Day of rest/FP+ question

[Jojo h]

We (DH, DS8, DD5) are going in Sept for 6 days (travel days not included). Staying on site. As it stands now, we have 5 day park hoppers. I am debating adding another ticketed day since adding one day would be inexpensive. A couple questions:
1. Would it be better to leave one day open as a resort day or go ahead and buy the 6th day tix to give us more flexibility?
2. Do I have to have 6 days of tickets to get fast passes for each day or am I limited to 5 days of fp+ since I only have 5 d tix at this point? I know I can purchase an extra day even once we get there, but is it better to do it now in terms of being able to book fp+ for that 6th day that we may or may not use?

Sorry if this is confusing! TIA!

 

[mshanson3121]

Hi, we are here now with the same children (same age, same gender). If you only have 5 day tickets you can only book 5 days of FP. When you get here, if you add a day you can book more then.

Personally, I would wait till you're here and see how it's going. Personally I think you'll want the rest day. My suggestion is do 3 days, have a rest day (go to Hoop Dee Doo - They'll love it) then do two more park days. It's easy to do several days in a row at the start of the trip because you're excited and raring to go. But it does catch up with you.

 

[Jennytoon]

You will need to add the 6th day if you want to make 6 days worth of FP now -- you are correct that you can only make as many days of FP as you have days on your ticket.

I have not been in September, but I have been in August which I hear is similar weather exc. less rainy. In your shoes, I would definitely add the 6th day because the heat can be extremely wearing, and you may well find that you are happier with 1/2 to 2/3 of a day in the parks over two days and the rest of each day spent by the pool at the resort vs. one full day in park and one full day at the resort. Depending upon your finances, adding the extra day may be relatively cheap insurance compared to the cost of the entire vacation. If you have been before at that time of year and know how your family will hold up, that will of course be more pertinent than what my family can tolerate.

 

[Accident]

1. Would it be better to leave one day open as a resort day or go ahead and buy the 6th day tix to give us more flexibility?

It's exactly the same price to add them from the resort if you need them, no discount for buying now. We do this every trip, we leave about 1 day off of every 4 we're staying and add them as needed. So far it's been very minimum costing maybe $10 or $20 a trip, but also saving $10 or $20 a trip. One year we had an injury and saved a lot more.

Just make sure you plan your meals around what day you think you might "take off" so you don't have to use a ticket just to eat. you can also get them from the park entrance (customer service on the side, not ticket booth), if you happen to be out that day and suddenly decide to jump into the park and need it then.

2. Do I have to have 6 days of tickets to get fast passes for each day or am I limited to 5 days of fp+ since I only have 5 d tix at this point? I know I can purchase an extra day even once we get there, but is it better to do it now in terms of being able to book fp+ for that 6th day that we may or may not use?

I'm not sure on this one, I think you can do it for your length of stay.

 

[bluezy]

I would add the 6th day now -- it's only about $11/person to add it. Then you can make FP+ reservations for that day. You don't have to spend a whole day in the park -- you could just plan to go for a few hours in the morning or evening. We always used to plan a full rest day during a 7-day stay but then one trip we got tickets for all 7 days (we got a Buy 4 get 3 free deal) and realized how much we enjoyed having a day or two when we only spend a few hours in a park. Now we do that on every trip. We usually spend about 3 or 4 hours at Epcot on arrival day (Sunday) and then Thursday is just a short day for us -- usually late afternoon or evening so we can sleep late and just hang out at the resort for awhile that day.

 

[robndani]

We go every year in Sept (kids are 5 1/2). My thoughts on adding extra day:
I would add the extra day. In the grand scheme of things, it's not THAT much more money and you can break up your days. We DO usually keep a resort day, just to swim/recharge/hit up DTD/check out other hotels/eat at a different resort - it's usually a really fun day!

September is HOT!!!!! Last year we were usually at the pool in the afternoons rather than in the parks! HAVE FUN!!!!!

 

[Lucius Best]

Given how cheap it is to add a 6th park day, and the heat in September, I will almost always add that 6th day. Even if you want a resort day, you can still hit a park for a few hours in the morning/evening. We go even further and usually also plan on going to parks on arrival/departure days depending on when our flights are.