So am I doing it all wrong?

[MaryLovesPoohBear]

Wow, I was kind of surprised how many people were willing to bluntly tell you you ARE doing it wrong. Gotta love the internet. This is why I never ask for feedback.

Anyway! I can only handle a few hours of theme park crowds per day myself. And I don't even go in August.

I also hate getting up early on vacation. The idea of getting up for rope drop and staying till the parks close sounds like a long, sweaty, painful day to me, and way too much work in the pursuit of "fun".

It sounds like you guys have a system that works for you. Don't worry about what other people do.

Most people seemed to indicate that whatever anyone does is fine, for them. But may not be the way that others tour.

Well, most except for the person that talked about water that is as warm as pee.

I would have to say, I wouldn't be happy spending 3 hours in the park. And I too have to watch my sun exposure.

 

[pitpat]

forget the park time - but if you hate the heat, August seems to be the definition of doing it wrong.

 

[BigredNole]

Everyone does Disney differently. I am 180 degrees opposite of the way you do it. Does that make me right? Not at all. I look at it as a cost/benefit discussion. If I am paying $1,500+ just for tickets to the parks, I am going to get as much of that $1,500+ as I can get. We usually do 4-5 hours in the morning at rope drop, enjoy the resort until dinner around 5PM, then a park or DS after that dinner. For me, 3 hours per day, 7 days, 3 people comes to 63 total hours. At $1,500, that is $24/hr. At the end of the day, that is FAR more than I put into my disposable income bucket after all of our bills.

To each their own and if that makes you happy, by all means enjoy your trip. If that was my travel style, I would just do a Disney cruise. That way you can play when you want, relax when you want, get great dining included, and visit other places.

 

[disneyvoice]

I don't think there is a right or wrong way to do WDW. The only problem I see is when people go for their first time and and think that they will be able to sleep in every morning since they are on vacation, eat meals at noon and 6:00 without ADRs or without a long wait in a CS line, not be hot in the middle of July, and not have to wait any more than 10 minutes in line for any attraction. Even then, that's not necessarily doing WDW "wrong", it's just being unrealistic when it results in people holding WDW responsible for their lack of planning. Some people have those expectations the first time they go and come home realizing that next time they just need to plan.

How we "do" WDW has changed over the years as our son has gotten older and it is different when it is just me and my DH going without the kiddo. There have been any trips that I have planned everything out as usual but when we got there we decided that we wanted to take a more relaxed approach so we didn't spend as much time on attractions in the park.

As long as you are enjoying yourself you are doing it "right."

 

[princesspiglet]

I agree with a previous poster who said your trip sounds like hell to me. I can't imagine spending the money I do to only be in the parks for 3-4 hours a day! Plus, we have a pool at home, so swimming is not a big deal. Even my hotel is not a big deal. We are there for the parks and park food. My family would freak out if we spent less than 8 hours at any given park a day!! Our schedule:

Rope drop at park of choice
TS lunch in park around 1pm
Rest of afternoon in park
CS dinner in park- sometimes we hop, sometimes we don't
Evening in park of choice.

We will go from sunup to sundown for 4 days straight, then take an entire day to just relax at the resort/sleep in, etc, then another 3 days at the parks.

 

[Shellyb84]

We spend more time than that at the parks, but we are definitely not open to close. We are typically RD people and we don't "waste" (to us) morning park time with breakfast - but we're just not breakfast people. We will occasionally do a character breakfast but only at a resort and on a day we are not going to parks at all. We usually leave soon after lunch and spend the afternoon or the rest of the day at the pool/resort. We will sometimes go back in the afternoon/evening, just depends on if we feel like it or have FP we don't want to miss. If we stay out late we will usually sleep in a little later the next morning. We don't have ADR's every day, because it's nice to go with the flow some. We may be enjoying the pool or not feeling like a big meal so it's nice to not always have to get ready and go to an ADR.

That is what works for our family and keeps everyone happy and sane. I agree with most PPs that there is no "wrong" way, as long as your family is happy with your touring style, then that's all that matters!

 

[pitpat]

So does that Deluxe Dining Plan cost $358/day (plus tips) for your family? And would you normally spend more than that on food without the plan?

