Need advice for trip Sept 11-17.

[sweetyk83]

I made all our dining reservations the morning of our 180 days. I had all our park days planned out and everything was great, or so I thought. I just found out that we will be there during the beginning of Epcot Food and Wine and that I had planned Epcot on the first Saturday of the event.
Reading on this forum among other places I am realizing this isn't such a great day to go to Epcot, especially with 4 children.
So my problem is that if I change my dates that means we will be visiting HS on that Saturday instead of the previously planned Thursday. I am unable to get reservations for the Fantasmic dinner at Hollywood Vine on the 17th that I had previously reserved for Sept 15th. Plus the only reservation I could get for Hollywood and Vine Minnie's Holiday Dine is at 6:55.
I guess my first question would be can we still make it to Fantasmic's 8pm showing with a dinner ressie at 6:55?
If not, is avoiding Epcot on the first Saturday of Food and Wine worth missing Fantasmic?
I plan on obsessively watching for another fantasmic package reservation to pop up for Minnie's Holiday Dine but want to ease my mind in case it doesn't happen.

Thanks!!!

 

[Shanan]

I have seen Fantasmic several times without using the dining package even during the summer season. September is generally a slower time due to school being in session. You could do Epcot on Saturday but I would be at WS at 11:00 & then be prepared to move to front of park or park hop.

 

[Ginny2128]

I second the sentiments above. I've never done the fantasmic package and have never had a problem getting a seat for the show. I feel like it's less competitive for a seat now that the show had been around for a while.

Last year was the first year that we timed our trip for the first weekend of food and wine. WS was definitely crowded by mid-day. It wasn't terrible; just annoying. If you're that concerned about the crowds (and the occasional inebriated guest), I would swap days and plan on getting to the show about 45 minutes prior to show time. Maybe use a QS for dinner and a TS for lunch instead?

 

[Oswin]

You should definitely be able to see Fantasmic without the dining package. I think you could also make it to the 8:00 showing if you hurried through dinner and didn't care to meet all (or really any) of the characters and you were seated right at your ADR time and were out of there by 7:30. You will be better off eating an earlier meal elsewhere or doing quick service and then hitting up Fantasmic.

 

[sweetyk83]

Thanks for the responses! We were really hoping to attend Minnie's Holiday Dine with or without the fantasmic package but I don't think the 6:55 will end up working for us since we will want to enjoy our time eating, seeing characters, etc.
We are looking for another option.
Here are our dates as planned now.
Sunday 11-E
Monday 12-E
Tuesday 13-MK
Wednesday 14-MK
Thursday 15-HS
Friday 16- MK
Saturday 17- E

The 13th and the 15th will be the days I can not get new reservations.
What we're looking at is switching the MK day on the 14th with the E day on the 17th.
The 14th has extra magic hours and is not a recommended park anywhere but Touringplans, the 17th isn't recommended by ANY of the crowd calendars.

Are weekends really so bad that it wouldn't be a recommended park? Is it worse than an Extra Magic Hours day?

We do not have park hoppers btw and purchasing them isn't an option as we have 7 people in our party.

 

[Amunet]

Just wanted to jump in and say that we plan on going around the same time, but we leave before f&w (I know, sad ).
Also, there will be MNSSHP during those dates as well, if you're interested

 

[sweetyk83]

Just wanted to jump in and say that we plan on going around the same time, but we leave before f&w (I know, sad ).
Also, there will be MNSSHP during those dates as well, if you're interested

Yes! We are definitely planning to attend MNSSHP and would enjoy F&W but not on a weekend. lol!

 

[luvgoing2disney]

Just curious, no day at AK? (BTW We are also down at the same time)

 

[sweetyk83]

Just curious, no day at AK? (BTW We are also down at the same time)

No AK. Last time we went we just didn't enjoy it. Could have been the heat, the crazy rain, or that it was near the end of the trip but we just disliked it.
We thought maybe it was because we have a pretty awesome zoo here so the animals weren't an appeal for us? My hubby and kiddos really liked the rides there though.
We were having a less than awesome time there and then my mom got stung by a bee. We took that as a sign. lol!

I actually considered changing that Saturday E day to an AK day....I may still do that but we had trouble getting through all of E in two days on our last trip.

I did some rearranging and think I have it down. It's not ideal but I was able to keep all the reservations I was passionate about.

 

[luvgoing2disney]

If Disney EVER gets ROL operating, you might want to save an evening in AK for that.

 

[jbd2002]

We are going to be there around the same time as you will. We have been there during F&W. It does get a bit crazy in the WS especially later in the evening. The front of Epcot is not bad and I would just plan to park hop to HS. I agree that during that time of the year, you shouldn't have an issue getting in to see Fantasmic.

 

[Virtucomp]

We were at the opening weekend of Food and Wine a few years ago. It was nothing like what some posters lead you to believe. It is not like a drunken frat party. I've had more trouble walking around on a busy day with rude people running into the kids with strollers than the people at the F&W. Everyone is just walking around eating and drinking. I'd be surprised if the kids even noticed there was a difference than non-F&W days.

 

[sweetyk83]

Thank you all again! We made the decision to go to Animal Kingdom over Epcot on that Saturday. I had to change some ressies around that have us eating at some inconvenient times but that's okay! Part of our problem was that my father in law is coming from the 14-18 and we needed for him to visit each park. That complicated things.
As far as not seeing Epcot in 2 days last time I think that was due to two issues: tons of rain! We didn't keep moving through it, we just stayed in Japan. Also, Agent P's World Showcase Adventure. We let the boys play which took a lot of time away from visiting all the lands. So lessons learned!