Just Got Back: An Alternative View

[holcomb-mania]

My daughter and I are theme park junkies. We routinely arrive at park opening. That strategy DID NOT WORK on this trip. Animal Kingdom really didn't work. Expedition Everest was an IMMEDIATE 55 minute wait (as was Kilimanjaro Safaris).

This was not my experience last Tuesday. We were there at rope drope, about 10 people away from Minnie's little bus. We went directly to EE, hugging the left side of the path the whole way, and were perfectly placed for the EE standby line. I broke off and got FPs. There was about a 15 min wait.

 

[labattblue]

First, let me say that I am a HUGE fan of both TGM and the Unofficial Guide. But on this trip (14 days ending today), a different conventional wisdom worked better than either of the strategies laid out by either.

The touring plan that worked best was to arrive at the parks around 5pm, grab one set of fastpasses, eat a nice sit-down dinner, and stay until closing. Of course, use fastpasses whenever possible. But the number one strategy was to be ready to maximize the final 90 minutes of each park's operating hours. In addition, summer WDW visitors should feel free to attend the Extra Magic Hours nights, but it will be better if you can stay all the way until the end. This is a HUGE change from the past.

My daughter and I are theme park junkies. We routinely arrive at park opening. That strategy DID NOT WORK on this trip. Animal Kingdom really didn't work. Expedition Everest was an IMMEDIATE 55 minute wait (as was Kilimanjaro Safaris). It tamed down much later in the afternoon.

On EACH night, we were able to go on the most popular rides MULTIPLE times. Both Splash Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain were walk-ons during the final 35+ minutes. Buzz had NO wait the last 50 minutes. Fastpasses were available for Space Mountain until very late in the day.

My recommendation: Be flexible. It is VERY helpful to read both TGM and the Unofficial Guide, but you need to test your own theories as well. For us, this is the FIRST trip (in over 30+ trips) that we have spend the final week sleeping in, swimming all afternoon, and going to the parks until closing. It was different, but it was GREAT!

Your plan(not going to the parks until dinner time) worked well for you because you were there for 14 days. I'm not so sure how helpful it would be for someone at WDW for 7 days or less.

 

[Dan Murphy]

First, let me say that I am a HUGE fan of both TGM and the Unofficial Guide. But on this trip (14 days ending today), a different conventional wisdom worked better than either of the strategies laid out by either.......It was different, but it was GREAT!

Great advice, thanks.

 

[drogerstn]

Right at opening, the line to EE could be very long, but will move quickly (no FP returns active). When we were there, the roped off areas for the lines were not all opened up, so the 1st riders went directly to the trains. After a few minutes, the CM's would open up new sections to the roped off areas; so, initially, the lines looked way longer than they actually were.

As far as night time at the parks, we have had good luck during the last 2 hours of closing time for any of the the parks. We haven't been at one during evening EMH since WDW started doing this for different parks on different days of the week. Some examples:

• Rode EE in the AK 3 times during last hour
• During earlier visit, rode Dinasour (Countdown to Extinction at the time), Safari Ride, and caught the last show of It's Tough To Be A Bug
• Rode Splash Mtn a couple of times and Thunder Mtn during last hour
• Repeat rides on Tower of Terror
• ETC.

I have not had any luck getting FP's for major attractions in the late afternoon.

We've also had some evenings when the park stayed crowded almost to the very end. We even had a very crowded evening EMH back when resort guests had to pay for 3 extra hours in the MK and the number of guests was supposedly "limited".

 

[Tinkerbelle's Mom]

I would love to try that out but will not be able to for at least another 6 or 7 years - maybe. My dd is such an early riser. She is normally up by 5:30 or 6 am even when she has no school. So for me that type of plan would be torture. Maybe when she is a teenager! LOL!! So for now we will continue to see the sunrise as we wait for the parks to open.

 

[4eyedbuzzard]

Our AK strategy also left us disappointed.

