Can anyone give me advice on our park days in regards to hours?

[COscrapper]

My ADR date is in 2 weeks and I thought I had my days all figured out, but the initial November hours just came out and EMH are very different than they were for the many previous weeks...biggest disappointment is that MK HAD evening EMH on Wednesdays in October, and we were hoping to hop over there to use them on our Wednesday, but the November calendar now says there will be NO evening EMH at MK our entire week! What a bummer! Now I'm not sure if we have enough MK time planned, or if we should change the day we go to MNSSHP (assuming we can afford the ticket price) in order to force ourselves to get up early and use the MK morning EMH. Ugh, am I just overthinking this?

Our dates are Oct. 29 - Nov. 5, but we are not going to the parks on check-in or check-out day. We have 5-day hoppers, so if we do MNSSHP that will be our "off" day. Also, does anyone have any guesses on how late HS and AK will be open then? Right now AK is STILL listed as closing at 5 and HS is listed til 7 every single night (is the new SW Spectacular supposed to continue in fall? Rumors?). And MK is listed to close at 8 every single night. SERIOUSLY, 8:00?!

This was my original plan which I am now rethinking:
Sun, Oct. 30 - rope drop at MK (party day, so it closes at 7 - thought it would be less crowded, but it IS a Sunday so maybe doesn't make a difference in crowds? Is 4-7 really horrible with crowds??? Should I change this day?) EMH are at HS (AM)
Mon, Oct. 31 - off day/MNSSHP. EMH are at MK (AM), so maybe we switch this with Sunday to take advantage of EMH at MK?
Tues, Nov. 1 - EPCOT (late start after the party the night before, but EPCOT has evening EMH so hopefully we can stay through that).
Wed., Nov. 2 - AK (was going to hop over to MK for evening EMH, but now there AREN'T ANY and AK has morning EMH instead). Should I switch this with HS day? I seriously doubt we will be able to make the AK morning EMH after doing late EMH the night before, and will AK be extra crowded because of the EMH? Or will those people clear out in the afternoon, making the evening less crowded at AK?
Thurs., Nov. 3 - HS. EMH are at Epcot (AM)
Fri., Nov. 4 - Epcot until late afternoon, then hop to MK to see Wishes, last rides, etc. EMH are at HS (PM) and AK (AM).

With all the new nighttime activities being planned with no updated hours, is it futile to even guess at this? Be honest. Should I just decide what park we want to be in without worrying about EMH, etc? Is it likely MK hours will be extended past 8 in November? And, in the name of all that is holy, if you took the time to read this far, God Bless You! Thanks for any advice from this first-timer!

 

[Tomh]

Any park that has EMH will be more crowded that day. Additionally, I would expect MK to get pretty crowded after 4:00 on the 30th, as the party crowd starts to filter it's way in.

 

[DVC4US]

Where are you seeing initial park hours? I only see up to Oct 26th on the website.

 

[Mikie]

I have been asking lots of "what about the hours?" questions lately and the answers from the local DIS experts have consistently been along the lines of: things are very different this year, add-owns and new offerings seem to be the reason, not willing to speculate that the hours will change to be more similar to past years.

My best guess is that you can expect the EMH and party dates schedule to be the most solid. Always be mentally prepared for changes, but let's say those items are fairly set.

Park hours do often change between initial posting and the actual dates. And in the past, only ever get expanded not shrunk. (8pm?! What could they shrink to?)

To make your plans, id assume your EMH and party days are right. Decide whether you want to use or avoid those. 2 schools of thought on EMH - go TO those if you'll be there to take advantage of the whole time; AVOID those parks for lower all day crowds and if you're not sure you'll really use the time.

Plan as though those short regular hours are right, but hold out hope they expand. Good luck!

 

[COscrapper]

Where are you seeing initial park hours? I only see up to Oct 26th on the website.

At the top of this board, there is a sticky about when hours for _____ will be posted. There is a link in that thread to the travel agent calendar for November which was just released. I'm sure it is far from finalized/set in stone.

 

[emonade8]

I'm in the exact same boat. Our trip is Oct 31-Nov 9 and I planned as well as I could with the info I had available, and from past experience. Now I feel like I have to start over completely and I'm just kind of lost. This is our tenth trip since 2008 and I've never felt this lost planning. I'm glad we decided to mostly eat quick service (for the first time) so we can at least be more flexible if things change last minute.

 

[COscrapper]

I have been asking lots of "what about the hours?" questions lately and the answers from the local DIS experts have consistently been along the lines of: things are very different this year, add-owns and new offerings seem to be the reason, not willing to speculate that the hours will change to be more similar to past years.

My best guess is that you can expect the EMH and party dates schedule to be the most solid. Always be mentally prepared for changes, but let's say those items are fairly set.

Park hours do often change between initial posting and the actual dates. And in the past, only ever get expanded not shrunk. (8pm?! What could they shrink to?)

To make your plans, id assume your EMH and party days are right. Decide whether you want to use or avoid those. 2 schools of thought on EMH - go TO those if you'll be there to take advantage of the whole time; AVOID those parks for lower all day crowds and if you're not sure you'll really use the time.

