Touring Strategy without FP+ ?

[tigertides]

We are planning summer trip to WDW. Staying at Disney Swan. Goals would be seeing Galaxy's Edge for first time, and doing "big kid" Magic Kingdom rides for first time with a 7- and 10-yr old...

What is the best plan of attack assuming there is not a traditional FP+ offering?

Total 5 days

Day 1: Saturday
Arrive/Pool Day, Nice dinner

Day 2: Sunday
Full Park Day

Day 3: Monday
Full Park Day/No Rope Drop

Day 4: Tuesday - Magic Kingdom/Rope Drop

Day 5: Wednesday
1/2 Day Epcot?
Depart MCO after Lunch

• We generally get to parks early (but not 1hr prior to rope drop)
• Like to do hotel nap during mid afternoon hours (is this possible with MK given current Bus transport issues with Swan/Dolphin)
• Have a middle -of-road touring goal (don't need to do every ride, but would like to hit 8-10/day)
• Have low tolerance for >30min wait times... in the hot sun... with a mask

Our MK MUST-DO's:

• 7DMT
• Thunder Mt
• Splash Mt
• Haunted Mansion
  Space Mountain

Our MK Nice-to-Do's:

• Pirates
  People Mover
• Aladdin

Our DHS MUST-Do's:

• Toy Story Land - never been
• GE - never been
• ? What shows to recommend/will be open?

EPCOT Must-Do's

• Ratatouille
• Soarin'
• That's it. Is it even worth coming here? Proximity to Dolphin

I saw good info from disney tourist blog website.

Anyone with real world experience during this age of social distancing?
I realize we should lower expectations. Airline tickets must be used in 2021 due to expiring credits.
We'd like to avoid MK on Monday. May fit Epcot in for 1/2 day

Thanks

 

[glocon]

Not sure that you can get in 8-10 rides without rope drop or FP during the summer. I’m guessing something may have to give... either getting out earlier or less rides. Maybe RD just some days?

 

[chris benton]

I'd figure out what attractions are important to your group, and use the Touringplans.com software.

Swan is a very short walk to Boardwalk and Beach/Yacht. You might want to look into using those busses to/from MK.

 

[Sjm9911]

How many days are you going for? Thats part of it also and what rides are must do. I agree, get up earlier and leave earlier. But tbh havent done it without the FP in years, lol. I would go directly for 7dmt and work my way to ppf, hm , sm, btrr, etc. Head out when i hit the front of the park after jc. Then come back at night and start at the other side, sm etc.

 

[Olaf Myfrenzargay]

Pick the rides you must have in order of priority each day and rope drop it. And wear running shoes.

 

[NJ Goofy]

As PP noted I would get there at least at park opening, don't go to MK on a Saturday, and use MDE for wait times & head to a ride that has lower time right away. I was tracking some wait times and they do seem to fluctuate during the day. Also, if you have PH's, it may pay you to return to the park late afternoon when some guests are leaving.

 

[tigertides]

How many days are you going for? Thats part of it also and what rides are must do. I agree, get up earlier and leave earlier. But tbh havent done it without the FP in years, lol. I would go directly for 7dmt and work my way to ppf, hm , sm, btrr, etc. Head out when i hit the front of the park after jc. Then come back at night and start at the other side, sm etc.

Post edited. Thanks for suggestions!

 

[_19disnA]

We were last at Disney pre-covid and the parks were very crowded on some days. No amount of advance planning on your part will make the crowds any smaller. If you have a general sense of how each park is arranged and you know what your interests are in terms of rides, you have done most of what can be done. Popular rides tend to have longer lines and even when we had our 3 daily FastPasses reserved ahead of time, it didn't make that much of a difference. You can waste a LOT of time walking from one end of the park to another just to do one ride. Even the posted wait times at the entrance to rides were not very accurate, so I am not sure how some 3rd party website will know any better. Some wait times at the entrance to a ride showed a long wait time and we just walked onto the ride, while others were the opposite.

 

[Sjm9911]

Thats atually a good point. Get a map or familiarize yourself with the park. That helps a ton.

 

[Sjm9911]

Your kids dont want to do frozen? Or test track at epcott? Plus for them turtle talk with crush might be a good one. Oh, 3 cabinyarios ? Sp if your hitting up frozen. I hated epcot as a kid, but my daughter who was 9 last year loved it.

 

[SheSingsAlong]

As far as mid-day breaks go, we found that taking a long, sit down lunch in the AC was a sufficient mid-day break before tackling the afternoon. For example, on MK day we had Whispering Canyon res and took the boat to and from WL, whole thing took just under 2 hours and we felt great upon returning to MK for the afternoon. Felt like an efficient use of time considering the parks close pretty early in these COVID days.

 

[elle21]

If you don't want long wait times, I think that rope dropping is essential.
We just did a little 3 park day trip last week. We got to MK right before 8:00 for a 9:00 open. They opened the gates at about 8:25. We were pretty close to the front of the pack walking back to 7D. We rode that, then went right over to PP, BTMR, Splash, then Pirates and we walked on every one of those rides. Though this is a pretty slow time. We waited about 5-10 minutes for JC, and then 5 min. for carpets. Then we slowed down, had some Dole whip and the kids wanted to climb the treehouse.
We criss crossed the park to maximize low wait times on the things that were most important to us, then we went back and filled in with the bonus rides. This made for a lot more walking, but we didn't mind.