We visited the park Thursday, June 7, a non-EMH day, arriving 30 minutes before park-opening.

When the park opened, DD7 and I hightailed it to EE to pick up FPs before meeting DW and DS4 back at the Safari. By that time, the posted waiting time for Safari was 30 minutes. The actual wait was about 40 minutes. By the time we got off the ride, it was already 10:20, almost an hour and a half into the day, and we'd experienced only one attraction.

Kinda set us back for the rest of the day.

Sounds very familiar. We were there the same day, and did the same EE FP and Safari sequence, then grabbed a KRR FP when the EE's matured. AK was mobbed from the get-go. We did go on everything by sending runners ahead for FP's, but I found the park almost too crowded to truly enjoy. The Safari feels much too rushed. I'll take some heat for this, but I like Busch Gardens better as an animal/zoo theme park.

 

[4eyedbuzzard]

Your plan(not going to the parks until dinner time) worked well for you because you were there for 14 days. I'm not so sure how helpful it would be for someone at WDW for 7 days or less.

Actually, we were there for 7 days and we got on pretty much everything at all 4 parks, with probably 50% or more of our "rides" coming in the last few hour of park operations especially at MK(1 short am at MK - we left and returned later and then went again after 5 pm one other evening. We saw the parade one night and skipped it the next - We went 1 morn/eve split at each at the other parks and the am hours were the least productive). On the 3 days we got there for rope drops the parks were mobbed, standby times before 11am were double what they were after 5pm. This was especially true for Tot RnR at MGM, Soarin and TT at EP, EE and KRR at AK, etc.

 

[labattblue]

Actually, we were there for 7 days and we got on pretty much everything at all 4 parks, with probably 50% or more of our "rides" coming in the last few hour of park operations especially at MK(1 short am at MK - we left and returned later and then went again after 5 pm one other evening. We saw the parade one night and skipped it the next - We went 1 morn/eve split at each at the other parks and the am hours were the least productive). On the 3 days we got there for rope drops the parks were mobbed, standby times before 11am were double what they were after 5pm. This was especially true for Tot RnR at MGM, Soarin and TT at EP, EE and KRR at AK, etc.

I misunderstood. I assumed you went to the parks for the majority of the 14 days.

It just seemed to me like you weren't getting a lot of "bang for your buck"(number of hours at the park versus how long the park is open for) when you don't enter the park until the evening.

Too each their own.

 

[lucysdad]

We were just there in mid May and we didn't do a single early magic hour. We found that the last hour or so of the late magic hour was the best for walking on rides. Now, I can't speak to AK because we were only in EPCOT and MK. I agree that this strategy will not work for Soarin' because the fastpasses were gone long before the day ended. We really enjoyed the relaxed pace of this trip more by not dragging ourselves out of bed and rushing to the parks. Maybe we're just getting old!! I remember my mom and dad going to EPCOT and having a great time, but not riding anything!! There is truly more to Disney than just the rides! You just have to hit 50 to see it!
Lucy's Mom

 

[Praying Colonel]

First, let me say that I am a HUGE fan of both TGM and the Unofficial Guide. But on this trip (14 days ending today), a different conventional wisdom worked better than either of the strategies laid out by either.

The touring plan that worked best was to arrive at the parks around 5pm, grab one set of fastpasses, eat a nice sit-down dinner, and stay until closing. Of course, use fastpasses whenever possible. But the number one strategy was to be ready to maximize the final 90 minutes of each park's operating hours. In addition, summer WDW visitors should feel free to attend the Extra Magic Hours nights, but it will be better if you can stay all the way until the end. This is a HUGE change from the past.

My daughter and I are theme park junkies. We routinely arrive at park opening. That strategy DID NOT WORK on this trip. Animal Kingdom really didn't work. Expedition Everest was an IMMEDIATE 55 minute wait (as was Kilimanjaro Safaris). It tamed down much later in the afternoon.

