Help with Our Day One at Epcot?

[Elias1901]

Hey all,

We just have a few days at the parks in late November/early December before we hit the road to Miami to hop on our Disney Cruise in December 2nd.On November 28th, be arriving into MCO with a scheduled arrival time of 10:27 AM. We won’t be wasting any time and will be hopping onto Disney’s Magical Express bound for our resort (Coronado Springs) as soon as humanly possible. I’m not sure how long this will take exactly... but I believe our DME info said it could take up to 75 minutes to get to our resort.

We plan to drop whatever we’ve got with bag check (assuming our room won’t be ready) and hop the next bus to Epcot. What time do you think we could say we’d be walking into Epcot for? My guess was perhaps somewhere between 11:30 AM to noon??

The FastPass+ selections we have for the day are as follows:

- Spaceship Earth (12:25 PM — 1:25 PM)
- Mission: SPACE (1:35 PM — 2:35 PM)
- Soarin’ Around the World (2:45 PM – 3:45 PM)

I scheduled Soarin’ last as it was the one we definitely didn’t want to be late for and end up missing. We chose it over Test Track or Frozen as it has the longest, unappealing queue and I’d rather queue standby for Soarin’ than either of those two... my question is when would be the best time to queue up for those two standby? What I was thinking is head for Test Track and queue for it as soon as we get into the park, then hopefully do our three FP+ as soon as their time slots become available, while scattering in the little attractions like The Seas with Nemo & Friends, Living with the Land and Figment in between each of the FP+ return windows.

Then after our three FastPasses are used up, go queue for Frozen Ever After. Does anybody have any better suggestions to how to best optimize our time that constricts what I’m saying?? Keep in mind that the 28th is Thanksgiving Day... but that is part of the reason we chose Epcot over, say, Magic Kingdom or Hollywood Studios. I figured the crowds would be weakest at Epcot and since we’ll be getting into the park on a late start, I thought a park with a lower attraction count would be a good idea (plus it’s how it worked out with blockouts using my Cast Member Main Entrance passes

Our goal at Epcot is to try and experience each of the attractions and shows (Turtle Talk, American Adventure, etc.) at least once and still have time to steak out a spot to see Epcot Forever at the end of the night. We plan to only stop briefly for lunch at Katsura Grill in Japan.

Any advice that can be put forth is welcomed!!

 

[sharonabe]

First, I would say if you are entering EP before 1:00 p.m., you'll be very lucky. You need to manage those expectations of seeing everything on Thanksgiving Day. EP will be less crowded than MK, but it is still going to be VERY crowded. If you can do TT in the single rider line, your wait will be less, but if not, plan for at least an hour wait for TT.

 

[holden]

You might make your first FP+, but you might not. You are assuming the plane will be on time.

A good strategy for TT and/or FEA is to get in line before closing. TT has a single rider line, so I'd use that during the day. I'd get in line for FEA 5 minutes before the park closes or during the evening show (when most people will be watching the show).

 

[DisneyWishes14]

Hey all,

We just have a few days at the parks in late November/early December before we hit the road to Miami to hop on our Disney Cruise in December 2nd.On November 28th, be arriving into MCO with a scheduled arrival time of 10:27 AM. We won’t be wasting any time and will be hopping onto Disney’s Magical Express bound for our resort (Coronado Springs) as soon as humanly possible. I’m not sure how long this will take exactly... but I believe our DME info said it could take up to 75 minutes to get to our resort.

We plan to drop whatever we’ve got with bag check (assuming our room won’t be ready) and hop the next bus to Epcot. What time do you think we could say we’d be walking into Epcot for? My guess was perhaps somewhere between 11:30 AM to noon??

The FastPass+ selections we have for the day are as follows:

- Spaceship Earth (12:25 PM — 1:25 PM)
- Mission: SPACE (1:35 PM — 2:35 PM)
- Soarin’ Around the World (2:45 PM – 3:45 PM)

I scheduled Soarin’ last as it was the one we definitely didn’t want to be late for and end up missing. We chose it over Test Track or Frozen as it has the longest, unappealing queue and I’d rather queue standby for Soarin’ than either of those two... my question is when would be the best time to queue up for those two standby? What I was thinking is head for Test Track and queue for it as soon as we get into the park, then hopefully do our three FP+ as soon as their time slots become available, while scattering in the little attractions like The Seas with Nemo & Friends, Living with the Land and Figment in between each of the FP+ return windows.

