Explaining importance of RD to fellow travelers

Planning trip in 80 days for grandparents, sister and our kids 16,12,8,5. Before booking I need to have a conversation with my sister about how she will need to get up early and relinquish control to this experienced Liner. Any tips for this conversation to go well?

Take a sock, put 50 pennies in it, tie it off, and every time she questions RD hit her with it. She will soon start to see things your way.

I once did a test using the standard MK touring plan, optimizing it in 15 minute increments starting at RD. On average, for every 15 minutes you arrive after RD you add 15 minutes to your overall touring time. The effect was greater for the earlier increments - for example, arriving 15 minutes after RD added 30 minutes to the overall touring time.

For people who “do not like to get up early on vacation”, think of it as travelling to a place in a different time zone. You would not travel to Europe and stay on your home time schedule - you would adjust to the local time. Just pretend that WDW is two hours ahead of EST - the 8:00am EST RD is 10:00am WDT. :slight_smile:

2 Likes

I would present it as a choice:

Would you rather get up a bit early, enjoy the parks for x number of hours and then have 2-3 hours each afternoon to nap, lounge by the pool (or ride extra rides) or would you rather sleep in and stand in line.

It may be that her true preference is to sleep in. In that case, employ the sock technique outlined above. Some people are experiential learners.

2 Likes

I too would present it as a choice. I would explain the benefits of rope drop, but not insist.

What I would insist on is that you and yours will be getting up for rope drop, and she can join you whenever she desires. After a day or two, she will probably see the light and arrive for rope drop. Especially after seeing what you could accomplish.

I just went with my husband for our anniversary, and he wanted to linger, no problem, I got up and out, and he could not believe in 2 hours (one of which was early morning hours) I did TSMM once, RNC 4 times, and TOT 4 times. No granted I was able to use single rider, but still that was an accomplishment made possible by rope drop.

Thanks so much! The conversation went magically. She is totally on board! I used the time zone and every 15 minutes after RD in particular. Time to book!

2 Likes

There’s a section in the Unofficial Guide that advises family unity over efficient touring. There’s a lot of wisdom in finding out what works best for the group and relinquishing your own control. From experience, I have soured my own touring experience by being having a silent battle of wills with one less-informed family member on the trip.

St. Paul also had something to say about it. (Romans 14:19-21, but replacing ‘food and drink’ with ‘efficient touring’ - tee hee)

I love what @Jedilogray suggested about letting her sleep and see what y’all accomplish while she dozes. She may or may not see the light, but then she will have chosen her perfect vacay instead of yours.

Or, since you’re an experienced liner, you’ve seen it all many times, so you may want to choose to tour her way this time.

Still, I would do everything I could to show her the light. And if all else fails…

…employ a sock full of quarters.

1 Like

I’m glad to see that other people are in agreement with my sock full of pennies approach. Speak to the sock!

2 Likes

laughing at the sock method!
My conversation with DH prior to first disneyland trip went something like this:
“Prue (my friend) has put me onto this book. You know she knows stuff. I’m not waiting in line all day, so we’ll have to be up and out early. You will all hate me when I wake you up, but you will love me when we get there. You know I’m crazy, but seriously this will work.”
him "ok’.
:smile: no sock required. but I would have tried it if he said no.

also we did some wait in line training before we went lol - a local reality tv reno program was having an open house day to meet the contestants, and we’d all been watching it, kids included and really wanted to go, so a friend of mine and I took our daughters to see it. We waited in line 7.5 hours that day. I kid you not. So anything we had to wait at Disney was cakewalk compared to that. And at RD with a plan nothing was more than 15 min.

2 Likes

Yeah, this is pretty much the tradeoff you need to explain. Every minute you’re not in the park after opening, you’re waiting 2 more minutes in line. And that’s if you have a perfect touring plan.

2 Likes

I’m going to put this in the book.

7 Likes

You’re not going to put the sock full of pennies idea in the book though…?

3 Likes

Hmmmm… I see your point. You recommend a burlap sack over the head, with punches to the midsection?

3 Likes

Hmmmm, the burlap sack may be going a bit far, but…hey whatever works!

1 Like

@bgk, the resident expert in such matters, recommends neck punches over body blows.

1 Like

I am very fortunate in that I have a DW who appreciates the need to make RD. She doesn’t work, so her typical schedule is to stay up until 3AM and sleep in until 11:00 - but at WDW she (kind of) willingly gets up in time to make RD/EMH.

Many years ago I went with a college buddy who insisted on going to bed quite drunk every night. A bar of soap in a sock, applied forcefully and repeatedly, tended to get him up in time for RD… :smile:

1 Like