Parks advice - my thoughts

[summerskye]

I would like to report my experience with a Thanksgiving week trip.

Magic Bands - Loved Them. Not having to keep track of park tickets, cash, room key, etc. was wonderful. Only draw back was the charging was almost too easy. The bill under the door the last night was a little scary...

FP+ - Mixed. It was nice to reserve a ride but I did find making changes to headliners to be difficult. If you are planning to visit just one park for the day, try to make early FP+ times. This way you have a shot at additional FPs especially at the MK. The tiering was the biggest complaint. MK needs more than 3 a day.

Park Hoppers - Mixed. In the past, I loved being able to change parks whenever I wanted. This year, I found the FPs played a role. If you utilize rope drop, then park hop. It is nice having "3" FPs for the other park. In the future, I think this will be our plan for park hopper days.

Overall - The trip was fun, but not as spontaneous as past trips. It felt more planned. I like to plan some things but not every moment. The parks were busy, but manageable. Rope drop is your friend. The day after Thanksgiving at MK was great at rope drop. The kids love BTMR and we did it 7 times in a row plus 1 time on Splash all during the first hour. The parks started to fill in by mid morning. We had a FP+ for 7D at 5pm (only time avail.) This kept us from getting additional FPs for the day. We did get lucky and got a walk up for BOG. (2nd top last family before cutoff)

We did the Pirates & Pals cruise. It was fun. Thanks to all for the advice. One day at EP, we were able to score 4 seats on Soarin late in the day. My wife said it would not hurt to try and she was right. Even the CM was surprised that it showed up. If/when they make the additional FPs available via the phone app will be a plus. Waiting in line at the kiosk was kind of pain.

I hope this helps others in their plans. The DISboards have been a wonderful location of information. I even met up with a fellow DIS member. Super nice family. It was nice to actually meet someone who shares many of the same things.

Enjoy!

 

[LSUfan4444]

I would like to report my experience with a Thanksgiving week trip.

Magic Bands - Loved Them. Not having to keep track of park tickets, cash, room key, etc. was wonderful. Only draw back was the charging was almost too easy. The bill under the door the last night was a little scary...

Rest assured....thats not byaccident

FP+ - Mixed. It was nice to reserve a ride but I did find making changes to headliners to be difficult. If you are planning to visit just one park for the day, try to make early FP+ times. This way you have a shot at additional FPs especially at the MK. The tiering was the biggest complaint. MK needs more than 3 a day.

I am fine with tiering and the current options. My only complaint is when you make changes to an experience and the new experience has a new time (that you find our AFTER you have made the change). If your new FP+ time is later that night (and you have already used one earlier in the day(, now you have to go stand in line to have it cancelled before you can add any additional.

Park Hoppers - Mixed. In the past, I loved being able to change parks whenever I wanted. This year, I found the FPs played a role.

With FP+, it makes hopping even more enjoyable for us. We can spend half the day in a recommended park, then hop to the busier park in afternoon or that night where our FP+ is waiting on us to get there.

 

[summerskye]

With FP+, it makes hopping even more enjoyable for us. We can spend half the day in a recommended park, then hop to the busier park in afternoon or that night where our FP+ is waiting on us to get there.

Good point. This would be a good plan for days that you choose to park hop. On days that you want to remain at the original park, I would still set FPs for earlier to get additional FPs.

 

[puffkin]

I would like to report my experience with a Thanksgiving week trip.

Magic Bands - Loved Them. Not having to keep track of park tickets, cash, room key, etc. was wonderful. Only draw back was the charging was almost too easy. The bill under the door the last night was a little scary...

FP+ - Mixed. It was nice to reserve a ride but I did find making changes to headliners to be difficult. If you are planning to visit just one park for the day, try to make early FP+ times. This way you have a shot at additional FPs especially at the MK. The tiering was the biggest complaint. MK needs more than 3 a day.

Park Hoppers - Mixed. In the past, I loved being able to change parks whenever I wanted. This year, I found the FPs played a role.

Overall - The trip was fun, but not as spontaneous as past trips. It felt more planned. I like to plan some things but not every moment. The parks were busy, but manageable. Rope drop is your friend. The day after Thanksgiving at MK was great at rope drop. The kids love BTMR and we did it 7 times in a row plus 1 time on Splash all during the first hour. The parks started to fill in by mid morning. We had a FP+ for 7D at 5pm (only time avail.) This kept us from getting additional FPs for the day. We did get lucky and got a walk up for BOG. (2nd top last family before cutoff)

We did the Pirates & Pals cruise. It was fun. Thanks to all for the advice. One day at EP, we were able to score 4 seats on Soarin late in the day. My wife said it would not hurt to try and she was right. Even the CM was surprised that it showed up. If/when they make the additional FPs available via the phone app will be a plus. Waiting in line at the kiosk was kind of pain.

I hope this helps others in their plans. The DISboards have been a wonderful location of information. I even met up with a fellow DIS member. Super nice family. It was nice to actually meet someone who shares many of the same things.

Enjoy!

We were right there with you on Black Friday at MK. We also did Frontierland/Adventureland first and we rode things over and over. We probably walked right by you Could not believe how empty that side of the park was It was awesome

We got in right at 8 and we did Carpets (2x), BTMRR (2x-would stayed on some more but had DS2 waiting), passed on Splash, did POTC, Jingle Cruise, Barnstormer, Dumbo, visited Donald/Goofy, and Minnie Mickey, and the Carousel. All by 9:45 when we went to use our 7DMT FP+ that expired at 10.

We did AK over 2 mornings and found we didn't need FP for either one. I agree, Rope Drop is still your friend, even with FP+ and a holiday week. On our AK days, we hopped to Epcot one evening and DHS the other and used our FP there.

 

[LSUfan4444]

Good point. This would be a good plan for days that you choose to park hop. On days that you want to remain at the original park, I would still set FPs for earlier to get additional FPs.

Different strategies work well for different families, but in all of our three trips I have found the only park with additional FP+ worth much was Magic Kingdom. And even in that case, If I saved my FP+ for the afternoon or later I could use Rope Drop to do alot/most/all of the things I would need additional FP+ for without walking to a kiosk.

 

[summerskye]

We were right there with you on Black Friday at MK. We also did Frontierland/Adventureland first and we rode things over and over. We probably walked right by you Could not believe how empty that side of the park was It was awesome

As many times as we did it, I am sure we passed each other. If you saw 3 girls with all smiles (mom and daughters) and a guy in a Texans jersey, then you saw us. It was a little cold for Splash but the kids wanted to do it once. Of course, I was the only one to get wet...

 

[Laketravis]

Glad ya'll had a great time! I agree, it was very "different" this time but at least there are still a few tricks left to help make the most of it.

 

[summerskye]

Glad ya'll had a great time! I agree, it was very "different" this time but at least there are still a few tricks left to help make the most of it.

Cold Beer & your margarita point system helped.