Going in October...is this a decent FP+ strategy? (oops, one more question post 12)

[amg35]

We will be there late October for 9 nights, park hoppers, Beach Club.

After doing some thinking, I think we are going to make our fast pass reservations for early to mid afternoon.
My thoughts are we will still get there for rope-drop and ride the headliners early if we can, then go on the "smaller" rides (we don't mind 30-40 minute waits) and then have our fast passes for the headliners again later in the afternoon.

This way we may have chance to ride them twice in one day and also if we're slower moving one morning, won't matter because I made the reservations later.

Sound good? We won't be using the fast pass for anything other than rides.

And our first day I think we will make a fast pass reservation for Soarin' in the evening...we can check in at Beach Club, hang out there, meander over to EPCOT and ride Spaceship Earth and then get the pressure of riding Soarin' over right away!

Comments, suggestions?

 

[PSUGuy]

This is exactly what we did last Oct while staying at Board Walk, right down to a late first day FP+ for TT and Soarin'. It all worked so we'll we'll be doing it again from 10-16 through 10-25 this year.

Bill From PA

 

[kaylasmom07]

This is exactly what we did when we were there in November. It worked really well for my family. It was nice knowing you already had the fast passes for the headliners already secured and while we still did rope drop a lot, it was nice sleeping in a bit, having a leisurely breakfast and then heading into the park around 11:30 and riding TSMM with barely a wait.

Also works well if u want to repeat rides too. We'd get there for rope drop, ride what we wanted and then use FP+ for the ones we wanted to ride again later in the afternoon when standby waits were a lot longer.

I think it's an awesome plan. Have fun!

 

[amg35]

Also, we aren't going to make many ADR's. We are doing the quick service dining plan and only have about 3 restaurants for dinner reservations we want to make, the rest will be whatever is open that day, if anything. We don't mind sitting at the bar or eating late (just the two of us this trip).

 

[amg35]

Alright!!! Thanks guys! This makes me happy.

I'm finally getting in planning mode and I'm getting excited!!

 

[amg35]

My only problem (if you can call it that) is that we are there for 9 days.

I know the order in which we will hit the parks initially ( Tues night EPCOT, Wed MK, etc), but I don't know the order in which we'll hit them again, so I'm not sure what to do about those fast passes... play it be ear I guess? I know we want a couple rest days too.

We'll be there Tuesday, leaving the next Thursday. I think we will avoid EPCOT on the weekend (although we'll probably pop in for food and shopping) due to Food/Wine.

Was thinking maybe on the Saturday we'll do a tour of resorts, so many I haven't seen. Really want to check out Animal Kingdom Lodge, we can eat there too!

Oh and we want to do a Halloween party for sure!!

 

[agavegirl1]

I will be there the same time. Will you have hoppers? It looks like not. I am staying 9 days (POP) from Oct 17-25 2014. As far as second time park visits, you could play it by ear (I don't) or plan an seeing attractions at a different time of day than your previous time (in the dark?) planning FP+ for those times.

I am planning a Thursday Halloween Party. I have hoppers so I expect many park days ending at Epcot with small bites and beverages.

 

[amg35]

I will be there the same time. Will you have hoppers? It looks like not. I am staying 9 days (POP) from Oct 17-25 2014. As far as second time park visits, you could play it by ear (I don't) or plan an seeing attractions at a different time of day than your previous time (in the dark?) planning FP+ for those times.

I am planning a Thursday Halloween Party. I have hoppers so I expect many park days ending at Epcot with small bites and beverages.

yes we will have hoppers. I meant second time as in second days, not sure we'll have a strict plan for return days to parks.

 

[crazymomof4]

We will be there late October for 9 nights, park hoppers, Beach Club.

After doing some thinking, I think we are going to make our fast pass reservations for early to mid afternoon.
My thoughts are we will still get there for rope-drop and ride the headliners early if we can, then go on the "smaller" rides (we don't mind 30-40 minute waits) and then have our fast passes for the headliners again later in the afternoon.

This way we may have chance to ride them twice in one day and also if we're slower moving one morning, won't matter because I made the reservations later.

Sound good? We won't be using the fast pass for anything other than rides.

