4 Questions on TIME!

[LovinWDW]

So, this time I want to focus on time. It seems to go so fast while we're at WDW. No matter how long our vacation is, it never seems long enough. How do you all spend your time while at WDW?
1. What time do you arrive at the parks in the morning?
2. Do you typically stay at the parks until they close?
3. What is the latest you've stayed at the parks?
4. What's the most consecutive hours you've spent in one park without leaving?

Here are my responses:

1. We always try to make rope drop and typically do it 99% of the time.
2. Not really, DD's 4 and 9 dictate we head back to the room around 10 or 11, sometimes we make it until mid-night if the next day is a sleep-in day.
3. 2am in the MK two summers ago. I have a really cool pic of the castle from the far end of main st. with absolutely NO ONE in the street. Looks like we have the entire park to ourselves. It was open until 3am due to extra magic hours.
4. New Year's Eve 2005 in the MK. Arrived for rope drop at 9am and walked out at 2am. 17 hours in the MK, slept really, really well that night.

Have fun!

[lovinmesomedisney]

1. Prior to rope drop EVERY TIME!

2. We always go open to close. No hopping. Just one park for the entire day.

3. EMH until 2 a.m. at the Magic Kingdom.

4. From 9 a.m. opening at Magic Kingdom to 2 a.m. EMH. Long day, but super fun. We were leaving the next day and couldn't tear ourselves away from the magic.

[JasonH]

1. What time do you arrive at the parks in the morning?
Back during the first dozen or so times I've been to WDW it was always for right around the rope drop time. After that, it started getting later. So lately on the family trips, it's been more like an hour or so after park open. Solo trips that I did, it was always rope drop or earlier and is something I plan to do again on any future solo trips that may occur.

2. Do you typically stay at the parks until they close?
Very much so. Most of the time we slowly go out so that way most of the crowd has had a chance to get on the buses and we don't have to stand in line quite as long.

3. What is the latest you've stayed at the parks?
The latest closing time was either 2am or 3am due to either EMH or b/c the holiday time schedule deemed it to be open that late.

4. What's the most consecutive hours you've spent in one park without leaving?
I'd say it'd have to be either 16 or 17 hours. Again it all goes back to how late the park is open. Now if the question was what's the longest you've stayed awake and it involved part of your stay at WDW, then it'd be about 36 hours. To try and keep it brief, on a solo trip of mine, I woke up around 8 or 9am in the morn to get ready. Let's face it, I was pretty excited to go on a solo trip. I left home in the early afternoon (I always drive down, never fly) around 1pm, ran into some car trouble about an hour or so down the road which took me waiting about 3 or 4 hours before I was back on the road due to waiting for my parents to come meet me with a vehicle I could drive down in. Got to WDW in the late morning/early afternoon the next day after driving straight through (I did not sleep on the way down) and after checking in I proceeded to go to MK that day and didn't get to my room to sleep until 10pm or so. Will I ever do something like that again? No way!! By the time I got to MK in the first place I was only able to stay awake b/c I was practically running on nothing but adrenaline from the excitement of being there.

[darthmacho]

1. It depends on where we're going. We always start our trip at MK, but the last two trips we started with first breakfast at Crystal Palace, so we're already in the park before rope drop. We do two Epcot days, rope drop or EMH for Future World, and 11am for World Showcase. AK and DHS we do rope drop too, and we like to do a second and third visit to MK, on early, and one late.
2. We usually stay to close MK twice and Epcot once, DHS once, but we've never closed AK.
3. I think the latest we've been is mIdnIght in MK. 11PM in Epcot.
4. I think it would be the 16hrs we spent at Epcot in 1999, though I think we did the same at MK in 1998.

[darthmacho]

Please ignore the thumbs down icon in my reply. I don't know how it got in there! This is more like it:

[hauntedmansiongirl]

1. What time do you arrive at the parks in the morning?

We are shift workers (nurse & a firefighter), so we sleep in and get to the parks between 11am and 1pm.

2. Do you typically stay at the parks until they close?

All the time!

3. What is the latest you've stayed at the parks?

DHS-11pm
Epcot-1am
MK- 1am (definitely the most fun at night!)
AK- 7pm

4. What's the most consecutive hours you've spent in one park without leaving?

MK- 0700 (for the steam train tour) until closing at midnight (EMH)- 17 hours!

[alaMode]

We like to hop, and we usually visit off-peak, so...
1. Rope drop, but never am emh
2. We stay until closing, but we've hopped to the park after 5pm. During our stays, pm emh hours rarely go past midnight, so completely manageable!
3. 2am during MNSSHP-very fun event!
4. 7 hours at AK because we split our days at MK, EP, & DS

As you can see, we've never "gone commando" Pool time is as important as park time for our family!

[Dulcee]

1. What time do you arrive at the parks in the morning? Bright and early. When I was younger and went with my parents we made rope drop most times. Since going with my fiance (a reluctant early riser) I shoot for within a half hour of opening.
2. Do you typically stay at the parks until they close? Not usually. We get there early and by the time we finish dinner were ready to head home and crash
3. What is the latest you've stayed at the parks? Maybe 11 or 12? and thats a big maybe. Not big night people
4. What's the most consecutive hours you've spent in one park without leaving? Probably 7 or 8. We tend to break up the day with trips back to shower or pool as were usually there mid july.

