I was feeling confident but…now 🤯🤯🤯

[Emstars10]

Hi friends - I was feeling good about our upcoming trip (Nov 13-19). It’s our first time back since early 2019 (we were literally getting off Peter Pan when the first case of Rona broke out in RI). Anyway, I’ve read what I could about Genie+, booked transportation from MCO in lieu of the Magical Express, and even made some dining resys at 60 days instead of 180. We have park reservations but 2 days out and I’m feeling adrift without fast passes. I’m willing to accept any and all feedback / confirmation that the below will work. We’re a family of 4 with a 2 (almost 3) year old and a 6 year old.

Sunday arrive at AKL - dinner at Boma 6pm
Monday - Animal Kingdom - that’s it! No plan! I wasn’t going to get Genie +. The only one into Pandora stuff is DH and I can just get him and ILL right?
Tuesday - Epcot - rope drop. Frozen 100% must. Nemo other 100% must. Other than that was just going to go where the wait take is. Again wasn’t going to get genie +. Is that a mistake? Was going to get ILL for guardians for me and DH at some point. Lunch at Via Napoli at 12:30
Wednesday - MK. Going to get genie +. Depending on how the 2 yr old is doing we will either go in the morning and leave for a rest in afternoon and return for dinner at Skipper at 5:30. This is the only night w/o the Christmas party so hoping to stay for fireworks.
Thursday - pool day no parks. Sanaa for dinner at 530
Friday - MK again. Genie +. Rope drop and hit it hard.

 

[scrappinginontario]

It looks like you have a good plan. Honestly, you’ll be just fine. The majority of people find you do not need G+ at AK or EP.

We went earlier this year and had a plan similar to yours and it worked out well.

Have a great trip!!

 

[peabody58]

Chill and have a good time. Look for the magic and not the negatives. Your younglins will only remember the emotions of you all being together having fun, so have fun even if your don;t feel it. Pool day is a great idea. Enjoy your trip. Disney is not going anywhere and will be more than happy to see you again.

 

[thanxfornoticin]

Agree - looks like you've done quite a bit of planning, and should be in excellent shape to enjoy! WIth 2 little ones, you're going to be adjusting on the fly the entire trip - let them dictate how the day goes! You might find you'll want to do G+ one of the days, so you can! And yes, FOP for your DH can be done by purchasing ILL for him (and you don't need to purchase G+ to buy an ILL). Enjoy your time with the family. And take lots of pictures!

 

[MousetersInc]

Congratulations! We also are returning for the first time after 2019. There's a lot to catch up on!

These are good plans, and with your trip coming up tomorrow there might not be too much need/ability to change them up. But just to put out a few considerations:

• You're staying at a deluxe resort; that makes you eligible for "extended evening hours." Looks like, during your trip, these happen at Epcot on Monday and MK on Wed. You might be skipping them because, tbh, staying up that late can be hard to combine with rope-dropping, especially when there's a 2-yr-old in the mix. But it seems like they're a pretty great opportunity; see this article and some positive reports on this forum. You might consider hopping over to those parks on those days at the end of the day (and napping in the middle of the day to make up for it!). In your shoes I might even try to hire a local babysitter for one of the nights...
• You're currently going to MK on a non-party day. There are reports from earlier fall suggesting that the opposite strategy has great results. Everybody says "What, the park closes early today? I won't choose MK on this day, then!," and the party-park is dramatically lower traffic as a result. See this article, and somewhere there's a Disney Food Blog video reporting the same "empty park" phenomenon with some surprise. You might consider the recommendation of starting at MK on a party day and hopping elsewhere once the party starts. Or even just calling it a day at that point and not paying for a hopper ticket! You might get more done in that low-traffic partial-day than in a longer day with higher traffic. Now, one warning is that Tom points out that he was visiting in early October, which was lower traffic in general than we're at now, and he predicts that as WDW traffic increases, more people will be "pushed into" the party-park, so the "empty park" phenomenon might be less pronounced.
• I love your choice of Skipper; see my experience in 2019. It's worth waiting for the Butterfly Room!
• "Was going to get ILL for guardians for me and DH at some point."—I was worried recently that ILLs for Cosmic Rewind would sell out before park opening; looking at the data, that doesn't seem to be the case. But they can sell out during busy days, and if you try to book mid-day, you might get inconvenient times. I wouldn't wait around too long on nailing it down.
• If there's any interest in Ratatouille, that's the other "gotta play it right" ride at the moment. If you want to ride it, consider another ILL or using the extended evening hours.
• I notice there's no Hollywood Studios. The biggest thing to have changed since early 2019 is the addition of Galaxy's Edge. If you're not into Star Wars and have zero interest, no problem. But if you wind up upgrading one of your days to a park-hopper, it might be worth checking out.

