DON'T BE A LEMMING! This past July 16 - 22 I thought I had planned the perfect trip. All of our restaurant reservations coincided with whichever park had the early and late extra magic hours. We were going to be able to take complete advantage of the time we were going to be at WDW. We planned to be up at dawn and stay out until the parks close down. It was going to be tuff, but how often do you go to Disney anyway. For us, once a year and we had already decided that this was going to be our last for a while.
What a mistake. 40,000 of our best friends staying on property had the same idea. I had a bad feeling when I heard a girl on our plane talking about the parks they were going to and it sounded exactly like the trip I planned to the tee. After the second night which was just like the first night, the parks were absolutely packed at mid-night, I realized what a mistake we had made. It was too late to make wholesale changes because all of our meal reservations were made months in advance.
For our entire trip, we followed everyone else at WDW from park to park, because they were doing exactly what we were. My best advice would be to NEVER do late admission at any of the parks. SKIP a park completely, even in the morning, if that park has late admission that particular day. Go to other parks that day. If your kids must stay out late, go back to the Hotel and swim. Do early admission. It's much better. Several years ago they had E-ride nights at the MK. They were great because they charged $10 a person extra, and that kept the riff raff out. It seemed like we had the whole magic kingdom to our selves. It was kind of erie though. Those were the days.
What a mistake. 40,000 of our best friends staying on property had the same idea. I had a bad feeling when I heard a girl on our plane talking about the parks they were going to and it sounded exactly like the trip I planned to the tee. After the second night which was just like the first night, the parks were absolutely packed at mid-night, I realized what a mistake we had made. It was too late to make wholesale changes because all of our meal reservations were made months in advance.
For our entire trip, we followed everyone else at WDW from park to park, because they were doing exactly what we were. My best advice would be to NEVER do late admission at any of the parks. SKIP a park completely, even in the morning, if that park has late admission that particular day. Go to other parks that day. If your kids must stay out late, go back to the Hotel and swim. Do early admission. It's much better. Several years ago they had E-ride nights at the MK. They were great because they charged $10 a person extra, and that kept the riff raff out. It seemed like we had the whole magic kingdom to our selves. It was kind of erie though. Those were the days.
as you said.
, is the Unofficial Guide to WDW. You know, if you decide to try a trip to WDW a little sooner... 
We had PS's (as they were called at the time) for a few meals but mostly did counter service. We were there close to park opening times, utilized fast pass and EMH (only AM times at this point), and stayed as late as we wanted. We were so surprised that we were able to do everything we wanted...and then so. One day we waited 60 minutes for our first ride on Splash, but other than that the waits were quite doable. On the evening of 12/30 we stopped counting at 15 rides in a row of Splash & BTMRR as walk-ons. We can't wait until DS2 is a little older so we can bring him there to ring in the New Year. My biggest tip would be to be flexible and not expect to be able to do everything...you might just be surprised. Have fun! 
