***1st Week of December Thread ADR Plans, Park Hours, and dealing with Pop Warner***

[Lisa F]

@1437disney Yes.... I'm on that same SW flight!! We are not doing early check-in and will be taking our chances with seating. I figure my kids are old enough to handle being split up.

I agree with @LisaF about the earlier FP times. Except if there is something specific you want to do in the afternoon.

@Iowamomof4 That's good and bad that your 9 yr wants to get involved. It's great that he wants to try new things and bad because it makes you....

5 days to FP selection.... the pressure.... the stress Ack!!!

remember, the only thing critical is FEA and 7DMT. everything else can be easily moved around for quite some time. before 30 days you want to have peter pan and your mountains set, maybe even soarin'. But honestly with same day availability being so good.... the rest you can be flexible with.

in 2014 I moved my FPs around day of because I was not in planning mode and once I was there realized a better flow. it worked great.

 

[Lisa F]

Oh, wow! I have not watched it yet but j would be annoyed too I was just talking to my co-worker about it today and she was saying how useless park hoppers were because of the sheer size..definitely not my take but I understand the sentiment about the size. Although it's funny that they are very surprised when I told them I'm at Disney for 9 nights, they kept asking- really you're there for all nine nights.

the size of what? the parks?

parkhoppers are great especially this time of year with some parks closing so early. At the very least it allows you to go to a different park at night than during the day. I have planned trips both ways and it is easier with parkhoppers (but still had a GREAT trip without)

 

[Candycane83]

the size of what? the parks?

parkhoppers are great especially this time of year with some parks closing so early. At the very least it allows you to go to a different park at night than during the day. I have planned trips both ways and it is easier with parkhoppers (but still had a GREAT trip without)

Sheer size of wdw and that it takes a long time to hop from one park to another! That's her impression.

Of course I don't need to be convinced of park hoppers. I personally am all for them!

 

[Lisa F]

Sheer size of wdw and that it takes a long time to hop from one park to another! That's her impression.

Of course I don't need to be convinced of park hoppers. I personally am all for them!

ummmmm okay then! I wouldn't do 4 parks in one day (maybe she thinks you need to) but a half hour from HS to Epcot is a nice hop or dinner at a resort restaurant and to another park for the evening is another nice hop. but whatever. different strokes

 

[JamieOak]

I was wondering if I am park hopping too much. lol. But with park hours, hopping just made sense on a couple days. Plus I think we will enjoy park hopping more than spending over 12 hours in one park. My DH's attention span is shorter than mine, so I have to keep that in mind. Right now the longest time at one park for us is 12 hours at AK, but that place is huge and we are doing the Wild Africa Trek so I'm not worried about filling 12 hours straight there.

I haven't seen the Blackish episode yet, but I did recently watch a Rosanne rerun where they went to Disney World. I think it spanned 2 episodes. They would show each character at a different park and then suddenly they'd run into each other. The funniest part was at the beginning when they couldn't get flight tickets for everyone because the flight was booked. Rosanne called and used a fake name (guessed one like Mrs. Smith) and if that wasn't a passenger she'd hang up and call back in a different voice and guess a new name. She finally got a hit and cancelled their flight reservation so she could call back and reserve their seats. It was funny, but the planner part of me cringed inside thinking of the poor family who lost their flights. haha.

 

[JamieOak]

Sheer size of wdw and that it takes a long time to hop from one park to another! That's her impression.

Of course I don't need to be convinced of park hoppers. I personally am all for them!

Actually that was my impression when I first started planning. The very first thing I did was buy my park tickets from undercover tourist...back when they knew the price was going to go up and warned to buy them now. So I had to decide between hoppers or not and started researching that. This was before we were even considering staying in the Epcot area. I think I was still set on WL at the time. Luckily there was info out there to convince me that the hoppers were worth it for us.

