Planning Advice Needed!

[DGsAtBLT]

Seasoned WDW visitor but our first time planning this far out (we're almost at 180 days!). What's your best advice for planning your park days in order to book restaurants without having park hours or crowd calendars available? We used easywdw last time we went to plan our parks, so not sure where to begin this time around. We have 10 day hoppers, so we can avoid certain parks on certain days no problem if need be, and we can hop to a park if need be for a restaurant assuming we can't change the reservation at that point.

Also, are ADRs still 180 days +10, and how does the +10 work, do I just need to be signed onto my account for that to apply? And it's at 7 am eastern?

 

[FelisLachesis]

Seasoned WDW visitor but our first time planning this far out (we're almost at 180 days!). What's your best advice for planning your park days in order to book restaurants without having park hours or crowd calendars available? We used easywdw last time we went to plan our parks, so not sure where to begin this time around. We have 10 day hoppers, so we can avoid certain parks on certain days no problem if need be, and we can hop to a park if need be for a restaurant assuming we can't change the reservation at that point.

If you really want to do any type of pre-park open (PPO) meal, then, though some people may object to this, is to make multiple PPO ADRs, and once the hours really settle in, cancel the ones you no longer want. Fire blind, but take multiple shots, and you'll eventually hit.

As for the crowd calendars, it's mostly a dumb luck, anymore, as to how busy the days are going to be. The big key that still works is to go to a park with an EMH only if you plan on using said EMH. If not, then it may be better to go elsewhere.

AK days are still better at the back of your trip, especially if you plan on trying to get a fastpass for Flight of Passage. They are still difficult to get at 63 days, though 64 and on seem to show better availability. Most other fastpasses for all other rides show decent availability at 60 days, though get the important ones first.

Also, are ADRs still 180 days +10, and how does the +10 work, do I just need to be signed onto my account for that to apply? And it's at 7 am eastern?

The way ADRs work, everyone can book up to 180 days out. For people staying on-site, at 180 days from the date of your hotel reservation, the window will extend the length of your stay, up to 10 days. The ADR system opens up online at 6 am Eastern, and the phone system opens at 7am. For fastpasses, it's 7 am online.

 

[DGsAtBLT]

If you really want to do any type of pre-park open (PPO) meal, then, though some people may object to this, is to make multiple PPO ADRs, and once the hours really settle in, cancel the ones you no longer want. Fire blind, but take multiple shots, and you'll eventually hit.

As for the crowd calendars, it's mostly a dumb luck, anymore, as to how busy the days are going to be. The big key that still works is to go to a park with an EMH only if you plan on using said EMH. If not, then it may be better to go elsewhere.

AK days are still better at the back of your trip, especially if you plan on trying to get a fastpass for Flight of Passage. They are still difficult to get at 63 days, though 64 and on seem to show better availability. Most other fastpasses for all other rides show decent availability at 60 days, though get the important ones first.



The way ADRs work, everyone can book up to 180 days out. For people staying on-site, at 180 days from the date of your hotel reservation, the window will extend the length of your stay, up to 10 days. The ADR system opens up online at 6 am Eastern, and the phone system opens at 7am. For fastpasses, it's 7 am online.

Our PPO meals are all at CR/Poly and we're staying at BLT so it's not a huge issue if we don't end up doing MK/Epcot on those days as planned so we should be okay there. Are EMH still on certain days of the week per park so we can plan our meals around avoiding those parks at this point in time, or are they not released until later? Were they ever like that actually? Might be my imagination lol.

I had thrown in AK on our 3rd day of the trip, so I'll definitely be moving that a bit later so we hopefully don't have an issue grabbing FoP FP, thanks!

And thanks for all that info, that was very helpful!

 

[sharonabe]

Our PPO meals are all at CR/Poly and we're staying at BLT so it's not a huge issue if we don't end up doing MK/Epcot on those days as planned so we should be okay there. Are EMH still on certain days of the week per park so we can plan our meals around avoiding those parks at this point in time, or are they not released until later? Were they ever like that actually? Might be my imagination lol.

I had thrown in AK on our 3rd day of the trip, so I'll definitely be moving that a bit later so we hopefully don't have an issue grabbing FoP FP, thanks!

And thanks for all that info, that was very helpful!

You could use this year's park hours for a reference, but things will probably change.

As for EMH being on set days, no, that doesn't really hold either. They seem to get into a pattern, and then they switch it up for one thing or another.