I won’t bore you with every detail of our entire 7 days, but our tentative plans for our first 3 days this November look this:
11/14 - Wednesday - arrive midday (driving) - relaxing evening and dinner in Epcot
11/15 - Thursday - AK - rope drop to early afternoon - MVMCP that night
11/16 - Friday - MK - ? until early closure due to MVMCP - dinner in DS
So, here’s my quandary. I have never (yes, never) NOT rope dropped a park. I hardly know how to even think of planning a day without rope dropping. However, we will be attending the MVMCP on Thursday and will stay until midnight. This makes getting up for 7AM EMH at MK the next morning seem incredibly difficult. I am sure it would be a 1am bedtime for us at the very earliest and then we’d be looking at barely 5 hours of sleep before leaving for RD.
We will be myself, DH, DS 15, DD 13, and my parents who are early 60s and in good shape, so it’s not like we have babies or little ones to deal with. We definitely could swing it, but is it worth it? Would it be worth it to push through and go early and hit all the good stuff with a plan to leave early and come back for naps before our evening in DS? Or is it better to sleep in and go to MK later in the morning just knowing we will have to deal with the crowds and likely get to do less?
I feel like we have to consider the fact that we will just have been there the night before and will have ridden most all the popular stuff, so it wouldn’t be a huge deal if we had to miss some of those things that next day. We could design the day to enjoy more shows and less popular attractions I suppose. It’s just so against my nature not to rope drop that it’s a tough decision for me.
What are your thoughts?
My thoughts: I am always so excited about going to the parks that I am always ready for RD. The rest of my party, not so much. Maybe allow some flexibility? Especially that your party has some grown-ups and teenagers.
I did that the last time I went and we met for the first FPP of the day. I was happy because I made RD, they were happy because they got to sleep in.
Personnally, around lunch time I always crash, so I just go back to the hotel to take a nap. I also don’t deal very well with the heat.
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Well I have never rope dropped, ever!
Are you going to be doing rides during the party?
Just make a good touring plan and brave it. Think of it as changing things up, as a trial. If it doesn’t work for you, then you’ll know for next time!
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I think the “FOMO” - fear of missing out - is hard to get past, but I wouldn’t push for a RD after a night of MVMCP. You are doing RD that morning, and even with a break prior to MVMCP, unless you are all nappers, you may take it easy but you won’t be sleeping. In my experience, crankiness at Disney is due to being hungry, being tired or possibly sore feet - I like to eliminate all those issues whenever I can! Plus, the later you stay at MVMCP, the less crowded it will be as the people thin out, and you really don’t want to leave early. So I wouldn’t push for RD the next AM. Think of it as a treat to sleep in on vacation rather than a punishment!
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Yes, we will definitely do lots of rides. We will take time to see the parade and eat some special snacks, but other than that mostly all rides. We aren’t really interested in meet and greets.
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We were exhausted the morning after MNSSHP and we didn’t close the park. I’m planning a resort morning the day after MVMCP.
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I would NOT do a RD the day after a party. I would very much plan to sleep in, have a leisurly resort-based breakfast, and book my FPP for early afternoon.
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Thank you all! Looks like we will have a new experience of sleeping in a bit and have a different type of day. I’d certainly rather have a shorter day where we were all happy than a long day where we were tired and grumpy. Plus, we have 4 more days of the trip we have to think about. Don’t want to be worn out half way through.