And, final piece of advice:

• Hey, you're going to Disney World! Don't worry. Take anything I've said above with a grain of salt; as long as you have a plan you're way better off than someone without one. You can have fun no matter what.

 

[coasternut22]

Your plan is totally fine. For Epcot, feel free to rope drop Frozen, then make your way back to the Land/Seas/Figment. You can easily knock out those with little waits between 9-11. Try to get a boarding group for Guardians. It’s free and you can return any time after your group is called. This allows a lot of flexibility. Of course if you don’t get it, you can pay for it. For AK, be aware that It’s Tough to Be a Bug is scary and makes little kids cry. Plan on spending time at the Dig as well. If you don’t plan to get G+ for the safari, try to rope drop it, but keep in mind it doesn’t open until regular park opening. My G+ strategy at MK with little kids is to wait until the middle of the day to book lower tier rides like Buzz, Teacups, Dumbo, Barnstormer. They usually have 20-30 minute waits then, but they will have immediate return times. So you can knock out 4-5 rides in a row with no waits in the middle of the day.

 

[set88]

Definitely no Genie+ at AK or EPCOT, just isn't worth it.

Your plan looks good. I'll be at AK on Monday evening and EPCOT on Tuesday as well!

 

[Emstars10]

Congratulations! We also are returning for the first time after 2019. There's a lot to catch up on!

These are good plans, and with your trip coming up tomorrow there might not be too much need/ability to change them up. But just to put out a few considerations:

• You're staying at a deluxe resort; that makes you eligible for "extended evening hours." Looks like, during your trip, these happen at Epcot on Monday and MK on Wed. You might be skipping them because, tbh, staying up that late can be hard to combine with rope-dropping, especially when there's a 2-yr-old in the mix. But it seems like they're a pretty great opportunity; see this article and some positive reports on this forum. You might consider hopping over to those parks on those days at the end of the day (and napping in the middle of the day to make up for it!). In your shoes I might even try to hire a local babysitter for one of the nights...
• You're currently going to MK on a non-party day. There are reports from earlier fall suggesting that the opposite strategy has great results. Everybody says "What, the park closes early today? I won't choose MK on this day, then!," and the party-park is dramatically lower traffic as a result. See this article, and somewhere there's a Disney Food Blog video reporting the same "empty park" phenomenon with some surprise. You might consider the recommendation of starting at MK on a party day and hopping elsewhere once the party starts. Or even just calling it a day at that point and not paying for a hopper ticket! You might get more done in that low-traffic partial-day than in a longer day with higher traffic. Now, one warning is that Tom points out that he was visiting in early October, which was lower traffic in general than we're at now, and he predicts that as WDW traffic increases, more people will be "pushed into" the party-park, so the "empty park" phenomenon might be less pronounced.
• I love your choice of Skipper; see my experience in 2019. It's worth waiting for the Butterfly Room!
• "Was going to get ILL for guardians for me and DH at some point."—I was worried recently that ILLs for Cosmic Rewind would sell out before park opening; looking at the data, that doesn't seem to be the case. But they can sell out during busy days, and if you try to book mid-day, you might get inconvenient times. I wouldn't wait around too long on nailing it down.
• If there's any interest in Ratatouille, that's the other "gotta play it right" ride at the moment. If you want to ride it, consider another ILL or using the extended evening hours.
• I notice there's no Hollywood Studios. The biggest thing to have changed since early 2019 is the addition of Galaxy's Edge. If you're not into Star Wars and have zero interest, no problem. But if you wind up upgrading one of your days to a park-hopper, it might be worth checking out.