Comments, suggestions?

Sept will b our 1st using the new system and I had planned the same thing you describe. It's reassuring to read that others have tried it with good results.

 

[machusko]

If you are going to use the FP+ the first day at EPCOT and rope drop it on another day, I don’t think you will need to FP+ EPCOT again. After our 12 day visit over Christmas, we came to the conclusion that we think we don’t need to use FP+ at AK and EPCOT if we utilize morning emh and/or rope drops. We think it would be better to use rope drop, hit the big rides (Soarin, TT / Safari, EE) before the lines get big and then save the FP+ to hop to a park in afternoon or evening. We did this at Christmas week and it worked out great.
Our thought on DHS is that it would be better to FP+ every time there. With that in mind, looks like we will mainly be hopping to DHS with FP+ after standby line only mornings at EPCOT or AK. At MK, we are thinking rope drop then hold FP+ for late morning, afternoon, evening. Good luck with your planning. It does take some extra work up front. This all assumes FP+ systems will work in October as it does now (3 a day, tiers, etc) with fp machines gone.

BTW, can’t go wrong eating at AKL sit downs. All 3 are good. Boma is one of favorite wdw places to eat.

 

[amg35]

If you are going to use the FP+ the first day at EPCOT and rope drop it on another day, I don’t think you will need to FP+ EPCOT again. After our 12 day visit over Christmas, we came to the conclusion that we think we don’t need to use FP+ at AK and EPCOT if we utilize morning emh and/or rope drops. We think it would be better to use rope drop, hit the big rides (Soarin, TT / Safari, EE) before the lines get big and then save the FP+ to hop to a park in afternoon or evening. We did this at Christmas week and it worked out great.
Our thought on DHS is that it would be better to FP+ every time there. With that in mind, looks like we will mainly be hopping to DHS with FP+ after standby line only mornings at EPCOT or AK. At MK, we are thinking rope drop then hold FP+ for late morning, afternoon, evening. Good luck with your planning. It does take some extra work up front. This all assumes FP+ systems will work in October as it does now (3 a day, tiers, etc) with fp machines gone.

BTW, can’t go wrong eating at AKL sit downs. All 3 are good. Boma is one of favorite wdw places to eat.

Very helpful, thanks!

 

[amg35]

Hey it's me again!

Have any of you gone to a Halloween Party while you were there? If so, did you go to a different park in the morning and then to MK at night? I'm assuming (looking at last year's schedule) there will be one on either the Thursday or Friday I'm there (10/21-10/30) and that would probably be one of the days we would do it.

I have to be honest, I'm getting so excited I'm jumping out of my skin. Our mind hasn't really been on planning (our old dog got very sick and declined rapidly ), but now that we are coming out of that sad fog, we've finally started trip planning.

It's only January!!

 

[Later_Mater2009]

good to know all this, we are trying for mid october, we always go in the summer, I wonder if the mid october crowds are the same as summer? I assume not, but i wondered of the party brings in more ppl.

 

[ERJmommy]

good to know all this, we are trying for mid october, we always go in the summer, I wonder if the mid october crowds are the same as summer? I assume not, but i wondered of the party brings in more ppl.

Never been in the summer..only at spring break and this past October 13-20. It was very crowded....people crowded....but we never felt like we waited in really long lines. We were in the testing phase with FP + and could also pull legacy fastpasses but we only did the for 2 additional FP in MK. We used the allotted three in AK, and HS, and our second MK day (which also happened to be our party day).

 

[Later_Mater2009]

Never been in the summer..only at spring break and this past October 13-20. It was very crowded....people crowded....but we never felt like we waited in really long lines. We were in the testing phase with FP + and could also pull legacy fastpasses but we only did the for 2 additional FP in MK. We used the allotted three in AK, and HS, and our second MK day (which also happened to be our party day).

Thanks, we went in july, supposedly one of the busiest times, but like you we never felt crowded or over run, only one time did i think to myself "this was a bad idea" but that was factoring in people and heat when everyone left the Lights Motor Action at DHS, i kinda went into panic mode lol we used the traditional fass pass system, one thing going for us on a October trip will be maybe a little less hot.. maybe.. lol