Any non-rope droppers?

My family of 4 (2 kids 9 & 6) are going on our first trip to WDW in August. I don’t think we are going to be getting out the door at 6:30-7 am to rope drop.

I’ve heard lines are shorter later in the day as well. Can we plan to arrive late and stay late and still have a good experience?

My thought is since this is our first time, everything will be exciting and we don’t have to ride all the rides to have a good time.

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We always RD but are planning a much slower paced trip this time. We are going in July and I plan to spend the majority of our park time during the afternoon and evening hours. I suffer from migraines so after a couple of early mornings I am usually struggling with headaches. Good luck to you and your family!

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Welcome to the forum! You definitely can have a good time whenever you get there, but the first couple of hours and last couple of hours will have the shortest lines.

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Welcome to the forum! I HATE rope dropping (yep I said it liners), but I know it’s the best way to get some hot rides down. That said, I rarely rope drop anymore. Since I drive in the parking lots get to gates behind resorts so even if I arrive at opening I’m still not the first inline and still seem to get plenty done. I think if you watch the wait times on the app and create a TP or follow one from the books you can have an amazing visit. Especially w/ your attitude on display already.

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August is hot…like surface of the sun hot. When the kids were smaller we visited in the fall and would often spend all day in the parks and usually close them down (I have night owls) that first summer trip we had to readjust quickly.

As soon as it got close to noon we started melting. Our breakfast to midnight snack touring habit became rope drop to just before noon and then back to the resort for naps and/or pool time all afternoon. We would then return to the park (or hop elsewhere) in late afternoon/early evening …like 4 or 5pm and close it down.

Based on that experience, I don’t think I would be comfortable arriving late morning and touring through the hottest part of the day. It is exhausting, even if you stick to indoor, air conditioned attractions.

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We have been a typically mid August touring family who didn’t rope drop, but it was a lot easier to show up later with fast passes.

For our July trip this year, we are staying at BCV so rope dropping Epcot and HS is not a big deal. We are discussing not rope dropping MK or AK and hitting the headliners late in the day. We have two days at MK so that will help.

Welcome to the forum! Recently in most parks many of the waits have decreased significantly later in the day (but fireworks most likely will change that). In August if you are prepared to be in the parks with ponchos during the rain storms, you could do a lot of the indoor attraction.

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We do not do rope drop and we do fine. We go late and stay late, usually with a break in-between.

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I think it really depends on what rides you want to get. Our first trip a decade ago with three kids ages 5,5,4 we RD’ed once (HS, so we could get paper FP for TSM). We didn’t miss RD’ing otherwise.

Our more recent trip in 2019, we RD’ed AK (twice, the second time at the request of my now teens) so we could ride FoP with a reasonable wait. But we didn’t RD any other parks and were fine.

We are going this August as well. We plan to RD AK, but will otherwise be keeping a more relaxed schedule. But I know with my Touring Plans that we will be able to get everything we want to get done by midday most days, and can head back to the resort for a late lunch and some pool time. I am hoping the parks extend their hours a bit in August, but either way we will head back to the parks after an early dinner most evenings.

Just enjoy! It’s your first trip and kids will love it, but most important factor here is it’s August! It’s hot. The pool may be their favorite thing to do. Spend extra time and money reserving air conditioned breakfast, lunch, and dinner. That said, rope drop isn’t just for those trying to get on the best ride. You can accomplish a lot ride wise and park wise with less crowds less heat and spend your afternoon at a pool. If you choose to sleep late, just get your air conditioned breaks! Buy an ice cream even though it’s almost lunch.

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How exciting! Since it is your first trip there will be so much to see and do!
You may plan to rope drop one park/attraction just to see if you like rope dropping, and if you don’t… just relax.

Keep in mind that there are afternoon thunderstorms daily in the summer. If you are planning late arrivals, make sure to monitor the weather and adjust accordingly (if possible).

We’ve been going for years and have never RD. We have still been able to do everything we wanted (of course this was in the before times!)

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We loved not doing RD this trip! We usually made it to the parks by 4 and had a great time! It was our longest trip so we had 2 days for MK and AK. I had planned 2 days for HS but my kiddo did not want to do Star Wars so no need. It poured every afternoon but she had crocs and I had goulashes and both had ponchos so no problem. We started with the outdoor rides in case the rain that was coming shut them down. If I was traveling by myself I would still RD but this was fun for traveling with a night owl!

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We used to do ppo breakfasts to get into the park. Without those, we don’t rope drop. I refuse to deal with all those pushy people. All of our covid trips, we’ve been arriving about 10-20 minutes after RD.

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This works for me too!

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In the same situation with my family. I also will have my parents and grandmother on a mobility scooter. I have a vehicle rented for the week but I don’t see my family getting up this early on time after the first day. Our trip was cancelled last year and we got stuck going in August of this year. It’s going to be much hotter than we anticipated and I’m going to have to plan for mid day breaks. Now without fast passes I’m not sure how well I can build a touring plan.

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I’ve done 3 week long trips in the past 8 yrs and have never once rope dropped. We had a wonderful time. My strategy was to get as much by FPP as possible; I realize that isn’t possible right now, but your idea of staying late instead of going early does work, as long as the hours run late. We had a lot of great times around midnight and even later, and that was with little kids (who were old enough to handle a temporary shift in their sleep times). We always had my nuclear family plus one much older adult friend, who often maintained a separate schedule from the rest of us. One thing we did to get out there early was to eat breakfast in our room with snacks we’d brought. We typically could get out to the parks around 10 am, which was still much earlier than a lot of others.

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