Plan as though those short regular hours are right, but hold out hope they expand. Good luck!

This makes sense, thank you. We would like to use EMH when we can, but not necessarily stay at that park all day if it makes crowds a lot worse. We are also not morning people, so it would have to be pretty important for us to get up early to make those - we were only planning on doing rope drop our first day (when energy and excitement is high, haha). SO...my MK dilemma is...do we go at rope drop on our first day at the parks? A party day, but I think we'll be about beat by 7 pm anyway - if not, could always hop somewhere else. BUT it is also a Sunday (extra crowds?), and will we really only have til 4 due to party crowd coming in and making it impossible to do anything? We would get more MK time at MNSSHP the next night and then the very last night of our vacation to see Wishes, but would Sunday be a bad day for MK? OR...do we do AK or HS for our first day in the parks and save our regular MK day for after the party?

I guess the question is, are crowds lower for MK on a Sunday with MNSSHP going on, or a weekday withOUT MNSSHP going on (keeping in mind that the park hours right now only go til 8, so one hour later than a party day)? Is there a significant difference in how much we will get done in those 2 scenarios? Am I just splitting hairs? Do I need to give up and ?

 

[COscrapper]

I'm in the exact same boat. Our trip is Oct 31-Nov 9 and I planned as well as I could with the info I had available, and from past experience. Now I feel like I have to start over completely and I'm just kind of lost. This is our tenth trip since 2008 and I've never felt this lost planning. I'm glad we decided to mostly eat quick service (for the first time) so we can at least be more flexible if things change last minute.

I am really considering giving up a few ADRs for the same reason - we were hoping to do one at each park, with a couple days having none scheduled. Only because this is our first and probably only trip to WDW and we wanted to experience some of the classics and at least one character meal. But it is almost impossible to know which park we will be in on a given day with so many variables at this point. Maybe I should forget it and go QS too...we would really love to see BOG though, and my boys want to do Sci Fi really bad.

"Lost" is the PERFECT word.

 

[DVC4US]

At the top of this board, there is a sticky about when hours for _____ will be posted. There is a link in that thread to the travel agent calendar for November which was just released. I'm sure it is far from finalized/set in stone.

If you look at that calendar it is not fully updated for November - no Wishes or Parade on any night, so I would wait until it is posted on the website before anything is set in stone. I did notice they do have EMH for MK listed but it is on Saturday, which I saw is not in your travel dates. Not sure why they would have evening EMH on Wednesday nights from June to Oct and then all the sudden change them to Saturday in November. Doesn't make sense to me.

 

[Mikie]

This makes sense, thank you. We would like to use EMH when we can, but not necessarily stay at that park all day if it makes crowds a lot worse. We are also not morning people, so it would have to be pretty important for us to get up early to make those - we were only planning on doing rope drop our first day (when energy and excitement is high, haha). SO...my MK dilemma is...do we go at rope drop on our first day at the parks? A party day, but I think we'll be about beat by 7 pm anyway - if not, could always hop somewhere else. BUT it is also a Sunday (extra crowds?), and will we really only have til 4 due to party crowd coming in and making it impossible to do anything? We would get more MK time at MNSSHP the next night and then the very last night of our vacation to see Wishes, but would Sunday be a bad day for MK? OR...do we do AK or HS for our first day in the parks and save our regular MK day for after the party?

I guess the question is, are crowds lower for MK on a Sunday with MNSSHP going on, or a weekday withOUT MNSSHP going on (keeping in mind that the park hours right now only go til 8, so one hour later than a party day)? Is there a significant difference in how much we will get done in those 2 scenarios? Am I just splitting hairs? Do I need to give up and ?

Party days generally have much lower crowds. In my experience, even on a Sunday. We cannot go-go from open all the way til late closes and we do not take a midday break when we travel in party season. I really like going to MK on a party day because crowds are very manageable. It does start to get noticeably more crowded when partiers start coming in at 4, but not at all to the point where you can't do anything. Seemed to me like Main Strret/hub/castle area was hard to walk through, but if you kind of work your way through the lands and are still in Fantasyland, or in tomorrowland but not trying to cross back and forth, you'll do ok.

We like to schedule a dinner ADR at a nearby monorail resort, or even pick a quick service at one of those after we leave MK on party days. Some people like to schedule an ADR in MK at 6:30 ish, so you've used up nearly every moment of park time available, then you sit and have a leisurely meal before going straight to the exit after eating.

The actual exit right at 7 is pretty insane in my experience, so take that into consideration as far as timing and ADRs.

 

[emonade8]

If you look at that calendar it is not fully updated for November - no Wishes or Parade on any night, so I would wait until it is posted on the website before anything is set in stone. I did notice they do have EMH for MK listed but it is on Saturday, which I saw is not in your travel dates. Not sure why they would have evening EMH on Wednesday nights from June to Oct and then all the sudden change them to Saturday in November. Doesn't make sense to me.

It would be nice if they didn't cut it so close posting the hours on the website. It's ok for people with shorter trips, but when you're doing a 10+ day trip, it gives you no time to plan.