Trying to plan New Year's Day

[a*lil*bit*goofy]

MY FP window is on Tuesday.

But I need to plan NYDay. I am told that last year MK opened at 7, and I have been told it opened at 8. ? Currently the hours are 9a-9pm

I imagine that the hours will change between now and then right?

Which makes planning a bit harder.

So far we have:
RD
Peterpan
Winnie The Pooh
Haunted Mansion
1020 ADR Crystal Palace
1st FP Pirates 1145-1245
2nd FP Big Thunder 1245-145
3rd FP Splash 145-245

If the hours change to open at 7 or even 8, that will change things wont it? Will the park be so crowded first thing in the morning after being open so late the night before? assuming still 9am opening, is my current plan feasible?

I am thinking that if RD changes to 8am, we would do:
PP
WtP
HM
Big Thunder
then maybe we have time to sneak on Pirates
1020 CP ADR
1st FP: Splash 1145-1245
then continue to things like Country Bear, Liberty boat, Small World, Philharmagic depending on crowds.
145-245 7D
245-345 Meet and Greet
345-445 something.


if it changes to 7am
then after Big Thunder
Splash
Country Bear
Pirates
1020ADR CP
1st fp: 1145-1245 Jungle Cruise
2nd: 1245-145: 7Dwarfs
3rd: 145-245 a meet and greet.

The problem here is that if I book fastpasses NOW for Jan 1st, Thunder and Splash are good to get. BUT if the hours change and I don't book 7Dwarfs, I won't get 7Dwarfs.

I guess best thing to do is book 7D for 145-245 no matter what to have that if the times change.

How does the rest of the plan look?

 

[Alesia]

Here's how I plan my days:

1. Make a list of all of the attractions we want to do, in order. I just copy the list directly from the cheat sheets at easywdw.com, leaving off what doesn't interest me.
2. I block out the day in 15 minute increments and fill in meal times, fastpass times, and a 15 minute break every few hours.
3. After that, I just fill in the attractions from the list. I plan 4 for the first hour, 3 for the second hour, and 2 for every hour after that.

When you do it this way, it makes changes easy, because if the park opens early, you just keep the fixed things where they are and slide the attractions up.

 

[a*lil*bit*goofy]

is at realistic for New Year's day? Will the early morning be "light" with them open so late night before? (MK)

 

[Alesia]

is at realistic for New Year's day? Will the early morning be "light" with them open so late night before? (MK)

yes and yes.

 

[cleophus12]

I would be slightly surprised if they opened earlier on New Years Day having been open til late on NYE.

 

[mom22boys]

Wow, you really have me thinking. We will be at MK on New Year's Day too. I was going to try to get our FPs for 10-11, 11-12, and 12-1 with the hope of getting an additional FP or two in the afternoon (I am worried this might be wishful thinking though). I never thought about the park opening that early. The opening time for all the parks for that first week of January is 9 a.m. I would love some 8 a.m. openings though!

 

[a*lil*bit*goofy]

I was surprised to be told 7am this past Jan1 esp with how late they are open on 31

8am however makes sense and that is how I am going to plan for this 1 day only as a backup to the current 9am!

 

[soniam]

MK didn't open until 9am on New Years Day 2017, 1/1/2017. Only AK opened early @ 8am for EMH. The parks are not very busy until later on New Years Day, because a lot of people sleep in. We were there. 1/2 was much busier.

 

[mom22boys]

MK didn't open until 9am on New Years Day 2017, 1/1/2017. Only AK opened early @ 8am for EMH. The parks are not very busy until later on New Years Day, because a lot of people sleep in. We were there. 1/2 was much busier.

Were you there the rest of the week too? If so, what was your experience like? Any advice? Did the parks open at 9 a.m. the rest of the week? Thanks!

 

[soniam]

Were you there the rest of the week too? If so, what was your experience like? Any advice? Did the parks open at 9 a.m. the rest of the week? Thanks!

We left on January 2nd but did go to Epcot part of the day. It was really busy. It was busy the whole time, 12/27-1/2. New Years day was the slowest of them all. However, surprisingly, MK on the 30th wasn't too bad. It was busy near the hub but pretty much sparse in the rest of the park. It was pretty cold that day though. If it's cold and you think you will want hot tea, bring some bags from your hotel with you. They had plenty of water and hot chocolate, but they ran out of coffee and tea bags.

 

[NYCgrrl]

I don't know if this is new or not but if you are making FPs in advance the system will only allow you to book a subsequent fast pass an hour after the preceding one. I'm guessing this is in deference to the one hour window you have to the first FP. A tad annoying since most rides are less than 10 minutes but you can always check the MDE app to see if you can change your later FP.
Just a something I'm coming up against during this coming Christmas season.

 

[GovieMom]

We visited the first week of January a few years ago. The morning of New Years Day at MK was great; light to moderate crowds until lunch time, after which the visitors started arriving in droves. We ended up leaving MK around 1:00, due to the huge amount of people pouring in. We went over to Epcot, and it ended up getting so crowded there that our family got separated after Illuminations. Freaked me out! The rest of that week, all the parks stayed packed.

 

[a*lil*bit*goofy]

I don't know if this is new or not but if you are making FPs in advance the system will only allow you to book a subsequent fast pass an hour after the preceding one. I'm guessing this is in deference to the one hour window you have to the first FP. A tad annoying since most rides are less than 10 minutes but you can always check the MDE app to see if you can change your later FP.
Just a something I'm coming up against during this coming Christmas season.

In past I could book 9-10
10-11
11-12 if I wanted and if available
Are you saying now its only 9-10, then 11-12? That seems crazy!

 

[NYCgrrl]

In past I could book 9-10
10-11
11-12 if I wanted and if available
Are you saying now its only 9-10, then 11-12? That seems crazy!

It's still a 60 minute time frame (or one hour) between FPs but that seems quite a bit of wasted time for me. And I don't remember it being such a long time between rides last trip although we were allowed to get on one ride ( Big Thunder) twice in a row; once about 5 minutes before our FP and immediately after with our FP followed by Splash Mountain and Space Mountain. In my mind all the rides happened quickly together but probably I'm wrong.

 

[mom22boys]

OP, just checking to see if you saw the updated hours. Looks like MK will be open from 8 a.m.-11 p.m. on New Year's Day.

 

[a*lil*bit*goofy]

OP, just checking to see if you saw the updated hours. Looks like MK will be open from 8 a.m.-11 p.m. on New Year's Day.

Thank you! No I only saw hours to Dec 31st. If MK opens at 8am, that is perfect. We can get some good touring time in before brunch at CP at 1020!

This means we should be able to:
Rope drop Peter Pan
Winnie the Pooh
Haunted Mansion
Add in Splash Mountain
Before goint to CP at 1015 to check in!