whew - first 15 days of FP+ done - only took us a nerve-racking hour and 40 minutes!!

[chudlyfudly]

i put everything into an excel...
each day on a different sheet...
i inserted ADR times and then DD and i worked on it...
we scheduled in our planned "rope drop" rides...
and the 3 FPs each day..
we didn't schedule the things that i assume we'll do in between...
we're going to have to be flexible as our group of 8 includes 2 toddlers, one in diapers the other just toilet trained...so there will certainly be lots of diaper/bathroom/accident breaks along the way....
we already said that we'll just have to be flexible..
but all this scheduling, especially the ADRs with the credit card guarantee, makes it much more difficult...



DD and i planned it together...
DS and DSIL wanted to be involved, but when it came down to it, neither of them had the patience to sit through all the planning required...
DS managed one session that covered two days (of 21)..
and DSIL didn't even manage that...he turned his iphone onto a football game and zoned out...
DDIL only wanted to be involved in the shirt design, so that was fine (the shirt "committee" consists of DD, DDIL and me)..



i've never been there for FP+ yet, but DD said that same thing...
i helped her before her last trip (with DSIL) and then they ended up changing most of their FPs when they were there..
but they were there in early november, not in the super summer crowds..



i would be happy to be relaxed if it were just DH and me....
but having the entire family dependent on me for a good time, so to speak, is a bit daunting..
but with the two toddlers, we're all going to have to be relaxed and go with the flow, wherever it takes us..

as for hard ADRs, that's what we're doing...going for the hard ones...
the only one i couldn't get was FOP on our first day at AK..
so DD changed the schedule..
instead of doing FoP on our first day at AK, we'll do navi river journey that day - since they're both top tier so you can only get one FP..
and then on our second visit to AK, i did manage to get us the FP for FoP...
so that's good...

.

Wow! No wonder the planning is a big job with 8 of you...I have enough trouble just planning for myself! Best of luck with booking the remaining fastpasses, hope you get what you all want.

 

[disneyholic family]

I think you can only do a certain amount of planning.

As long as everyone in the party knows how much you've done in advance for them, you should be able to get there, stop being the tour guide/planner and enjoy yourself, it's your vacation too!

We got lucky on our FPs, worked from the end of the trip forwards, in difficulty order. - Got Illuminations on 4th July, both Avatar, 7DMT, ROL, etc etc

i also worked backwards, except for that first day - since it was for AK and we really wanted FoP....
once i couldn't get FoP, DD took over booking the first day (since she changed our schedule on the fly)
and i did the other 14 days, working backwards as you did...it's the only way to do it..
today i did our day 16 and it was a breeze since no one else had booked it yet..
tomorrow, day 17 is an AK day again - but should be easy...

as for it being my vacation - DS, DDIL and our two grandchildren leave after the first 19 days...
leaving DD, DSIL, DH and me for another 3 days at WDW, following by 3 days cruising on the disney dream....
i figure the cruise will be MY vacation!!!!!! nothing like sitting back and letting the crew take care of us!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
nothing at all to think about except eat, sleep, eat, rest, eat....etc etc....

Wow! No wonder the planning is a big job with 8 of you...I have enough trouble just planning for myself! Best of luck with booking the remaining fastpasses, hope you get what you all want.

i did WDW on my own a few years back when i had to be in orlando for a conference....
it was only a 2 day conference, but i first spent 9 wonderful days at WDW....
it was very different being there on my own...
i used it as an opportunity to do all the behind the scenes tours that i'd always wanted to do but were never able to...
i really really really really really enjoyed it!!!

another trip, i was sort of by myself....i had to go to that same conference though a different year..
that year i spent 2 and a half glorious days with my best friend from university (we graduated 40 years ago!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
my very first visit to WDW was with her, way back in 1974, our freshman year at university....crazy....
imagine, WDW was only the magic kingdom back then...no other parks at all...

.

