I'm breaking all the rules! Planning my park days ignoring good advice. Fast pass question?

[Farro]

So this trip is going to be different for us, very unstructured, very fly by the seat of our pants.

We are doing zero rope drops, purposely choosing parks with EMH and reserving the right to hop anywhere if we get bored.

I planned this way leaving DHS as our 5th and 9th day to try and maximize fast pass chances. What's harder to get? Slinky Dog or Star Wars stuff (please take into account ROTR will be open when we go) - try for which on 5th and 9th day?
AK we have for our 3rd and 6th day - think we can get FOP in there?

I have us arriving early afternoons a lot, but that will change if we can only get morning fast passes for certain rides.

The only night show we are interested in is whatever they will have at Epcot by the time we go.

5/6 - arrive, Disney Springs maybe, dinner at Toledo (staying at Gran Destino)
5/7 - MK early afternoon to close at 9. Skipping night show in favor of 8:45 reservation at Skipper Canteens. Missing the madness!
5/8 - AK early afternoon to close, eating somewhere there, who knows!
5/9 - Epcot early afternoon to close, dinner at Chefs De France
5/10 - DHS - EMH in morning, but we are...skipping, arrive early afternoon, dinner up in the air! Disney Springs, Crews Cup...
5/11 - AK same as above - EMH in morning which we don't plan to utilize
5/12 - Epcot late afternoon and staying for EMH at night. Dinner Via Napoli
5/13 - MK later afternoon to close - EMH at night. Dinner???
5/14 - DHS and whatever else
5/15 - home to Walnut and plans to adopt two more kittens!

How's this for a plan? Also, maybe we will do a morning somewhere, come back to hotel to swim and then go back out to park a night. Or head to DS at night. Who knows...

Thoughts? Advice? Two adults, no kids. Pool time is nice but we don't need it everyday. We do enjoy wine time.

 

[DGsAtBLT]

No Star Wars FP yet. If they come online before your trip I can only guess at the very least ROTR will be harder than SDD. I think you’ve got a chance of a FoP on the 3rd day since you don’t want morning, 6th should be fine.

We were 2 adults last week and had a lot of luck with refresh. We did especially well at DHS, nearly everything in tier 1 made it all pretty easy to grab as a 4th FP (except SDD).

 

[Farro]

No Star Wars FP yet. If they come online before your trip I can only guess at the very least ROTR will be harder than SDD. I think you’ve got a chance of a FoP on the 3rd day since you don’t want morning, 6th should be fine.

We were 2 adults last week and had a lot of luck with refresh. We did especially well at DHS, nearly everything in tier 1 made it all pretty easy to grab as a 4th FP (except SDD).

I didn't realize that! Well, that makes it easier. Hmm. Maybe we don't skip the DHS am EMM on 5/10.

 

[mamamelody2]

FoP on day 3 is unlikely. Day 6 should be fine. SDD is currently the hardest FP to get. I would go for SDD day 9 first (should have your pick of times), SDD for day 5 2nd, FoP day 6 3rd. 7DMT on the 13th next, then fill in from there.

Just a clarification, you are referring to EMH (extra magic hours) not EMM (early morning magic). I know they're easy to mix up.

 

[Farro]

FoP on day 3 is unlikely. Day 6 should be fine. SDD is currently the hardest FP to get. I would go for SDD day 9 first (should have your pick of times), SDD for day 5 2nd, FoP day 6 3rd. 7DMT on the 13th next, then fill in from there.

Just a clarification, you are referring to EMH (extra magic hours) not EMM (early morning magic). I know they're easy to mix up.

Yes, Extra Magic Hours, I'll edit my post. Touring plans has the EMH listed, not the parties.

I noticed our day 6 at AK is also an EMH for morning which we didn't plan to utilize...

 

[GoofyDad_4427]

Since you are doing no mornings, I would start the FP booking with SDD on 5/10, then FoP on 5/8, then SDMT on 5/7. You will have no trouble getting whatever you want for 5/11 and later, since you are not looking for anything in the morning.

 

[SaintsManiac]

Given the time of year you are going I think you have a good chance of a late FoP on day 3. Use the FP availability tool on The Dibb. It's extremely helpful. It will give you good info the night before you make them and you can switch things up then if you need to.

I got Slinky on day 4 at night for Thanksgiving week. I think you'll be fine.

 

[Farro]

Given the time of year you are going I think you have a good chance of a late FoP on day 3. Use the FP availability tool on The Dibb. It's extremely helpful. It will give you good info the night before you make them and you can switch things up then if you need to.

I got Slinky on day 4 at night for Thanksgiving week. I think you'll be fine.

What is The Dibb?

 

[Farro]

thanks all!

