Arrival Day strategy question

[Angel Ariel]

We have Armed Forces Salute tx for the 3 of us in our group (DH is the military member) 1 member of our group arrives at MCO around 8:30 and is staying at Coronado Springs. DH and I are at Yacht Club, and arrive at MCO around 10am. We have fp+ scheduled for 1:30 and later in MK, and are hoping to schedule a BOG lunch fp+ around 12:30.

Can we activate Armed Forces Salute tx at International Gateway?

If so, which option would be better (I.e. get us to MK fastest)?

Option 1: friend meets us at yacht club
(Maybe peruses boardwalk area while waiting for us). We go activate tx at International Gateway, then walk through epcot and get the monorail to the TTC and switch to MK line. Enter MK.

Option 2: friend goes from Coronado springs to TTC. DH and I take a bus from Yacht Club to TTC, activate tx at TTC, then get on monorail to MK.

Option 3: friend goes to TTC or MK. DH and I activate tx at international gateway, walk through epcot and take monorail to.meet her.

I'm open to other options too. Friend can't enter a park til we get there to activate the tx, so trying to.figure out how best/quickest to activate and get to MK since it is the first party night for MVMCP and MK closes early.

Any thoughts/help appreciated!

 

[AUDramaQueen]

They have always required that the person using the tickets and the military person both have to be there to activate them. At least for us anyway. So she should be with you to activate them.

You can activate your tickets at International Gateway, but if you are going to MK that day, I would suggest both of you just take the bus, meet at guest relations at MK gate and activate them there. You don't have to be at the TTC to do it.

Or you could all meet at IG and take the monorail, but that takes longer usually.

 

[Angel Ariel]

They have always required that the person using the tickets and the military person both have to be there to activate them. At least for us anyway. So she should be with you to activate them.

You can activate your tickets at International Gateway, but if you are going to MK that day, I would suggest both of you just take the bus, meet at guest relations at MK gate and activate them there. You don't have to be at the TTC to do it.

Or you could all meet at IG and take the monorail, but that takes longer usually.

We have used the armed forces tx before, and have never needed to have all of the people present to activate them. Dh activated our entire party of 6 people last year on his own (2 children regular tx.were purchased, and our Dd was free). We've only ever needed their information (names, birth dates, addresses I think?)

Eta: I could be wrong on this, dh remembers having to have people there, I don't remember being there myself for the activation on one trip. It could have been.handles.differently on both trips and we are mixing them up.

So monorailing takes longer than the bus? And mk guest relations can activate thr tx? I thought you had to be at a ticket window?

 

[amg35]

Hmmm. Arriving at MCO at 10 and trying to be at BOG at 12:30 seems pretty tight timewise.

Anyway you do it, it will take at least 30 minutes to get from Yacht Club to MK with your 3 choices.

Take the bus straight to MK from Yacht Club. Faster than walking through Epcot all the way to monorail. That alone can eat up 25 - 30 minutes depending on how fast you walk!

 

[winthropf]

The busses from CSR and YC will take you directly to the MK entrance, not the TTC. Probably fastest to take bus to MK. In addition to MK outside GS, there is a ticket will call booth outside the MK entrance. I don't know if you can activate military tickets there, but will call tickets can be picked up/activated there.

 

[Imagineer5]

I thought I read that military tickets won't link to MDE and thus you can't pre-book FP's? Has that lifted? Sorry for the question for your question, but I am thinking of traveling next year with military tickets and am hesitant if I can't pre-book FP! LOL!

 

[dkrauss]

We have Armed Forces Salute tx for the 3 of us in our group (DH is the military member) 1 member of our group arrives at MCO around 8:30 and is staying at Coronado Springs. DH and I are at Yacht Club, and arrive at MCO around 10am. We have fp+ scheduled for 1:30 and later in MK, and are hoping to schedule a BOG lunch fp+ around 12:30.

I would agree that you timeline is crunched. If your plane arrives at 10am.......you may not get to the Yacht club until 11:30..........then check in.........run (and I mean run) for the bus.......(although you could taxi) to be at the MK for a 12:30pm BOG lunch........seems close to impossible. And............If you plane is late...............

Is this your only day in the MK? If not maybe you can maneuver the BOG FP to an alternate day........so your not frazzled.
Your 1:30 FP+ are a bit more manageable and maybe can be adjusted.......

For me I look to make arrival day as calm as I can (for Disney). You're arriving early enough in the day...........you should be able to do alot.........its just doing your plan in the time frame you laid out, is going to be very difficult. Hope it all works out for you and you have a great vacation!

Doug

 

[Angel Ariel]

I thought I read that military tickets won't link to MDE and thus you can't pre-book FP's? Has that lifted? Sorry for the question for your question, but I am thinking of traveling next year with military tickets and am hesitant if I can't pre-book FP! LOL!

Military tx will link to MDE, as will the vouchers. all we have is vouchers right now. our 60 day window opened last night and we had no issues booking our fp+

 

[Angel Ariel]

I would agree that you timeline is crunched. If your plane arrives at 10am.......you may not get to the Yacht club until 11:30..........then check in.........run (and I mean run) for the bus.......(although you could taxi) to be at the MK for a 12:30pm BOG lunch........seems close to impossible. And............If you plane is late...............

