Please Help Me With Our Itinerary

[Bubblegum1286]

We're planning on doing Surf's Up with Mickey on one of our non-park days. I didn't realize DTD was open to everyone though. That changes some things.... We may need to catch a movie or do some shopping there as well!
Thank you!

 

[ktlm]

We have gone in June 3 out of the last 4 years. We were in the parks from Saturday to Wednesday. To our surprise, each year the weekend days were much less crowded than the weekdays. Saturday and Sunday were fine, Monday and Tuesday were crowded, and then Wednesday was fine again. I believe it is due to the annual pass block out dates. Some of those passes start with weekend dates blocked out, and then they get more and more blocked out during weekdays, so I believe those people start trying to get there on those last weekdays when they can use the passes which makes it more crowded. We do usually go a little earlier in June than you are, so it might be different for you, but it is something to think about. We were very surprised as we had always figured the weekends would be worse even if passes were blocked, but to experience the same thing 3 out of 4 years means it can't be a fluke!

 

[Bubblegum1286]

My only concern about going on Sunday the 21st is that it's Star Wars day, or whatever the fans do. That would be our California Adventure day (we did not get park hoppers), and that's apparently when they're planning on taking over the park. I'm sure my son would LOVE seeing everyone in their shirts, and he would join right in, but I don't want the crowds.

 

[SMD]

My only concern about going on Sunday the 21st is that it's Star Wars day, or whatever the fans do. That would be our California Adventure day (we did not get park hoppers), and that's apparently when they're planning on taking over the park. I'm sure my son would LOVE seeing everyone in their shirts, and he would join right in, but I don't want the crowds.

Wait, there was a Star Wars half marathon weekend in January, there was Celebration in April and there's May the 4th, and they're going to have a random meetup day in June in the park without anything Star Wars related? I wouldn't worry about it, the walkways in DCA are much wider and can easily accommodate meetups and loitering, unlike DL.

 

[Bubblegum1286]

It's unofficial, but yeah, from what I read on the travel sites, they're doing another meet up day in June. This will be their "11th annual." Not sure why they need so many of those, especially since Dis now owns the SW franchise and is starting to do their own SW weekends. Sigh. Nerds are taking over our lives.

 

[VandVsmama]

Wow! That's great advice! Thanks. I'm looking at the Ridemax subscription now. Does it allow for spontaneous stops for snacks or pin trading or running into a character?

It does. But let me explain. Ridemax will usually have you go on rides from park opening to about lunchtime and then there will be a break of 5-6 hours with nothing scheduled. Then it picks up again late afternoon-5pm-ish with the rest of your itinerary.

You can schedule up to 2 breaks per day but it works out better (ie, less time spent waiting in ride lines) if you do the stuff like pin trading, see a show, go on less popular attractions (Winnie the Pooh ride, go to Tom Sawyer's Island), swim, rest, etc. during that mid afternoon period.

The scheduled meet-and-greets (like fantasy faire, Mickey's house, pixie hollow) you can select as one of your attractions to put in your itinerary and it will optimize it so you don't wait in line very long. I've done this before when my kids desperately wanted to meet Mickey Mouse in Toontown and it worked out really well for us.

What it can't do is schedule the spontaneous meet and greets that often occur at DL. Or, for example, you can't select in Ridemax to put it in your itinerary to be at Coke Corner on Main Street when Alice & the Mad Hatter play musical chairs. That falls into the "spontaneous" category, even though it IS scheduled a certain time of day (you have to ask City Hall or the people at Coke Corner, I think, when the musical chairs is going to be happening).

There are 2 types of subscription fees...one is for three months and one is for 12 months.

 

[::danielle::]

My only concern about going on Sunday the 21st is that it's Star Wars day, or whatever the fans do. That would be our California Adventure day (we did not get park hoppers), and that's apparently when they're planning on taking over the park. I'm sure my son would LOVE seeing everyone in their shirts, and he would join right in, but I don't want the crowds.

Also keep in mind that the 21st is open to So Cal AP holders. They're blocked starting the Wednesday before (June 17th) and it's the last weekend day they can go until August.

 

[VandVsmama]

Some more Ridemax info:

1. I've found it best to come up with a few different itineraries & play with Ridemax before our arrival.
2. I don't want to drain my cell phone battery, so I opt to print out the itineraries ahead of time and use the paper copy when we're at the parks. It's actually faster than..."Hold on while I wait for Ridemax to open up on my cell phone."
3. The Ridemax software also suggests to make 1 or 2 backup plans...just in case you decide to sleep in late or if you're running late that morning due to unforeseen circumstances. It's really interesting what even a 20-30 minute time difference in arrival at the main gate makes in terms of which order you do stuff in.
4. When we 1st used Ridemax 2 years ago, I also bought a subscription to Touring Plans and found that I hated Touring Plans. At that time (I don't know if it's changed since then), Touring Plans was recommending us to go on rides during Magic Morning that weren't even open yet (Indiana Jones, for example).
5. For our family, it worked out great because our 2 kids were pretty young when we took them (4 and 6), so waiting in line for 45 minutes just to go on a single 5-minute ride would have been horrible for us...miserable kids & miserable parents. My DH hates to wait forever in line, so we followed the itinerary and things worked out great. We didn't wait longer than 20 minutes for a single ride.