We'reGoingToDisney
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Feb 18, 2019
- Messages
- 99
We will be at Disney World for 8 evenings, 7 park days, in mid-late August 2019. We are myself, DH, and our twins DD13, DS13. This is a one-and-done trip to Disney World for us. We have been to Disneyland three times for very short, not well planned or well executed trips - 2 days when kids were 5, 3 days when kids were 7, and 2 pretty awfully crowded days when kids were 10. We were focused on rides, then - I don’t think we knew about other evening shows besides the fireworks. Let’s just say not a lot of optimization happened! We did really enjoy the 3 day trip when the kiddos were 7. The one when they were 10 nearly put us off forever, it was so crowded! And the one when they were 5 was difficult because we were with a large extended family group, tricky to juggle everyone’s expectations. So, this is our trip to do it right, or at least to do it in a more carefully considered way!
We are splitting our stay 5 nights at the Polynesian and 3 nights at the Beach Club, arriving at dinner time on Sunday (no park), leaving first thing Monday a week later (no park). I made a “wish list” of evening activities, and there were 9 activities but only 8 evenings (We have enough later starting mornings to allow for these)
I have a schedule that fits all of those in quite nicely, except for Fantasmic. My reasoning was
Currently we have 1-park-per-day tickets, hence the decision to drop Fantasmic in favor of the Star Wars fireworks - only 1 full day planned at HS. But, I’m now reconsidering some of my plans, and thinking of upgrading to Park Hoppers, so that the evenings end up closer to the resorts we’re staying at. If I have hoppers then I could possibly plan two evenings at HS. But what would I drop? MNSSHP or ROL or my extra evening at AK?
If I think there’s a chance of us going to Disneyland again in perhaps 2 years, should I feel ok about skipping Fantasmic at Disney World in the hopes that we’ll see the Disneyland version one day?
We are splitting our stay 5 nights at the Polynesian and 3 nights at the Beach Club, arriving at dinner time on Sunday (no park), leaving first thing Monday a week later (no park). I made a “wish list” of evening activities, and there were 9 activities but only 8 evenings (We have enough later starting mornings to allow for these)
- Happily Ever After at MK
- Fantasmic! at HS
- Star Wars fireworks at HS
- Rivers of Light at AK
- Illuminations at Epcot
- time to explore Pandora at night plus Tree of Life at AK
- Typhoon Lagoon H20 Glow night
- MNSSHP
- watch Electric Water Pageant and HEA fireworks from Poly beach (arrival evening)
I have a schedule that fits all of those in quite nicely, except for Fantasmic. My reasoning was
- Happily Ever After at MK — not to be missed!
- Fantasmic! at HS — some people love it, others not so much??
- Star Wars fireworks at HS — kids love Star Wars, and we might do the well-reviewed dessert party, plus there’s the new animation show that precedes the SW show
- Rivers of Light at AK — I really want to eat at Tusker House anyways, it’s our one character meal. Might as well do the dining package (paying OOP). But ROL gets mixed reviews??
- Illuminations at Epcot — it’s ending, so I feel we should see it??
- time to explore Pandora at night plus Tree of Life at AK — we’d use the opportunity to get in line for one of the Pandora rides at closing, plus hopefully get a twilight safari FP (this would be evening after spending day at Blizzard Beach)
- Typhoon Lagoon H20 Glow night — kids would mutiny if we didn’t do this, now that they know it exists!
- MNSSHP — we’re really not sure about this one, honestly. We’re mostly viewing it as our only chance for a late night in MK, and we hope to be able to get a bunch of rides in and enjoy the atmosphere. But it wasn’t on our first draft of the list
- watch Electric Water Pageant and HEA fireworks from Poly beach — a good use of our arrival evening? Only chance to see Electric Water Pageant
Currently we have 1-park-per-day tickets, hence the decision to drop Fantasmic in favor of the Star Wars fireworks - only 1 full day planned at HS. But, I’m now reconsidering some of my plans, and thinking of upgrading to Park Hoppers, so that the evenings end up closer to the resorts we’re staying at. If I have hoppers then I could possibly plan two evenings at HS. But what would I drop? MNSSHP or ROL or my extra evening at AK?
If I think there’s a chance of us going to Disneyland again in perhaps 2 years, should I feel ok about skipping Fantasmic at Disney World in the hopes that we’ll see the Disneyland version one day?