Park Strategies for June Visit

[Bbbethei]

It's been three years since our last visit and I'm feeling lost with the most recent changes. Help!

We've always relied on EasyWDW crowd calendars and touring plans and had great success while using them with FP+ and rope drops. I appreciate EasyWDW's honesty in saying that they can no longer predict the trends and can't create a reliable crowd calendar. Now I feel lost because I've looked at other crowd calendars and they can be completely contradictory.

So, please help a girl out. What's the best strategy? Is rope drop still worth the effort? EMH? Early? Late? Avoid all together?

 

[MainMom]

My strategy for the summer is rope drop with some morning EMH, but not every day. ADR lunch, break in the room for a rest, pool, etc. then back in the evening to see a show usually eating CS. We get hoppers so usually go to a different park in the evening than the morning. We are not all day park people and like to avoid parks in the worst heat of the day.

I also wanted to say that in July 2015 and June 2016 I found the crowds very manageable. We did not go to WDW in 2017.

 

[GaSleepingBeautyFan]

Rope drop is still a good time to go. I'm just back and those first 2 hours in the parks were so great.

I didn't bother to have FP+ for that time frame. I did mine starting at 10:30am and it worked for me. As far as which park which day I'm starting to go with the avoid the park on morning emh day and go to that park the next day. I've been enjoying the extra hour of sleep that way. LOL

 

[Mainemama]

Rope drop for sure. You beat the crowds (1-2 hours of reasonable waits, in my experience), and more importantly the heat. I use morning EMH for this reason. Park openings at 9:00 just seem too late for me! Fast Pass 1st 3 in a row, start grabbing a 4th after that, take a break for a sit down, AC meal and swim, and then stay at a park as late as you feel like it.

 

[Klayfish]

First, crowd calendars are...and IMO always have been...nothing more than a WAG...at best. Ditch them.

Sure, any time of year that you go being there for rope drop will mean a lower crowd because you're one of the first ones in. So if you want to get up that early to stand outside of the gates, then certainly do it. However, we never rope drop. We're on vacation. No way on earth do we want to get up at 6am. IMO, if you're just talking about being "productive" and getting on rides, we are every bit as productive as someone who does rope drop. How? FP+. We show up at 10am and before 2 or 3pm we'll have used 7 or 8 FP+...including the time we took to stop and eat lunch. There's just no need to rope drop. Staying late also can have advantages, as the park will clear out pretty good in the last hour. So if you happen to be up and want to be there, then great. We're not night owls either, so if it's an 11pm park close, we won't be there...we usually do the parks anywhere from 9:30am to 9:30pm. But we've been plenty of times with a 9pm or 10pm park close and can walk right on many popular rides.

June isn't all that busy, relatively speaking. You'll be able to grab FP+ after FP+.

 

[AllieBoo]

We always go in June and we never rope drop. We do usually get there not too long after park opening and stay until a little after lunch. Then we take a swim break and head back in the evening and stay late. I schedule our fp's for the morning, and as soon as we've used our third, I get on the app and get another one. This has worked very well for us and allows us to ride everything we want with minimal wait.

 

[ArielSRL]

We go in June because I'm a teacher. We do get out at the end of May so we head down to Disney the first full week of June. I have found the crowds to be very manageable. The heat and humidity can be brutal if there is no cloud cover but last year we had a lot of cloudy (and rainy) weather, which kept it from being uncomfortable.

We do prescribe to the rope drop-midday break-evening and nighttime touring philosophy. One year I went with my parents and we could not get my dad up for rope drop. I belong to a June FB group and I was able to see how much the other group members were able to complete in just the hour or so that we missed every morning. So now, we definitely do rope drop and we accomplish a lot more than if we did not. However, if that isn't your touring style, do what works for you.

I really enjoy touring the parks at night, so we usually close down the parks, even though I have a 4 and 6 yr old. What makes it possible is that midday break away from the hottest and most crowded part of the day. We all get a break from the stimulation and we get some pool or nap time, or both. We usually have about 4 to 5 hour breaks. We do drive, so we have our own car and we stay at WL which allows for the boat from MK, so getting back and forth from the break is fairly efficient for us.

 

[Bbbethei]

Thank you for the feedback! It's certainly helped put my mind at ease. It sounds like we will be trying some EMH this time around!

 

[PirateFish989]

We are going June 11-20 and are planning on rope dropping most days, afternoon break at the resort to nap/swim, and then back to the parks for dinner. We are not park hopping.