Nov 2021 6 Day Ticket Advice - Which parks?

[sagosto]

The new Disney is forcing me to re-think my strategy since I can no longer use FP OR Rider Swap. I have 2 daughters 3 and 6 so we spend quite a bit of time in MK and DHS. We are staying 11/1 to 11/9 so I was going to split up the stay in the middle with 3 days in the park on each end. Is there any real strategy for picking the parks except stay away from MK on the weekends? Should I pick the parks now even though magic hours (or any hours haven't been posted?)? Can I change later on if availability arrives? Aside from virtual queue for Star Wars, is there any other decisions to be made?

 

[JakeAZ]

OR Rider Swap

I believe you can still do rider swap.

 

[Missingmypooh]

Hollywood studios is worse on the weekends than magic kingdom is.
I’d rather do magic kingdom on a saturday and take an afternoon monorail break than do DHS on a Saturday.

pick now. Change later.

 

[sagosto]

Hollywood studios is worse on the weekends than magic kingdom is.
I’d rather do magic kingdom on a saturday and take an afternoon monorail break than do DHS on a Saturday.

pick now. Change later.

I have to do MK on Monday as it might be the last day for Halloween. I doubt we will get into the park until like 6PM. How do you even pick right now w/o knowing park hours? Just take a stab? Aside from 60 day advanced dining, is there any real planning anymore?

 

[sagosto]

Anyone?

 

[Jack & Monica]

I would still have a plan locked in. First thing to do is to reserve your park stays. I would follow your plan but do 2-3-4 parks 5-6-7 off 8-9-10 parks. That way your week end is your resort time and you avoid the crowds. Warning though. I would also avoid Disney Springs on the weekend. Reports are that the wait times have been long on SATs and SUNs. The next thing to think about is meal reservations. They are still only 60 days out, but may be important to you. Remember, you can park hop. This is especially valuable if you want to do to dinner at Be Our Guest or the Castle. This is what we do. We end up at MK at least two days and go to an early dinner at these restaurants.
A strategy that works really well for us is to eat lunch early and dinner early. We MO at 1100 everywhere except EPCOT (which is just opening at 1100. We do dinner at 4:00. This works for us because we like to get to the parks early.
Can you ever really plan though with two little ones? Have back up plans in case someone is having a bad day. Good recovery after a melt down may be to travel by gondala to go get ice cream. Heck you could make the boat ride from MK to the Wilderness Lodge into a special trip and plan a dinner at Whispering Canyon Cafe.
Good luck!

 

[sagosto]

We are arriving 11/1 and leaving 11/9. If Halloween is cancelled, which I tend to think won't happen this year, we'd go in on 11/1. I am not sure if the girls could make 3 days on and 2 days off and 3 days on. We don't have park hopper.

 

[LuvMyEAR]

First - with 6 park visits in that time, I would plan for shorter days in the parks that you are visiting twice. If there is evening entertainment, it can work well to do one rope drop day, leaving mid-to-late afternoon, then start later/stay later on the second visit to that park. With no FP+ reservations or hopping to worry about, you don’t even have to figure out which day will be which in advance. Or, just arrive when you want and leave when someone starts to show they have had enough. This works well for both older guests and younger ones!

Will you be heading into a park on your arrival day? If so, I would suggest a pattern of 2 park days, 1 day off, 2 park days, 1 day off, 2 parks, and depart on the 9th.

Make your park & meal reservations but keep in mind that you can probably change things around if necessary. It seems to be an extra challenging time to plan at the moment, with so many unknowns, doesn’t it? Most of all, stay flexible and remember that 4 great hours in MK (or any park) can be a much sweeter experience than 8 hrs that has left everyone everyone exhausted and cranky. Where you are and what you are doing is considerably less important than keeping all of you nourished, hydrated, sun-protected, safe, healthy, and happy.

It’s all good when you are having fun as a family, and crawl into bed at night still smiling... and dreaming of more magic to come!

 

[sagosto]

First - with 6 park visits in that time, I would plan for shorter days in the parks that you are visiting twice. If there is evening entertainment, it can work well to do one rope drop day, leaving mid-to-late afternoon, then start later/stay later on the second visit to that park. With no FP+ reservations or hopping to worry about, you don’t even have to figure out which day will be which in advance. Or, just arrive when you want and leave when someone starts to show they have had enough. This works well for both older guests and younger ones!

I am selfish and force the family to be in the park from 9AM-ish till closing. My girls will be 4 and 7 so I am not sure how long they will make it. The last visit they were 2 and 5 and they would pass out in the double stroller. I agree 2 days on and 1 day off which has worked well for us. Since no FP exist, I am feeling less stress with planning but worried we will be in lines the entire day especially given capacity is increasing. Should I just stay away from MK and HS during weekends? Epcot will be full throttle too during that time. Not sure which is the worst?

Will you be heading into a park on your arrival day? If so, I would suggest a pattern of 2 park days, 1 day off, 2 park days, 1 day off, 2 parks, and depart on the 9th.

Yes -- We are taking multiple other vacations and my 1st grader will be missing around 10 days of school already so I couldn't expand the vacation longer. I am not sure what Halloween will look like or if we even wanna pay extra since we will be arriving the park at 5PM-ish from Jersey. However, I have a day to burn so why not?