Here's What We Accomplished in One Day at DL

[jeffg4]

I thought I would share our one-day experience at DL for a family of 4 on Monday, July 13 (2 adults, 2 teens) with no EE/MM. Arrived at gates approx 07:10.

Plan for 08:00-12:00
- PP
- Space FP
- ST x 2
- Buzz
- BTMR x 2
- F! FP
- Space FP
- Space (Use FP)
- Roger
- Matterhorn SR
- Alice
- Mr. Toad
- JC
- Space (Use FP)
- Indy FP

What we did 08:00-12:00
- PP (First in line - took an extra 5 min because CMs kept sending empty cars)
- Space FP
- ST x 2
- BTMR x 2 (Buzz was down)
- F! FP
- Buzz
- Space FP
- Space (with FP)
- Roger
- Matterhorn SR
- Alice
- Mr. Toad
- Space (with FP)
- JC
- Indy FP

BREAK 12:00 - 14:15

Plan for 14:15 - 17:00
- Indy (Use FP)
- Splash FP
- Tiki
- Mr. Lincoln
- IASW
- Indy FP

What we did 14:15 - 17:00
- Space FP
- Indy (with FP)
- Tiki
- IASW
- Mr. Lincoln
- HM FP
- POTC
- HM (with FP)

BREAK 17:00 - 19:00

Plan for 19:00 - 00:00
- HM
- Splash (use FP)
- WTP
- PTN
- Fireworks (Rivers of America)
- POTC
- F!
- Indy (Use FP)
- POTC
- Pinocchio
- Storybook

What we did 19:00 - 00:00
- Splash FP
- WTP
- Snow White
- Pinocchio
- F! (Yellow)
- Fireworks (Rivers of America)
- Space FP
- Splash (with FP)
- Space (ride was down then reopened, so we rode SB first with a 20 min wait, then used FP to ride again)
- Space (with FP)

28 attractions total, including 4hr 15 min of break time. Space was down for a bit in the evening but we still managed to ride it 4 times. HM was a surprise to see FP available with a return time only 50 min out in the middle of the day. We also caught the last 10-15 of the late PTN while we got trapped in the HUB going from Frontierland to Tomorrowland. We did everything on the plan except a 2nd Indy and Storybook, but got in 2 more Space rides. Also, my DS15 rode Matterhorn SR 4-5 times while the rest of us did the afternoon dark rides. Not too bad for a crowded summer day. The longest SB wait that I could see throughout the day was Splash at 90 min.

 

[DHSbutcher]

WOW! Looks like you had a stellar day! What did you during your breaks? Leave the parks or just stop and eat/browse?

 

[jeffg4]

WOW! Looks like you had a stellar day! What did you during your breaks? Leave the parks or just stop and eat/browse?

We went back to the hotel, the Best Western Stovall's Inn, for lunch on the first break. We had planned on returning to the hotel on the 2nd break but decided to stay in the park and eat dinner since it was a relatively long walk that we didn't feel like making 6 times in one day! I wish I had one of those fit bits on me that day but being the FP runner, I'm guessing I walked close to 11 miles.

 

[DHSbutcher]

Alright awesome! Thanks for letting me know! I often tour the parks so commando style I forget to break and take time to relax- definitely working that in to my touring plans this coming trip. I have a fitbit I plan on wearing on my trip in September- excited but not so excited to see how much I walk! Yikes!

 

[VandVsmama]

Looks like you had an awesome day! We will be staying at BW Stovall's in October. I've never stayed there before. How did you like the motel? What was the free breakfast like? And about how long did it take to walk from Stovall's to the esplanade?

 

[mom2rtk]

From one FP superuser to another........... Congrats on a great day!

 

[honicakes]

Thank you for sharing this! Our first trip is the 2nd week of Sept and I was hoping we'd be able to ride pretty much this same list but without repeats in one day (as we only have one day at each park) - and not feel like we were running ourselves exhausted. This makes it seem like that should be possible.

 

[Mama Mia]

Thanks for the report. We are going to do the same in August and this gives me hope that we can get the same done!

 

[jeffg4]

Looks like you had an awesome day! We will be staying at BW Stovall's in October. I've never stayed there before. How did you like the motel? What was the free breakfast like? And about how long did it take to walk from Stovall's to the esplanade?

The motel and rooms were fine. The breakfast was not very good. The hot items (bacon, french toast, eggs) were not good at all. The diced fruit was bad too. The continental items (bagels, donuts, toast) were fine. We stayed at the BWPP last year and the breakfast was MUCH better and it is closer to the esplanade. I would have preferred to stay there again this year, but they did not let us use points to pay for our room, whereas Stovall did. You can walk from Stovall to the esplanade in about 10 minutes at a brisk pace. You have to go through the GCH and DTD, which I did not like. In the morning it was fine, but in the afternoon and evening, when DTD is a madhouse, it takes an extra 5-10 minutes to make your way through the masses of humanity.

 

[jeffg4]

Thank you for sharing this! Our first trip is the 2nd week of Sept and I was hoping we'd be able to ride pretty much this same list but without repeats in one day (as we only have one day at each park) - and not feel like we were running ourselves exhausted. This makes it seem like that should be possible.

It is definitely possible - you just have to be prepared to adjust on the fly. Stick to you plan in the morning and be prepared for ride closures and FP return times that may not match your plan. This is more prevalent as the day goes on when FP return times are harder to predict. Keep calling Ask Otto to get an idea of wait times and which FPs are running out the quickest. In the PM, we made several adjustments but still kind of followed the overall plan. I put a couple of extra miles on my shoes that were not in the plan because my kids kept wanting to ride Space Mountain!

 

[lvdis]

That sounds like a great day! How did you plan out the order of doing things? Did you use Ridemax or anything like that?

 

[Micahisgood54]

you guys got after it!

 

[jeffg4]

That sounds like a great day! How did you plan out the order of doing things? Did you use Ridemax or anything like that?

I subscribed to both Touring Plans and Ridemax, but didn't like either of the full day plans they were giving me. So I made my own order of rides for the AM and used the TP "Evaluate" option to put wait times in. I used Ridemax for the PM plan, but some of the FP return times were pretty far off, so I had to adapt. I had a good enough idea of what wait times were going to be, so I used my own knowledge in combination with the general plans to come up with something that I was happy with.

 

[mshrm]

Looks like a great day. I might even try and copy your plan in a couple time zones. Thanks for sharing and glad to hear how much can be done during these summer crowds!

 

[elaine amj]

Good stuff!! We were in the parks on Monday too and it was definitely very busy! Much busier than Saturday and Sunday (which were still packed despite the rain).

 

[meljean]

Wow that looks great! 2 questions, am I correct you only did DL and California adventure? Also it looks like HM will be down when we go this fall. Is it much different than WDW? Super bummed

 

[jeffg4]

Wow that looks great! 2 questions, am I correct you only did DL and California adventure? Also it looks like HM will be down when we go this fall. Is it much different than WDW? Super bummed

Yes - we did DCA the following day. I'm still trying to round up the info for that tour as RSR and TSMM were both down at park opening, which messed up our plan and I didn't end up taking good notes. Still had a productive day but we pretty much winged it the whole time. If we can remember what we did during the PM portion, I will post that tour also. HM is essentially the same at WDW and DLR.