A&E Question

[soonergreg9802]

We are going to WDW 11/23-11/28. We will be in MK on 11/26, yes, day before Thanksgiving. I have 2 daughters and 2 nieces on this trip that its important to do the A&E meet and greet.

I was unable to obtain FP+ even though I logged in on 60th day at 11:00 pm CST, because all FP+ for the entire week were gone. I guess we aren't staying enough days and people ahead of us booked em all up.

My question is: considering we are gonna have to do the Rope Drop and go straight back there to it, is MK still doing the 1 hour standby and cutting it off? And, how does the FP+ work? Do we try to start logging into the My Disney App right at 9:00 am? Or, just get in line as early as possible for rope drop and hope for the best?

Since I couldn't get a FP+ for either 11/26 or 11/27 the 2 days we are going to be in and out of MK, any advice would be greatly appreciated.

THANKS!!!

 

[mesaboy2]

We are going to WDW 11/23-11/28. We will be in MK on 11/26, yes, day before Thanksgiving. I have 2 daughters and 2 nieces on this trip that its important to do the A&E meet and greet.

I was unable to obtain FP+ even though I logged in on 60th day at 11:00 pm CST, because all FP+ for the entire week were gone. I guess we aren't staying enough days and people ahead of us booked em all up.

My question is: considering we are gonna have to do the Rope Drop and go straight back there to it,

1. is MK still doing the 1 hour standby and cutting it off?

2. And, how does the FP+ work?

3. Do we try to start logging into the My Disney App right at 9:00 am?

4. Or, just get in line as early as possible for rope drop and hope for the best?

Since I couldn't get a FP+ for either 11/26 or 11/27 the 2 days we are going to be in and out of MK, any advice would be greatly appreciated.

THANKS!!!

1. No, but that could change at any time.

2. If you don't have FP by the day-of chances are you will never get one.

3. I wouldn't bother.

4. That. Or even better, wait until the last hour before park close and lines will probably be the shortest they've been all day.

 

[laura428]

Can you try checking back in before you arrive to see if you can find anything before you go? I'll be logging on at midnight on our 60th day out, and if I can't find anything, I'll be on multiple times everyday up until our departure until I find something. With the need for a minimum of 4 FP+ for the kids, plus any for adults who would accompany them, I wouldn't hold out any hope of nabbing FP+ the morning of your MK day.

 

[soonergreg9802]

Thanks very much guys. This really helps.

Yeah, I have been checking back from time to time on other availability fro FP+, but of course, like you said with multiple people its more difficult, which is understandable.

Thank you for the information about going back toward closing. I was afraid that they were keeping the concept of "no standby line." We are going to MK the evening that we get there on that Sunday, so we might go see what the line is after or during "Wishes" and such. Maybe it would be a little shorter then.

Thanks very much for the answers!

 

[ghtx]

The short answer is that, unfortunately, you should plan on waiting a pretty long time to see A&E if you really want to see them.

Arriving right at RD or waiting until the very end of the day will help, and hopefully your wait will be less than an hour.

 

[SarahJN]

If you can't get FP+, I would plan to go directly there at rope drop. We were there 2 weeks ago and they were not cutting off the line. Unfortunately, we didn't get over there until mid-morning. Wait time was listed at 70 mins and we waited 95. It's an extremely slow moving line.

 

[ncbunnie]

Not to hijack the OP but I am in a very similar situation- checked the 3 possible days we could be at MK during our trip at 60 days out and A&E didn't even show as available on ANY of the days. (Party of 3.)

Does anyone have any experience with something opening up closer to your travel dates? I have been checking multiple times a day and of course nothing shows up. A&E was the only reason we thought of spending a 3rd day in MK and based on this and crowd calendars I think I am going to switch that day to EP since it will be a preferred park by the rest of the non-kiddos in our group.

Also how is the line late evening, say after dinner before the electric parade? On our arrival day we are going to pop into MK as soon as we arrive, which hopefully will be before 8:00pm. I just wondered if there was any chance standby would be bearable at that time?

OP hoping some of this info helps you as well!

 

[Bellanota]

I dont know if I am just luckly or what but...

I was able to get A&E for our last day at my 60 day mark (party of three). This was the day after Thanksgiving and the FP were at like 8pm, but then we had a 12 hour drive home that night and I wanted to leave the park by noon not 8pm ... but it was all I could get at my 60 day mark so I went with it...

Since then:
at day 52 I was able to get FP+ for A&E for Thanksgiving day at like 7pm for my entire party when I did overlapping times. Good but I still didnt want to wait till the end of my trip

on day 45 I was able to get FP+ for a&E on our arrival day with overlapping times.


I have let the ones at the end my trip go, but what I think helped me was looking every time I was on the computer or my phone. it takes less then two minutes. I also broke the party up into ones and booked any a&E i saw. Once I had three I just started checking daily till I was able to get the time to overlap. Even recently I have worked my current FP+ from 9pm to 6pm by checking all the time.

So there is still hope for the week of Thanksgiving cause thats the week I have been looking in Just keep looking

 

[alisigns]

Not to hijack the OP but I am in a very similar situation- checked the 3 possible days we could be at MK during our trip at 60 days out and A&E didn't even show as available on ANY of the days. (Party of 3.)

Does anyone have any experience with something opening up closer to your travel dates? I have been checking multiple times a day and of course nothing shows up. A&E was the only reason we thought of spending a 3rd day in MK and based on this and crowd calendars I think I am going to switch that day to EP since it will be a preferred park by the rest of the non-kiddos in our group.

Also how is the line late evening, say after dinner before the electric parade? On our arrival day we are going to pop into MK as soon as we arrive, which hopefully will be before 8:00pm. I just wondered if there was any chance standby would be bearable at that time?

OP hoping some of this info helps you as well!

I am going to be in MK 11/21 and 11/25. I checked at 60 days and wasn't able to get anything for A&E. I called and was assured that more would open up at 30 days because if they didn't add more it "wouldn't be fair to everyone." So i figured I would check back then, but about 6 days ago I saw a post that more had opened up and I was able to book all 6 of us for 9:20 on 11/25. So there is hope! Good luck and I'll keep my fingers crossed for you.

 

[ncbunnie]

These times do open up! I just checked this morning, 32 days out, and found 3 FP for Sun, 12/14 in the middle of the day.

So thankful that we got them as this was #1 on my 7yo's list.

For those still looking just wanted to encourage that they DO open up- I was ready to resign to the idea of just getting A&E on the next trip, but thankful that we got them for this one!

For anyone else who is familiar with this time of year and M&G, what are the wait times like with FP+? My mom was asking if it could still be up to an hour wait and I wasn't sure. With the popularity I didn't think it was impossible that it could be that long. Just curious if there's kind of an average for the wait with FP around lunchtime/just a little after.

 

[pmaurer74]

These times do open up! I just checked this morning, 32 days out, and found 3 FP for Sun, 12/14 in the middle of the day.

So thankful that we got them as this was #1 on my 7yo's list.

For those still looking just wanted to encourage that they DO open up- I was ready to resign to the idea of just getting A&E on the next trip, but thankful that we got them for this one!

For anyone else who is familiar with this time of year and M&G, what are the wait times like with FP+? My mom was asking if it could still be up to an hour wait and I wasn't sure. With the popularity I didn't think it was impossible that it could be that long. Just curious if there's kind of an average for the wait with FP around lunchtime/just a little after.

me too! I just got 4 FP+s for A&E on Dec. 14 middle of the day! wonder if it was a large group that cancelled. See you there! I hope it is not an hour wait as we have lunch ADRs half way into our slot. I would gladly cancel the lunchc ADR though!