Tell me your ideal itinerary for day 1 in the parks.

[IBLarsen]

Looking for different scenarios for what you all consider your ideal itinerary for day 1 in the park during heavy crowds. We will be there next week. First day will be Monday the 21st (so Thanksgiving week). We will be there Mon, Tues, Wed, and Thurs full days. We are planning on using our MM day on Tuesday. We all love everything, except Space Mtn. Our party consists of Myself, DH, DS8 and DD6 (who is tall enough and brave enough for everything).

Just looking for a good starting point for day one to get the most done that we can, with the least amount of waits. We will be there at rope drop definately, and will park hop as needed.

Would love to see what works for you!!! Thanks for the help!

(I should mention that I don't think we can go the entire first day without at least doing Peter Pan)

 

[skiingfast]

If PP is nessecary do it first. Get there about 30 minutes early so you can be in by the rope drop. Go strait there. Since now in FL I'd do Matterhorn and Toad next. Then if it is ok to loose and adult or older child have them be your runner. The runner can go grab FPs to use later. If the runner is ok missing PP they should grab one right away and then meet back at PP, they may not be quick enough to get on with you, and maybe you want to all ride together. If not if the Matterhorn has a 10 minute wait they may want to break off then.

Look to Space, Star Tours, or Indy as your first FP.

Maybe not for your first day but one morning I would hop to be at DCA t 9:30. Ride Soarin, grab a FP for later. Grab a WoC showtickets for the night, should be for the blue zone if done this early. Ride LM and then enter the pier at 10am to grab a Screemin FP.

 

[abouley]

We tend to not do PP our first day but if we did (and Mon is a good day to do this since there isn't MM), Kids and I would head there while DH got a FP for Indy or Star Tours and he'd meet us there. We tend to not be at the front for RD so he can usually do this and meet us there. After that we hit Matterhorn and any other must do FL rides (Alice is one of those for my kids). Then we head over and get FP for Thunder Mtn which I believe is still disconnected and maybe ride if line is 10 min or less. Then we'd probably hit HM since we love the holiday overlay (and pirates if it weren't closed).

At this point, guessing it's getting much busier and likely we could pick up a FP for another ride....SM would be my son's choice but if not that perhaps Splash. Then it'd be time to hit some other not quite so busy rides. Might ride pooh if we were getting splash FP's, perhaps Jungle Cruise and Buzz. Keep in mind that on these busy days the crowds seem to be noticeably larger by about 10:00. We are usually more than ready to stop for lunch at 11/11:30.

In the afternoon we try to take in some shows and use our FP's from the morning (tiki rooms, boats, playing in toontown etc are all things my kids enjoy when crowds are high and I won't stand in line). We tend to have a hard time leaving the parks our first day as we get wrapped up in seeing stuff though with the parks staying open till midnight I should make it a priorty for everyone to take naps and enjoy the evening when crowds start to thin out. I like to take in a parade that first day if we can too!

DCA isn't a priority for us the first day so we don't normally go over there until the 2nd day when my DS starts to whine about riding CA screamin!

 

[IBLarsen]

Thanks so much for the advice! Definately helping me to form a much needed plan We aren't planning on DCA until middle of the 2nd day, since we are starting off early at MM, planning on hopping to DCA at about 11 and having lunch over there at Wine Country Trattoria. The 3rd day we will be at DCA at opening to get ride everything we def want and get fp for WOC.
I think my plan is loosely coming together. Trying to not have too high of expectations with the high crowds. Just want a good start to each day and get the most done in the first 2 hours, then we can take it easy and go with the flow.

Any more advice is welcome and appreciated!!!!

 

[ArchOwl]

Yeah, Monday should be your least crowded day I would imagine. So if you can go all out that day, you should be able to knock out at least 20 rides if you go commando!

If PP is a priority, I would go there first for sure.
Then send a runner for FP for Star Tours and have them meet you back in Fantasyland.
Dumbo
Mr. Toad
Alice
Matterhorn
Small World Holiday
(If you like, grab a Roger Rabbit FP since it is disconnected)

Rest of Fantasyland as desired

Head over to BTMRR and grab FP on your way to Haunted Mansion Holiday to grab another FP (BTMRR is disconnected from the main FP system)

Early lunch?

