Rope Drop or Sleep in?

Rope drop. Every day. And PPO ADRs, if I can help it.

Hubby likes to sleep in, no matter where we are. But even he now agrees and encourages us to get there at rope drop. I've proven to him how much less crowded it is enough times now, that he's perfectly willing to forfeit the extra sleep. And, if we get everything accomplished we want to, we don't feel bad about leaving by 6 or 7 at night.
 
Sleep in. We are night owls, so we prefer to close the parks down rather than open them up. We love it when a park has EMH at night. I'm afraid we would not be fun to be around if we rope dropped. I could be persuaded to try it once, maybe.
 
We rope drop unless we had the squids up super late the night before. It's better to let them sleep for another hour than have meltdowns midday.
 
We rope dropped on our honeymoon (sorry hubs, we gotta be up for all the fun) and it honestly allowed us to do some much more without the crowds. We went in June and I think that and our mid day breaks (and a couple of adult beverages) saved us our sanity. If we were going during a less busy time of year or were taking a more leisurely approach, we might not rope drop though.
 


We've eliminated this conundrum by being an RD-or-Bust family HOWEVER:

We NEVER EVER under any circumstances do back-to-back park days. We go RD to Close and then take a nice long relaxing lazy day.
 
1st couple trips- ROPE DROP- nearly wiped out the whole family. Most recently we do get up early, eat breakfast and get to parks by 10am. So much more comfortable and everyone has stamina to make it to the late night.
 


When you guys say "rope drop," exactly how much time before opening are you getting there? Fifteen minutes? Half an hour? Hour?
 
We're all for the rope drop! There is so much that can be done in those first few magic hours. Plus I physically cannot sleep in at WDW. I'm too excited!
 
I don't set alarms on vacation. So, we get going when we get going. I have never done a rope drop at WDW because we travel from the west coast. We wake up around 10am, typically travel in summer, so eat a lazy breakfast in the room, then hit the resort pool or water park during the day. We head into the parks no earlier than 5pm, and stay until closing. A few park hours per day is all we need to do everything we want, while avoiding the oppressive heat (one of my children has sensory sensitivity to heat due to autism and cannot handle park touring midday in the summer). It actually works in our favor to wake up late, stay up late. Typically, my kids are up at 7am and in bed by 10pm at home. This way, we just maintain that schedule, but move it all 3 hours forward. It means we are eating meals at off times too, which is great (breakfast at 10, lunch at 3, dinner at 8-9).

I'm glad so many people rope drop, though...we usually have the pool practically to ourselves, and by the time we are entering the parks, people are leaving for the day.
 
I don't set alarms on vacation. So, we get going when we get going. I have never done a rope drop at WDW because we travel from the west coast. We wake up around 10am, typically travel in summer, so eat a lazy breakfast in the room, then hit the resort pool or water park during the day. We head into the parks no earlier than 5pm, and stay until closing. A few park hours per day is all we need to do everything we want, while avoiding the oppressive heat (one of my children has sensory sensitivity to heat due to autism and cannot handle park touring midday in the summer). It actually works in our favor to wake up late, stay up late. Typically, my kids are up at 7am and in bed by 10pm at home. This way, we just maintain that schedule, but move it all 3 hours forward. It means we are eating meals at off times too, which is great (breakfast at 10, lunch at 3, dinner at 8-9).

I'm glad so many people rope drop, though...we usually have the pool practically to ourselves, and by the time we are entering the parks, people are leaving for the day.
On the days we've scrapped RD, we have often waited til 5 to enter the park. You're so right, it's so much more relaxing and everything becomes a surprising bonus. Not to mention that after 6 or 7 the appendages of the parks clear out significantly.
 
We always sleep in. There's usually no problem doing everything we want in the parks when we arrive past opening. Just be sure to get FastPasses for the most popular attractions.
 
What do you do and why? Trying to weigh sleep VS Rope Drop.
Rope drop on park days. Sleep in on resort days. We like to balance park & resort days on each trip, to avoid numbing and exhaustion. Hitting rope drop & using a touring plan helps us do and see what we want in the parks in a smaller number of days, so that we can spend our other days relaxing at the resort, and sometimes visiting the water parks.

Too many people don't plan down time into their WDW trips, and go home exhausted, wanting another vacation just to recover from WDW.
 
I have accepted the fact that I will probably never see Rope Drop at Disney World and this is fine with me lol. Sleeping in and closing down the parks is the name of our game!
 
100 percent rope drop. We go to Peter Pan first, then work are way around....HM, SM, BTM ( a few times ) Pirates and there are still no waits longer the 10 minutes when we are finished those ones then we start the fast passes
 
We haven't done rope drop in many years. We have stayed at Port Orleans Riverside the last few trips, and generally like to hit the food court about 7:00 for a good breakfast, then go back and take showers and leisurely get ready. We rarely leave for the parks before 10:00 a.m. but we never come back to the room in the middle of the afternoon, and we generally stay until they close, or nearly closing time. We usually go for a week and manage to get everything done in that time that we wanted to do, and if not...there's always "next time." :)
 
In all my years, I've never done rope drop. We tend to sleep in, but not very late--we're so used to waking up early for school/work, that we usually get up at the same time on vacation. We get to the parks mid-morning and stay until closing. It works for us.
 

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