MK - Late Morning Arrivals

[Babe the Blue Ox]

We arrived at MK about 11 am for a noon Be Our Guest reservation. I was surprised at how many guests were arriving at the same time and especially at how long the lines were at the ticket windows.

I can’t imagine being able to get much done that day without the benefit of advanced FP reservations. That’s a lot of money to spend for a partial day at the park too.

 

[epcotobsessed]

I have never been in MK when it *hasn't* been packed, and I have visited almost every month of the year (not October or January). Many people love MK no matter what, but this is why it is only ever a half-day, one time park for me. RD, ride as much as possible, FPs starting about an hour after RD, back to the hotel. I live in NYC and can handle crowds - MK crowds are on another level.

 

[SaintsManiac]

We arrived at MK about 11 am for a noon Be Our Guest reservation. I was surprised at how many guests were arriving at the same time and especially at how long the lines were at the ticket windows.

I can’t imagine being able to get much done that day without the benefit of advanced FP reservations. That’s a lot of money to spend for a partial day at the park too.

I felt the same way back in January about AK. We were heading out at about 11:30am and the ticket lines were incredibly long. I can't imagine what people were going to get done in there by the time they got tickets.

 

[Alesia]

Well, yeah. That's why getting to the parks for rope drop is such a huge advantage. You can knock out all of the big attractions before the masses who would rather sleep in get to the park between 11 and 12.

 

[mesaboy2]

We arrived at MK about 11 am for a noon Be Our Guest reservation. I was surprised at how many guests were arriving at the same time and especially at how long the lines were at the ticket windows.

I can’t imagine being able to get much done that day without the benefit of advanced FP reservations. That’s a lot of money to spend for a partial day at the park too.

Could be as little as $10 or even “free” if they have APs. Also, they could be hopping.

 

[Babe the Blue Ox]

Could be as little as $10 or even “free” if they have APs. Also, they could be hopping.

Would they have to wait the ticket window for any of these options? Those lines were extremely long.

 

[mesaboy2]

Would they have to wait the ticket window for any of these options? Those lines were extremely long.

Still could be the beginning of their trip.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

Late nights can be just as good or better than RD.

We have a few days coming up next trip where we aren't hitting the park until noon or so, with FP+ and staying until they kick us out. We also have 9 park days so we are going to hit each park for RD once also.

 

[Wubar]

Was just at WDW for 6 nights. Every time we left the park within 30 minutes of closing time, there were always about 10-15 people at the gates scanning their MBs to ENTER the park. What were they going to accomplish in the parks in 25 minutes? Point being, people are ALWAYS going to the parks every minute of the day. Mind blowing.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

Was just at WDW for 6 nights. Every time we left the park within 30 minutes of closing time, there were always about 10-15 people at the gates scanning their MBs to ENTER the park. What were they going to accomplish in the parks in 25 minutes? Point being, people are ALWAYS going to the parks every minute of the day. Mind blowing.

I could see my DD12 and I doing that next trip. Like hey Epcot is closing. Let's go to MK and ride one ride, grab a snack and let the park empty out. Sometimes it's just about the atmosphere.

 

[Monykalyn]

Was just at WDW for 6 nights. Every time we left the park within 30 minutes of closing time, there were always about 10-15 people at the gates scanning their MBs to ENTER the park. What were they going to accomplish in the parks in 25 minutes? Point being, people are ALWAYS going to the parks every minute of the day. Mind blowing.

When we stay onsite, frequently a parent and one of the kids will go back to a park for the last hour or so- the parks change at night, atmosphere is better and we know which rides will have low lines! We also have APs this year, so touring is much more relaxed and not caring about hitting twenty attractions in four hours type of touring.

 

[PennyInPink]

People still go to the ticket windows to buy their tickets??

 

[mombrontrent]

We always enter the parks somewhere around 10:30-noon. This upcoming trip we are doing one MNSSHP and two nights at Universal HNN which will keep us out until at least 2am on those nights. There is no way we are heading to the parks before noon those days. We go late and stay until close. We always accomplish everything we want to or at least come close. We don’t feel like we are missing out by missing rope drop (we have never seen a rope drop). The lines later at night are usually low so I don’t see a difference really in touring from 8am-8pm vs 11am-11pm.

 

[Sarahslay]

I arrived at MK on Friday around 11:15am due to the fact that we didn't fly in until that morning. We only had three days there, with Friday being one of them, and MK is always favorite to go to first. I also don't have to do a full day at MK since I've ridden everything many times. That being said, I had my FP picked out and ready to go, even though it was crowded we still got a lot done (especially considering that it stormed for a portion of the afternoon, and we left to go to our resort room once it was ready so we could freshen up).

