I am in a dilemma! What would you do?

[Deanie1]

We will be at WDW Nov 27-Dec 5, travel days excluded. In light of hard to get fastpasses (FOP), I have had to change my whole itinerary around. A few days I am having trouble juggling. We are doing MK two days, one day on Dec 4 where we have a BOG dinner and watching HEA. Our other MK day would either be on a MNSSHP (Tues) so it closes at 6pm but is a lower crowd day (3 on Touring Plans) or else on a Sat where MK is open until 9pm but right now Touring PLans has it as a 7 crowd level. Your help is very appreciated. Oh, and the other person will have an ECV which might be harder in bigger crowds - she has never used one before.

 

[brad813]

Well, I would say you do have quite the dilemma, since MNSSHP ends November 1st. I believe you meant MVMCP. In any case, if you already have one full MK, I would go with the party day and purchase some tickets. You will get to enjoy the festivities. The reason for the lower crowds is nobody wants to waste a ticket on a shorter amount of time, but you would also have the benefit of having very short waits throughout the day. Another option you have is to also do one MK day and do the party with another park earlier in the day(I am using this tactic for an Epcot/MNSSHP day on Nov 1). Either way, especially with the ECV, your best bet is to choose the day of the party. Also, I would mention on crowd calenders, look between Undercover Tourist, KennythePirate.com, and Touring Plans. I have found that you can get a better idea by comparing a few different calendars.

 

[MusicalAstronaut]

We will be at WDW Nov 27-Dec 5, travel days excluded. In light of hard to get fastpasses (FOP), I have had to change my whole itinerary around. A few days I am having trouble juggling. We are doing MK two days, one day on Dec 4 where we have a BOG dinner and watching HEA. Our other MK day would either be on a MNSSHP (Tues) so it closes at 6pm but is a lower crowd day (3 on Touring Plans) or else on a Sat where MK is open until 9pm but right now Touring PLans has it as a 7 crowd level. Your help is very appreciated. Oh, and the other person will have an ECV which might be harder in bigger crowds - she has never used one before.

Did you check for FOP fastpasses yesterday? They released a ton a few days ago and everyone has been getting them for every day of their trip. As I type I realize you might not be able to even get fastpasses for your trip yet...I wouldn't give up hope, and I also wouldn't plan your entire trip around it unless you're just the biggest Pandora fan ever and it's the only ride you absolutely must do.

Disney may also change up the park hours on you as your dates get closer. October went from green-yellow to nearly all red on the crowd calendars this year. I'm going in December (8-12) and there are no hotels available and I expect it's going to be much more crowded than it was a few years ago. Disney has extended the park hours for October twice since I booked my hotel this summer. Basically, don't put all of your eggs in the Touring Plans basket, it might not be as bad at MK on the 9pm night as you're afraid it will be. Do you have park hoppers? If you don't and you decide to do MK on the party day, just plan something fun for that evening. Take that evening and use it to enjoy your hotel pool (if you're on site they often do movies out by the pools), go to the Boardwalk and have dinner or go to Jelly Rolls, check out Disney Springs (there is SO much to do there now!). If it's truly a very low crowd day and you're there at rope drop, you shouldn't have an issue getting all of the rides done that you want. Then it won't even matter that you have to leave at 6, and you can have the rest of the night to do some of the non-park things that folks sometimes miss out on by being in the parks sun up to sun down.

 

[brad813]

Did you check for FOP fastpasses yesterday? They released a ton a few days ago and everyone has been getting them for every day of their trip. As I type I realize you might not be able to even get fastpasses for your trip yet...I wouldn't give up hope, and I also wouldn't plan your entire trip around it unless you're just the biggest Pandora fan ever and it's the only ride you absolutely must do.

Disney may also change up the park hours on you as your dates get closer. October went from green-yellow to nearly all red on the crowd calendars this year. I'm going in December (8-12) and there are no hotels available and I expect it's going to be much more crowded than it was a few years ago. Disney has extended the park hours for October twice since I booked my hotel this summer. Basically, don't put all of your eggs in the Touring Plans basket, it might not be as bad at MK on the 9pm night as you're afraid it will be. Do you have park hoppers? If you don't and you decide to do MK on the party day, just plan something fun for that evening. Take that evening and use it to enjoy your hotel pool (if you're on site they often do movies out by the pools), go to the Boardwalk and have dinner or go to Jelly Rolls, check out Disney Springs (there is SO much to do there now!). If it's truly a very low crowd day and you're there at rope drop, you shouldn't have an issue getting all of the rides done that you want. Then it won't even matter that you have to leave at 6, and you can have the rest of the night to do some of the non-park things that folks sometimes miss out on by being in the parks sun up to sun down.

I actually got my Fastpass out of that released batch. Hoping a 9AM opens up, but my 9:25AM works with the plan I built. To add to what you are saying, on any given day, if you plan carefully, you can schedule in 3 or 4 hour breaks then return for the evening. I have breaks from my main park planned three days of my upcoming trip, most 3-4 hours in length, so it definitely helps to keep some flexibility built in. I'm just going to park hop during that time, but if someone wanted they could do something else. With his dates, parkhoppers may not be a bad option with Food & Wine closing out that week.