 

[SaintsManiac]

What is The Dibb?

https://www.thedibb.co.uk/forums/fastpass_plus_availability.php

 

[Isabelle12345]

May I Ask why you are purposefully choosing parks with morning EMH that you are not planning to attend? Not judging just curious... is it because you feel they are less crowded or it’s a preference based on the order of the parks you want to go to, ADRs, etc?

 

[Farro]

May I Ask why you are purposefully choosing parks with morning EMH that you are not planning to attend? Not judging just curious... is it because you feel they are less crowded or it’s a preference based on the order of the parks you want to go to, ADRs, etc?

Just the order we want to do the parks!

 

[LCoulter]

I am curious to see how this plan works for you because I’m thinking about skipping rope drops on a future trip. Can you please report back here on how it went?

I have so much trouble getting DD and DH up early for rope drop so sleeping in and having a nice breakfast would be a nice change.

 

[Welsh_Dragon]

I think that you will be shocked when you realise how much harder it is to achieve things when you don’t do RD. I know I was. You often end up just doing rides you have FPs for and nothing else.
Try the lounges at AK and HS. Nomads and HBD are great spots.

 

[cheryl.UK]

Don't stress it. We never rope drop, generally hit the parks in the morning but not before 10. We do, however, avoid the early morning magic hours park and use our FP+ for these hours. We stay until about 2pm then head back to the resort for a few hours, making a new FP for the evening. We never miss one of our favourite rides and have a very stress free vacation.

 

[Klayfish]

I think that you will be shocked when you realise how much harder it is to achieve things when you don’t do RD. I know I was. You often end up just doing rides you have FPs for and nothing else.

I couldn't disagree with this more. If people want to do rope drop, that's great. However, from the perspective of getting on rides it's 100% unnecessary. All of our trips are like yours OP. We haven't done a rope drop in at least 5 or 6 years, we don't even look to see what parks have EMH, we just go to whatever park we want on whatever day we want. We have no hard and fast plans, pretty much ever. We do reserve our FP+ in advance (30 days or less for us), but frankly we wind up even changing those half the time. We get on just as many rides as people who get up at 5am to be there super early for a rope drop. Learn how to use FP+ and refresh method and you'll be stunned how much you can do. Plus, if you're in the parks late, the last hour is just as "empty" as the first hour.

There are a lot of "rules" or "musts" people go by here that IMO are nothing more than personal preference or myth. Must rope drop, must do mid-day break, must do rest day, must avoid EHM, must plan everything 6 months in advance. Nothing wrong with any of those if they're your personal style, but they definitely aren't musts or rules by any stretch.

Have a great time!!!

 

[Farro]

I think that you will be shocked when you realise how much harder it is to achieve things when you don’t do RD. I know I was. You often end up just doing rides you have FPs for and nothing else.
Try the lounges at AK and HS. Nomads and HBD are great spots.

We wont be! We've been plenty of times and did rope drop. We are there 9 days in early May, we will see everything we want. And we don't mind waiting in some lines.

We are not open to close people. So if I want to be in a park until close, we can't arrive before early afternoon or I'll want to leave!

 

[Farro]

I am curious to see how this plan works for you because I’m thinking about skipping rope drops on a future trip. Can you please report back here on how it went?

I have so much trouble getting DD and DH up early for rope drop so sleeping in and having a nice breakfast would be a nice change.

Will do!

I should say my plan is not set in stone.
I can guarantee while we are there we will leave a park we planned to stay at all day and go to another (which is why we always buy hoppers). Or maybe go to the park mid morning (around 10) and then go back to same park or another park later. On the days we plan to arrive to a park later afternoon, we'll probably do another park first just to wander around and take in the scenery.

Plans will firm up once I do fast passes but even then, as @Klayfish said, we end up changing fast passes throughout our trip.

 

[MomOTwins]

I think the reason we rope drop is with a family of 5, it is too expensive to have a long trip at WDW, so we have to pack everything in to a 3-4 day trip. I can see how with a party of 2, a longer trip is more affordable, and it makes sense to build in downtime since you actual park time is probably equivalent to what we do on a shorter trip, just spread over more days. I say go for it.

 

[Pmlocke]

You are going to realize the best Disney vacation ever. My wife and I have now traveled without kids or grandkids since 2013 and we follow a "no rules" visit. We get up when we wake up, no alarms or wake up calls. We eat a good breakfast at the hotel and then when we walk out to the bus pick up area, that is when we decide where to go. No fats passes to require our attendance, no expectations of having to be somewhere at any given time. Always back for lunch and pool time in the afternoon and then off again to another park for the evening. We really began to truly enjoy our trips to WDW when we starting going as a couple. 114 days and we are back to celebrate our 46 wedding anniversary and my retirement.