Is this your only day in the MK? If not maybe you can maneuver the BOG FP to an alternate day........so your not frazzled.
Your 1:30 FP+ are a bit more manageable and maybe can be adjusted.......

For me I look to make arrival day as calm as I can (for Disney). You're arriving early enough in the day...........you should be able to do alot.........its just doing your plan in the time frame you laid out, is going to be very difficult. Hope it all works out for you and you have a great vacation!

Doug

It isn't our only day in MK, but we would like to have lunch there.

I was.under the impression that with.magic bands and online check in that we didn't have to check in at the hotel right away? That we could go straight to the parks? That's what we were thinking..even arriving at yacht.club at 1130, then bus to mk..we could get to bog by 12:30 or 1?

If the plane runs late, couldn't I try to modify the fp+ time? Or cancel if we really needed to? Either on the app or through the site?

It has been years since we used ME, so.I fully admit we don't really know how long that takes.

 

[Alesia]

Walking through Epcot and taking the monorail will take 60 to 90 minutes. The easiest and fastest way (by far) is to just take the bus to MK. Have your friend meet you there. You can activate your tickets there.

Timewise, I very much doubt that you'll Make it to BOG by 12:30.

Here's a pretty good estimate for your time table:

10:00 - plane lands
10:15 - you step off the plane
11:30 - arrive at the beach club, check in, and drop off your carry ons
12:00 - arrive at the bus stop
12:40 - arrive at MK, walk through bag check
12:50 - arrive at guest services to activate your tickets.
1:00 - walking down Main Street

 

[mickeyluv'r]

Um, it may well take you two+ hours to get from MCO to your hotel if you are using Magic Express. Even with car/taxi, and no checked luggage, expect at least an hour from landing to arriving at your hotel.

Your rooms may not be ready until after 4pm.

If you are planning on a MK day, I strongly suggest using GS at MK. Theirs is the best. I've never used military tickets, so I can't answer any questions there. From the YC bus stop, via bus, you need to allow 45minutes to get to MK. It will likely be less than 45min, but bus waits are variable.

Odds on your 1:30pm FP seem good to me. If the FP window starts at 1:30pm, you just have to arrive by 2:30 to use it. If you don't make it, you can reschedule it using the kiosk or MDE.

Between MCO and MK there are many unknowns. You might get a best case scenario in every variable, skip check-in, and be in MK by noon. You might also have a flight delay, encounter lines that delay you half an hour or more, and transportation waits that cost you an hour+. More than once, I've spent an hour at GS alone!

As another poster said, we don't make many hard plans on arrival day. No need to start out stressed.

 

[Angel Ariel]

Your rooms may not be ready until after 4pm.

We're not expecting our rooms to be ready. We can travel light on this trip, since we don't have DD with us, so we will make sure that whatever our carry-on is is something we're OK bringing into the park with us.

I'd been thinking an hour for ME, so it's good to know to plan for 2. Thanks

From the YC bus stop, via bus, you need to allow 45minutes to get to MK. It will likely be less than 45min, but bus waits are variable.

Good to know, thanks!

Odds on your 1:30pm FP seem good to me. If the FP window starts at 1:30pm, you just have to arrive by 2:30 to use it. If you don't make it, you can reschedule it using the kiosk or MDE.

That's what we were thinking. I actually just went in and moved the FPs around a bit and this is what we have now:

1:40-2:40 - ETWB
2:50-3:50 - Space
3:55 - 4:55 - Thunder Mtn

So maybe a 1:00pm FP+ for BOG would be better. With a 30 min arrival window, it gives us a little/ more time...and if something goes awry earlier that day, and it looks like we'll get there too late, we'll just cancel it.

As another poster said, we don't make many hard plans on arrival day. No need to start out stressed.

We have 2 MK days - arrival day (Nov 7th) and Monday Nov 10th. Both are party days and MK closes at 7, and we don't have party tx. So we need to maximize our time there. I'm planning on booking a BOG FP+ for both days at the moment, as we very much want to eat there.

I'm not really considering it a hard plan for arrival day - if we do make it, and we get to eat there, that's great. Then we can decide if we want to go on Monday as well or if we'd rather cancel Monday's and go to another CS option on Monday instead. If we don't make it Friday, that's fine too, we'll cancel it if it looks like timing won't work, and we'll use Monday's reservation instead.

We will need to eat lunch when we arrive, since our flight leaves at 7:30am and we figured having a FP+ for BOG would make that a little bit easier. BOG is a priority as my friend hasn't been to WDW since 1999, and wants to see all the new stuff. I tried getting dinner ADRs at 180 days but there weren't any, and there haven't been any cancellations for our time period either. So the BOG FP+ for Friday and Monday is how I'm trying to assure that she gets that experience on at least one of those days.

 

[Alesia]

We're not expecting our rooms to be ready. We can travel light on this trip, since we don't have DD with us, so we will make sure that whatever our carry-on is is something we're OK bringing into the park with us.

You can leave your bag with bell services.

 

[Angel Ariel]

You can leave your bag with bell services.

Good to know, thanks!