W&D 1/2 Marathon Weekend Itinerary - thoughts?

[Angel Ariel]

DH and I are headed to WDW in November for the W&D 1/2 marathon (DH is running). We're staying at the Boardwalk. A friend of ours is joining us (though staying at a different hotel). Our current plan is to get the Armed Forces Salute tickets, assuming the program is renewed and the tickets are still the 4 day PH tickets.

For information's sake, it will be just the 3 of us (no children), and we're most interested in F&W festival related things. I know that the weekend will be very crowded in Epcot, but since it's just the 3 of us, we're not concerned about that. We also have no plans to attend MVMCP.

I'm trying to work out a general itinerary right now, so I can book ADRs next week.

Friday: Fly down in the morning (probably try for a 9 am flight), check into the hotel(s), head to MK for the afternoon. Hop to Epcot in the evening. Dinner either at BOG or LTT. We will stay at Epcot til close, then maybe hit up Jellyrolls for a little bit.
(If I can't get a BOG ADR for Monday, I will try to get one for Friday, as close to 7 as possible).
FP+ plan for Friday: Soarin' (so DH can ride with us), Mission: Space...and then something else in tier 2 just because.

Saturday: Race day, so no park during the day, per DH's request. We'll sleep in, and then head to DTD for lunch at Raglan Road (per friend's request) and shopping. DH will choose the dinner location (early enough so he can make his report time for the race). My friend and I have tickets for the W&D Finish Line Party. Those tickets allow us into Epcot at 7pm, and it goes til 4am. We plan on using the party for riding Epcot rides (tier 1 rides especially). We'll also tour the festival kiosks and character hunt a bit. DH won't be done til after 1am (if his time from the TOT 10 miler is any indication), so we'll have tons of Epcot time.
FP+ Plan for Saturday: I'm not sure if we'd be able to use FP+ during the 7p-9p window when we're allowed to enter before the park closes to the public. If it ends up that we can, we'd FP+ either TT or Illuminations for sure.

Sunday: Sleeping in! Head to Epcot for lunch at F&W kiosks, and plan to enjoy some seminars/demos throughout the day. (When will that schedule be released, does anyone know?). Dinner at festival kiosks, and then hop to MK for Wishes and Evening EMH til midnight.
FP+ Plans for Sunday: Use at MK...potentially SDMT, Wishes (since we won't arrive til late anyway). I still need to work out what we want to do with FP+ at MK...I need to study mesaboy's thread more!

Monday: Spend the entire day at MK. Counter Service for lunch, wherever we are in the park at the time. Dinner @ BOG (as close to 7 as I can get it. This will be what I try to book BOG for first at the 180 day mark). Whichever day we don't get BOG for, we'll schedule a Liberty Tree Tavern ADR also near 7. Potentially hop to Epcot, depending on what time we leave MK. Maybe Jellyrolls (if we didn't do it earlier).
FP+ Plans for Monday: Still figuring MK out...hoping to hit ETWB during EMH the night before. Most likely Space, maybe another SDMT..

Tuesday: Morning at Hollywood Studios, hop to AK for lunch at Flame Tree BBQ and spend the rest of the afternoon at AK (closes at 5). Will try to make RD to try for 2 rides on TSMM (one SB, 1 FP+). Have a late flight home, so we can head to the airport after AK closes.
FP+ Plans for Tuesday: TSMM, TOT, ST, try to get 4+ at AK after hopping..for KS, Everest, Dinosaur (AK FPs as needed)

This is all very preliminary...I need to do more thinking on FP+ plans, clearly...but after a pow-wow with my friend last night, I think this is the basic structure we're looking at (for which days we'll spend at which parks)

There is a possibility DH and I may stay til Wednesday, but we're not sure on that yet. My parents will be staying with DD at our house, so the timing of flights to FL and home aren't an issue (they're both retired, and have already agreed to take her so we can go).

Thank you in advance!

 

[Angel Ariel]

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[Delirium]

A couple of observations. You likely will not find too many characters, if any, at Epcot after 7:00 PM. And, I would not spend a FP+ on wishes. Really does not gain you much of a viewing advantage. Also, making use of your hopper the first day may be tough depending on the park hours.

Otherwise, I think you're focusing on the right things for a short visit. You can't do it all, so make the best use of your time. Focusing on Epcot and MK does that.

 

[Angel Ariel]

A couple of observations. You likely will not find too many characters, if any, at Epcot after 7:00 PM. And, I would not spend a FP+ on wishes. Really does not gain you much of a viewing advantage. Also, making use of your hopper the first day may be tough depending on the park hours.

The character hunting I was referring to was during the wine and dine after party. It is my understanding that, similar to the TOT 10 miler, they have characters out at various times throughout the party for the spectators. I saw frollo and shen yu at the TOT 10 miler party last year (I spent more time riding TSMM than searching for characters, I know there were others out.)

Re: hopping, MK closes at 7 for the first MVMCP of the year, and Epcot is open til 10 since it is a Friday during food and wine festival. We don't anticipate getting a lot done at epcot...mostly hopping to make sure DH gets to ride soarin with us. He doesn't care for TT so my friend and I will ride that while he is running in Saturday night.

Re: wishes, I am still on the fence about that one. Most of the comments I've read about not getting it have related to the 4th fp+, and basically not brig able to get.more than the prebooked 3. Since we aren't planing on using any fp+ in epcot that morning any way, I was thinking it could be a way to get decent viewing (we frequently view it from that.vicinity) without having to get there too early, since we will want to maximize our food and wine festival time. Definitely still on the fence though.

Otherwise, I think you're focusing on the right things for a short visit. You can't do it all, so make the best use of your time. Focusing on Epcot and MK does that.

Thanks we definitely want a f&w focus, since this is an adult only trip. We went last year, but Dd was with us (15 months at the time) and we couldn't do any of the seminars/demonstrations. We really enjoyed that aspect of the DCA f&w festival when we went, so I'm excited for seeing wdw's offerings!