What kind of Disney guest are you?

[Letteyeti]

I live just 30 minutes away from the Mouse so I get to go on many day trips and have done everything so many times I and my family just like to have no plans set and see what the day brings. I really love the Animal Kingdom so I never get tired of that park. I could spend so much of my time in the Animal Kingdom, I might as well make it my residence.

 

[graphite1326]

Rope drop to close and park hop all day. We have been doing this for 24 years. In my 60's now and not slowing down. Only ride I cant do anymore is Space Mountain. Too rough on the back.

 

[MissViv]

We first visited in the early 70's. Just the wife and I, (Tix were $23.) We stayed from rope drop until late, we would watch fireworks from the exit plaza , then beat the crowd to the car.

After 2 kids, we made the family trip from NY every year for 25 years in a row. With kids we did rope drop, but added the mid day resort pool break, then back to the parks.

When the kids were old enough, we became Disney Commandos, MGM Studios was now open and we would Hop to all 3 parks in a day. (Hopping was free then). When AK opened we Hopped all 4.

Now we are in our 60's and we have slowed way down. We have retired and moved to Central Florida. Having visited so many times, on our next visit we will hit the new stuff (Pandora, Star Wars) and then see what we can, no hurry.

Sounds like what we used to do! Now DH doesn't go and it's just me. In March I met my niece from Tampa but then tried the last night solo. I liked it and am planning on going solo my next trip in October.

 

[JustAFan]

When we arrive at the Orlando airport and make our way to Magical Express:

In between: a mixture of rope drop, up late, a nap or two, but mostly go go go go.

At the resort waiting for Magical Express to take us away:

 

[GoofyPalWalt]

Been doing it at least once a year for past 30 years. When younger and there was only MK and Epcot, it was easier to do all day. Now and for quite awhile now, it has been carefully planned trip, usually 7 to 9 nine days. Planning is almost as much fun as the trip itself! We do not do rope drop, never have, never will, except when doing special events like train tour or such. Pick first park depending on day - never do MK on a weekend or Monday. Have a nice breakfast at hotel (POR for last 15 years or more) around 8:30 to 9:00 so crowd has gone. Then go to park of choice. Fast passes done in advance determines which park. Stay for QS meal, then back to hotel around 1 or 2. Relax in room, at quiet pool or at main pool for a couple hours, take nap, and off to park around 5. Park depends on dining reservation. Leave after fireworks or just before depending on how tired we are.

With the new park reservation system coming in, this may add some difficulty and more planning. Have reservation at POR for December. Have to see how things work by then and if there are no late hours, it may mean dinner at Springs most nights.

 

[Dog Ate Mouse]

Typically we are at WDW for about 10 days. We play everything by ear. We show up when we want, we park hop if way to crowed and we go back to the resort to swim and come back for dinner and fireworks/shows. We do love the stay in the parks late. Now one of the things that makes out stay pleasant and relaxing is staying at POR. We hit the quiet pools and relax and unwind and gets us ready for bed. We go swimming at 07:00 and it wakes us up and again relaxes us. Then its off to breakfast and tear the day up and again play everything by ear. Only things that we don't play by ear are our set meals.

 

[debg32]

We usually go for 10 days and plan our days around our dining reservations as we have some restaurants that we must do each trip. A family member is a DVC owner so most days we cook breakfast in and spend the day at the pool. Some go golfing while others go shopping and we always take one day at Blizzard Beach. We make fast passes for the rides that are a must and for the evening in whichever park we have dinner reservations. Some nights we go down to Disney Springs for drinks. Very laid back now. We no longer rush for the parks. It feels like a vacation.

 

[Tomi-Rocket]

We are not rope droppers, we sleep in and take our time getting ready, unless we have an early ADR. We don’t wing it, we have schedules for parks, FP’s and ADR’s. But we never try to recreate past vacations. And now we are not such sticklers for making FP’s anymore. We’ve done all the rides enough times that if we’re tired or simply don’t feel like it, we skip. It’s now about truly enjoying our time there. (Btw, my sons are now 23 and 19.)

 

[stratman50th]

Pull into the Fort around 10:00am. Get set up and hop in the golf cart. Head out to the marina or the main bus stop. Do some resort hopping and eat at 'Ohana hopefully. Watch MK fireworks from there or back at Fort Wilderness beach.
Do some looping, go to the pool, rinse and repeat for 4 days. Well except for 'Ohana. Hit Trails end for dinner one night. That's about it.

 

[tpoly88]

My wife and I are AP holders and we live over in Tampa so the drive over is easy. We are not planners for Disney anymore if we go by ourselves and pretty much decide that day if we are going (except F&W and Christmas time we will make an advanced hotel stay). we love Epcot to just walk around, have some food and drink and go home. As much as i love the rides in Disney and having gone for so many years, if we dont go on a ride im fine. most times we get there around 11am and will leave at 4pm. If we stay over at a hotel we will stay longer but not much as we eat by 7 and then call it a night.

 

[SyracuseDisneyFan]

The last two times, we've made FastPass+ reservations.

 

[iPirate]

For us it depends on the length of our stay and compromise.
My husband likes to sleep in. "Vacation is for sleeping and relaxing." I like to get up early, caffeinate and go.

