Last minute trip - strategy help

[AN19034]

Hello all,

Husband got some last minute time off and we have never been to Disney together so we decided to go. We will only be at the park for 2 full days. Last time both I went to Disney was 6 years ago and I only had one day with poor planning ha. Last time he went was even longer than that. We are in our late 20's, no kids.

Top two park priorities ride wise and HK for Toy Story (his favourite Disney movie) and AK for Pandora.

Since we booked so late, there are no morning fast passes available for any of the big rides.

I was thinking for us to do one of two things.

Option 1
Rope drop HS - get through Toy Story, Rock N Roller coaster, Tower of Terror and Star Wars with no FP. I have no idea how long this would take. If there is time, check out some of the shows/do character greets.

FP the afternoon at Epcot. I already booked Spaceship Earth at 1:05, Mission: SPACE and 2:35 and Test Track at 3:50. Soaring was also available and the FP time slots for these rides were plentiful in the afternoon. I could even move them to later timing to allow more time at HS.

Back to HS at night for Fantastic.

Do this same strategy the next day with Rope Drop at AK and spend afternoon/evening at Magic Kingdom. I can get afternoon FP for Space Mountain, Splash Mountain, Peter Pan, - pretty much everything except Mine Train.

The problem I'm scared about with this strategy is we wont finish our initial 3 FP until much later in the afternoon.

Option 2

Rope drop HS. I can get star tours at 9:00 am and Toy story mania at 10:55am. Then book a random show at noon even if we don't go just get the FP out the way as quickly as possible, and then try luck and grabbing for HS and Epcot throughout the day.

Do the same thing with rope dropping animal kingdom the next day. The app is bugging for me right now so I can't see morning availability but essentially just book three lesser priority things in the morning and taking chances with same day FP for AK/MK.

Which one would you guys recommend?

 

[AN19034]

Cam back to say I got a 9am for Kilimanjaro Safaris. There's an 11am Dinosaur or 11:10 am Kali River Rapids, and 1:40 Expedition Everest. So is it safe to say we should Rope drop Pandora and then mix in or morning FP here then just see what's available at MK for rest of day.

 

[WDW_Ding]

Take a look at touringplans.com. You have to pay a small fee to access the "touring plans" section, but it will customize a plan for you and your family to do everything you want to do in a certain park on a certain day. They will tell you when to get there, what order to do the attractions in, and help with other things to maximize your time in the parks. It is exactly what you want.

 

[GillianP1301]

I would go with Option 2 for the HS/EP day and try your luck at same day fastpasses for EP. Depending on how busy it is, you should be able to get just about everything except for Test Track (and maybe Soarin'), but you could always single rider line Test Track.

For your AK/MK day, for sure RD Pandora, use the fastpasses in AK and rely on same day fastpasses for MK, it is the easiest park to get same day fastpasses because of how many rides there are. You likely still won't get Mine Train, but you could always get in that queue right before closing, it will be the shortest wait of the day other than front of RD.

 

[kiford]

Take a look at touringplans.com. You have to pay a small fee to access the "touring plans" section, but it will customize a plan for you

Plus it gets you access to their Lines app which I find to be much more accurate than Disney's own estimates. It's saved me from crossing the park many times or made me go to attractions I might have skipped on the assumption that it would be busy. I also love how it gives you an estimate as to whether or not a particular attraction is at its peak wait time, if it is projected to go up or down in the next few hours and when is the best time to get there at its lowest point. It's great for on-the-fly decisions about where to go next.

 

[Kimpossible1]

I don't think you need to pay for an app, do option 2 and they start letting people in the park early, as to how early it is different every day but just get there about 45 minutes before park opening and then make the dash with everyone else. Your plans seem solid and you understand the fastpass system, remember you can modify times too and try to move things around and try for more after the 3 are used up. We were at MK on Monday and Mine Train popped up for around 8 and this was at 3, so good luck and keep checking, you never know what will pop up and what you can try to modify around, have fun

 

[bopper]

Also decide if it is more important to:
1) Visit all the parks
2) Not waste time during the day getting from one park to another

I personally think it would be annoying to be at HS, go to Epcot, and then go back to HS. But if you want to only do "E-ticket rides" then it would work.
Plan about 45 minutes for each switch between parks.