Just Got Back: An Alternative View

[Diznut84]

First, let me say that I am a HUGE fan of both TGM and the Unofficial Guide. But on this trip (14 days ending today), a different conventional wisdom worked better than either of the strategies laid out by either.

The touring plan that worked best was to arrive at the parks around 5pm, grab one set of fastpasses, eat a nice sit-down dinner, and stay until closing. Of course, use fastpasses whenever possible. But the number one strategy was to be ready to maximize the final 90 minutes of each park's operating hours. In addition, summer WDW visitors should feel free to attend the Extra Magic Hours nights, but it will be better if you can stay all the way until the end. This is a HUGE change from the past.

My daughter and I are theme park junkies. We routinely arrive at park opening. That strategy DID NOT WORK on this trip. Animal Kingdom really didn't work. Expedition Everest was an IMMEDIATE 55 minute wait (as was Kilimanjaro Safaris). It tamed down much later in the afternoon.

On EACH night, we were able to go on the most popular rides MULTIPLE times. Both Splash Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain were walk-ons during the final 35+ minutes. Buzz had NO wait the last 50 minutes. Fastpasses were available for Space Mountain until very late in the day.

My recommendation: Be flexible. It is VERY helpful to read both TGM and the Unofficial Guide, but you need to test your own theories as well. For us, this is the FIRST trip (in over 30+ trips) that we have spend the final week sleeping in, swimming all afternoon, and going to the parks until closing. It was different, but it was GREAT!

 

[kj2mom]

One night last fall we got a fast pass for Peter Pan which was after Wishes. At first I was a little skeptical but we had soo much fun after the fireworks (and accidently stumbled across the second Spectro), it was our last night there and was certainly a memorable one. We never rushed to the parks in the morning because we were out pretty late and I wanted my children to be able to sleep as long as they wanted. I am all for waking up naturally..........I know alot of people love families like us (I have many times read things like, I love families who sleep in and get there around 11 or 12 because that makes the parks emptier for me) but that timing worked well for us and kept my children happy. Happy children = happy momma no matter what time we get to the parks.

 

[punkin]

My daughter and I are theme park junkies. We routinely arrive at park opening. That strategy DID NOT WORK on this trip. Animal Kingdom really didn't work. Expedition Everest was an IMMEDIATE 55 minute wait (as was Kilimanjaro Safaris). It tamed down much later in the afternoon.

You mean if you are there at rope drop and run immediately to EE, you will have a 55 minute wait? I was counting on less than 15 minutes first thing.

 

[srdipert]

We found the late evenings to be much less crowded than the mornings when we went a couple of weeks ago. Not mention much cooler and I think the parks are just so much more "alive" after dark!

 

[dopeyfanatic]

Do you think it worked so well because you were able to use EMH? We're going next year and won't be able to as we're offsite, so I'm curious if this plan will help out even for offsite guests!?

 

[Robo]

We routinely arrive at park opening. That strategy DID NOT WORK on this trip. Animal Kingdom really didn't work. Expedition Everest was an IMMEDIATE 55 minute wait...

I don't see how that's really physically possible if the rides are operating normally.

The first, say, 200-500 guests to arrive at EE can't be waiting 55 minutes to ride.
EE loads very fast.
55 minutes will find EE loading hundreds and hundreds of guests
(from reports I've read, about 1,600 to 1,800 guests an hour can ride EE.)

Although I can see, if you don't arrive well-before gate-opening (EMH included) and just arrive "at or near opening time" , then walk in at the tail-end of the guests who have already gone to the popular attractions, now THAT is beleivable on a very busy day to make for some longer waits.

I'm just trying to understand what happened.
It doesn't compute.

I mean somebody (lots of somebodies) have to be the first ones to ride the attractions.
I have been on the very first rides of the day for EE and Soarin' myself, many, many times.

 

[punkin]

I don't see how that's really physically possible if the rides are operating normally.

The first, say, 200-500 guests to arrive at EE can't be waiting 55 minutes to ride.
EE loads very fast.
55 minutes will find EE loading hundreds and hundreds of guests
(from reports I've read, about 1,600 to 1,800 guests an hour can ride EE.)

Although I can see, if you don't arrive well-before gate-opening (EMH included) and just arrive "at or near opening time" , then walk in at the tail-end of the guests who have already gone to the popular attractions, now THAT is beleivable on a very busy day to make for some longer waits.

I'm just trying to understand what happened.
It doesn't compute.

I mean somebody (lots of somebodies) have to be the first ones to ride the attractions.
I have been on the very first rides of the day for EE and Soarin' myself, many, many times.

I agree. I can't imagine it being 55 minutes unil the park has been opened at least half an hour. My plan next week is to have DH go first thing in the morning to ride EE. No one else in our group is interested in riding it so I figure if he runs and does one of the first trips, he should be done in 10-15 minutes.

 

[makinorlando]

We found the late evenings to be much less crowded than the mornings when we went a couple of weeks ago. Not mention much cooler and I think the parks are just so much more "alive" after dark!

As a "local" this is what we do during the summer. I just can't justify going and spending a long hot summer day in the parks. We head over around 6pm or so and enjoy the evening!

I too think the parks come ALIVE at night. The only thing it is not so good for is character hunting, but we do that in the cooler times of the year!

 

[4eyedbuzzard]

...The touring plan that worked best was to arrive at the parks around 5pm, grab one set of fastpasses, eat a nice sit-down dinner, and stay until closing. Of course, use fastpasses whenever possible. But the number one strategy was to be ready to maximize the final 90 minutes of each park's operating hours. In addition, summer WDW visitors should feel free to attend the Extra Magic Hours nights, but it will be better if you can stay all the way until the end. This is a HUGE change from the past.

