Advice? airport to hollywood studios

[cattycat]

Hi, all -
I want to surprise my husband by going to the SciFi Dine In (his favorite!) the night we get into Orlando and before we link up with the rest of my family the next morning.

Our flight lands at 815pm. Right now, have a dining reservation at 915pm. Obviously, need to assume our flight gets in on time!

Is this doable:
1) Check in bags with Disney Magical Express, and they go ahead to Caribbean Beach resort
2) Take a towncar directly to Hollywood Studios

Is this enough time? I figured about 15 minutes to get off plane/do the airport monorail... Can the towncar drop up off pretty close to the entrance of HS?

Any advice/experience much appreciated!

 

[LilyWDW]

Heck no. That is no where near enough time. What would you do if you have ANY delays at all? You would be charged the cancellation fee for sure.

 

[StitchesGr8Fan]

No way. You still have to allow time to get OFF the plane, flag down your town car, get through bag check at DHS. There is no way you can do everything in an hour, even if everything goes perfectly.

 

[Gracie09]

Nope..8:15 is the time you are scheduled to land not be at the gate. Taxing to the gate can take fifteen minutes. Then the doors opening and you getting moving, another ten to fifteen. Then the obligatory bathroom stop and making your way through the airport, say twenty by then you are at about 45 and you haven't left the airport.

 

[maxiesmom]

I'm afraid it is nowhere near enough time. You should allow 3 hours at minimum from when the plane is scheduled to land to your ADR time.

 

[sam_gordon]

I agree. No way.

Land @ 8:15
15 minutes to taxi to gate
15 minutes to debark and get to main concourse
15 minutes to wait for luggage (and you're not supposed to send your luggage w/DME without riding the bus... see the sticky)
30 minutes to drive to WDW
15 minutes to get from car, through gate, and to restaurant.

That's 90 minutes *IF* everything goes perfect AND you still have your luggage to deal with.

 

[Alesia]

Only if you have a teleporter.

 

[LilyWDW]

Only if you have a teleporter.

Can I just say that I really wish we had teleporters? That would be awesome.

 

[Horace Horsecollar]

Nope..8:15 is the time you are scheduled to land not be at the gate.

Actually, if the scheduled arrival time is 8:15 p.m., that's when the flight is supposed to be at the gate with the door open.

The government considers a flight to be on time in the official on-time statistics even if gets to the gate 15 minutes late. So being at the gate at 8:30 p.m. would still be counted as "on time."

The airlines build a fudge factor into the scheduled arrival times to get good statistics. If the flight leaves its departure gate right on time AND there are no headwinds AND there are no air traffic routing issues AND the arrival gate is available (because the previous flight left from the gate when it was supposed to), then the flight could arrive 15 minutes early. So the flight MIGHT be at the gate at 8:00 p.m.

But, even in such a best case scenario, planning to get to a dining reservation at 9:15 p.m. dining reservation inside a Disney theme park is unrealistic.

 

[cattycat]

May try it anyway...and if we are running late just take the town car to the resort instead of HS. And if i need to suck up the deposit on the dining reservation, that's the price I pay for pushing my luck

I guess my question is (and where $$$ makes a big difference) is that - do I need to pay for a full ticket to get into HS just for dinner? And if so, does my Park Hopper kick in the first time I use the bracelet? Or do I need to let Disney know when my Park Hopper should start?

 

[StitchesGr8Fan]

May try it anyway...and if we are running late just take the town car to the resort instead of HS. And if i need to suck up the deposit on the dining reservation, that's the price I pay for pushing my luck I guess my question is (and where $$$ makes a big difference) is that - do I need to pay for a full ticket to get into HS just for dinner? And if so, does my Park Hopper kick in the first time I use the bracelet? Or do I need to let Disney know when my Park Hopper should start?

You are going to use a full day ticket, including park hopper, to get in tot the park for dinner.

 

[Horace Horsecollar]

May try it anyway...and if we are running late just take the town car to the resort instead of HS.

What are you going to do with your carry-on bags? Also, there's a whole thread on using DME bag transfers for checked bags without using DME, so I won't get into it here.

Regular multi-day Park Hopper tickets kick in with first use. You will use a one of the days if you get to DHS in time to enter the park.

Park Hopper tickets that are part of a WDW package follow the rules of that package (length-of-stay or whatever the package covers).

Of course, you can try whatever you want.

However, if I had a scheduled arrival time is 8:15 p.m. at Orlando International, I would be happy just to head to the resort, check-in, and settle in my room. I'm not even sure I would want to dine at the resort that late. (I would probably just grab a quick dinner at the airport before departing on the flight to Orlando, either to eat in the airport or on the plane). Then the WDW fun would start the next morning.

