HydroGuy tips - going on the weekend

[DisneyElite4]

Hi!

We are going to the DLR for the first time June 6-11. We are staying at GCH. I have studied all of HydroGuy's tips in depth, and subscribed to Ridemax to get a good outline for the first few hours of each day, so I feel relatively prepared.

However, I still have two questions that I cannot find a good answer for in my review of this board, that I was hoping you wonderful people could help me with.

1. One of HydroGuy's tips is to not go on a weekend. Our trip will have us with one full day (Friday) and a half day (Saturday) on the weekend. Is this going to be a huge setback for us? We understand there will be more crowds. We could leave early, but we really wanted a longer vacation and time to relax at the hotel. We are a party of adults only, and one of our days is at Universal (Thursday).

2. We are WDW vets. I am a little concerned about navigating new parks - I am thinking not knowing our way around could set us back as we are trying to get from attraction to attraction. Does anyone have any recommendations for familiarizing yourself before your trip? I am guessing I could just study the maps on the website. We really don't want to be those people blocking the walkway with a giant map every day.

Thanks!

 

[pixiewings71]

We go on weekends, we just go knowing it will be busier and we are prepared for that. Honestly, if you have Ridemax (which I've NEVER used and we've had APs 3 times now) you should be fine...people here say it's great, it should be very helpful for you.

 

[DLR29]

You are going for enough days that I assume you'll be fine on the weekend. It shouldn't be that much big of a crowd difference between your other days and the Friday/Saturday.

 

[skiingfast]

The things that confuse me direction wise in MK is BTMRR is next to Splash, and HM is between Liberty Square and the back way to Fantasyland.

In DL BTMRR is on the other side of ROA from the MK location. HM is next to Splash in DL. Also Buzz is roughly across the walkway in DL compared to the MK location.

DCA is easy to walk through.

All in all it's not too bad and DL is compact so you aren't far from anything if you walk by it.

 

[HydroGuy]

Hi!

We are going to the DLR for the first time June 6-11. We are staying at GCH. I have studied all of HydroGuy's tips in depth, and subscribed to Ridemax to get a good outline for the first few hours of each day, so I feel relatively prepared.

However, I still have two questions that I cannot find a good answer for in my review of this board, that I was hoping you wonderful people could help me with.

1. One of HydroGuy's tips is to not go on a weekend. Our trip will have us with one full day (Friday) and a half day (Saturday) on the weekend. Is this going to be a huge setback for us? We understand there will be more crowds. We could leave early, but we really wanted a longer vacation and time to relax at the hotel. We are a party of adults only, and one of our days is at Universal (Thursday).

Yes but...

I suggest avoiding weekends during high season all else being equal. But it is not equal.

You are not quite to high season yet in early June. Another factor that enters in is new rides just opened (ST2 and LMAUA) and the impact of hundreds of thousands of AP holders who want to ride it in June. Also June has grad nights which changes things.

So for me AP blockouts outweigh weekends in June. Once you are into July then the avoid weekend philosophy is more appropriate.

See "Understanding AP Blockouts and Impact on Crowds" www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2365983

Hi!

2. We are WDW vets. I am a little concerned about navigating new parks - I am thinking not knowing our way around could set us back as we are trying to get from attraction to attraction. Does anyone have any recommendations for familiarizing yourself before your trip? I am guessing I could just study the maps on the website. We really don't want to be those people blocking the walkway with a giant map every day.

Thanks!

I would say maps. Maybe a Wikimap like this would help?

http://www.wikimapia.org/#lat=33.8092124&lon=-117.9188132&z=19&l=0&m=b

 

[engo]

Since you're staying at GCH you get MM on Saturday, if I remember correctly. You may be surprised how much you can accomplish in that one extra hour in the morning.

 

[ktlm]

2. We are WDW vets. I am a little concerned about navigating new parks - I am thinking not knowing our way around could set us back as we are trying to get from attraction to attraction. Does anyone have any recommendations for familiarizing yourself before your trip? I am guessing I could just study the maps on the website. We really don't want to be those people blocking the walkway with a giant map every day.

Thanks!

WDW vet here. Don't worry about it. DL will feel familiar yet, a little off. Kind of like when you are dreaming about a place and it is just not quite like it is in reality. You won't have too much trouble getting around. You might need to look at the map here and there to find where certain attractions are, but you shouldn't have much trouble getting around. As far as CA, it is small and very easy to negotiate and figure out. There aren't that many paths to take.

The best thing about DL/CA is that it is very compact, so you can get everywhere really quickly. After your first day, you will probably be able to get anywhere without a map. If you are really worried, I would say just pull up park maps online know to give yourself an idea of where things are.

 

[pinktink83]

Could you switch your Universal to Saturday and do DL on Thurs/Fri instead?

And ya, DL is small compared to WDW. You can walk across FL in like, 2 minutes, if that. And all the lands are right up next to each other. Just become familiar with the maps.