My daughter and I are theme park junkies. We routinely arrive at park opening. That strategy DID NOT WORK on this trip. Animal Kingdom really didn't work. Expedition Everest was an IMMEDIATE 55 minute wait (as was Kilimanjaro Safaris). It tamed down much later in the afternoon.

On EACH night, we were able to go on the most popular rides MULTIPLE times. Both Splash Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain were walk-ons during the final 35+ minutes. Buzz had NO wait the last 50 minutes. Fastpasses were available for Space Mountain until very late in the day.

My recommendation: Be flexible. It is VERY helpful to read both TGM and the Unofficial Guide, but you need to test your own theories as well. For us, this is the FIRST trip (in over 30+ trips) that we have spend the final week sleeping in, swimming all afternoon, and going to the parks until closing. It was different, but it was GREAT!

We just returned and found exactly the same thing. 5 park days(2 in MK) and we walked on most everything during the last hour or so. EVERYBODY seems to be going early. The solution: Go late, stay late. We went after the daily T-storms and it was 20° cooler and the lines thinned out quickly for dinner and parade times. When in Rome, do as the barbarians do. One warning, this stategy did not work for Soarin or Test-Track. We went to Epcot 10 am and got a fast pass for Soarin, but waited on Test-track as FP's were already gone by 10:30! Our only real touring "mistake". TT breaks down more often than an Edsel...

Also we did TL and BB and I would recommend going early to these and not going on a weekend day. We went to TL on Sat at 10 am. It was great until around noon, then got very crowded. We left and went to MK later that evening. If you want a nice shady chair area get to the waterparks at 9:00 am.

 

[SnwflkCts]

I don't remember the exact time (so can't say as to whether it was 55 minutes) but we arrived at rope drop at AK and the line to EE was HUGE -- I mean stretched halfway to Africa (gee that sounds funny )! Our FPs were for 1235 if I remember correctly. Just saying it could be possible for a long line to have formed --

Interesting concept to arrive late and stay late. But I am too much of an early bird to try it.

 

[Diznut84]

We were at AK 15 minutes BEFORE opening. We had no bags to search, and took the quickest route to EE. Like I said earlier, the wait was MORE than 50 minutes for the standby line. There were already several hundred people OUTSIDE the EE entrance lined up approximately half way to Africa. If we would have arrived 30 minutes later, the queue was over 70 minutes.

Also note that this was the morning FOLLOWING EMH Evening (typically the BEST morning for touring).

Feel free to ignore the advice. To each their own. We were huge fans of arriving early prior to this trip. Now we will experiment at the beginning of each trip...

For this trip, our experience was that touring late was far superior to touring early. One thing was constant from previous trips: touring in the late morning was the worst of all.

 

[ChrisFL]

I guess thats what happens when most of the big attractions are scheduled shows or only 2 big rides to speak of.

 

[Robo]

Anyone still reading...
If you want to take the best advantage of the mornings, arrive at LEAST 30 minutes before the "opening time" (including on EMH days) so that you are not already behind a huge group of guests.

 

[Amy5000]

I have to say that go late and stay late sounds like a great strategy to me...but since I have little kids (currently 2 and 4), I can't imagine that this would work for us. I've been reading TGM and decided I would just set an alarm and try to get moving early..

 

[punkin]

I can't really do the late day touring. It may be a great idea for some, but my family would colleapse. I guess in a case like hte OP's I would just have grabbed a FP for EE and come back later.

 

[kdkbrebel]

We haven't been since 03 but we kind of do a combination of both. some of the time we are there well before opening tour till around 1 or so, back to the hotel for nap, shower etc, then back to parks for dinner and stay till close. I did find that we had a blast at MK with mostly walk on rides late at night.

 

[BuzzandAriel'smom]

When I am at Disney I am the first one up and so excited to get the parks that I cannot imagine waiting all day. Maybe when my kids are teenagers and not as excited as I am we can try the late plan. It does sound like fun!

 

[disneyfanfamily]

We have always been early goers. However this year, while the majority of the time we will get to the parks before opening, we will try the later EMH on 1 or 2 occasions. Our kids are now 12, 10 & 6. We will see how it goes. They will probably do better than me!!!! They are so excited about doing WDW at night. We will let you know how it goes in apx. 3 weeks when we get back!!!! We leave in 9 days to the world!!!!

Angela

 

[TAKitty]

The touring plan that worked best was to arrive at the parks around 5pm, grab one set of fastpasses, eat a nice sit-down dinner, and stay until closing. Of course, use fastpasses whenever possible. But the number one strategy was to be ready to maximize the final 90 minutes of each park's operating hours.

This plan works for us too! We love to go on Splash during Spectro; we had a zero wait in July! I have been at AK at opening in the summer and it was packed and busy right from the start. This summer we are arriving at AK around 1:00.

 

[Max Rebo]

Our AK strategy also left us disappointed.

We visited the park Thursday, June 7, a non-EMH day, arriving 30 minutes before park-opening.

When the park opened, DD7 and I hightailed it to EE to pick up FPs before meeting DW and DS4 back at the Safari. By that time, the posted waiting time for Safari was 30 minutes. The actual wait was about 40 minutes. By the time we got off the ride, it was already 10:20, almost an hour and a half into the day, and we'd experienced only one attraction.

Kinda set us back for the rest of the day.