Working in Resort Days

[kpd6901]

Thank you very much for all of that! I agree and I think I'm going to end up with 6 day park tickets so we have a little more freedom. I want this to be as fun and not stressful as Disney can be. I know there are always things that come up, but I am ready to roll with the punches! I very much appreciate your input and thoughts and I will be keeping this all in mind in my planning. Thankfully, I have a subscription to Touring Plans and I didn't really realize how genuinely helpful the tools they have are until the past few days! I presume that they are fairly accurate (within reason, of course) with their data and calculations. Though things keep changing between SWGE and the newly released Free Dining, it may be busier than expected...but that's all the more reason to allow ourselves more days. It seems once you get past 4 days, another day or two is not financially a huge difference overall, so it's worth it to me to have the time! Again, thank you for taking the time!

We were recently there this past November, Thanksgiving Day (Nov. 22) thru Dec. 1. What is your dates? We did not do park on Thanksgiving day, but MK was packed on Friday and AK was busy Saturday. We did a resort hopping day on Sunday along with MVMCP. The crowds dwindled significantly after Sunday. It wasn't empty, but it was much more manageable for the post -Thanksgiving weekend portion.

Re: Touring Plans, we have had good success with them overall, with one exception - the day after Thanksgiving. But, our experience is that if you build in plenty of buffer spaces between "must do" times, you should be good. Problems arise when it is taken as Gospel and you leave no real room for breaks...but it doesn't sound that should be a problem for you.

 

[LyricQuinn817]

We were recently there this past November, Thanksgiving Day (Nov. 22) thru Dec. 1. What is your dates? We did not do park on Thanksgiving day, but MK was packed on Friday and AK was busy Saturday. We did a resort hopping day on Sunday along with MVMCP. The crowds dwindled significantly after Sunday. It wasn't empty, but it was much more manageable for the post -Thanksgiving weekend portion.

Re: Touring Plans, we have had good success with them overall, with one exception - the day after Thanksgiving. But, our experience is that if you build in plenty of buffer spaces between "must do" times, you should be good. Problems arise when it is taken as Gospel and you leave no real room for breaks...but it doesn't sound that should be a problem for you.

We will be there the week before Thanksgiving from the 16th to the 23rd. My MIL went during this week every year for years and said it was always a tame enough week. And every Disney site I checked said that that is the best week in November to go. We went for Christmas last time and MK was packed!
I learned from my last smaller trip to take things in stride and to have a plan, but don't be unreasonable about it. Thank you for the tips!!!

 

[LovesTimone]

There are so many ways to do Disney...and each family is different...and each parent knows your kids, you can tell if they are running out of gas so to speak, or on the brink of a full on melt down...

DD was not a good stroller sleeper, so a mid day break was necessary for us... to enjoy the evenings in the park, fireworks and parades...

So for us... when DD was little through elementary school...

Arrival Day - pool time, and dinner at Downtown Disney ... or food court and more pool time... early to bed..

Day 1 - character breakfast, hit a park, lunch then back to the resort to relax, pool or sleep or all 3, back to parks for dinner and night time parades and fireworks

Day 2- sleep in... brunch food court, pool time, nap time, then back in the parks for dinner and rides

Day 3 - Breakfast Food court, Park time and lunch, then park hop and stay through dinner, then back to the resort...

Day 4 - Outlet shopping, pool day, dinner either at Disney springs or Epcot, or food court,

Day 5 - parking hopping - hitting our favorite again - going till whenever we just could not go anymore....

Day 6 - sleep in.... brunch... pool day, get everything ready to head home.... Hit the parks mid-day .... stay for fireworks and parades...

Day 7 - All out... Park hopping... Shopping, Dinner with Mickey and the Gang character dinning.... finish packing for departure day...

Departure day - sleep in some... and head home... depending on when we planned to leave... sometimes we would hit Rainforest for an early Lunch... then a quick trip through the World of Disney... she would be asleep before we ever hit the highway...

 

[mi*vida*loca]

We don't do entire resort days and we mix up our days. We usually stay for 9-10 nights so we get 10 day hoppers.

I make sure we RD each park at least once and by RD we arrive 15-20 minutes before. Not 60 minutes. Midday break by the pool and then a PM. Some days we sleep in, get room service brunch and go to a park in the afternoon. Some days we sleep in, hit the pool, have a late lunch/early dinner and go into a park around 5-6 pm for our 3 FP+ and a night show.

We tried to do whole resort/rest days but by 5 pm or so we were dying to go to a park. Plus with FP+ it's so cheap to add on a day and get those 3FP+.

 

[azarine]

There are so many ways to do Disney...and each family is different...and each parent knows your kids, you can tell if they are running out of gas so to speak, or on the brink of a full on melt down...

DD was not a good stroller sleeper, so a mid day break was necessary for us... to enjoy the evenings in the park, fireworks and parades...

So for us... when DD was in little through elementary school...

Arrival Day - pool time, and dinner at Downtown Disney ... or food court and more pool time... early to bed..

Day 1 - character breakfast, hit a park, lunch then back to the resort to relax, pool or sleep or all 3, back to parks for dinner and night time parades and fireworks

Day 2- sleep in... brunch food court, pool time, nap time, then back in the parks for dinner and rides

Day 3 - Breakfast Food court, Park time and lunch, then park hop and stay through dinner, then back to the resort...

Day 4 - Outlet shopping, pool day, dinner either at Disney springs or Epcot, or food court,

Day 5 - parking hopping - hitting our favorite again - going till whenever we just could not go anymore....

Day 6 - sleep in.... brunch... pool day, get everything ready to head home.... Hit the parks mid-day .... stay for fireworks and parades...

Day 7 - All out... Park hopping... Shopping, Dinner with Mickey and the Gang character dinning.... finish packing for departure day...

Departure day - sleep in some... and head home... depending on when we planned to leave... sometimes we would hit Rainforest for an early Lunch... then a quick trip through the World of Disney... she would be asleep before we ever hit the highway...

Thanks for sharing, super helpful for me - this is basically how we do it too

 

[DisneyOma]

We've never been able to do everything we wanted to do at MK in just one day - and to save ourselves from having to be in long standard queues, we book two days of FP+ for MK. Are you planning on doing FOP? that's a day's worth of FP+ for AK. Toy Story land at HS sucks up the FP+ there as well. I'd consider going to the parks each day, and maybe taking an afternoon off once in awhile? EPCOT could be a morning of FP+ , then a nice evening of strolling around the countries after a long break at the resort.