Which Park Before MNSSHP with Off-site Friends?

[DinahInWonderland]

We are planning a vacation with a some friend who are staying offsite. We are planning to do 5 days in the parks with them and MNSSHP one night. My husband and I are in disagreement with what Park we should do the morning of the party.

My family will be staying at the Wilderness Lodge Villas and our friends are off-site at Marriott's Harbour Lake. I figured it would be easiest for everyone if we met up for MK in the morning, and in the afternoon had them come back to VWL with us, get everyone's kids ready for the party, grab some dinner and head back to MK on the boat. This would allow them to park their car at the TTC in the morning and leave it there the whole day until the end of the party.

My husband thinks this is a waste of a day. He thinks we should do another park in the morning and take advantage of the ability to switch to MK in the evening since we aren't buying park hoppers this trip. I can see his point, but that would involve meeting at say, Hollywood studios in the morning, having them drive back to our resort in the afternoon/evening (I would make our dinner reservation in their name so they would be able to park for a short period), then getting kids ready and having dinner. They would then have to move their car to the TTC to get to MK.

The third option would be to have them go back to their own hotel to get ready which would be essentially the same option as number two in terms of ease for them, the only difference being that it would add a bit of extra time for them to drive to their hotel and back to MK as opposed to our hotel which is right next door to MK.

Am I worrying too much about making things easy for our friends? This will be their first real trip to the World and they have left me in charge of 99% of the planning so I want to make it as simple as possible for all involved, but I also don't want to "waste a day" as my husband says.

 

[kj2mom]

We didn't do a park on our MNSSHP day. Since we could enter at 4, we booked the latest possible breakfast at Chef Mickey (11:20 and it was fantastic because the characters walk around until 1pm and as the restaurant clears out you get more and more undivided attention), left there a little after 1 when we headed back to our hotel to chill a little and get ready then we were off the park to be there for 4.

 

[tink9702]

How old are the kids in the group? We are planning on a late breakfast, hanging at the hotel pool & resting/tv time and then the party. A park plus party night would be way too much for my kids and they'd never make it late enough to really get our money's worth out of the tickets.

If you still plan on a park for the morning I'd suggest Epcot. They park at the TTC and then monorail over to Epcot. I wouldn't do MK because then you only get a total of 3 FP+ for the day. If you go to Epcot first you can use 3 FP+, then 3 FP+ at MK starting at 3:30, 4:30 and 5:30.

 

[Planning Dad]

This is my first post on DIS! This fall will be my families first MNSSHP. From all I've read about planning for it, I agree with kj2mom, and you shouldn't use a park ticket on that day; we certainly won't. Possibly have your friends tour the Wilderness Lodge, or do a special excursion outside the parks. Do they still do the Segway experience our there?

I have been anxiously awaiting the announcement of the 2016 MNSSHP dates. Our trip is 18-24 Sep '16 and I need to carefully plan our days out to facilitate our 5 yr. old princess. Yesterday, I noticed the MK Park hours on 11 Sep end at 7pm, and today this repeated on the 13th (this falls in line with MNSSHP historic hours and days). Just now, I located the DIS Sep calendar and see each Sun, Tues and Friday this trend repeats for the month. If they know to reduce scheduled hours, why have they not announced the party dates?

I love the thought of getting another character meal in and a late Chef Mickey seating sounds perfect. Thanks for the tip!

Also, my wife is concerned about MNSSHP crowds, any crowds, and is suggesting we plan to go the party on a Tuesday evening, but I'm leaning toward the Friday party which will end our park experience and we could sleep in on Sat before checking out of AKL. Is there much of a difference in crowds per day at the party, this early in the season? (No, I'm not delusional, I know WDW=Crowds, but we can dream, can't we) I guess we could plan a resort pool day on Wed, so the crowds are the only x-factor (Tues vs. Fri.) Thought? I just Love these DISmojicons!!!!!

 

[DinahInWonderland]

How old are the kids in the group? We are planning on a late breakfast, hanging at the hotel pool & resting/tv time and then the party. A park plus party night would be way too much for my kids and they'd never make it late enough to really get our money's worth out of the tickets.

If you still plan on a park for the morning I'd suggest Epcot. They park at the TTC and then monorail over to Epcot. I wouldn't do MK because then you only get a total of 3 FP+ for the day. If you go to Epcot first you can use 3 FP+, then 3 FP+ at MK starting at 3:30, 4:30 and 5:30.

The kids will be 15, 11, 5 and two 2 year olds. I know a full park day plus the party is a long day, that's why I was thinking about breaking it up with the resort mid afternoon for naps and food. Not doing a park in the morning is not really a viable option. They want to go to every park at least once and MK for 2 full days so there is less of a rush to get everything in. They are only buying 5 day tickets so I figured Hollywood Studios that morning (it is our least favorite park, plus the recent closures in the park cut back the time we need to spend there significantly). I also wouldn't want to miss Illuminations at EPCOT of the RoL at AK. I don't care much for Fantasmic!

For my family, this is all a non-issue. We go often enough that we don't worry about missing anything in a single park, besides the fireworks for the kids, so skipping a park morning or only doing MK once is not a big deal. For our friends, they are very set on getting in as much as possible.

Also, my wife is concerned about MNSSHP crowds, any crowds, and is suggesting we plan to go the party on a Tuesday evening, but I'm leaning toward the Friday party which will end our park experience and we could sleep in on Sat before checking out of AKL. Is there much of a difference in crowds per day at the party, this early in the season? (No, I'm not delusional, I know WDW=Crowds, but we can dream, can't we) I guess we could plan a resort pool day on Wed, so the crowds are the only x-factor (Tues vs. Fri.) Thought? I just Love these DISmojicons!!!!!

Welcome to the DIS Planning Dad! We have always done the Halloween and Christmas Parties on Tuesdays or Thursdays. I always assume any locals coming to the parks would wait for the weekend parties so there is a chance of less crowding. Can't say for sure that it actually works like that, especially because there seem to be plenty of people avoiding weekends to avoid crowds making the weekdays more crowded. Wrap your head around that one!