One day/ Epcot&HS, very last minute trip

[Atc77]

Ok, so my husband and I are going for only one day on sept 26, staying at Coronado springs and we’re planning to rope drop Epcot (ubering to enter through intl. gateway in order to RD Remy) and finish the day in HS. We were there last year with our kids for the entire week but my all time fav, Fantasmic, was rained out literally 3 min into the show. So my husband surprised me and is taking me for a “re-do” (our teenagers will not be with us as they are going to the beach with friends… it’s our district’s fall break) Anyways… I’m curious to hear what strategy we should use to do what we want to do. This isn’t a “ride everything” trip as we did that last year. Here’s a list of what Ed want to do: Remy, guardians (as many times as we can), spaceship earth, possibly soarin, and Mexico (we will eat lunch in Epcot) Then for HS we want to do Rise, slinky, Toy Story, M&M runaway railway, and possibly ToT and RnR… but if those last two don’t happen we’ll live… emphasis on Rise. I know that fall break week last year was pretty busy… I’m very unfamiliar with the advance lightening lane stuff but it looks like you have to use your first selections in the same park? So I’m wondering if purchasing that is worth it?
We plan on buying guardians as well as trying for the VQ, and buying Rise

Any tips? Thoughts? Suggestions?

 

[RuntheMouse]

Sounds fun! If it were me though, with what your goals are, I’d start at HS with LLMP then hop to EPCOT and get your list done there including LLIP for Guardians and hop back to HS for Fantasmic.

 

[CarolynFH]

Let me just point out that the Disney Epcot resorts (BW, Y&B) are kind of persnickety about letting rideshare enter near park opening time if the guests don't have reservations of some kind at the resorts themselves. So the advice is to rideshare to Swan or Dolphin, which have no such restrictions, and walk or boat from there to the desired park.

Or you could rideshare to the front of Epcot, or rideshare to DHS and then walk or boat or even Skyliner to the IG, although Skyliner means transferring at CBR where you'll meet a large number of people coming from CBR, Pop and AoA and also wanting to get to the IG.

 

[Atc77]

Let me just point out that the Disney Epcot resorts (BW, Y&B) are kind of persnickety about letting rideshare enter near park opening time if the guests don't have reservations of some kind at the resorts themselves. So the advice is to rideshare to Swan or Dolphin, which have no such restrictions, and walk or boat from there to the desired park.

Or you could rideshare to the front of Epcot, or rideshare to DHS and then walk or boat or even Skyliner to the IG, although Skyliner means transferring at CBR where you'll meet a large number of people coming from CBR, Pop and AoA and also wanting to get to the IG.

Yes, we went through swan and dolphin last year without an issue so if we start at Epcot we’ll likely do that again

 

[Atc77]

So right now we keep going back and forth on our attempt... which park to start in and whether or not buying the multi pass LL considering we aren't necessarily trying to ride EVERYTHING. But then I know myself... and while I say that, I'm the "Clark Griswold" of the trip and I always try to do everything, lol I do feel like there are more rides at HS that we're wanting to do. And we've both agreed we will ride Rise as many times as possible, even if it means hopping back and forth. Ill prob change my mind a million times between now and then! haha

 

[Kalamazoo2]

Ok, so my husband and I are going for only one day on sept 26, staying at Coronado springs and we’re planning to rope drop Epcot (ubering to enter through intl. gateway in order to RD Remy) and finish the day in HS. We were there last year with our kids for the entire week but my all time fav, Fantasmic, was rained out literally 3 min into the show. So my husband surprised me and is taking me for a “re-do” (our teenagers will not be with us as they are going to the beach with friends… it’s our district’s fall break) Anyways… I’m curious to hear what strategy we should use to do what we want to do. This isn’t a “ride everything” trip as we did that last year. Here’s a list of what Ed want to do: Remy, guardians (as many times as we can), spaceship earth, possibly soarin, and Mexico (we will eat lunch in Epcot) Then for HS we want to do Rise, slinky, Toy Story, M&M runaway railway, and possibly ToT and RnR… but if those last two don’t happen we’ll live… emphasis on Rise. I know that fall break week last year was pretty busy… I’m very unfamiliar with the advance lightening lane stuff but it looks like you have to use your first selections in the same park? So I’m wondering if purchasing that is worth it?
We plan on buying guardians as well as trying for the VQ, and buying Rise

Any tips? Thoughts? Suggestions?

I would definitely buy the multi pass LL along with the single passes for GotG and RotR. You are correct that your initial picks must all be done in one park. However, once you use one, you can book another in any park for any tier (assuming you have park hopper tickets, of course).
To my mind, the limiting factor here is Slinky. LL's go fast and the standby line is usually long and hot. It really depends how badly you want a SDD LL.
Option 1 - This is the best option overall but you have to be okay with risking not getting a SDD LL.
- Book your MPLLs for your rides at Epcot but still rope drop.
- Book SE for first thing and ride it immediately after entering at the front of the park. Hopefully there will still be SDD LLs left - book that once you tap in at SE. In the absence of SDD LL availability, choose MMRR or one of the other HS rides.
- If there is unavailability for something you want, just keep checking and refreshing periodically
- Ride LL Soarin' (and book another LL in HS) and single pass LL GotG.
- Your VQ GotG will be a wild card. Hopefully you can get an early boarding group.
- Book your Remy LL for after lunch and head to HS after that.
- Book RotR for about 3 pm to give leeway for getting there and for potential bounce back later in the day if the ride goes down during your LL time

Option 2 - If you must have SDD LL
- Stick to your initial rope drop plans at Epcot using no MPLLs.
- Book SDD, TSM and one other ride (make one for as early as you think you could get to HS so that you can use one of you LLs asap and clear the way for booking your Tier 1 MMRR LL

Either way, still totally worth it to get MPLL (especially for only 2 people)