How many of you typically do rope drop to close without leaving?
We plan to rope drop MK, and official hours are 8-9. I’m thinking staying till lunch (we have a 12:44 at the Plaza,) and then coming back a little later to do some more rides seems good.
But we are staying off property (Windsor hills) and taking a break from MK seems like maybe more trouble than it’s worth?
Do you get too exhausted, maybe run out of fun, if you do 13+ hours in MK? Should we just plan to stay through the busy afternoon and maybe not stay until close?
I haven’t been to MK in so long!
What about HS? Is there enough to do RD to close there? We want to take advantage of early morning, but also have a 6:50 Oga’s and an 8:45 Savis, so will be there late.
You can do it and it can be fun but my suggestion don’t open to close back to back days. With full days you need rest between. So either boils down to rest a little each day or rest between days.
Edit and no matter what time it is if you would prefer to be in your hotel or somewhere out of the park drop the schedule and do it.
We leave in 13 days. Me, DH, and 2 kids 9 and 12.
We live in WI and it hasn’t barely gotten warm here yet, so the heat is likely to get to us a little (except me, I’m impervious lol.)
We plan to do MK on Monday and have Tuesday for resort/pool/ DS.
Wed we are splitting up in the morning; DD and I to AK, the boys to HS, and then we will hop to meet them at HS later. I can’t see a good way to work in an off-site break.
With Tuesday being a resort, I wouldn’t hesitate to do a full day Monday, or even sleep in a little Monday and stay till park close if you’d prefer. (We’ve had a discussion recently that rope dropping, while great, isn’t as necessary as it used to be if you are willing to stick around till after 5pm or so, when lines drop across the parks.)
Wednesday I agree sounds like it would be tough to do a break; consider doing an early TS dinner. I wonder if you could get Topolino’s at this point? Probably not, but look around and see what options there are if you don’t have an ADR yet. What is going on Thursday? If you are going home or can take it easy, then you should be fine to go open to close that day as well.
Then don’t. I don’t like midday breaks at WDW and I prefer to have full rest days. Now at Universal or in Disneyland where I can just walk back to my hotel sure thing. I hate how hard it is to get around in WDW so I don’t usually split my days like the book recommends but I do enjoy my trips with hotel days interspersed much more than my short ones where I do full days back to back to back. Usually the third or fourth day I get pretty grumpy and then what’s the point.
Thursday is Epcot. We have an 8:30 reservation at A&C and then are walking over to IG. I’m fine with leaving Epcot whenever we feel done (and have eaten enough!). Don’t intend to stay till close.
Btw my all time favorite trip is when my kids were 9 and 12. They were still kids enough to enjoy everything, tall enough to ride everything and mature enough to get it and enjoy some of the more adult attractions. And no strollers or naps!
We figured this was the end of them being young enough to have fun, so we decided to do it even with covid.
We’ve been before but only to MK and Epcot when they were 2 and 5.
This will be much different. Though I also enjoyed my 2 and 5 year old Disneyland trip with mine. But we could walk back to the GC for naps and I could use my own double stroller. But this will be a different kind of fun where they need you less and you’re part of the fun more if that makes sense. And yes I swear the moment they hit 13, they’re too cool. (They prefer six flags style roller coasters and friends to a Disney and parents).
I agree that you can probably skip midday breaks with your schedule and those ages. The resort day on Day 2 is well-placed. And with no fireworks, you can always leave MK if y’all feel “done”.
Thur isn’t a super-early day so Wed should be ok as a full day. But if you RD on Wed, I’d plan to take a quick status check around 1pm and see what’s been done/still left on your plan, how much fuel is left in everyone’s tank, and if you want to take a 3-4 hour break or not to make sure the evening is enjoyable. Whether there enough to go RD-close in HS is partially dependent on how much you want to repeat favorite rides or poke around in SWGE.
I see so many people saying how unbearably hot and crowded the parks are during the afternoon with long lines for everything. I’m just wondering if it’s still fun to be there during that part of the day I guess.
Depends. Do the indoor stuff that takes a long time till Tiki Birds, Country Bears, Carousel of Progress. Have a long lunch indoors. Stay in the shade and avoid the sun and it’s not so bad. But I agree with you too. I’m planning midday breaks for the first time ever at WDW because I’m getting old and can’t handle it anymore and while I was born in WI I live in Texas and it’s hot here. The older I get the more I can’t stand the heat and it really zaps me
Knowing you’re staying late, steer clear of the long lines and be patient for them to go back down. Watch for anything with a low wait on the lines app. Do the things @gingerSnaps543222 suggested. Also a good time for shopping, and we always get pictures of our kids trying to pull the sword out of the stone in Fantasyland. Go look at the murals inside the castle. The fun little diversions that won’t involve long lines in the sun. My kids can spend a TON of time exploring Tom Sawyer Island. And plenty of cold treats.
My whole family lives the RD to close life. We are that style at all theme and amusement parks.
With MK you have access to all the nearby resorts. You could take the ferry to fort wilderness and walk around a bit, go over to Wilderness lodge to explore, etc. if people get tired of being in the park.
THIS!
Do a TS indoor lunch - this is our saving grace on MK days especially. Knowing we have a planned long break is key to making long park days work, especially in the heat.
Also, we try to plan an indoor/cooler attraction if we know we’re going to be in the heat for a while beforehand. If you think of long outdoor queues (which is many of them now due to social distancing…) try to plan a cooler ride/attraction after you’re longest waits. Other than the shows listed, Haunted Mansion, Pirates of the Caribbean, Little Mermaid, Winnie the Pooh, etc all have rides that are relaxing and indoors and are a good way to take short breaks from the heat, even if the queues are outside.
We used to rope drop to close all the time when I was around your kids ages. It is 100% doable and you’ll be able to take lots of breaks and enjoy the scenery.
One thing that I’m going to change in my upcoming trips is how to treat arrival day. We typically fly in from NY on the first flight out of the day (between 6 & 7 am), and arrive on site by 10ish. That first day, for us, needs to be as relaxing as possible so that day 2 can be a rope drop to close day. If we go too hard on arrival day, it takes us until day 3 before we feel normal.
On your MK day, you can go to one of the monorail resorts for a QS lunch and then lounge around the resort for a little while to recharge before going back to the park for late afternoon-evening hours. My kids spent lots of time sleeping on the couches on the upper level floor of GF back in the day.
Arrival day for us (from PA) is similar timing-wise but we don’t relax too much. We typically grab a CS lunch at our resort after checking in, then head over for a couple of hours in MK before a TS (usually at Chef Mickey’s) and then back to the resort. Not a full on day, but enough to see the castle, hang with Mickey, and totally know we are in the magic.
Up until our next trip that’s what we did as well. We’ve decided even that much is too much for arrival day when we’re up at 3am. Going forward we’re either going to make it a resort day or fly in late in the afternoon and start fresh the next day.