 

[Wdwfan2016]

You can only do Disney wrong if you didn't have fun doing what you planned. Our touring schedule changes every year. My family has more then 150 trips under our belt so what is important to us now isn't what was important to us years ago. For example we will never race to a park for rope drop. If we happen to make it to a park opening so be it, but we don't plan it. We always leave the parks in the afternoon to return to the resort to lounge by the pool. Dinner is always at one of the signature restaurants and after we return to the park until close. We do spend quite a bit of time at the resort so we almost always stay deluxe or in a villa onsite. So keep doing what you are doing if you are enjoying it.

 

[starjazz]

And based on the continued posts from those who do things differently, I maintain that personal finances have a big impact on how one "does Disney". If I were loaded, I'd go down there for 2 weeks, have 10 park days, 4 days off. I'd stay in Deluxe hotels, and thereby, probably want to spend more time using their amenities. Since I had 10 park days, I'd probably not be overly concerned with RD or closing the place down. And since I knew I could come back whenever I wanted, the whole planning thing would be less important - I'd grab some ressies at restaurants I wanted to eat at just to make sure I could get a table.

I figure, that we get to go at all is a blessing. Staying onsite is a once-in-a-rare-while opportunity for us and yet another complete blessing when we can afford to do it (we've done it twice in my lifetime), and unless I hit the lottery it won't be at a Deluxe. Special tours, the finest restaurants, etc. - we won't be experiencing those either, most likely, just because we have a limit on what we can spend. I mean, honestly, what we spend on a week's vacation might be one day's allotment for another family. No begrudging, just what it is. I've never felt like I wasn't getting enough, because as I said up front, we're fortunate to be able to go at all.

So, we all make choices based on our situations, and I think that is what is determining some of the differences that I've read about in this particular thread.

 

[AngiTN]

Several people have brought up finances. I don't think OP ever mentioned their finances, or even brought them in to consideration for this question. Did they?

 

[RADOPT]

I was wondering to myself - am I doing this all wrong!?!

It doesn't matter what anyone else does and if your vacation did not work for your family, you would change it. It's about what works, having fun, connecting, making memmories. It sounds like it works for you and your family so if you want to try something different, do so one day and see if everyone is still happy. Maybe you could go to RD one day by yourself or with one of your kids and see if it is worth it to you.
No matter where you go for vacation, you should do it the way that is best for your family. We went to the Hermitage in St. Petersburge. My daughter's interest faded at the 1 1/2 hr point and we left while a lot of people spend all day there. Instead, we walked around, had a lovely lunch and spent a relaxing day together. Our vacation = our choice.

 

[mrzrich]

And based on the continued posts from those who do things differently, I maintain that personal finances have a big impact on how one "does Disney". If I were loaded, I'd go down there for 2 weeks, have 10 park days, 4 days off. I'd stay in Deluxe hotels, and thereby, probably want to spend more time using their amenities. Since I had 10 park days, I'd probably not be overly concerned with RD or closing the place down. And since I knew I could come back whenever I wanted, the whole planning thing would be less important - I'd grab some ressies at restaurants I wanted to eat at just to make sure I could get a table.

I figure, that we get to go at all is a blessing. Staying onsite is a once-in-a-rare-while opportunity for us and yet another complete blessing when we can afford to do it (we've done it twice in my lifetime), and unless I hit the lottery it won't be at a Deluxe. Special tours, the finest restaurants, etc. - we won't be experiencing those either, most likely, just because we have a limit on what we can spend. I mean, honestly, what we spend on a week's vacation might be one day's allotment for another family. No begrudging, just what it is. I've never felt like I wasn't getting enough, because as I said up front, we're fortunate to be able to go at all.

So, we all make choices based on our situations, and I think that is what is determining some of the differences that I've read about in this particular thread.

Several people have brought up finances. I don't think OP ever mentioned their finances, or even brought them in to consideration for this question. Did they?

I agree with AngiTN. What the heck does money have to do with any of it? I'm certainly not "loaded", and I have never stayed Deluxe, but my trips have lots and lots of downtime.

 

[roxymama]

I personally am very glad that people tour all different ways. If we all toured identically it would be a near constant log-jam of people the entire trip. On mornings that I rope drop I thank the heavens for all the people who sleep in and on days where we schedule hotel, pool relaxing I thank the lord for all the people who are going commando at the parks and ignoring the pool.
My personal very favorite style is to have commando days and non-commando days and to mix them up in our plan. But now that I'm a mom, our commando days are more like commando mornings or commando evenings. But rarely both. It'll change as kiddo gets older.
And for some/many people the restaurants are just as much of an attraction as the rides. So to each their own

 

[linzbear]

My first thought is "wow, that's a ton of food" - I couldn't eat that much, too heavy for me! Otherwise we wake up when the kids wake us up (around 6:30/7), eat in the room, hit a park and miss rope drop by about 15 minutes, head back to the resort (eat lunch in park or resort, depends on day), naps, pool, shower, dinner, then go back out around 5 to grab dinner and do something. ADRs are about 1 every 2 days and vary depending on what the menu looks like.