Typically, I'll head out early and he'll meet me where I am or at EPCOT (specifically, France).
We'll park hop and resort hop when the mood strikes us, but for the most part we stay in whatever park we meet.

If we're with family, we try to go by their schedule.

 

[ELG13]

We take it slow. We stay at ft.wilderness cabins so we enjoy cooking breakfast and drinking coffee on the porch in the am. I generally don't book a FP until 10 or later unless there's something we really want to do. We will do our FP and ride whatever else we can that's not an hour or more wait (we have two kids). Go back to the hotel and swim and then depending on our dinner plans get ready for that or hit another park. We go for about a week at a time and learned a long time ago that eve if we rope drop every day we will still feel like we missed stuff so we keep our expectations low. My husband and I usually get a late night trip or two without the kiddos (my mom always comes with) so we do the big rides and browse the stores then.

 

[Ldno]

After reading the unofficial guides of disney world/disney land I am there from rope drop till closing and RIDE everything and plan it out so I can see some fireworks/parades with the help of fastpass. Onice you get a feel on how the rides/guest per hour work, peak times and slow times, i actually manage to see and do everything i want at the parks and throw in some time for photo pass photo shoots/meets and greets. This is in Disneyworld though.

Disneyland is another beast, granted I will be from rope drop to closing I Will Actually take the time to experience everything, one day at DCA, two days at Disneyland, you never realize until you read that book that Disneyland has the most rides out of all the parks in WDW and they can take up the majority of the time, I try to split up half the rides/meet and greets/photo pass in two days since I have learned from my experience that some of the rides that break down will slow the whole day down.

Not much of a fan of dining since I’m on the go and can’t afford to waste time dining so fast food is for me, but does not mean i have not done it in the past though, those reservations are a huge turn off since i have rides to be and characters i have to meet in so little time.

Granted I have tried these methods with my twins and step daughter And believe it or not they actually did an amazing job hanging though for the rest of the day, with breaks in between since they are 7, but still At the end of the day Disneyland killed my knees so i went to my doctor and complained about it and he helped with me some naproxen at which lest just say my recent disney world trip was a breeze in a week. Having good walking shoes and planning out your entire trip to an extent is the Best way to see everything.

Honestly kind of want to go to disney post COVID now that the rules are more relaxed and curious to see how much I can do in one day with a mask and all but not with the kids for the time being.

 

[Don P]

The wife and I have been there at least once a year since 1974 . We are both semi retired .I drive a school bus so I am used to getting up early . We stay in a cabin at Fort Wilderness . We get up at 0500 eat breakfast and head to a park for the rope drop . We fast pass 3 things and bounce around the same park until around 1-2 PM . We head back to the cabin, relax , have a cocktail and have an early dinner at Hoop-De -Doo or Trails End . We hit the sack around 9 pm and do it again the next day .We live in VA and will be heading back down next Feb .

 

["El Gran Magnifico"]

The wife and I have been there at least once a year since 1974 . We are both semi retired .I drive a school bus so I am used to getting up early . We stay in a cabin at Fort Wilderness . We get up at 0500 eat breakfast and head to a park for the rope drop . We fast pass 3 things and bounce around the same park until around 1-2 PM . We head back to the cabin, relax , have a cocktail and have an early dinner at Hoop-De -Doo or Trails End . We hit the sack around 9 pm and do it again the next day .We live in VA and will be heading back down next Feb .

Yep. That's pretty much my schedule (not up quite as early - but close). I'll usually hit 1 park a day for about 5-6 hours and the remainder of the time its resort hopping or Disney Springs. I don't really park hop anymore - with the notable exception of wandering around World Showcase during the evening after a day at a park.

 

[NickMaio]

Oh yeah. I remember back when evening EMHs were 3 hours long, we were at MK from 9am to 3am! Powered by lots sugary treats.

Ahhhh.....the good old days.

I miss those

 

[ELG13]

Ahhhh.....the good old days.

I miss those

Oh man....yes. My stepdaughter was 6 and we took her. She was EXHAUSTED after but she had a blast.

 

[RC@77429]

August/2020 will make our 75th trip including both Disney Cruise lines trips as well. I hope our Aug/2020 trip does not become a disaster with the Reservation tickets. Does anybody know how it will work for Disney Hollywood? I guess I am going to buy them on 7/15 Early to attend the park 8/9/2020. It sounds like they will reach capacity if they allow Pass Holders first then Resorts Visitors next.

 

[Disney Hoser]

I do not get to WDW as much as I'd like. I have been a total of 5 times in my lifetime. I am from Canada so we take a flight to Orlando Airport and take the Magical Express in to our resort. We try to get a very early flight and it is actually good because I am coming from the Atlantic Time Zone so we gain an hour once we get to WDW. The 1st day we stay around the pool and wait till the room opens and then we later in the day will go into Disney Springs for some dinner/drinks and some shopping. Most of the rest of the time we have the park we are set to start with and get up early for, but not rope drop. Then we either according to whatever the schedule is stay at that park all day or hop to another park till that park closes. We do that for the remainder of our vacation stay which is usually a week.