On EACH night, we were able to go on the most popular rides MULTIPLE times. Both Splash Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain were walk-ons during the final 35+ minutes. Buzz had NO wait the last 50 minutes. Fastpasses were available for Space Mountain until very late in the day.

My recommendation: Be flexible. It is VERY helpful to read both TGM and the Unofficial Guide, but you need to test your own theories as well. For us, this is the FIRST trip (in over 30+ trips) that we have spend the final week sleeping in, swimming all afternoon, and going to the parks until closing. It was different, but it was GREAT!

FWIW, the UG plan for AK is to arrive 30-40 minutes before park opening, instead of at park opening. Additionally, the first step is not to ride EE but to get FP's for EE and then move on to the Dinoland USA attractions (TriceraTop Spin if you have small kids, Primeval Whirl and Dinosaur), then do Kali, Flights of Wonder, Jungle Trek and come back to EE to use those FP's. I suspect they recommend FP'ing EE precisely due to the huge standby crowds discussed.

 

[wdwthreethiels]

I don't see how that's really physically possible if the rides are operating normally.

The first, say, 200-500 guests to arrive at EE can't be waiting 55 minutes to ride.
EE loads very fast.
55 minutes will find EE loading hundreds and hundreds of guests
(from reports I've read, about 1,600 to 1,800 guests an hour can ride EE.)

Although I can see, if you don't arrive well-before gate-opening (EMH included) and just arrive "at or near opening time" , then walk in at the tail-end of the guests who have already gone to the popular attractions, now THAT is beleivable on a very busy day to make for some longer waits.

I'm just trying to understand what happened.
It doesn't compute.

I mean somebody (lots of somebodies) have to be the first ones to ride the attractions.
I have been on the very first rides of the day for EE and Soarin' myself, many, many times.

we also arrive early at AK, and I will say that the first time we visited after EE opened, we were shocked at the "stand-by" indicator that displayed 70 minutes, especially since we walked directly to EE prior to park opening, as it was an EMH morning, when I looked at the CM at the entrance for FP, he was smiling, and I loudly(but nicely) asked (for the benefit of the other shocked guests, even though DH was nudging me to stop..) how can the wait be 70 minutes at 8:45 a.m.?, and the CM laughed and said, Oh, that number is from last night! So we of course got in the stand-by line, and proceeded to ride 3 times in a row.

 

[donna in Oz]

If you're really wanting to ride EE without a wait, consider booking an early ADR for Donald's Breakfastasaurus. This worked great for us mid-May. We leisurely ate breakfast, then waited for rope drop at the rope in Dinoland.

At rope drop, we quickly walked over to EE, and arrived there just as we saw the hordes of folks running across the bridge toward EE. We were on the first car out of the station that morning. By the time we got off, there was a substantial line.

 

[Zippa D Doodah]

As we were there last week I noticed how tremendously more crowded teh parks have become in the early hours. I don't know whether it's because people are wising up and following TGM or UOG or some other strategy; maybe they're just trying to instinctively beat the heat. But I consistently noted how pleasant all evening touring was. As OP said, lots of walk-ons for the biggies in all parks (with just a couple exceptions) if you can wait until 60-90 minutes before park closing. My personal favorite example was AK last Thursday. After 5:30PM it was practically a ghost town for the last 150 minutes. You could ride EE until you were sick of it.

 

[teacher31]

This may be slightly off topic, but not so much in my mind - We were at AK on an extra evening night- June 4. It was a little after 7 and we were waiting to ride EE. When we went through the guy showing him our bands for resort guests, the guy behind us was arguing saying that he got extra magic hours, too. When they asked what resort, he said something that was off site. He didn't understand EMH and thought everyone was entitled to it. Worst of all, the poor guy said that he had just arrived at the park and then wouldn't be able to see any attractions. Ouch.

Point of story: Not long wait.

 

[Karnak]

First, let me say that I am a HUGE fan of both TGM and the Unofficial Guide.

Well let me say that I remain a huge fan of the UG, but TGM was next to useless, at least in my case.