And, final piece of advice:

• Hey, you're going to Disney World! Don't worry. Take anything I've said above with a grain of salt; as long as you have a plan you're way better off than someone without one. You can have fun no matter what.

This is all wonderful info. Thank you so much. We’ve got a party and a non party MK day so I will report back how that works out. To clarify we are not going to said party - we will be there Wed and Friday though. And yes, no HS this trip, going to save it until they are older. I love the idea of hiring a sitter. We’ve thought about it but never pulled the plug but let me poke around.

 

[Emstars10]

Your plan is totally fine. For Epcot, feel free to rope drop Frozen, then make your way back to the Land/Seas/Figment. You can easily knock out those with little waits between 9-11. Try to get a boarding group for Guardians. It’s free and you can return any time after your group is called. This allows a lot of flexibility. Of course if you don’t get it, you can pay for it. For AK, be aware that It’s Tough to Be a Bug is scary and makes little kids cry. Plan on spending time at the Dig as well. If you don’t plan to get G+ for the safari, try to rope drop it, but keep in mind it doesn’t open until regular park opening. My G+ strategy at MK with little kids is to wait until the middle of the day to book lower tier rides like Buzz, Teacups, Dumbo, Barnstormer. They usually have 20-30 minute waits then, but they will have immediate return times. So you can knock out 4-5 rides in a row with no waits in the middle of the day.

Ooh good info re Safari! Thank you. When you say wait until mid day for MK Genie + do you mean wait to book them until mid day or that stacking thing where you start booking in the morning and don’t arrive until later in the day. That’s what I was imagining in my head for Wednesday in this post FP world.

 

[PinkPixel]

Hi friends - I was feeling good about our upcoming trip (Nov 13-19). It’s our first time back since early 2019 (we were literally getting off Peter Pan when the first case of Rona broke out in RI). Anyway, I’ve read what I could about Genie+, booked transportation from MCO in lieu of the Magical Express, and even made some dining resys at 60 days instead of 180. We have park reservations but 2 days out and I’m feeling adrift without fast passes. I’m willing to accept any and all feedback / confirmation that the below will work. We’re a family of 4 with a 2 (almost 3) year old and a 6 year old.

Sunday arrive at AKL - dinner at Boma 6pm
Monday - Animal Kingdom - that’s it! No plan! I wasn’t going to get Genie +. The only one into Pandora stuff is DH and I can just get him and ILL right?
Tuesday - Epcot - rope drop. Frozen 100% must. Nemo other 100% must. Other than that was just going to go where the wait take is. Again wasn’t going to get genie +. Is that a mistake? Was going to get ILL for guardians for me and DH at some point. Lunch at Via Napoli at 12:30
Wednesday - MK. Going to get genie +. Depending on how the 2 yr old is doing we will either go in the morning and leave for a rest in afternoon and return for dinner at Skipper at 5:30. This is the only night w/o the Christmas party so hoping to stay for fireworks.
Thursday - pool day no parks. Sanaa for dinner at 530
Friday - MK again. Genie +. Rope drop and hit it hard.

I would get genie+ for Frozen, at the first available time that works for you at 7 am and not have to worry about rope drop with little kids. Buy ILL for guardians or virtual que.

 

[Emstars10]

Definitely no Genie+ at AK or EPCOT, just isn't worth it.

Your plan looks good. I'll be at AK on Monday evening and EPCOT on Tuesday as well!

Was it just me or was AK busier than you’d thought it would be! Granted we were there morning through mid-day - left at the peak of what I imagine were the crowds.