My 15 year old daughter & I are coming to Disney in late August 2025 for 8 days and staying on property. This is our 3rd Disney trip in her lifetime. We’ve also done Universal 3x and are New Englander’s so we go to Six Flags every summer. We historically have always been rope droppers with a mid-day break, as I am a morning person and she used to be. Now that she is a teenager, she doesn’t like waking up early, so I am trying to plan this trip a little different.
Thoughts on NOT rope dropping and coming into the parks around noon & staying until fireworks for the days we are doing multipass/LL for rides at MK, HS & Epcot? So day 2, 5 & 6 on this list:
Day 1 - Travel Day Day 2 - Hollywood Studios with multipass/LL for rides with sit down meal at Sci-Fi & planning on watching Fantasmic Day 3 - Mickey’s Halloween Party (already coming in late) Day 4 - Afternoon at Hollywood Studios for shows, then late dinner at Storybook Dining (already coming in late) Day 5 - Magic Kingdom with multipass/LL for rides with sit down meal at Crystal Palace & planning on watching fireworks Day 6 - Epcot with multipass/LL for rides with sit down meal at San Angel Inn & planning on watching fireworks Day 7 - Animal Kingdom with multipass/LL for rides with sit down meal at Tusker House (I already know this one is do-able) Day 8 - Travel Day
I know August is dreadfully hot by 10:30-11:00 AM… so my instincts tell me we SHOULD do rope drop with a mid-day break to swim/change, then come back on the evenings when we want to see the nighttime shows. But… my daughter tells me she isn’t excited about doing it this way & that it wouldn’t be “vacation” if she couldn’t sleep in. I’m torn…
There are others who are much more knowledgeable than me to answer this question, but with the new LLMP system, I am concerned about late-day arrivals. We can’t stack anymore every two hours. You have to tap into your first LL to book more. And the first tap-in is the only thing that removes tier restrictions. Will you be able to get any LL’s you want with a late-day arrival? Idk what crowds are like in August though. We have one late-day arrival planned for our upcoming trip, and this concerns me.
Our grandkids at that age asked for a late night/sleep in trip one June. Unfortunately it might have been the wettest first week of June in the history of Florida. After that trip they asked to go back to rope dropping.
Your trip is August which could be better weather wise. I say sleep til noon. Maybe swim some. Hit the parks about 6 to 8 hours before they close. Except for AK, of course. If MK is open until midnight and your arrival is about 4 or 5 you’ll have gobs of time. And fun, as well, I’m thinking.
Temps will be quite warm about 11 am but they’ll also start backing off about 5 or 6 pm.
Definitely try it once, any way. It’ll be an adventure
Oh no! I’m sorry to hear you had such a rainy June… I am used to FL’s afternoon showers, so this also went into my consideration of NOT skipping rope drop. With the mid-day breaks, we usually miss the mid-afternoon rain showers. The more I write about it, the more I want to rope drop haha! But, you’re right - it may be worth a try to sleep in. Then if it doesn’t work out, we can always revert back to rope dropping for the rest of the trip!
AGREED! Not being able to stack means I may risk not getting the LL I want (aside from the 3 we already can book ahead of time) later in the day. It is a risk… I may use this as leverage to get my daughter to see rope dropping is the way to go. She may change her mind if she realizes she may not get to ride Slinky Dog or Space Mountain.
Also with the August heat, those morning hours and late evening hours are so essential for avoiding the hottest part of the day! We always do midday breaks in August and use it for pool time (which does often get interrupted by the afternoon thunderstorms, but we pivot and go rest in the room instead). My daughter is 17 and also went through a phase where it was tough to get her up early, but I think she caught on fairly quickly after we tried late arrivals in the brutal heat a few times. Maybe you can compromise and just rope drope every other day?
We no longer consider WDW a vacation in our house. It’s now a “trip”. If you do WDW like vacation, then you experience a lot less (which is totally fine, but wouldn’t work for my family).
Before we had kids, DW and I did treat WDW as a vacation. We would sleep in, workout, go to a park for a few rides in the afternoon, have a nice TS dinner, and then go back to the park for a few rides and evening attractions.
Totally fine. And with LLMP you can still do a fair amount. But you will need to adjust your expectations regarding how many attractions you will experience and know that it will be likely be hot in the afternoon.
I would consider swapping your HS with LL day to later in the trip so ther is more availability when you book your LL. But you never know when they’re going to switch things up with booking and timeframes, etc.
The rope drop isn’t necessary to have fun! In fall I went with on a 3 night trip with my 4 year old and we booked rides with the LLMP in advance and didn’t rope drop at all. We still were able to get on everything we wanted to so it was overall much more enjoyable and relaxed compared to the stress / fomo that comes with rope dropping.
I love rope dropping and my family will say they do too but in reality my spouse has no urgency most mornings. A good portion of our Disney days we roll in at 10:30 and sometimes still take an afternoon break. This is why I budget for LL and try not to worry about it too much. I know it’s not efficient but at least everyone stays happy. We still get almost everything done and prioritize the must-dos.
On days when we rope drop we generally take a nice pool break.
Thankfully we have been steering away from efficiency
It helps too that we like a lot of the street entertainment. Especially the short surpise cavalcades after covid reopening.
Until covid we only visited WDW every 3 or 4 years and we still didn’t sweat missing a ride.
We’re sad when a favorite attraction goes away but there’s plenty more to see and do.
Even before fast pass went away we weren’t utilizing it much. Our line wait limit is 30 minutes. More than that and we’ll check another time.
We were on a 9 day trip that June experiment with closing parks rather than opening them. Even with afternoon showers turning into multi hour deluge events we had some fun times.
And realized we want a few insanely late - like 1 am - nights as well as the up with the sun mornings.
We haven’t rope dropped much in a few years. It’s not fun for them, it’s not fun for us trying to force that on them. And nobody has fun as a result.
I have come to really enjoy the leisure of a morning at the resort, moseying around, having coffee on the balcony or in a pretty spot if I don’t have one, and taking my time about life
I also feel free to dip into a park earlier than them if the mood strikes, doing things we haven’t planned to do together
Our last family trip last June was a favorite for all of us because we took this more relaxed approach. Everyone had the vacation they wanted and needed. No pressure - the only expectation was dinner together.
It does mean giving into the LL situation a bit, but IMO it’s so worth it.
This is how I remember our family WDW trips from the 80s. With only 2 parks and no LL (or FP), everything was much more relaxed. We’d go for 5-8 nights and spend a couple days in MK and a couple days in EP. We had time for other stuff like boating, exploring Discovery Island, enjoying River Country and having pool time at the resort without feeling like we were missing something in the parks. It was a vacation!
I don’t know if you’d be comfortable with this but what if you rope dropped, and she met you later? Then you could tap into the first LL and bypass that problem.
Great advice. Thank you. We are doing about 1/2 rope drops and 1/2 late park days (due to Mickeys Halloween Party and sleeping in mid-trip, then we always head to AK late haha). Maybe I’ll just tell her she can meet me at the park when she’s up and ready (she’s 15, so that should be fine I think!).
Great suggestion. I was just thinking that same thing. On the 3 rope drop days I was planning, I will offer to allow her to stay at the resort and meet me there when she’s ready. That way I get my mornings in the park and she can get her beauty sleep We’re used to the city and public transportation, so I’m comfortable with her doing this at Disney.
That’s such a smart tip.Especially coming from other time zones those mornings can be haaaard, but feeding off the “we’re finally here” energy might be just the thing to get my family up early once or twice.
We’re used to the city and public transportation, so I’m comfortable with her doing this at Disney.