Touring with Teens who used to love RDing, but now love to sleep in - help me plan!

[PinkMagnolia]

I will be taking my twin 15-year old boys to WDW this Aug for a 7-night, trip. They love WDW almost as much as I do, and love when the trip is more commando-style. We will have 6-day PH tix, staying on-site.

In past trips, we've always gone in August (HOT), and have typically rope dropped the park, come back for an afternoon break, and gone back to the parks for the evenings.

Now that they are getting older, and their sleep rhythms have shifted, I'm looking for advice on how to do this. My feeling is that they would do better if they slept in, and we stayed out later. They say they still wan to RD, but I'm worried that at this age, this won't work every day anymore.

For those that have shifted from Commando-touring with enthusiastic Rope Droppers, to going with teens whose bodies tell them to sleep in, what worked for you? Can you share your itinerary with me?

 

[SaintsManiac]

My daughter is not a teen, but at 8 years old she declared no more early mornings at Disney. My husband agreed.

I have 3 trips booked next year and will plan very few rope drops/early events. We will do one PPO a trip and do rope drops on departure days.

The plan is make FPS for the evenings and stay until park close. We will also be booking the after hours events if we can. The first test of this is in March. We have Hollywood Studios after hours on our first day, so we will go to MK for a late breakfast and some FP. Since we will be out late that night we will go back to MK the next day and stay until close.

For our July trip we plan to wake up, swim, eat breakfast, then hit the parks later in the day. The heat is bad and we found it much easier in September once the the sun went down. We also plan to do some things offsite since we will have a car.

I made them rope drop or do early events every day in September. We were so exhausted when we got home that we said never again. I will go back to mixing it up!

 

[ZephyrHawk]

Well...when I was 15, my parents would have said something like, "Whatever. You will meet us for lunch at this resaurant at this time or you will regret it. Have fun, bye!"

 

[WishICouldSpeakWhale]

We never rope drop. My kids are 7 and 10, but DH doesn't get up early. I often get a lunch reservation to get him moving. The kids and I eat a light breakfast earlier. Our FPs are after lunch, usually starting about 45 minutes after the reservation time. Weather can mess with you a bit in August, but you will get an all day FP if the ride is closed during your window.

 

[elaine amj]

I took my kids last year for a 2 week trip. dD was 16 and DS was 15. DD happily woke up early every morning and stayed up late. DS needed to sleep in some days, head back to the room early a couple of other times, and take full days off a couple of days. Staying onsite made individual transportation for him much easier. My deal with him was to be cheerful whenever he was with us and he would get plenty of downtime otherwise.

I also did a mother son date with him one night - so awesome roaming MK together!

 

[Brett Wyman]

Well...when I was 15, my parents would have said something like, "Whatever. You will meet us for lunch at this resaurant at this time or you will regret it. Have fun, bye!"

No doubt. Leave them in the room until they are ready and cherish the alone time! You can save FPs until they join up with you and just enjoy things that you might not normally be able to enjoy with teens in tow.

 

[dreamer17555]

They also might surprise you if they are saying they want to rope drop. My 16 yo DD will sleep till noon if given the option but at Disney? She is up and ready in time for Rope Drop at EMH . She relishes those low wait times too much. We do take a mid-day break during the hottest part of the day so she can sleep and her brother (11yo) can swim but she is suddenly a morning person at Disney.

 

[CAQDaddy]

We like to make mid day FP reservations. This is because we usually RD and plan the FP's for when the park is getting much busier. After our FP's we usually hop to another park or head back to the resort for a break. It seems this method would work well even if your boys didn't want to RD. They could arrive at the park a little later and still enjoy FP's with the group. If they still wanted to RD that would work as well.

 

[patclairesmom]

I would plan some rope drop and some later start days. We usually try to rope drop each park, so that only 4 days they need to get up early.

 

[Klayfish]

We get up at 4am at home, we have zero desire to get up early on vacation. Besides, we don't think rope drop is of any value anyway, thanks to the current FP+ system. Therefore, we haven't done a rope drop (except water parks) in many years. We don't show up until anywhere between 9:45am and 2pm, depending on what we have planned. Set your first FP+ for the moment you expect to step foot in the park and just keep using FP+ to get on attractions that have lines. It's not hard, especially in summer. If you're going to stay to park close, lines will diminish at night and you can do things without FP+ anyway.

 

[DVC_Dad_Canada]

I'm taking my twin 15 year old girls and 18 year old son next August.

Personally, our last trip I was till expecting the whole family stay together, walk down hand in hand down main St., just like the brochures. Quickly realized that was a thing of the past.

I ended up just letting them know what the fastpasses were for that day, where dinner was, and took off on my own. Everyone enjoyed themselves, but not really together.

 

[kiramay]

My next trip my twins will be almost 15. One already has the “sleep in until noon” habit already. Unfortunately for him, I don’t trust him to get from the resort to the park, so he’ll be getting up with us for RD. If my husband wants to sleep in too then they can come later. I’ll be at RD.
As for FPs, if they’re going to miss some I’ll do my best to reschedule their passes.

 

[rlk]

On our last two trips, I left my two teens and my husband sleeping in the room while I rope dropped on several mornings. All I asked from them was to meet me by our first fast pass of the day, which was usually sechedule between 10:30-11:00. It worked perfectly. I was happy to have some time alone and not get annoyed having to wait around for the late sleepers. My husband and teens were happy that I wasn’t forcing them to get up early.

 

[Queen of the WDW Scene]

If it were me I'd leave them behind in the morning and go to the parks for RD myself.
I'd make FP+ for everyone late morning/early afternoon and tell them their butts better be at the parks by then lol.
Then spend the rest of the day together at the parks.

 

[LongLiveRafiki]

Just schedule the fastpasses a little later in the day, maybe around noon or a little later. If they end up getting up for rope drop, then go to the parks and once the crowds hit, you can use your fastpasses and then take a break. If they don't want to get up early, let them sleep in a bit and they can still make it to their fastpasses. If being at rope drop is important to you, then have the boys meet you at the park after they get up.