 

[disneyholic family]

No, it shows unavailable for our dates in August too. Not massively bothered though as we always seem to be able to pretty much walk straight on that. I wouldn't be too bothered if it was in refurb too though as it makes me want to hurl

I think EPCOT Fastpasses are the worst. I think you should be able to FP+ Soarin' AND Test Track, my boys two fave rides.

you should ride mission space on the non-spinning side...it's really fun...
i can't ride the side that spins, but i love the non-spinning side....what i call the wimpy side...

yes, the FPs at epcot are a pain....
the tier system for epcot, dhs and ak are so difficult..

at epcot we booked frozen ever after for all the upper tier FPs....
we're going to try to rope drop test track and soarin...
it's really annoying..

at AK, we split....one day we used the FP for flight of passage, and the other day for navi river journey...

i'm getting ready to do the fastpasses for day 20...
after the first 15 days of the trip, we have to go day by day....so i'm up to day 20 today...which is an AK day....but i'm going for navi river, so that shouldn't be a problem..

.

 

[Julia Ann]

I remember 3 years ago having to wake at 5am to book fps am I correct in thinking its now midday? And back then it was all about the frozen sisters meet/greet...now its FoP

 

[disneyholic family]

I remember 3 years ago having to wake at 5am to book fps am I correct in thinking its now midday? And back then it was all about the frozen sisters meet/greet...now its FoP

yes, now it's 7 am eastern USA time so that's noon UK time..

 

[Grace1987]

So do you all use crowd trackers to choose which day for which park? Then book FP+ and plan food?

 

[disneyholic family]

So do you all use crowd trackers to choose which day for which park? Then book FP+ and plan food?

no we didn't use that..
probably would be good to use it, but i did something else..

first i made a calendar for the weeks we're there..
then i put in all the extra magic hour days in the calendar - with the park where the EMH is to be..
the reason for that is we go to parks in opposition of EMH..
even though we stay on property, we do our best to avoid EMH parks...
it is after all a vacation....no need to get up at the very crack of dawn to get to the parks in time for morning EMH...
and evening EMH parks do tend to be a bit busier as well - since some people don't park hop....so they go to the park where the EMH is, whether morning or evening..

anyway, we go to the parks in opposition to that....in other words, we never go to an EMH park, if we can help it...sometimes disney changes the hours, which throws a monkeywrench into our plans...but for the most part, the EMH days stay the same..

once we have EMH days entered into the calendar, we fit the parks into the schedule..
which is why AK is our first full day this year....not because it has the new attractions, but because it fit into our schedule..
otherwise we would have gone to MK first, but it's an EMH day at MK that day....so AK it is..
and our second day is epcot, third day MK and then DHS....all a function of EMH days..
and so on through the 3 weeks we'll be there..

so we had a set calendar of what park we'll be in each day, including the days we'll be at Blizzard beach and typhoon lagoon (assuming the weather is good)..
and the day DS and DDIL will head over to harry potter et al...(one morning at Universal for them...that's it)>.
and while they're there, the rest of us - their two toddlers, DD, DSIL, DH and me will be lazing it up in MK!! much better than universal (blech).

ok...so once we had the calendar set...
at 180 days, i set out to get us ADRs....not so easy as we're a group of 8
then as we approached 60 days, DD and i spent about 8 hours in total figuring out the FPs to go for when we got to 60 days..

pretty intensive...
but no we didn't look at the crowd thing...
i'm not sure it makes all that difference...
the crowds have turned pretty bad every day of the year....there aren't the quiet times there used to be...

anyway, this is how we do it..
i'm sure there is a better and certainly a more scientific approach..
but this is as much as i'm willing to do...

.

 

[Grace1987]

Thank you that was really useful.
We just want to try and be as smart as possible. Do you think the water parks are worth going to? We are just a couple.

 

[disneyholic family]

Thank you that was really useful.
We just want to try and be as smart as possible. Do you think the water parks are worth going to? We are just a couple.

do you like to swim and go on water slides?
we love water parks and i can honestly say, the disney parks are the best we've ever been to..
but again, that's if you enjoy floating around in lazy rivers, going down tube slides etc.

if you're going to have one of the UK ultimate tickets, the water parks are included in your ticket, so you might want to just pop in to check them out..

both are nice...we always go to both...

.

 

[MrsIncredible1974]

i just remembered one that wasn't available at all - Mission Space...
i thought the refurb is in july, but it wasn't available for me at all in august...
has anyone else managed to get a FP for it in august?

I couldn't get Mission Space on any day from 27 July to 10 Aug.

 

[disneyholic family]

I couldn't get Mission Space on any day from 27 July to 10 Aug.

they must be waiting until they know for sure when the refurbishment will finish..