 

[kiford]

But I recently talked to a colleague of mine who had her kids (who are younger then mine) at rope drop every morning of their trip and I was wondering to myself - am I doing this all wrong!?!

DH and I once accidently did rope drop at MK because we had a breakfast ADR at BOG (RD in this instance was I believe 8:30 or so and our ADR was at 9:00 am). Other than that time, we've never done it. We usually go in early December so we don't have quite so much heat to contend with but if it's warm, we usually go back to the hotel to in the afternoon to bob about in the pool for a bit. Breakfast is usually 9-9:30 am. If we're there with friends, we're lucky to get out of breakfast by 10:30 because we just keep yakking.

I totally do not get the early rise, rope drop, commando-style-go-until-the-park closes method of "vacationing".
But lots of people don't get our late rise, two long TS meals per day at signature restaurants, late arrival to the parks, afternoon pool time, park hopping as we feel, meandering, people watching, shop wandering, street performance watching, often early evening style of touring. Are you enjoying yourself? Seeing/doing what you want to (not that we've ever managed to do everything we want to even after 10 times)? Do you feel like you're on vacation? If you answer yes to one or more of the above questions, you're doing it right. And so probably are your friends. I know that we are doing it right - for us.

 

[Minnesota!]

We do August, too.

What we have found that works best, for us, is rope drop. We get there, knock out a bunch with low crowds, lower-ish temps. Around 11-1130, we head back to the resort. Grab some lunch, then go swimming for a while. Then shower and chill in the room watching cartoons or the like for the rest of the afternoon. Or, kids at arcade, dad and I at the bar.

Once sun starts to set, we head out for a few hours of park, then a nice, cool sit-down dinner. Tour the parks until close, and head back to resort for a night cap. In bed by 11 or so? Up and at it again the next morning.

We get the best of everything - rope drop crowds, beat the heat by pool or a/c room, nap, and then a nice night out, seeing fireworks and such. It works for us.

 

[BigredNole]

Several people have brought up finances. I don't think OP ever mentioned their finances, or even brought them in to consideration for this question. Did they?

It is implied. The signature is all Deluxe resorts, Deluxe Dining Plan, park passes for everyone, and not go to the parks. Lets look at it in small averages and assumed travel time:

$300/night x 6 nights (assumed) + $1400 for passes + $360 DDP x 6 nights = ~$5,400

This is on the cheapest side and assumes it is 3 Disney adults and 1 child. Spending this much implies that they are definitely far more well off than 95% of the US population and over 99+% more well off than the rest of the world.

 

[AngiTN]

It is implied. The signature is all Deluxe resorts, Deluxe Dining Plan, park passes for everyone, and not go to the parks. Lets look at it in small averages and assumed travel time:

$300/night x 6 nights (assumed) + $1400 for passes + $360 DDP x 6 nights = ~$5,400

This is on the cheapest side and assumes it is 3 Disney adults and 1 child. Spending this much implies that they are definitely far more well off than 95% of the US population and over 99+% more well off than the rest of the world.

Or just have different priorities in what they want to do on their trip. I think we all know what it means when you assume

 

[acwsmom]

If your family is happy, that's really all that matters! We're not big fans of the heat either, so we try to make it up by doing lots of early mornings, leave at noon and take a break and come back at 5ish for the evening and close out the parks. My family isn't crazy about getting up early but that's the trade-off we take for not doing the park at mid-day in the heat. But honestly, there are some days where we do exactly what you list and just relax around the resort for the majority of the day with a few table service meals thrown in there. It's what makes our family happy so that's all that matters! Keeping the family peace is also an important to-do for vacations so it sounds like you're doing exactly what your family needs! Don't stress about what others think is the right way to do Disney.

 

[starjazz]

Several people have brought up finances. I don't think OP ever mentioned their finances, or even brought them in to consideration for this question. Did they?

They didn't explicitly mention it. I was simply making the statement that it might be a reason for some of the differences in how people "do Disney".