 

[Gehrig1B]

We just did a little 3 park day trip last week. We got to MK right before 8:00 for a 9:00 open. They opened the gates at about 8:25. We were pretty close to the front of the pack walking back to 7D. We rode that, then went right over to PP, BTMR, Splash, then Pirates and we walked on every one of those rides.

The first week of January we followed this plan to great success. We had done Mine Train, Splash, Big Thunder, and Space Mountain all in the first 90 minutes.

 

[cjlong88]

As others have mentioned, rope drop will guarantee you potentially the shortest waits of the day. If you can plan park days on weekdays, that will definitely helps with crowds.

 

[casperthegm]

I know rope drop can be rough, getting everyone up and going in the morning. But the payoff is real. Those first 2+ hours you'll find you can knock most, if not all of your favorites if you have a plan and mindset to move quickly from one ride to the next. You'll probably get on as many rides during that sequence of time as you will the entire rest of the day, depending on the park and what day you go.

 

[Disneyfan754321]

I agree with others.. this year parks have been opening 30-45 mins before posted time... this is the best hour in the park. Walk stright to 7d or avatar or what ever big ride they have with a less than 30 min wait. Also in the summer it's the coolest part of the day. You said you like mid day breaks. With MK try and tackle 2 lands in the morning take your break and then go to the other side when you get back. We normally go right to 7dmt then work our way back to the entrance with our last ride before lunch being in tomorrow land

 

[tigertides]

I agree with others.. this year parks have been opening 30-45 mins before posted time... this is the best hour in the park. Walk stright to 7d or avatar or what ever big ride they have with a less than 30 min wait. Also in the summer it's the coolest part of the day. You said you like mid day breaks. With MK try and tackle 2 lands in the morning take your break and then go to the other side when you get back. We normally go right to 7dmt then work our way back to the entrance with our last ride before lunch being in tomorrow land

We did rope drop In 2018, when we were a five minute monorail right away at the grand Floridian. Made it coming back to the room very easy. The challenge is being at the Swan, and having to travel back for a midday break from the Magic Kingdom. My kids are in that in between stage of going to commando, from Rob drop to late evening… Or they could easily meltdown at 2 PM.

in 2018, when we were a five minute monorail right away at the grand Floridian. Made coming back to the room very easy. The challenge is being at the Swan, and having to travel back for a midday break from the Magic Kingdom.
My kids are in that in between stage of going 12 hr commando, from RD to late evening… Or they could easily melt down at 2 PM. we likely will do ROPE DROP and then take a midday lunch break at the wave contemporary, or wilderness lodge.
Two or three hours outside the park, and then come back around 3 PM.

The travel time using the MEARS bus to dolphinSwan just seems like a disaster.

Definitely would take a midday break when we are going to Epcot and Disney Hollywood studios. Thank you

 

[Sjm9911]

My daughter just hit 8 when we went 2 years ago, i get the 2pm or later. Most days at 4 pm she was done. Only 2 times did she want to stay to see the fireworks, one was for a party, the other was when we went back after a break. Both times we left before the fireworks ended. Rope drop is a good plan, with the break and then maybe go back at night, let the kidos decide.

 

[Disneyfan754321]

We did rope drop In 2018, when we were a five minute monorail right away at the grand Floridian. Made it coming back to the room very easy. The challenge is being at the Swan, and having to travel back for a midday break from the Magic Kingdom. My kids are in that in between stage of going to commando, from Rob drop to late evening… Or they could easily meltdown at 2 PM.

in 2018, when we were a five minute monorail right away at the grand Floridian. Made coming back to the room very easy. The challenge is being at the Swan, and having to travel back for a midday break from the Magic Kingdom.
My kids are in that in between stage of going 12 hr commando, from RD to late evening… Or they could easily melt down at 2 PM. we likely will do ROPE DROP and then take a midday lunch break at the wave contemporary, or wilderness lodge.
Two or three hours outside the park, and then come back around 3 PM.

The travel time using the MEARS bus to dolphinSwan just seems like a disaster.

Definitely would take a midday break when we are going to Epcot and Disney Hollywood studios. Thank you

Our challenge is always the third day my kids are tired and hard to deal with. So our first day is MK because that park is the one that wears everyone out. We stayed at the Coranado and used uber to get back to the room mid day. It's well worth the money.

 

[Accidental Disney Fan]

We were there December 4 to 11, 2020. We were at the parks about 45 minutes prior to opening and people were already going through the turnstiles on every occasion. We did also use Touring plans, not necessarily for the order they were telling us to do things but rather for their estimated wait times. So we were able to knock off a couple of our must-dos right away without too much wait.

We would stay in the parks until about noon and then return around 4:00pm to do a couple more hours. I would say that we did everything we wanted to with no longer than a 30 minute wait for most of the rides.

All things considered, it was alright. We mostly did it this way to avoid the feeling of it being too crowded (ergo unsafe covid wise) during the afternoons where certain corridors were quite crowded.

I don't think I'd have gone forgone rope dropping (and would even suggest being there an hour before the park officially opens). That said, we will only return when some sort of Fastpass option comes back. We only went on this trip because of rented, non-refundable DVC room.

I'll say one other thing that was a positive is that we go to see a lot of theming in the standby lines that we have never seen before. Ie: Wandering Oaken's sauna and store. I didn't even though that was there before because we had always been in the Fast Pass line.