Use Star Tours FP
Buzz

Get Indy FP
Use BTMRR FP and get another FP

Use Roger Rabbit FP and get another FP (if you want)

During the first parade try Finding Nemo, it will be a longer wait no matter what, I am guessing 45-50 minutes. This is only if you really want to ride it. Personally I don't like to wait more than 25-30 minutes for this ride, but some really like it.

You should be eligible for another FP now. If you want to ride Splash (it is a little chilly), grab that. If not, pick another FP ride. ST will most likely be sold out, but you could try.

Winnie the Pooh
Use Haunted Mansion FP
Use Indy FP
Jungle Cruise
Tiki Room

You can continue to collect FPs as needed, Indy should still be available until well into the evening. Have fun!

 

[abouley]

We used to not get our first FP until after we did fantasyland but by then most of the time you can't get another FP for 2 more hours so we didn't end up with many FP to use later. Getting one on the way in, means that usually by 8:35 or so you can pick up your 2nd FP! Also, having Thunder disconnected has been great for us (my DD 6 wants to ride it over and over so we try to have a handful of these FP's). Also, Small World is usually a filler for us but with the overlay lines will be much longer so thinking I may have to fit that in one morning.

We are there Nov 19-23rd and I'm really trying to tell myself not to overdue it to just get out of the parks when it gets crowded and not try to fight the lines! I find planning the first 2-3 hours or so and then just going with the flow does work well for us as well!

Your idea to head over to DCA the 2nd day after doing your MM is a good idea. You MAY find you can even get over there right at opening with 2.5 hours in DL and LOTS done. If you can do that, you probably don't need another opening day at DCA, unless you are set on seeing WOC on Wed. Just a note, I would expect crowds to get progressively worse throughout the week (at least that was my experience 4 years ago when we did Thanksgiving week and is what touringplans predicts). You might want to do fireworks/parades early in the week if you plan to do them. That is the one thing I can't stand are the after fireworks/parade crowds. I have found that just finding a place to sit and wait it out works best for me!

Have fun!

 

[IBLarsen]

Thanks for the tips on the Fireworks and Parades Abouley! I honestly wasn't sure the best days to fit these in. Monday will be a parade day for us I think, I want an early bed time with a 6 year old for MM Tuesday. And knowing that none of us will want to take an afternoon break on the First day (Monday,) we will be ready for bed well before closing. Then Tuesday with an early start we will take an afternoon break and then plan on staying late for Fireworks and or Fantasmic (not sure that both will work in the same night????) Fireworks will be at 8:45 and F! at 9:00. Should we just watch the Fireworks from our F! spot??? I was thinking we would want a Main St view for the Fireworks?
We have never seen WOC, so thinking Wed night would be a good night for this. Thursday is a back up night for either Fantasmic or Fireworks in case we can't see both earlier or if fireworks are cancelled earlier in the week.
Advice on which nights to see which????

 

[abouley]

I've been having the same debate about F! and Fireworks. I don't like watching the firewoks from F! as you really can't see things on the castle and down low fireworks. I would probably plan to do your fireworks on Tues in case they are cancellled you could try to catch them later in the week and do F! on Thurs (but expect crowds and getting there early). Maybe if you get good naps in you can catch the late F! show after fireworks. My kids are 5 and 7.5 so I totally understand that staying up that late is NOT always possible but during our trip this summer we all took 3+ hour mid day naps and got back into the park after dinner and closed the park down! It was fun and my kids still talk about the time they "got to stay up until tomorrow". Lines were fantastic at night and I wondered why we hadn't tried this before! LOL! Course that was our last day so we weren't trying to be at opening the next morning.

My kids like F! better than WOC but if you haven't seen WOC before, it's worth seeing.

I would just expect that you will want to get a place for fireworks and F! very early. We were there during Oct one year when DL reached capacity and main street was packed all the way back to the train station for fireworks. Maybe having the shows so close together is strategic in that you spread the crowds out between the two locations?!