absolutely concur. Way too much money to see the back of eyelids. We do that at the beach. LOL.
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5-8 nights with two parks and everyone waiting was a very different time, indeed. 
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We’ve done this sort of thing in many trips. Aside from teens wanting to sleep in we’ve had breakfast people and coffee only folks. When we used to do the before-park-opening breakfast, the only coffees met us after the parks opened. And since covid, we traveled with two rope droppers/non-breakfast teens who were out the resort door before we even thought of waking up. We’d get to breakfast about 9:30 and afterwards meet with the teens. We did a little touring with them but really enjoyed hearing about their day over supper.
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We let our son go back to the resort on his own for the first time when he was 13. I was nervous about it but he knew where he was going, had a phone with him, and had strict rules he had to follow. He did fine - and on the way out he had some photos done with his magic band as a surprise for us - it was so cute!
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Also a summer traveler with teens and have been thinking about RD vs sleeping in. I think this year during our 6 night stay we’ll do a mix. With the heat, it is best to do mornings and evenings with rest in between, but you can always try different things! If you pick one park to RD, I’d choose HS as it’s the hottest park IMO. And I feel like we have the best luck rope dropping there.
A compromise for a day or two could be a “gentle” rope drop which we’ve done the last few years. Let the kids sleep an extra hour but still be there just in time to make it through the taps for EE and instead of being at the back of the line for a ride like FoP, just head for Everest, etc. At Magic Kingdom we did a gentle RD of BTMRR at 9:30am (closed right now but could work for other mid tier rides). It works for us.
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I like this term. We’ve done this a few times the past few trips. Arrived at SM around 8:50 am and only had a 15 minutes wait.
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If you choose a day to do the rope drop, brea, back to the park, I would make it the HS one. LL availability is so poor there, but rope drop is so productive. Just going for 2 hours, you can knock out a lot of top tier rides, take a long break and then come back.
The rest of the days you can 100% make a late arrival work, knowing you will have to standby either Frozen or Remy (I would book LL for Frozen and single rider Remy)
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We have typically gone as a family in August. We rope dropped MK one day and the kids vowed never to do it again - with the crowds, getting there early, and then waiting for the actual drop, it didn’t save that much time when you add all the waiting and everyone started off the day stressed. (We have rope dropped Epcot since then when staying in boardwalk area, but that experience is generally more chill)
I have gone a few times since the multipass change and haven’t found a late arrival to be much of an issue personally. (Actually, it’s been better as I no longer have to wake up every day at 6:45 regardless.)
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We will rope drop MK but we usually head to Adventureland/Frontierland for a couple of things. And then maybe Tomorrowland.
Last couple of times we opened HS, we were disappointed in what was up and running. It felt like a late start park.
Somehow our typical first AK visit has been late afternoon. So our first morning AK is a soft rope drop as we’re usually doing trails and other non-ride stuff.
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I agree.
Reflecting on how we used to tour vs how we do now, RD made so much sense when they woke up at 6am anyway. But as they shifted their sleep habits it slowly began to feel more like work than fun. And so we stopped doing it almost completely. We enjoy our vacations more now.
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