***March 2020***

[ElenaofAvalor]

So we have two rooms at the Shades from Feb. 28th- March 9. I was going to get our tickets at the Shades once we got down there. Now, I am wondering if we won't be able to get any fastpasses at all. We are also fall people, so I am a bit concerned about the crowds. We were, however, able to get all the dining reservations we wanted, and have a ton of those. Would you nix this trip (due to lack of fastpasses), and reschedule for the fall?

 

[Disneyfan754321]

Just got smugglers run FP...i did not know what to do i was ditching Rockin and it offered my slinky dog and smugglers run. I didnt know what to pick.
It was the first time i have seen slinky dog..ahhhh

 

[yorkieteacher]

We are going March 1-6. My SIL teaches college, and that is the university's Spring Break-hopefully it won't be as crowded as later in March. We were able to get cheap airline tickets, and I will be flying down for the first time. It's normally an 8 hour drive for us, so this is a treat. We also upgraded from All Star Movies to POFQ, which I was thrilled about. I stayed in All Star Sports once 10 years ago, and thank goodness we had a car, because bus service was terrible. I talked them into changing resorts after we decided to fly, because I heard transportation from POFQ was pretty good. The last two times we went we stayed at AoA. We will be in HS March 4-the opening of MMRR, so planning is more difficult. We don't care about RotR this trip, got a FP for MFSR. My grandson is just 38" tall, so we are adding thick socks and shoes with thick soles to make sure he can get through! We will arrive early at HS and either expect to wait in line for MMRR, or try to get a boarding group, depending on what the procedure is. We did get all the ADR's we wanted, though not at the times. I have been modifying FP's and ADR's for months!

 

[yorkieteacher]

I’m waiting impatiently for the Flower & Garden food booth menus... I think they came out around Valentine’s Day last year. I've also been looking at all of the lounge menus in Disney Springs to prep for our bar hopping night!

I'm super excited about my first Flower and Garden this trip-our Epcot day is the day after the festival starts, so I'm already looking at last year's menus and hoping they are somewhat similar. They were for the 2018 and 2019 Food and Wine. Since we will be in HS on MMRR opening day, and that is also F&G opening day, I wonder how all the vloggers and bloggers will manage! Since I am expecting huge HS crowds on MMRR opening day, I hope everyone doesn't plan on going to F&G day 2, and I have to deal with huge crowds there as well! Even though I hear F&G is no where near as crowded as F&W.

 

[Wood Nymph]

So we have two rooms at the Shades from Feb. 28th- March 9. I was going to get our tickets at the Shades once we got down there. Now, I am wondering if we won't be able to get any fastpasses at all. We are also fall people, so I am a bit concerned about the crowds. We were, however, able to get all the dining reservations we wanted, and have a ton of those. Would you nix this trip (due to lack of fastpasses), and reschedule for the fall?

There will be some fastpasses available, especially if you check frequently, including the day before, the night before, and first thing in the morning. You might not be able to get everything you want, though.

I'm super excited about my first Flower and Garden this trip-our Epcot day is the day after the festival starts, so I'm already looking at last year's menus and hoping they are somewhat similar. They were for the 2018 and 2019 Food and Wine. Since we will be in HS on MMRR opening day, and that is also F&G opening day, I wonder how all the vloggers and bloggers will manage! Since I am expecting huge HS crowds on MMRR opening day, I hope everyone doesn't plan on going to F&G day 2, and I have to deal with huge crowds there as well! Even though I hear F&G is no where near as crowded as F&W.

We will be at WDW on the same dates as you are, March 1st to 6th. We plan to go to Epcot for the opening day of Flower & Garden because we have found that the food is the best on the first day of these festivals. The food critics all show up on opening day. We haven't found opening days to be crowded in the past. Most of the crowds wait for the weekend before going to the festivals. This will be the second time we went to Flower & Garden for opening day. We haven't been to F&G in a few years so we are really looking forward to it.

We were at WDW at the end of August when both Food & Wine and Star Wars opened on the same date this summer. There was a huge crowd at DHS but Epcot wasn't crowded at all on opening date.

 

[Gehrig1B]

Feb. 28 - Mar. 7 - Were were coincidentally at WDW the day RotR opened and once again, quite by chance, will be there when MMRR opens on March 4th... We generally book 6+ months in advance.