 

[Lisa F]

Actually that was my impression when I first started planning. The very first thing I did was buy my park tickets from undercover tourist...back when they knew the price was going to go up and warned to buy them now. So I had to decide between hoppers or not and started researching that. This was before we were even considering staying in the Epcot area. I think I was still set on WL at the time. Luckily there was info out there to convince me that the hoppers were worth it for us.

in 2014 I didn't hop but I think stuff was open later and kiddo was not able to stay up as late anyway so we just got up whenever we could, went to the park, stayed as long as we could and left. The only thing that really helped was MNSSHP tickets because AK is a half day park for me so we did that in a half day and then did the party at night. Did full days the rest of the time except for one day at kennedy space center and one day rest (may have gone into the park at night, I don't remember anymore). Kiddo has a tough time with transitions so once we are there we are there. We did watch MK fireworks from our room a couple of nights and from the top of the BLT once (we did not do F! last time and there was no fireworks at HS so it was MK or Epcot). So that was nice, we had a lake view that had a great view of the fireworks (which I did not discover til halfway through our trip lol).

But this time, I don't know. we plan to do a lot more night stuff and it does make our days more fluid. My Epcot day is all one day but it does allow me to nest my nighttime activities with preferred nighttime dinner ADRs (esp sigs which you can't get to earlier than 5pm) and still eat dinner at dinner time. I'm not sure if I would have upgraded both of us but probably this year... kiddo had an AP which includes park hopping so i just had to upgrade mine,s eemed well worth the $64.

 

[rasadkowski]

Hey all!
I've got to check the spreadsheet, so I'll come back to edit. Our family won't have time to visit HS this trip, and we won't be doing the Fantasmic package at H&V. So, if anyone is looking, I was able to get a H&V F! for 12/8 at 3:25 for 4. Let me know if you're interested! Also, someone was looking for a Crystal Palace lunch the other day. Maybe it was @SilSprBea or @BDFmom ? I have a CP lunch on 12/7 at 11:40 for 6 if that would work for anyone?

Can I ask about the mvmcp parade? I've kinda settled on staking out a spot for the parade I know you guys are planning shifts! But, what do you think about saving the spots? Like, if I sit my butt down, I have no idea how I'd go about saving spots for even just the 6 in our family. I feel like I'd get so many dirty looks. I'm envisioning 10 feet down..."sorry man, that seat's taken." I'm thinking I'd also just let the girls walk around with my husband and parents while I just wait? I think it's kinda stinky being our first time there, but..what do you think? worth it? thanks guys..

 

[Tinker06]

Hey all!
I've got to check the spreadsheet, so I'll come back to edit. Our family won't have time to visit HS this trip, and we won't be doing the Fantasmic package at H&V. So, if anyone is looking, I was able to get a H&V F! for 12/8 at 3:25 for 4. Let me know if you're interested! Also, someone was looking for a Crystal Palace lunch the other day. Maybe it was @SilSprBea or @BDFmom ? I have a CP lunch on 12/7 at 11:40 for 6 if that would work for anyone?

Can I ask about the mvmcp parade? I've kinda settled on staking out a spot for the parade I know you guys are planning shifts! But, what do you think about saving the spots? Like, if I sit my butt down, I have no idea how I'd go about saving spots for even just the 6 in our family. I feel like I'd get so many dirty looks. I'm envisioning 10 feet down..."sorry man, that seat's taken." I'm thinking I'd also just let the girls walk around with my husband and parents while I just wait? I think it's kinda stinky being our first time there, but..what do you think? worth it? thanks guys..

In my past experience, no one will be able to save a bunch of spots or a nice big area for a whole group. There are only 4 of us in my family, and we already struggle with people cramming up to us and kind of taking over any extra space. So much so, that sometimes we end up a few feet down. You can lay jackets, strollers, tell people, etc... but they will just creep over and keep pushing your stuff aside.

 

[Candycane83]

I think earlier on it may be fine, like at the one hour mark to maybe 45mins. After that, I'm guessing everyone has to sit their butts down for their own spot as it will get crowded. I'm guessing it'll be a little difficult for people you are saving seats for to get to you.

 

[Lisa F]

I think we are going to have to basically have half the people there at any given time. Much less than that and you won't be able to save a lot of spots. a couple of people at each end and some in the middle and there can be spaces between with people holding the line at both ends. I think at about a half hour before everyone needs to be in place, after that people are going to start getting antsy to squish in.

