Trying to determine which park, which days when there are After Hours Events AND Extended Hours for Deluxe Hotels…and we’ll have neither.

[SarahD112]

Our dates are Jan 13-21, staying at Pop. So plenty of park days, but not eligible for Extended Hours and not buying tickets for family of 5 for After Dark events. We’ll rope drop, use genie+ and maybe buy an ILL or two - and have hoppers. Using crowd calendars and expert advice on which parks are best on which days, I had laid it all out for which park we’re starting in each day. What I’m seeing though is that on Monday, January 16th (MLK Day) MK has After Hours Event from 10p-1a, (ticket holders can enter park at 7pm) and Epcot has 2 hour extended hours for deluxe guests. That was scheduled as an Epcot day for us. And then Wednesday…MK extended hours for deluxe resort guests and After Hours for Hollywood Studios. This is supposed to be a MK day for us. Will there be crowd spikes at parks with extended hour days of guests without hoppers, who plan to take advantage of the evening hours?

 

[TheSouthernBelle]

Our dates are Jan 13-21, staying at Pop. So plenty of park days, but not eligible for Extended Hours and not buying tickets for family of 5 for After Dark events. We’ll rope drop, use genie+ and maybe buy an ILL or two - and have hoppers. Using crowd calendars and expert advice on which parks are best on which days, I had laid it all out for which park we’re starting in each day. What I’m seeing though is that on Monday, January 16th (MLK Day) MK has After Hours Event from 10p-1a, (ticket holders can enter park at 7pm) and Epcot has 2 hour extended hours for deluxe guests. That was scheduled as an Epcot day for us. And then Wednesday…MK extended hours for deluxe resort guests and After Hours for Hollywood Studios. This is supposed to be a MK day for us. Will there be crowd spikes at parks with extended hour days of guests without hoppers, who plan to take advantage of the evening hours?

The MK after hours event is a ticketed event with limited sales. This event will not substantially impact crowds however the fact that it's MLK certainly will. I would expect MK, Epcot and DHS to all be crowded on Monday. You can only do so much to mitigate crowds and the only park I might avoid on Monday would be MK given this is the day most guests kick off their trip after a weekend arrival so MK is usually their first park thus you can usually count on higher crowds.

As for your Wednesday MK day, I'd keep what you planned. I do think you'll have higher than normal crowds at all the parks but there's not much you can do about it given the holiday. We've been to the parks on EEH days during peak times, even over holidays like spring break and I've felt like crowd spikes on those days were pretty typical. Long ride times late morning to mid afternoon with lowest ride times early AM and close to park close, nothing out of the ordinary.

 

[SarahD112]

Thanks for the advice. We didn’t have a choice about the week so we’ll do the best we can. We will rope drop and use genie+ for those first few days, and play it by ear later in the week. I would guess we’ll buy ILL for Rise. I feel like the rest we can handle with rope drop and genie+. And we’ll have hoppers, so that gives us more flexibility.