What FP strategy do you use off-site...when park hours could change?

[Surgie2]

Helping a family member plan a 1-day visit to MK in July (not the week of the 4th). He will be off-site, has young kids - 8 and under. Right now the park hours are listed as 9-10.

I suggested RD with FP beginning around 10:00 which he is fine with. But if EMH is added for that first hour, then RD for 7DMT and PP won't work and they'd likely have a long wait an hour into the morning.

If park hours for all change and MK opens at 8:00, he'll be fine. I don't know if he should assume EMH will be added and FP PP, Belle around 9:30/10:30 and hopefully 7DMT later in the day (since earlier not likely available)?

Help please! I am stuck on what advice to give. I was going to suggest EMM but he is going on a Wednesday so no luck there.

 

[Klayfish]

We're off site people. My recommendation would be to ditch rope drop and just use FP+. Honestly, we don't even have a clue what parks have EMH on what days because we just plan to go to whatever park we want. MK is the easiest park of them all for FP+, so I'd definitely recommend ditching the rope drop idea...or at the very least don't build your plan around it. If they don't have it, fantastic. If they do, no big deal.

 

[Surgie2]

We're off site people. My recommendation would be to ditch rope drop and just use FP+. Honestly, we don't even have a clue what parks have EMH on what days because we just plan to go to whatever park we want. MK is the easiest park of them all for FP+, so I'd definitely recommend ditching the rope drop idea...or at the very least don't build your plan around it. If they don't have it, fantastic. If they do, no big deal.

Thanks for the suggestion. Their kids are typically early risers and super excited to get to the park - especially with only one day to visit. So they are really onboard with rope dropping and actually psyched up for it LOL. If they knew they could RD 7DMT then the wouldn't use a FP for it. But of course there is no way to know for sure since Disney hours change.

 

[Tigerlulu]

Can he book at BOG for breakfast before the park opens? We had a line to wait in but they let our line into the SDMT line and held back everyone else until we all got in. So even the first person at rope drop had to wait until the last person from breakfast. And the line swelled like crazy so without that or FP+ it’s not worth it. It is worth doing during fireworks or at the end of the night though.

 

[Surgie2]

Can he book at BOG for breakfast before the park opens? We had a line to wait in but they let our line into the SDMT line and held back everyone else until we all got in. So even the first person at rope drop had to wait until the last person from breakfast. And the line swelled like crazy so without that or FP+ it’s not worth it. It is worth doing during fireworks or at the end of the night though.

The only time BOG is available is 8:25...which seems cutting it close with a 9:00 park opening.

 

[MonCostivelle]

I've usually been able to get a FP+ for 7DMT at 30 days. I always stay offsite.
Sure, they are usually for late afternoon-early evening, which decreases the chance to be able to get more than 3 FP that day. However, it's a good option to have in case there are EMH and they are not able to RD that attraction.
If they are able to get there early, then they can just replace the FP+ for another attraction.

 

[SquashBanana]

The only time BOG is available is 8:25...which seems cutting it close with a 9:00 park opening.

I can't speak from experience, but I've read from multiple reports that will let you in early with an 8:25 BOG reservation. As with everything, there are no guarantees, but I believe it's pretty standard practice.

 

[richmo]

I'm not a rope drop person, but since they're okay with it -- and aware of the time it even takes to get to MK (parking, tram, security, monorail/ferry, etc), I'd say start with 7DMT standby and schedule the first fastpass about an hour past park opening, whenever that is. The window for that FP would extend to about 2 hours after park opening, which should be enough time to finish up the 7DMT standby. I would think once they are at the 30 day mark, the magic hour park should be pretty well set, as well as the opening time. If the opening time moves up an hour once their FP's are set, they could try moving their 3rd FP up into the earlier slot. For July, as another poster mentioned, most likely they will not be able to get a 7DMT FP until late afternoon at the earliest, which is why I'd skip that and do it standby at the beginning of the day. Once they check in for their 3rd FP, they should be able to pick up additional ones fairly easily for just about everything (except 7DMT, of course).

 

[twolittletinkerbells]

Helping a family member plan a 1-day visit to MK in July (not the week of the 4th). He will be off-site, has young kids - 8 and under. Right now the park hours are listed as 9-10.

I suggested RD with FP beginning around 10:00 which he is fine with. But if EMH is added for that first hour, then RD for 7DMT and PP won't work and they'd likely have a long wait an hour into the morning.

If park hours for all change and MK opens at 8:00, he'll be fine. I don't know if he should assume EMH will be added and FP PP, Belle around 9:30/10:30 and hopefully 7DMT later in the day (since earlier not likely available)?

Help please! I am stuck on what advice to give. I was going to suggest EMM but he is going on a Wednesday so no luck there.

I mix on-site and off site. When off-site I ALWAYS pick non EMH and rope drop. Start my FP after 10. We like getting out early when its cool. Works great for us. We can usually get done with 7DMT and almost all of FL by 1030 and then start on FPs. We can start getting FPs after 1 for the rest of the day.

 

[twolittletinkerbells]

As for park hour changes, I tend to think they would open earlier if theres a change. This just means rope drop even earlier.