 

[rasadkowski]

In my past experience, no one will be able to save a bunch of spots or a nice big area for a whole group. There are only 4 of us in my family, and we already struggle with people cramming up to us and kind of taking over any extra space. So much so, that sometimes we end up a few feet down. You can lay jackets, strollers, tell people, etc... but they will just creep over and keep pushing your stuff aside.

hmm...yeah, thanks That is what I was kinda expecting to hear... I guess I have to decide
a) spend the time seeing the sights of the party ( not too interested in rides that night) and just hope to be able to see the parade from anywhere
or
b) having most of us sit down and just wait for the parade for a lot of the party time
anyone have any suggestions based on past experiences? which one would be more worth it ?

 

[Lisa F]

hmm...yeah, thanks That is what I was kinda expecting to hear... I guess I have to decide
a) spend the time seeing the sights of the party ( not too interested in rides that night) and just hope to be able to see the parade from anywhere
or
b) having most of us sit down and just wait for the parade for a lot of the party time
anyone have any suggestions based on past experiences? which one would be more worth it ?

I am a curbside for the parade kind of a girl.

 

[Candycane83]

hmm...yeah, thanks That is what I was kinda expecting to hear... I guess I have to decide
a) spend the time seeing the sights of the party ( not too interested in rides that night) and just hope to be able to see the parade from anywhere
or
b) having most of us sit down and just wait for the parade for a lot of the party time
anyone have any suggestions based on past experiences? which one would be more worth it ?

Honestly, I fell in love with the idea of seeing the parade on Main Street with the snow. It is easier to get a spot at Frontierland and most likely will not have as much of a wait compared to Main Street.

I'm not sure what the party has to offer yet but I think my main goal will be the parade and fireworks. Anything else will be icing on the cake. I probably would like to add meeting Mickey at towns hall if I can... I guess I'll have to wait for the party details/ offerings to plan a little more but this is what I thin right now.

 

[Party.Of.4-NY>>>FL]

Just noticed on the December cancellations thread: someone dropped a Beaches & Cream on 12/8 at 9:50pm for 2 people. Not sure if anyone was looking for this. Just throwing it out there.

 

[Party.Of.4-NY>>>FL]

Just noticed this on ROL thread for anyone that's interested:

http://blogmickey.com/2016/09/rivers-light-dress-rehearsals-wrap-soon/

 

[Tinker06]

hmm...yeah, thanks That is what I was kinda expecting to hear... I guess I have to decide
a) spend the time seeing the sights of the party ( not too interested in rides that night) and just hope to be able to see the parade from anywhere
or
b) having most of us sit down and just wait for the parade for a lot of the party time
anyone have any suggestions based on past experiences? which one would be more worth it ?

We have never had an issue seeing the parade. We always do rides during the first half of the parade and run over to frontier land nearing the end and watch it there. We then only spend maybe 15-20 minutes on the parade (however long the actual length of parade is) and don't miss anything. With the 10+ parades we have seen that plan has never failed.

 

[rasadkowski]

This is so totally random... But I love looking at the photos and preview images of RoL With the boats and lanterns it reminds me so much of rapunzel and flynn's scene. I'd love it if they snuck them in there floating by in one of the boats

 

[pigletgirl]

Honestly, I fell in love with the idea of seeing the parade on Main Street with the snow. It is easier to get a spot at Frontierland and most likely will not have as much of a wait compared to Main Street.

I'm not sure what the party has to offer yet but I think my main goal will be the parade and fireworks. Anything else will be icing on the cake. I probably would like to add meeting Mickey at towns hall if I can... I guess I'll have to wait for the party details/ offerings to plan a little more but this is what I thin right now.

The dance parties are fun, and your little guy will be able to get all of his energy out! Last year when DD1 was 2, we spent quite a bit of time in Tomorrowland dancing with the characters from Monsters Inc.

 

[Candycane83]

The dance parties are fun, and your little guy will be able to get all of his energy out! Last year when DD1 was 2, we spent quite a bit of time in Tomorrowland dancing with the characters from Monsters Inc.

Oh yeah! that's a great idea! Thanks!! I;m scared that I'll just be waiting for the parade and then waiting for Wishes and have to go after.