Morning or night?

[littlejewel]

We’ll be at DL park on a day that says it’s open until 12am. Is the park less crowded after a certain time? Are there advantages to going to the park later in the morning and staying until midnight? Or do a lot of people stay that late? We have two teenagers. We may just go early, take an afternoon break, and go back and stay until midnight. Is this the best plan?

 

[VandVsmama]

We’ll be at DL park on a day that says it’s open until 12am. Is the park less crowded after a certain time? Are there advantages to going to the park later in the morning and staying until midnight? Or do a lot of people stay that late? We have two teenagers. We may just go early, take an afternoon break, and go back and stay until midnight. Is this the best plan?

Last Sept, I went to DL for a day like that. Went w/my sister-in-law and her kids. We were there at the hub for rope drop before 8 am and walked out of the park at 12:50 am later that night (park close was midnight). Went on over 20 rides. Had a truly amazing day. If you're staying nearby and can easily take an afternoon hotel break, go for it!

 

[Bruno33]

The first two and last two hours of the day are the least crowded.

If you can hit both those times and take a mid-day break, that would be great.

Otherwise, there’s not a predictably “better” time. Rope drop will usually have the lowest lines because people aren’t in the Lightning Lanes yet (at the end of the day, if there have been a lot of breakdowns, those can still be backed up). But some days the parks fill early, or sometimes a lot of rides aren’t open at park opening. The end of the day can really empty out - this is especially true if it gets cold after a hot day; unprepared people will leave. So some mornings are definitely better or worse than some nights, but you can’t fully predict that in advance, so I’d just pick what your family will enjoy most.

 

[ComeToSocialize]

I generally think rope drop is better than last 2 hours of the day for getting a bunch of rides done:

• As others noted, in the first hour after opening, hardly anyone is using LL, so standby moves faster
• Even in hour 2, the LLs are much more predictable; you don't have the logjam of multi-experience-pass people that can sometimes kick in the evening
• If you're buying G+, going in early lets you start accumulating LLs for later... Even if you don't want to ride the ride just yet, you can book something, start your 2 hour clock and then keep modifying to push it back. After 2 hours you can book another. So if you enter DL at 8am, even if you just do standby for the morning, by 12:15 you should have 3 LLs stacked up for the early afternoon when it gets really crowded (if you're strategic, you could also be using LLs during the morning and still have at least 2 stacked up by 12:15)
• It just takes a while for certain areas to fill up - i'd say this is true of DCA in particularly where outside of Radiator Spring Racers and GotG, lines tend to not build up 11am. DCA can get busy after dinner since people like to walk around with a cocktail.

Post fireworks / after 10pm things definitely do empty out, but people are also tired/less pleasant, LLs can be backed up, rides can be shut down for the day; etc. But either way, you'll be fine if you're willing to be there at RD or stay till midnight close.

 

[ParkHopper1]

We SOOOOOOO much prefer to sleep in, get a leisurely breakfast, then close out the parks strong.

Mud day break to at least change and freshen up is key to a strong close IMO.

Depends on the day but since the reservation system there is no longer an afternoon rush of APs coming in so after fireworks crowds tend to thin out and many attractions are walk right on closer to closing.

 

[disneychrista]

Crowds will begin thin out after the Fireworks. The later into the night the less crowded it will be. Kind of the opposite of rope drop, where crowds increase the later it gets.

Best times 8am - 10am and 10pm - midnight.

 

[OlliePop27]

I agree with the OP's strategy, and that's pretty much what we always do. Rope drop to around 1:00 pm, long break, back in the evening. The middle of the day is the most crowded and hottest.

I will say that the 10:00 - Midnight hours at DL, while less crowded then the middle of the day, is not nearly as empty as the same kind of late hours at Magic Kingdom at WDW. When I've been in MK after 10:00, it sometimes is extremely empty. When I'm in DL late, it is more crowded because of the local centric nature of the demographic (i.e. teens visiting, young couples, etc.). It is certainly a great time to visit though, just don't expect it to be as empty as MK if that's the expectation.

 

[GoofyGoofyGoofy]

We’ll be at DL park on a day that says it’s open until 12am. Is the park less crowded after a certain time? Are there advantages to going to the park later in the morning and staying until midnight? Or do a lot of people stay that late? We have two teenagers. We may just go early, take an afternoon break, and go back and stay until midnight. Is this the best plan?

That is how my family does it. We Stay on site, use the Magic Morning/Early Entry (30 minutes, wish they would put it back to 1 hour), have fun riding rides and then depending on how hungry and what park we are in, we will have either a late breakfast or an early lunch, go back to the room and nap, then go back into the parks in the afternoon.
What ever you decide, hope you and yours have a great time!

 

[veginaz]

Rope drop I see in app and have heard is great. Personally this is not something we can do since we are all night people. I have always closed the park on every trip and I love it. Last couple hours is a lot less people. If you are in line for something as the park closes it's so cool to walk off the attraction and feel like you are the only one there. Castle photos can be taken without a ton of people in them. I have a photo of my son sitting on the tracks on main st with the castle in back not a single person in the back ground.