Specific Questions -- Arriving next Friday :-)

[mlktwins]

My little family of 4 is arriving at Disney World next Friday (the 11th). We are staying off-site, which we have done our previous 2 trips, and are heading home on the 21st. We have 9 full park days with 5 day park hoppers (first time for hoppers), 3 days at Universal (first time there and we have new Harry Potter fans), and either 1 down day or a quick trip to LEGOLAND (will be my boys' 1st time and they are 11 so will not likely want to go down the road).

We've had previous trips to Disney World -- one in 2011 for 8 full park days with the old paper FP and one in 2014 for 4 days (prior to a Disney Cruise).

This trip we all have very specific things we want to do and see at Disney World. We will not have any ADRs. We don't want to see any parades and the only meet and greets my boys are interested in is Kylo Ren and Chewie at DHS and we will do the Disney Chase Meet and Greet at Epcot.

We only want to spend one morning (will rope drop) at Epcot to do Test Track, Soarin, our Chase picture, and lunch somewhere in World Showcase. I will have FP for one of these rides.

We will spend one morning at AK (also rope drop to do the Safari, EE, Kali, and see Lion King). We will come back one evening for the Tree of Life Awakening and will stake out a spot for River of Life if we get lucky enough to for a soft opening while we are there. I am not planning any FP for this park.

DHS we will spend at least parts of 3 days there to see the Star Wars fireworks, Fantasmic, and the Jingle show. We love TSM, Star Tours, RNR, and my DH and one son love TOT. I have FPs for these rides.

We will be rope dropping MK a couple of days to do 7DM and BTM (this will have to be on the 19th or 20th and is my other son's favorite ride). We want to see Wishes and will ride specific other rides as we can.

This trip, we are not trying to cram everything in. We will do our favorite rides, eat our favorite counter service meals, enjoy the scenery, and do some pin trading.

That being said, I am freaking out a little -- LOL. If you have read this far, thank you so much! Here are some of my specific questions?

1. The ONLY day we can see the Star Wars fireworks is Sat, the 12th at 8 pm. I have seen Robo's maps and information and Accident's information so I know where to stand, etc. to get a good view. We plan to arrive earlier (I have FPs), but what time should we get in our spot for the show? We are willing to be there early enough and wait to get a good spot.

2. We want to see Wishes one night. We could go Monday the 14th at 9 pm (park has AM EMH), Wednesday the 16th at 9 pm, Saturday the 19th at 10 pm (PM EMH), or Sunday at 10 pm (this is the week starting Thanksgiving break :-o )!!! Do you think the 14th would be ok if we show up in the late afternoon if the park has AM EMH or would you do the 16th with no EMH? What time should we get in our spot (near Casey's Corner)? I'm nervous of the crowds on the 19th and 20th, but would go if necessary.

3. Thursday the 17th, the MK closes early (at 4:30) for a special event. I'm thinking this will be a low crowd day. Is this a correct assumption?

4. I'm thinking I should avoid DHS on Friday the 18th due to PM EMH if we are going to see either Fantasmic (our favorite show) or the Jingle show?!? Would the morning (rope drop at DHS be ok with PM EMH?

5. Do you think the best Jingle show viewing spots will be the same as Star Wars or should we wait for a few shows to run and then I can check the Dis?!?!?

On our past 2 trips, I have had good luck picking what days at what parks via a few popular crowd calendars. I am not relying on them much for this trip, but I have been tracking posted and expected wait time for the past few weeks and seeing what Touring Plans actual crowd level was vs. predicted crowd level. I'm hoping this will help me decide a little bit.

Thanks so much if you got through this whole post!!!

 

[dchronister]

I can answer 2 & 3 from my point of view. We are going this same week, we are going to MK on Wed 16th. Everyone will tell you, don't do MK on a Monday, plus, it will be doubly crowded because wishes will only be shown on selected nights because of the parties. Also, Saturday and Sunday will be busy at MK, in my mind, I would go on Wednesday, well, I guess I am . 3, one would assume that Thursday would be an excellent day to go to MK, we did not buy hoppers this year because of shortened park hours, so we won't do MK on Thursday because it would make our day very short and I'm sure there are a lot of folks out there in the same boat as me. If we had hoppers, we would do MK early then hop elsewhere, but like I said, we don't have hoppers so for that reason, avoiding MK that day. The rest of your questions I don't know the answer to. Have fun, will probably pass you somewhere and won't even know it. We are MK-12th, AK 13th Epcot-14h , HS early 15th, MVMCP late 15th, MK 16th, HS 17th, MK 18, then, who knows.

 

[Accident]

1. I've seen people head towards the fastpass area up to 30 minutes early and linger for the start time to be first into the section. I don't know the section well enough to say if there is a bad spot if your the last fp+ to show up. robos maps and my preferred spot doesn't really help (well robos map actually does so you know what to look for to make sure there isn't some spot with a tree that you end up in) since you ahve a fastpass and it'll be a specific roped off area for you to be in

2. go the one that works for your MK day. it's going to be crowded all those dates. it doens't just suddenly get crowded for the holidays in the fall, it's been building up already.

3. most likely yes but everyone else visiting might assume the same and it's crowded. it'll be a hard 4:30 everyone leave the park and not like a normal day where they let people linger out for 1 or 2 more hours and do some shopping on the way out. this will be 4:30, exit is that way, keep moving please from cast members making sure you know the direct path out of the park.

4. your guess is as good as ours.

5. most likely. I can't see them doing anything really different that would warrant different best spots.

 

[mlktwins]

I can answer 2 & 3 from my point of view. We are going this same week, we are going to MK on Wed 16th. Everyone will tell you, don't do MK on a Monday, plus, it will be doubly crowded because wishes will only be shown on selected nights because of the parties. Also, Saturday and Sunday will be busy at MK, in my mind, I would go on Wednesday, well, I guess I am . 3, one would assume that Thursday would be an excellent day to go to MK, we did not buy hoppers this year because of shortened park hours, so we won't do MK on Thursday because it would make our day very short and I'm sure there are a lot of folks out there in the same boat as me. If we had hoppers, we would do MK early then hop elsewhere, but like I said, we don't have hoppers so for that reason, avoiding MK that day. The rest of your questions I don't know the answer to. Have fun, will probably pass you somewhere and won't even know it. We are MK-12th, AK 13th Epcot-14h , HS early 15th, MVMCP late 15th, MK 16th, HS 17th, MK 18, then, who knows.

Thank you! I think we are going to do Epcot Wed AM and MK Wed PM! Maybe we'll see you there !!!

 

[mlktwins]

1. I've seen people head towards the fastpass area up to 30 minutes early and linger for the start time to be first into the section. I don't know the section well enough to say if there is a bad spot if your the last fp+ to show up. robos maps and my preferred spot doesn't really help (well robos map actually does so you know what to look for to make sure there isn't some spot with a tree that you end up in) since you ahve a fastpass and it'll be a specific roped off area for you to be in

Does the Star Wars fireworks have a FP?!?!?! I just wanted to know what is the latest we should to a good spot for this as it is our ONLY reason for going to HS that day. We do have FPs for rides and will spend the day there though.

 

[Accident]

Does the Star Wars fireworks have a FP?!?!?! I just wanted to know what is the latest we should to a good spot for this as it is our ONLY reason for going to HS that day. We do have FPs for rides and will spend the day there though.

to be honest I've never looked, it's probably the desert party area that I'm thinking of.