Then after our three FastPasses are used up, go queue for Frozen Ever After. Does anybody have any better suggestions to how to best optimize our time that constricts what I’m saying?? Keep in mind that the 28th is Thanksgiving Day... but that is part of the reason we chose Epcot over, say, Magic Kingdom or Hollywood Studios. I figured the crowds would be weakest at Epcot and since we’ll be getting into the park on a late start, I thought a park with a lower attraction count would be a good idea (plus it’s how it worked out with blockouts using my Cast Member Main Entrance passes

Our goal at Epcot is to try and experience each of the attractions and shows (Turtle Talk, American Adventure, etc.) at least once and still have time to steak out a spot to see Epcot Forever at the end of the night. We plan to only stop briefly for lunch at Katsura Grill in Japan.

Any advice that can be put forth is welcomed!!

Keep in mind, when your plane lands, you then need to take the APM (MCO's monorail) to the main terminal, head down to the ground level of Terminal B and then get in line for Magical Express. That, in and of itself, can take 15 - 20 minutes. You then have to wait to board your bus to CSR which may make multiple stops at other resorts. It could take 20 minutes to board a bus and it takes about 30 minutes just to drive from MCO to the entrance of WDW. That's on a day with no traffic. You arrive Thanksgiving day. I would allow yourself at least 90 minutes from landing to heading into CSR, could be longer, so you may not be at CSR until noon, maybe even later. You then drop your bags and head to the CSR bus stop. It could take up to 20 minutes to get on the EP bus and, again, there will be Thanksgiving day traffic and then you have to go through security. So CSR to walking into EP could be another 45 minutes. You are now at about 1 pm.

I, personally, would go straight to Spaceship Earth and then head to Mission Space. If you have any wiggle room, you could try to do single rider TT (you don't say the ages of your party) or, if you don't have enough wiggle room, do Mission Space and then TT (remember, you have a 15 minute grace period at the end of your FP+ window). I would then head over to the other side of FW and do Seas with Nemo, Living with the Land, etc. as time allows before your Soarin' FP+ window expires. I would really try to keep criss-crossing around FW to a minimum. Just keep in mind, on holidays, even lines for Living with the Land can get long, so I would be prepared to ditch rides as needed if you are in a time crunch. After you use your Soarin' FP+, you can certainly try to get FP+ for Frozen or another attraction that interests you. I would just temper your expectations in terms of how quickly you will be able to move around WDW and EP on that day especially given it's a holiday.

 

[skramer100]

Uber to CS, will save you at least 30 minutes. Check in quickly and leave bags. Uber to Epcot. Only way to get all of that in. Will obviously cost a little more, but you are gonna be waiting a lot for buses with current plan. Also, don't stop to eat at Japan, just grab stuff from the holiday kitchens.

 

[jodyb]

You are really being optimistic. With a 10:30 AM scheduled arrival, and using Magical Express... you need to get much later fast passes, IMO... Also, Magical Express is a LOT less magical than claimed... if you really want to hurry up to Epcot, take a taxi!! Drop your bags at your hotel and continue to Epcot either in same taxi or your resort bus. Even doing this, I think a 12:30 Fast Pass is VERY ambitious.

 

[Elias1901]

I mean, our first FP+ *does* last until 1:25 PM + the 15 minute buffer for being late... with a scheduled 10:27 AM arrival, if we don't make it into the park by 1:40 PM and miss our Spaceship Earth FastPass, I'd be quite shocked. Unless, of course, our plane is catastrophically delayed... but then, I think we'd have a little more to worry about than simply missing our FastPass for Spaceship Earth. That's honestly why I scheduled our FP+ for Soarin' last, so we would be the least likely to miss that one if things went a bit sour on our journey over to WDW...