How do you plan a future trip when park hours/EMHs/party nights not available?

[disprincess2213]

We are planning a trip for Dec 2015 and would like to know how you plan for trips when the hours aren't released? When are they released? Do the EMHs, park hours, and MVMCP nights stay the same each year (meaning should I look at Dec 2014 info)?

 

[Pete W.]

We are planning a trip for Dec 2015 and would like to know how you plan for trips when the hours aren't released? When are they released? Do the EMHs, park hours, and MVMCP nights stay the same each year (meaning should I look at Dec 2014 info)?

They may not be exactly the same, but the previous year's schedule can be a pretty good guide. See last year's hours at: http://www.wdwinfo.com/wdwinfo/hours.htm.

 

[Lumiere Lover]

Love this thread, I am trying to do the exact same planning right now for December 2015.

 

[Farps]

I do not truly plan my Park days or ADR's until Park hours, and crowd calendars are out. We hit am EMH every morning that they are available, then hop to a less crowded Park in the afternoon. And all of our ADR'S are planned according to where we plan to be on any given day. EasyWDW is the site that we use to do our planning, they have been pretty much spot on with their crowd calendars and preferred parks.

 

[dkrauss]

They may not be exactly the same, but the previous year's schedule can be a pretty good guide. See last year's hours at: http://www.wdwinfo.com/wdwinfo/hours.htm.

Excellent point made above

When we plan our park days we start with a very high level plan for each day. We also try to be extremely flexible where we can. We also work to group our FP's in either the "morning" or the "afternoon". This leaves a good chunk of time available to "WHATEVER!" To be honest we've flipped park days more for the ability to do a special tour/event. This last trip we moved around our MK days to accommodate the Segway Tour at FW.

In the end the most important thing is flexibility. Remember you can modify ADR's and FP's.........so you're only locked in by what you "really" want to do.

Ya know the only time I remember park hours mattering in any WDW trip we've taken is the "24hrs of Disney" in 2013............ go figure

Doug

 

[minnie mum]

A lot of us start planning at least a rough outline for our visit months before park hours are announced. I will use easywdws calendar for the preceding year. Ignore the dates and just use the days. It gives you a rough idea of crowd levels and hours.

You can still plan your days. Figure out how many days at each park. Use easys cheat sheets to plan your park touring strategies and which FPs you'd like. Get an idea of which restaurants you'd like on each of those days.

Official park hours, EMH, and party nights will usually come out a couple of weeks before your 180 day. Within a day or so, easywdw will put out its crowd calendar and park recommendatioms. Plenty of time to plug those park days that youve already planned into actual dates and do any tweaking you need to do.

Just don't be surprised when Disney turns around and starts changing park hours months, weeks, or days before your visit starts. Don't panic when this happens. Just stay flexible and you'll be fine.