Overwhelmed, especially with FP+!!

[TammyLynn33]

I agree 100% I’m exhausted from all the work of planning a Disney vacation. I booked then waited to book ADRS, then waited for EMM at HS to open to book that..
now since we are going Easter week.. waiting to see if hours change which will affect our ADRs ( nobpoiny in having a PPO breakfast if it’s not PPO)
Looking still for EMM for Mk for that week as April hasn’t been announced.
My FP book day isnt for a month trip 80 some days and I still have to check daily MDE to see if stuff is changed
All this to know the parks will be crowded and it’s not going to be relaxing at all lol I’m all for a beach vacation next year

I have not been to Disney since Jan 2013, before fastpass + was a thing. I could deal with making dining reservations 180 days out (though it still seems too much), and I thought I'd be able to handle doing ride reservation, when I thought I'd be able to get whatever as long as I got on ASAP to book them, but that is clearly not the case!
I don't know the parks well enough to know what is near what, in order to be efficient with fp+ bookings. Also, what is this I see about people moving up their fastpasses after using the first one...like making them earlier?? If they're so hard to get, how could you do that on the day of?!

Going crazy here, thanks for any help, we'll be there July 14-19!

 

[Tiggerlover91]

Park admission.

I understand now. I guess it depends how long you're there for as ticket cost goes down the more days you are there. I'm lucky where I don't see those kind of prices. I'm a FL resident and the most I'm paying for a ticket is about $62 a day. The FL Discovery Ticket is only running me $49 a day for our trip in June. We're going to be there for 4 days.

I could be mistaken, but I think I read someone's post here on the DIS who says they don't do rope drop or a lot of FPs and NEVER stand in line longer than 20 minutes. Now I'm sure they're going at a time that's probably not as busy as others, but it's possible to do so. I'm sorry you had such a hard time making FP with your party of 7. Did you try splitting your group up into 3 and 4?

 

[anne60]

I'm sorry you had such a hard time making FP with your party of 7. Did you try splitting your group up into 3 and 4?

Yes - I did, which was more successful but also meant that it made rescheduling/modifying twice as much work. It was also way harder to keep track of who was riding when. At one point I got confused and the wrong members of our party showed up for a fastpass ( I wasn't able to get us all together for 7DMT, ended up having to split us into 2, 2 and 3 all at different times). Thankfully the cast member took pity on them and let them ride even though their FP window wasn't for another half hour, and the people who WERE supposed to ride were able to get over to the ride before that window closed. To me it just seems like an unnecessary layer of stress for anyone who likes to ride the rides and not just wander the park, shop and eat. I will say that the park that was the most difficult to manage was Magic Kingdom, the others were not that bad.

 

[Babe the Blue Ox]

I could be mistaken, but I think I read someone's post here on the DIS who says they don't do rope drop or a lot of FPs and NEVER stand in line longer than 20 minutes. Now I'm sure they're going at a time that's probably not as busy as others, but it's possible to do so. I'm sorry you had such a hard time making FP with your party of 7. Did you try splitting your group up into 3 and 4?

That's not my quote, but our experiences are very similar.

We're a family of 5 and have never done rope drop, it just seems too crowded and stressful for us. We do like to stay until closing time when the lines get really short and we have been able to successfully refresh for a lot of FPs (generally 10-12+ per day). On our most recent visit (June 2018) we only had one standby wait over 20 minutes, which was for Navi. That one just wouldn't refresh for us at all.

Also, I've found it much easier to refresh for all 5 of us at once over trying to split up the group.

 

[Tiggerlover91]

I agree 100% I’m exhausted from all the work of planning a Disney vacation. I booked then waited to book ADRS, then waited for EMM at HS to open to book that..
now since we are going Easter week.. waiting to see if hours change which will affect our ADRs ( nobpoiny in having a PPO breakfast if it’s not PPO)
Looking still for EMM for Mk for that week as April hasn’t been announced.
My FP book day isnt for a month trip 80 some days and I still have to check daily MDE to see if stuff is changed
All this to know the parks will be crowded and it’s not going to be relaxing at all lol I’m all for a beach vacation next year

I guess because we don't go vey often, every 4 years, it's not really "work" for me. We don't do ADRs because of our kosher diet so FP at 60 days out is all I have to worry about. I also don't do EMM being as son and I just do rope drop since we are early risers even on vacation. I'm also thankful that I'm a FL resident. Just not having to drop anything over $2000 for a trip is quite nice. In the last 2 visits we've had, when our son was 3 and then 7...each trip only cost us around the $1000 area. This one is costing $1200 because son and I decided we wanted a preferred room so we didn't have to do a lot of walking on days we decide to take the bus to the parks! I'll drive probably when we visit EPCOT and AK, but I'll take the bus to MK as they drop off right at the gates. Unless son wants to ride the ferry over or the monorail, I'll let Disney drive us around the days we visit MK.

 

[TammyLynn33]

See I find it more work because we don’t go very often and the costs to travel and the crap exchange rate right now I feel we need to get the most bang for our buck .. ( we with hotel preferred room at CBR and the 4 kids with QS dining plan is around 5K and air x5= 2500 plus a 30% exchange rate ) that makes a huge difference on one income

I guess because we don't go vey often, every 4 years, it's not really "work" for me. We don't do ADRs because of our kosher diet so FP at 60 days out is all I have to worry about. I also don't do EMM being as son and I just do rope drop since we are early risers even on vacation. I'm also thankful that I'm a FL resident. Just not having to drop anything over $2000 for a trip is quite nice. In the last 2 visits we've had, when our son was 3 and then 7...each trip only cost us around the $1000 area. This one is costing $1200 because son and I decided we wanted a preferred room so we didn't have to do a lot of walking on days we decide to take the bus to the parks! I'll drive probably when we visit EPCOT and AK, but I'll take the bus to MK as they drop off right at the gates. Unless son wants to ride the ferry over or the monorail, I'll let Disney drive us around the days we visit MK.

 

[summermac]

Park admission.

I've never waited more than 1/2 hour for a ride/attraction in all our trips there. Obviously we use FPs but we also have ridden plenty stand by.

 

[Tiggerlover91]

See I find it more work because we don’t go very often and the costs to travel and the crap exchange rate right now I feel we need to get the most bang for our buck .. ( we with hotel preferred room at CBR and the 4 kids with QS dining plan is around 5K and air x5= 2500 plus a 30% exchange rate ) that makes a huge difference on one income

I perfectly understand! Again, I am blessed to live here in FL where the only transportation I have to consider is how much gas is going to cost on the way down. Value resorts work very well for my family of 3 and because of our kosher diet, I don't do dining plans or ADRs. We do eat quick service once a day in the parks and grab snacks here and there, but the majority of our eating is done offsite at the kosher restaurants. Our refund is what ALWAYS funds our trip and I'm just lucky that husband and I have a big enough one to do so. But as I've stated on other threads, our trips NEVER hit the $2000 area...thank goodness!