Let me explain ... I subscribed to TGM early in 2007, way before time for my upcoming trip, which is scheduled to begin on Monday, Dec. 10, 2007. The main reason I paid for the subscription was to see which parks he would recommend on which days. (I expect that's the main reason most people pay for this service.)

With my room reservation confirmed, beginning on December 10th, my date for making my meal reservations (180 days out), was on June 13. Since I make my meal reservations based upon where I plan to be on each day, I needed TGM's recommendations BEFORE June 13.

However, TGM DID NOT POST THE NEEDED INFO UNTIL JUNE 12, leaving me with just a few hours before time to make the meal reservations. There was very little time for me to plan my trip in the few hours he afforded.

So, TGM was almost useless for me. I do not plan to ask for a refund, but it's a sure bet that I won't be paying for TGM in the future.

Karnak

 

[MissMichelle]

I am a fan of arriving at opening (usually dead for us) then heading out for a break then going to a park for evening and it is also usually very quiet..SO I agree that night is a great time of day to get things done...I am just an early riser so I will combine both aspects

 

[MissMichelle]

Well let me say that I remain a huge fan of the UG, but TGM was next to useless, at least in my case.

Let me explain ... I subscribed to TGM early in 2007, way before time for my upcoming trip, which is scheduled to begin on Monday, Dec. 10, 2007. The main reason I paid for the subscription was to see which parks he would recommend on which days. (I expect that's the main reason most people pay for this service.)

With my room reservation confirmed, beginning on December 10th, my date for making my meal reservations (180 days out), was on June 13. Since I make my meal reservations based upon where I plan to be on each day, I needed TGM's recommendations BEFORE June 13.

However, TGM DID NOT POST THE NEEDED INFO UNTIL JUNE 12, leaving me with just a few hours before time to make the meal reservations. There was very little time for me to plan my trip in the few hours he afforded.

So, TGM was almost useless for me. I do not plan to ask for a refund, but it's a sure bet that I won't be paying for TGM in the future.

Karnak

OK, I am having a REALLY hard time trying to figure out your issue. As I see it if you choose the places you would probably want to eat (I made a list ahead of time ) then when the park info comes out on TGM you just put the places based upon your days...Even if you waited 1 or 2 days past the 180 day mark you would be perfectly fine..TGM has never steered me wrong and
Ive used his service for 3 prior trips this being my 4th.

You have to realize that a lot of times he will wait on the park schedules etc to come out and then he can plan..I am sure it isn't easy to map it out the way he does. Add in the fact that when a new attraction arrives @ WDW he must take that into consideration with regards on how you'll tour and on what days.

 

[snowman]

Shhhhhh, you'll give away our touring plan and then the evening EMHs will be busy too.....

This is what we plan on doing for our August trip. The boys can sleep in, I don't have to walk on 8 million degree pavement in 100% humidity and we will all still like each other at the end of the day.

Glad it worked for you.

 

[Luvmyfam3]

I find your recommendations wonderful news!! I'm going with a group of pre-teens & teens in a few weeks banana: ). Although, I'm sure at the beginning of the trip everyone will want to hit the parks early in the morning....after a couple of days we'll start to want to kick back a little. I'm curious if you tried going to the water parks in the afternoon instead of the morning. I've heard that can be advantageous.

Looks like I may have to tweak my schedule again!!!

Kim

 

[kakiegirl]

We just got back from 9 days at Disney last week and we have decided the same thing about evenings. We are huge fans of being at park opening, but in the summer it gets so hot so quick and just drains you. However, the evenings in the park or so much more pleasant and Magic Kingdom is a great place to be to ride rides during Spectro and Wishes, but with us and especially dd 8 we just can't hold out to get up at 7:00 to be at park opening and then stay out until 11:00 or 12:00 at night and then up early again the next day even with an afternoon break, so we have decided next year we will split it up and do some of both some early mornings and then some late nights were we sleep in the next day.