Hypothetical: One day with rope drop, or two days of afternoons/evenings?

[YawningDodo]

I'm back to daydreaming about a potential January 2020 trip, this time a 4-night DCL cruise out of Port Canaveral with two nights/one full day at WDW before boarding the ship. I've done WDW more times than I can really count, so parks-wise the only "new" stuff for me would be at DHS. This is all still purely hypothetical, but I was thinking about how to maximize park time without getting sick (I get sick when I push too hard/get too little sleep), and thinking about how to approach the time zone change (I live in mountain time, so it's a two-hour shift when I go to Florida). The last time I went down for a cruise this January, I just plain did not adjust to local time the entire trip--because I was able to take late dining on the ship, I just stayed on my own time and did everything two hours late according to the clock (woke up at 9:00 instead of 7:00, dinner at 8:15 instead of 6:00, went to bed in the early hours of the morning....). It was actually really, really nice and relaxing. Buuut if I were going to do a day in WDW before the trip, rope-dropping would force my body to abruptly adjust to the local time zone and might interfere with my ability to play night-owl on the cruise and to go home without having to make a readjustment.

I've (almost) always been a rope-dropper; the only time I didn't fuss about early mornings was when I was in the College Program and could go literally every weekend and just didn't even worry about not being able to get on this or that ride on any given day. The idea of going later in the day is really weird to me, but I also remember that having a later start would mean that I could show up around lunchtime and stay until park closing instead of needing to take an afternoon break (and I need to take afternoon breaks if I rope-drop anymore for the sake of my health, but I've always been a bit commando and may have trouble making myself leave the park for a few hours midday without anyone else there to make me do it).

Assuming I fly in on a Saturday and get to my resort by 5:00 or so, assuming I have all day Sunday, and assuming Monday morning's just a slow, lazy morning at the resort until I catch the DCL bus, here are the two options I imagine:

Option 1: Go to Disney Springs or just hang out at the resort on Saturday evening, and go to bed as early as I can get to sleep. Rope-drop DHS Sunday morning, take a midday break, back to the park Sunday evening to close it down (mmmaybe still DHS, maybe a second park; not sure if I'd get a hopper).

Option 2: Assuming MK has late night extra magic hours on Saturday (which they did on my January 2018 trip), head to MK immediately after getting to my resort on Saturday evening and go until the park closes at midnight. Crash hard, sleep in, and show up to DHS around lunchtime on Sunday, staying until it closes in the evening.

And before anyone suggests it, I'm not doing a midnight close followed by a rope drop the next morning. Nope, no sir, no way, no how. My immune system has spoken over multiple past trips, and the combination of sleep deprivation + the giant petri dish that is WDW is a big no-go.

 

[MomDoc_99]

It sounds like you already know that Option 2 would be better for your body. And if your body ain't happy, ain't nobody happy! Yes, you miss the short lines at rope drop, but I'm sure you can come up with a good plan to maximize your enjoyment. Plus you will have 2 days worth of FP's to work with instead of one.

 

[evilqueenmindy]

I personally find midday breaks to be more hassle than they are worth. I prefer to sleep in, and close the park. Heat is less of a factor at night, the parks are beautiful all lit up, and You know you’ll have fast passes even arriving later in the day.