 

[ElenaofAvalor]

There will be some fastpasses available, especially if you check frequently, including the day before, the night before, and first thing in the morning. You might not be able to get everything you want, though.

Thank you! I don't mind missing a ride or two, or not getting the "perfect" time, but I was so worried that it would be no fastpasses and 2+ hour waits for all rides except for the most unpopular. I also decided to do a early morning magic, and maybe a party to make sure we get our rides in.

 

[Wood Nymph]

Feb. 28 - Mar. 7 - Were were coincidentally at WDW the day RotR opened and once again, quite by chance, will be there when MMRR opens on March 4th... We generally book 6+ months in advance.

That happened to us, too. We booked the December trip last February and ended up with being there for the opening of RotR. We booked the March trip back in October and we will be there for MMRR.

 

[omniscientmommy]

We just booked with Dreams Unlimited travel. They were able to find a room at Sports when I couldn't find anything on Disney's website!

 

[nogreenworld]

just decided we're going in march 2020. this will be the latest we've ever tried to plan. in the past, there were ADR cancellation threads. i can't seem to find them. i might be doing something wrong. anyone know if they're out there?

 

[nogreenworld]

found it. i was searching the wrong term. search "march 2020 cancelled adr thread."

 

[GoHorns94]

just decided we're going in march 2020. this will be the latest we've ever tried to plan. in the past, there were ADR cancellation threads. i can't seem to find them. i might be doing something wrong. anyone know if they're out there?

https://touringplans.com/walt-disney-world/reservation-finder
You may want to look into this reservation finder from Touring Plans also (if you haven’t already) - it has helped me many times with hard to find ADRs and will text you when something opens up under your set parameters. I’m pretty certain you have to pay for a yearly subscription to access this feature FYI. Hope it proves helpful!

 

[JillyMouse]

https://touringplans.com/walt-disney-world/reservation-finder
You may want to look into this reservation finder from Touring Plans also (if you haven’t already) - it has helped me many times with hard to find ADRs and will text you when something opens up under your set parameters. I’m pretty certain you have to pay for a yearly subscription to access this feature FYI. Hope it proves helpful!

This is a free feature of the TP site. I use it all the time, and have picked up California Grill dinner reservations around MK firework time easily!

 

[yorkieteacher]

Just wanted to remind everyone going in March who wasn't able to get the ADR's or FP's they wanted to check back about 30 days before their check in date. 30 days out is when people can cancel their packages without penalty. I was recently able to modify/get the FP's I got with inconvenient times including 7DMT, and modify/get ADR's with inconvenient times including Storybook Dining. I had been trying to get what we wanted and didn't since we booked these several times a day, but sure enough, it's much easier now during this time frame.

 

[jannalynn_11]

FYI, for our dates in early March, I got the alert that HS closing time was extended from 8-8:30PM, and SWAGS fireworks added for 9PM

 

[NoraRose]

FYI, for our dates in early March, I got the alert that HS closing time was extended from 8-8:30PM, and SWAGS fireworks added for 9PM

How’s does that work? If the park closes at 8:30, but the show is at 9pm?

 

[persnickity2020]

Looks like they extended the rest of March (and April) to 8:30 for HS now. I wonder if they'll eventually extend again until 9pm, then the showtime will make more sense? Otherwise, I guess they'd just cut the lines off at 8:30.

Still waiting for some added morning HS hours for our trip! Surely they won't open at 9 during Spring Break, given the current state of things there.

 

[lcc2]

The week I’m going was always 8:30pm closing so there was no extension. I believe it was only early March that changed. But I’m also waiting for them to change the morning hours.

 

[GoHorns94]

I’ll be shocked if they don’t extend HS morning hours to at least an 8am opening for March and quite possibly the current 7am opening.

Part of me is kind of hoping for an 8am vs. 7am so I don’t have to fight quite as hard to get my four pack up so early in order to get there in time for boarding groups, but the flip side is many more people will likely be there for an 8am opening meaning the BGs go even faster.

This is all assuming Disney doesn’t change the RoR process between now and March 9th.

 

[themeparkoholic]

Yeah I was thinking that they were extending all the first week of March to 8:30 PM to match the rest of the month, possibly to roll out 8 AM- 8:30 PM hours for the longer term, but that may be wishful thinking