HS or AK on arrival day (afternoon only)?

[liamthompson]

A friend and I have suddenly decided to do the 3 day/3 park (HS, AK, Epcot) ticket deal in early Feb. I have Pop booked for Wed-Sat.

My flight lands at 9am. My plan is not to check bags and take Mears Connect. Is it reasonable for me to be in the park by noon?

My friend's flight lands at 1:30pm. Her plan is to check bags and rent a car. Is it reasonable for her to be in the park by 3:30pm? I'm going to suggest she drive directly to the park from the airport instead of dropping off bags at Pop to save time.

I'm debating which park to choose for arrival day. Feb hours haven't been released yet so I'm guessing AK will close at 6pm and HS will close at 9pm with one showing of Fantasmic. My initial thought was to choose HS for arrival day because the park hours will be longer than AK but my friend hasn't seen galaxy's edge/toy story land yet (I've been already and really just want to see Fantasmic) and I'm wondering if we should spend a full day instead. There's nothing new to her in AK but I missed the Asia section last time due to food poisoning.

On the other hand, we want to do a character meal and Tusker House during a full animal kingdom day seems like a good option. Plus we could slow down and enjoy Pandora at night and see the new zootopia show.

I'm not sure if we want to buy LL for HS...if we both have bad flight delays, is it likely that we could get the LL refunded? Priorities would be MMRR, TSM, smuggler's run. Attempt single rider for RIse.

Similarly, I don't know how risky it would be to book a fantastmic dining package in case of flight delays.

If we chose HS for arrival day and no LL, is it reasonable to do last showing of little mermaid at 4:30, ride MMRR (5-6pm), single rider smuggler's run (6-6:30), single rider Rise or standby TSM (6:30-8pm), get dinner to go (8-8:30) while waiting for fantasmic (assuming 9:30 showing and that we have to arrive 1 hour before for a decent seat)?

If we chose AK for arrival day and no LL, is it reasonable to do kilimanjaro safari at 4:30 (I think they usually close before 5?) and then jump in line for FoP right before close? I would do all the asia stuff (ride everest and do the animal trails) before my friend arrives.

 

[M&E]

What time do you leave on Saturday? A friend and I have successfully done AK on our leaving day a couple of times. If you are willing to get up and be near the very front of rope drop, you can get a fair amount done at AK in the morning. This will only work if you have later flights on Saturday. Make your arrival day a relaxing day. Go to Disney Springs, ride the Skyliner to Riviera and have drinks at the rooftop bar, sit at the pool (if warm enough)...

 

[hardcorestitch]

A friend and I have suddenly decided to do the 3 day/3 park (HS, AK, Epcot) ticket deal in early Feb. I have Pop booked for Wed-Sat.

My flight lands at 9am. My plan is not to check bags and take Mears Connect. Is it reasonable for me to be in the park by noon?

My friend's flight lands at 1:30pm. Her plan is to check bags and rent a car. Is it reasonable for her to be in the park by 3:30pm? I'm going to suggest she drive directly to the park from the airport instead of dropping off bags at Pop to save time.

I'm debating which park to choose for arrival day. Feb hours haven't been released yet so I'm guessing AK will close at 6pm and HS will close at 9pm with one showing of Fantasmic. My initial thought was to choose HS for arrival day because the park hours will be longer than AK but my friend hasn't seen galaxy's edge/toy story land yet (I've been already and really just want to see Fantasmic) and I'm wondering if we should spend a full day instead. There's nothing new to her in AK but I missed the Asia section last time due to food poisoning.

On the other hand, we want to do a character meal and Tusker House during a full animal kingdom day seems like a good option. Plus we could slow down and enjoy Pandora at night and see the new zootopia show.

I'm not sure if we want to buy LL for HS...if we both have bad flight delays, is it likely that we could get the LL refunded? Priorities would be MMRR, TSM, smuggler's run. Attempt single rider for RIse.

Similarly, I don't know how risky it would be to book a fantastmic dining package in case of flight delays.

If we chose HS for arrival day and no LL, is it reasonable to do last showing of little mermaid at 4:30, ride MMRR (5-6pm), single rider smuggler's run (6-6:30), single rider Rise or standby TSM (6:30-8pm), get dinner to go (8-8:30) while waiting for fantasmic (assuming 9:30 showing and that we have to arrive 1 hour before for a decent seat)?

If we chose AK for arrival day and no LL, is it reasonable to do kilimanjaro safari at 4:30 (I think they usually close before 5?) and then jump in line for FoP right before close? I would do all the asia stuff (ride everest and do the animal trails) before my friend arrives.

My call would be to do DHS in this case.

 

[liamthompson]

What time do you leave on Saturday? A friend and I have successfully done AK on our leaving day a couple of times. If you are willing to get up and be near the very front of rope drop, you can get a fair amount done at AK in the morning. This will only work if you have later flights on Saturday. Make your arrival day a relaxing day. Go to Disney Springs, ride the Skyliner to Riviera and have drinks at the rooftop bar, sit at the pool (if warm enough)...

My flight is at 3:30pm...I'm guessing mears would pick up at 11:30? So we could potentially have 7:30-10:30am in AK...that seems like it would be enough time to rope drop FoP and do a morning safari and ride Everest...I might be anxious the entire time about making the flight though!

 

[Marthasor]

My flight is at 3:30pm...I'm guessing mears would pick up at 11:30? So we could potentially have 7:30-10:30am in AK...that seems like it would be enough time to rope drop FoP and do a morning safari and ride Everest...I might be anxious the entire time about making the flight though!

Do you have TSA pre-check by chance? I do and I never leave WDW until 2 hours prior to my flight, but I use a private car service. Even if you don't have pre-check, if you use a private service (or uber or lyft), you probably don't need to leave WDW until 2 1/2 hours prior to your flight (especially if you leave from Terminal C). That would give you more time in AK on your check-out day. Is it in the budget to stay an extra night so you have 3 full park days?

 

[liamthompson]

Do you have TSA pre-check by chance? I do and I never leave WDW until 2 hours prior to my flight, but I use a private car service. Even if you don't have pre-check, if you use a private service (or uber or lyft), you probably don't need to leave WDW until 2 1/2 hours prior to your flight (especially if you leave from Terminal C). That would give you more time in AK on your check-out day. Is it in the budget to stay an extra night so you have 3 full park days?

No TSA pre-check, thank you for sharing the part about leaving 2.5h earlier...I assume mears connect will pick up 4h early and I'm wondering if I should take uber/lyft instead as you suggest..that would likely give me an extra 2h since I could leave for the airport directly from AK, rather than have to transfer from AK back to Pop to be picked up by Mears. I'll just have a backpack with me so minimal luggage to carry around AK.

I do have wiggle in my budget to stay Saturday night but this is my first trip without my kid and the mom guilt is hitting so hard!