Touring Strategy for October? Opinions Needed!

[chrisn]

I know you guys have heard this all before but...

After reading the DL forum and UG like an addict, I am still just a little unsure of how to tour the parks for our upcoming trip October 2-6. We will be in the parks on a Wed, Thur, Fri.

During THIS TIME FRAME would it be best to follow a UG tour? Purchase RideMax? Or do it on our own keeping in mind which attractions we need to hit first and which ones to FP when?

Nemo is a priority once along with IJA then of course all the headliners and major attractions (I know we need to FP SM quickly). Does Haunted Mansion Holiday throw a kink in the mix? I have heard because of the overlay, it will develop long lines?

Really want to see and do the most that we can while there. We don't take breaks (except for lunch and snacks) and we don't do naps so we won't be leaving in the middle of the day to go and rest/swim at the hotel. We can rest at home at the end of vacation. 3 days at DL sounds like a breeze to us anyway. We do 10 hard and heavy at WDW so we are plenty prepared for stamina. I know this is sacrilege to a lot of you but really, this is what works for us and what we like to do and well, we don't have little kids anymore either. Our youngest is 10 and he will stay till midnight going like a steam train!

Any advice you DL fall experts can give me is greatly appreciated. What are all the October people planning to do? Thanks!

 

[talie95]

We will be there in Oct as well (the 7th to the 10th)... I know a lot of people use their EE to ride Nemo but if you have EE a lot of people are now suggesting riding Nemo at the end of the day getting in line shortly before the park closes. We don't have EE but if we did we would definitely use it to ride FL rides instead of just one ride on Nemo. I know you're kids are older so I don't know if FL is on your list of attractions but if it is I would recommend doing those first thing before the crowds pick up. None of the FL attractions have FP so the lines get longer and longer as the day goes on.
In general our plan of attack is to get there early. Mainstreet opens 1/2 hr. early so for a 10am opening we usually get in line at 9am. They open the gates at 9:30 and we spend some time on MS and getting a few pics/autographs while we wait for the ropedrop. We usually hit FL first and send a runner to get a FP (usually for Space). From there we just continue collecting FP's everytime our window is up. If you are there at for the park opening you can get a lot done in the first couple hours and then it makes the rest of the day a bit more mellow and relaxed.
I do have Ridemax and it is nice to kinda see what the wait times are on certain rides for certain times but I've never followed a Ridemax schedule really because it is the offseason and most rides don't have too much of a wait anyway. But for busier times I'm sure it comes in much more handy.

 

[chrisn]

Sorry, I neglected to mention that we will have 1 EE and my plan and first choice is to use it for FL. My plan for Nemo is to be at gate 1 hour early on non-EE day and sprint to Nemo or try riding late like you suggested.

 

[talie95]

Yes, it just seems to make more sense to use EE for FL. You can probably ride everything in FL (I think thats 11 or 12 rides?) during EE and do Nemo later. Or doing Nemo on a nonEE day like you said is also a good option, but just make sure you get to the gates early so you're one of the first in the park. I know that people have said that within 10-15 min. of park opening the line is already an hour long or more! I'm hoping that by Oct. the lines will have died down a bit too and since the summer crowds won't be there that'll help as well. Have fun!!!!!!!

 

[AURORA73]

I was there in May and used Ridemax. Even though it wasn't a busy week I found that following Ridemax helped a lot. We saw everything we had planned to see and had time to see even more. Of course Nemo wasn't open then so I don't know how that will play into the plans. My favorite times to go are May (week before Mother's Day) and October (first two weeks).

Last time I went to DL in October it was the week before Halloween. We rode Haunted Mansion Holiday 11 times in a row with no wait. Actually we were able to do this with most of the rides including some Fantasy Land rides.