d have to get there to be in the front of that line??

 

[KSR0330]

We compromise and choose one park to rope drop during the trip. They usually aren't grumpy because they get to ride so much in that time.

 

[holden]

We have switched from rope drop to staying late. We used to be hard core with rope drop! I kind of like staying late because it is cooler (temps) when the sun isn’t blazing on you.

We try not to let them sleep too late. We are usually in the parks by 10 and close the parks at night. Sometimes with a mid day break (absolutely necessary in August) and sometimes not (in November).

Our vacation is more enjoyable when everyone is happy.

 

[Minsc]

Family of 6 with 4 teenagers, and we burn the candle at both ends, lol. We rope drop, and eventually park hop to the park with the latest hours. This has always helped us maximize our park time during hours when the parks are least crowded. Even my biggest sleepyhead daughter has seen the light, and follows the plan. Worst case scenario, if someone does sleep in, they meet us in the park later. Before they were old enough to do that, we would use the same plan, but take a midday nap break when the parks are the most crowded and the days are the hottest.

 

[Geomom]

I'd switch to staying until the park closes. Make fastpasses for mid-day...maybe starting at 11Am if you think you'll make a park by Noon, then try to get more fastpasses after you use your 3. The later the park is open, the less busy it will be in the last hour or two. I would not try to make teenagers do rope drop...they can make your day miserable if they're overtired, just like toddlers, lol. (Yes, I have 2 teens...)

 

[PollyannaMom]

We've switched, too. DS was a super early bird as a little kid, and were die-hard rope drop people. We followed an "early in, early out" plan, and were very happy with it. But between DS changing to teen sleep patterns and the new FP+ system, we've completely flipped our touring style. We book our fast passes for late morning/early afternoon, and enjoy a whole of new world of nighttime in the parks.

 

[PPFlight75]

We will be there next week and we are doing a mix. While we typically RD, we are doing 2 RD days and 2 sleep in/go at night days. If we like it, we will do a mix for our summer trip.

Since we usually go to each park 2 times in the summer, we may do RD one day for each park and then a casual evening. RD allows us time to get the ride our favorites a bunch (BTMR, Everest, RnRC)

 

[Tinkerbellmom43]

We've switched our touring too. I either book later fast passes or book separate FP's for them and go early to the parks ourselves. This past trip in January, my daughter wanted to go out early and other days she slept in. I'm the planner when we go to Disney but I've been letting the kids do their own planning and meeting together for certain rides and meals. Everyones happy and we're still doing things together too.

 

[justafigment27]

Probably depends on the kids? My kids were 14 & 16 on our last trip and still very much okay with rope drop. They like to sleep in, but were willing to get up for Disney. They did, however, request a couple of days where they were able to sleep in and spend the late morning and early afternoon lounging at the pool.

 

[kaybird]

We raised Disney kids, who are now adults with Disney kids. We have always been rope droppers, and fortunately, our kids and now the grands have always seen the value. We try to plan at least one sleep in day, but often the excitement of the parks win out.

 

[tinkerjo]

I am in the lucky group. My sleep till noon and stay up all night college kid will change sleep patterns for WDW and we rope drop. They older kids will generally pick a night or 2 to spend late at the parks and it is up to them if they RD with us Thebes next morning or meet us in the parks later but they almost always get up and go.

 

[Disneyfan754321]

Did you ask them? My older kids love to sleep in but not on vacation. They love separating and running to there fave rides at rope drop. We go all day till they close. Save the sleeping in till your day off (pool day) or water park day if you have one.

 

[monorailsilver]

I had 2 teens and a 12 yo when we went in August.

They would sleep until 10ish in the summer.

I reminded them that Disney would be early and got groans. But they were fine.

My older 2 wanted to ride SDD again so I told them before we moved to the Poly from the BC we could go one morning but we had to leave the room by 6. Guess one, no complaints from them getting up and we were out. They LOvE the lack of people which means more rides. One MK day they rode SM 2-3 times In a row.

But we did a park every other day so they could sleep in if they wanted to.