[MississippiDisneyFreak]

1. We're usually there for park opening, except departure day because we eat breakfast first.
2. The only park I can remember staying until closing was Epcot...maybe AK once when they closed at 6pm
3. The latest I can think of is 11 at Magic Kingdom
4. I would say 14 to 15 hours at MK

[ryca1dreams]

We like to hop, and we usually visit off-peak, so...

Same here, so my responses will be similar...

1. What time do you arrive at the parks in the morning?
- Normally about 9:30-10am. If I were solo, I would be there at rope drop or EMH

2. Do you typically stay at the parks until they close?
- Not typically, but we did stay at MK all night once which leads to...

3. What is the latest you've stayed at the parks?
- I think it was at MK for pm EMH. Maybe midnight. We did MNSSHP all night which seemed to go forever too (in a good way)

4. What's the most consecutive hours you've spent in one park without leaving?
- Since we hop, hard to say. My solo goal is to do MK from rope drop to close. Just have never done it.

[yjgirl32]

1. What time do you arrive at the parks in the morning? usually prior to rope drop- we are early birds
2. Do you typically stay at the parks until they close? no not normally
3. What is the latest you've stayed at the parks? till 12 for MNSSHP
4. What's the most consecutive hours you've spent in one park without leaving?got there around 7:40am and stayed till about 10pm- great day and knew the next day was an off day.

[SBETigg]

How do you all spend your time while at WDW?

1. What time do you arrive at the parks in the morning?

Sometimes at rope drop, sometimes later. Depends on our mood and what we have going on. I do love EMH mornings before 10 a.m. Great time to get things done.

2. Do you typically stay at the parks until they close?

Not the same park, no. We usually take a break and change parks midday.

3. What is the latest you've stayed at the parks?

Until 3 a.m. at the MK after an EMH night.

4. What's the most consecutive hours you've spent in one park without leaving?

Not sure, maybe seven or eight hours? We usually hop around and don't stay in one park for all hours.

[biodtl]

1. What time do you arrive at the parks in the morning? As early as we can, but we never make it for rope drop. If it were just me (or me with the kids), we would, but DH is just not as gung-ho as I am. Usually by 10-10:30. Once we went into Epcot before opening for an early ADR.
2. Do you typically stay at the parks until they close? Yes - it might not be the park we started in, but we are usually in MK or Epcot until closing - especially on EMH nights.
3. What is the latest you've stayed at the parks? We tend to go at off-peak times, so they aren't open as late as summer EMHs. Whatever is the latest they've been open when we are visiting - I think we've been in MK until 12:00 - 1:00 or so?
4. What's the most consecutive hours you've spent in one park without leaving? Probably MK on a MNSSHP - we had an early morning ADR for BBB, and then we stayed until they closed. So around 15 hours or so. Maybe more if you count the time it takes to get out of the park.

[MushuGrl]

1. What time do you arrive at the parks in the morning? We don't necessarily have to be there at rope drop, but we don't wait until noon either. (Unless its DHS day..then we DO want to get there early for TSM.)

2. Do you typically stay at the parks until they close? The first night, we do. After that we usually just hang out until dinner then move on.

3. What is the latest you've stayed at the parks? We stayed until 1 a.m. in MK during summer EMH once, our last night in the parks. Luckily someone else was driving the next day....

4. What's the most consecutive hours you've spent in one park without leaving?I believe it was opening til closing of EPCOT on my first trip.

[ChewyStriker]

1. What time do you arrive at the parks in the morning?

Usually near park opening or a half-hour to either side.

2. Do you typically stay at the parks until they close?

Yes.

3. What is the latest you've stayed at the parks?

I think during EMH on a solo trip, I was in MK until 1am.

4. What's the most consecutive hours you've spent in one park without leaving?

Probably on my first trip, I did open to close at MK. I'd say it was about 12-14 hours.

[snowflakegirl]

How do you all spend your time while at WDW?

1. What time do you arrive at the parks in the morning?

I used to always have to be there prerope drop. This past trip I relaxed a little. We usually got the park about a half hour after opening. I think I would be comfortable doing that again. I do always get to DHS early so that we can rush to TSM.

2. Do you typically stay at the parks until they close?
Yes. Sometimes we'll leave one park and head straight to another, but we pretty much always stay til park close.

3. What is the latest you've stayed at the parks?
2 am at a Magic Kingdom EMH.

4. What's the most consecutive hours you've spent in one park without leaving?

open to close at Epcot, so I guess 12. Wait, actually, I think a couple trips ago we opened Magic Kingdom at 9 and stayed until 11, so that's 14?

[Disney-4-Me]

1. We've never been at the parks at rope drop. We've only tried to once and we were still 30 minutes late. We're a family of night owls!

2. We are always at a park until they come through with a broom and sweep us out. I love the feel of a park when there is almost no one else there. That's the most magical time.

3. Last October the Magic Kingdom closed at 3:00 AM so that's when we left. One of my favorite photos from that trip is of the Mondays sign at the Polynesian with operating hours from 7:00 AM to 5 AM.

4. We always park hop!

[figmagination]

1. We arrive at park opening time.

2. Usually for all except AK.

3. I'm not sure. Probably midnight.

4. And I'm not sure, at least from opening to closing of DHS or MK.

[c&d]

1. What time do you arrive at the parks in the morning? Use to arrive early when DS was younger, now very rarely before lunch.
2. Do you typically stay at the parks until they close? Yes or very close to them.
3. What is the latest you've stayed at the parks? 3:00am
4. What's the most consecutive hours you've spent in one park without leaving? I think when it was just DH and me it was about 10 hours