 

[MomOTwins]

I arrived at MK on Friday around 11:15am due to the fact that we didn't fly in until that morning.

This. I am willing to bet pretty much everyone at the ticket windows just arrived by plane or car at the start of their vacation and are either buying/upgrading/linking-to-magic-band their tickets. Everyone else arriving and going straight to the turnstiles is probably mostly guests who take mornings slow, sleep in, swim or have a late breakfast at a resort etc. We made that mistake on our first trip, not realizing that crowds were so different at 9am versus 11am (we figured it would just be steady all day so it didn't matter when we got there). How naive we were...

 

[ShyMiss]

We always enter the parks somewhere around 10:30-noon. This upcoming trip we are doing one MNSSHP and two nights at Universal HNN which will keep us out until at least 2am on those nights. There is no way we are heading to the parks before noon those days. We go late and stay until close. We always accomplish everything we want to or at least come close. We don’t feel like we are missing out by missing rope drop (we have never seen a rope drop). The lines later at night are usually low so I don’t see a difference really in touring from 8am-8pm vs 11am-11pm.

I am always intrigued by those who skip mornings completely. I think My teens would love a trip where they slept in every day & used the evening EMH. Always wonder how the crowds & wait times are after 10 pm. We're usually heading out then due to morning goals lol. I really need 8 hours of sleep & I don't wake up/get ready fast. How long do you usually wait for rides during evening EMH? No FP then, right?

 

[mombrontrent]

I am always intrigued by those who skip mornings completely. I think My teens would love a trip where they slept in every day & used the evening EMH. Always wonder how the crowds & wait times are after 10 pm. We're usually heading out then due to morning goals lol. I really need 8 hours of sleep & I don't wake up/get ready fast. How long do you usually wait for rides during evening EMH? No FP then, right?

I stay off site at Bonnet Creek so no EMH however often times the MK is open until 11-12 anyways so we will hop over there to end the night. Never any lines and mostly everything is a walk on after 10:00pm with the exception of SDMT and we just hop in that line right before close and usually only wait 20 minuets or so. Between the end of the fireworks and closing time we get so many rides in because most people head out after the fireworks. Last trip we rode Space multiple times in a row, IASW, the speedway, people mover, Astro, COP, buzz, PP, HM, Splash, Thunder Mountain (multiple times) SDMT and probably more all between the hours 9:30-midnight. This was last January and we spent the day at animal kingdom, hopped over to MK to catch the fireworks and a few rides thinking the park was closing at 11:00 only for it to be announced while we were there that they were extending hours until midnight. It was awsome. My kids definitely don’t do early mornings so we don’t even bother trying. We just do afternoons/nights.

 

[Arielfan98]

I am always intrigued by those who skip mornings completely. I think My teens would love a trip where they slept in every day & used the evening EMH. Always wonder how the crowds & wait times are after 10 pm. We're usually heading out then due to morning goals lol. I really need 8 hours of sleep & I don't wake up/get ready fast. How long do you usually wait for rides during evening EMH? No FP then, right?

My family has always done this and we've never felt like missing out. We are late risers (9am) and we bring breakfast to our room and get ready at the same time. Then we are at the parks until close (including evening EMH). We always score the FP+ we want.

 

[Alesia]

I am always intrigued by those who skip mornings completely. I think My teens would love a trip where they slept in every day & used the evening EMH. Always wonder how the crowds & wait times are after 10 pm. We're usually heading out then due to morning goals lol. I really need 8 hours of sleep & I don't wake up/get ready fast. How long do you usually wait for rides during evening EMH? No FP then, right?

We've done tons of days open to close. In general, you'll get more done in the first 2 hours than in the last 2 hours, but not much more. And the difference is even less in the summer when the parks are open later. If sleeping in and staying at the parks later would make your family happier, do it -- it's their vacation, too. You might find that you prefer it as well.

 

[scrappingbuckeye]

We rarely get to the parks before noon, we're much more night owls. We still do everything we want without any issues. I view it as a vacation so I don't want to get up early, plus having 2 teenagers they would rather sleep in and stay up late. We had FP to Mine Train and then would get into stand by right before close - total wait less than 30 min. Once the park closes and there are no more FP's the lines go much faster. Same holds true for FOP. It's just a different strategy than rope drop, I think the results are comparable. We're usually going during peak times so the parks are open later - I do think that makes a difference.