 

[Gracie09]

May try it anyway...and if we are running late just take the town car to the resort instead of HS. And if i need to suck up the deposit on the dining reservation, that's the price I pay for pushing my luck

I guess my question is (and where $$$ makes a big difference) is that - do I need to pay for a full ticket to get into HS just for dinner? And if so, does my Park Hopper kick in the first time I use the bracelet? Or do I need to let Disney know when my Park Hopper should start?

I'm confused by what you mean tell Disney when your park hopper starts? You buy park hopping for the length of you stay not for individual days. So every day is a hopping day if you have park hoppers

 

[maxiesmom]

May try it anyway...and if we are running late just take the town car to the resort instead of HS. And if i need to suck up the deposit on the dining reservation, that's the price I pay for pushing my luck

I guess my question is (and where $$$ makes a big difference) is that - do I need to pay for a full ticket to get into HS just for dinner? And if so, does my Park Hopper kick in the first time I use the bracelet? Or do I need to let Disney know when my Park Hopper should start?

I'm trying to put this as delicately as possible: Your times are so close that your ADR is virtually impossible to make. It is close to being laughable, I'm afraid. The ride alone from the airport to most Disney resorts is over 40 minutes. That doesn't include disembarking from the airplane, walking to the towncar, or being dropped off at the park and walking to the restaurant. Nor does it include you taking care of your carry-on bags somehow.

Remember too that Disney wants you to the restaurant 15 minutes before you scheduled ADR time. Obviously you are free to do what you want, but it will take a miracle for you to make your meal.

 

[nkereina]

Not sure if it's been mentioned but you can't put your bags on DME when you are not riding DME. With Magic Bands, they scan your band to check you into DME as you enter the line, so they know whether or not you are riding.

So considering that, and the fact that you can't bring your bags into DHS, what you are suggesting wouldn't be logistically possible (in addition to the time constraints). You COULD rent a car and leave your bags in the trunk, but then you'd have to factor in the time it would take to get the car and pick up your bags before driving to DHS.

 

[nkereina]

I guess my question is (and where $$$ makes a big difference) is that - do I need to pay for a full ticket to get into HS just for dinner? And if so, does my Park Hopper kick in the first time I use the bracelet? Or do I need to let Disney know when my Park Hopper should start?

I don't know if you're understanding the park hopper feature. If you buy a 7 day ticket with park hopper, and you want to enter DHS on you arrival day, that counts as Day 1 which means you have 6 days left. Park Hopper just means you can go between each parks as many times as you want on each day. But yes, it would require full admission to get into DHS just for dinner, which means it would use one of your ticket days.

 

[cattycat]

for most of you -- thank YOU for the advice. I'm going to "sleep on it" but think I will need to give up this idea for now. Still going to think about something fun to do the night we get in, but without as much $ risk

for some of you -- i admit i'm not a master Disney planner, but some of your advice was worded in a judgmental way that made me feel like an idiot. When did these forums stop becoming a "safe" place to go to?

 

[maxiesmom]

I'm sorry if I made you feel like an idiot. It was not my intention. I was just trying to impress on you that your plan has almost no chance of succeeding.

There is a difference between pushing your luck and just throwing money away. Conventional wisdom states to leave 3 hours between arrival and your first ADR. Trying to make one in only an hour is next to impossible.

 

[bumbershoot]

When did these forums stop becoming a "safe" place to go to?

The transportation forum has never been about pixie dust. It's about helping people make good decisions for travel. Other decisions when traveling can often be quite costly. What if you got to the park late, decided to go into the park (using a full day on your ticket) but you were too late for your dinner? That's not a fun way to start your trip.

And maybe your relationship isn't like this, but I know that if either me or my husband tried for a happy surprise that ended up full of rushing, sweating (Orlando!), worrying, hating traffic, and then possibly maybe being charged cancellation fee and maybe even a full day on the ticket...the one that the surprise was for would feel horrible. that a happy surprise would turn into a sweaty expense. (I really dislike rushing while in Florida LOL)

It's always a bummer when things are said in a way that makes a person feel bad (I've been on both sides of that equation, probably on the saying side more often than the hearing side); please know that especially on the Transportation forum, that isn't what was meant to happen. People are just trying to help you not waste your money or time.

SciFi will be there the next day.

 

[sam_gordon]

for some of you -- i admit i'm not a master Disney planner, but some of your advice was worded in a judgmental way that made me feel like an idiot. When did these forums stop becoming a "safe" place to go to?

Don't forget you can't read inflection in the written word. I'm willing to wager anything you read as "judgemental" WASN'T meant that way.