Worth adding an extra day for 4-5 hours?

[kikismom]

I would do it personally. Anytime spend in the parks is worth it in my opinion.

 

[wassily]

Tomorrow is arrival. Friday is our full day.

okay, this week is good.. I believe school starts in some areas.
wait times have been considerably down from Mon-Wed vs previous weeks.
So I expect Thursday to follow the same trend.

Looking at the data... after 8pm... Fantasyland rides could be 10-15min waits.. Peter Pan around 25m all the way to midnight.
Space and Indy could be around 30min

You could do Buzz and Star tours over and over and over again.... those are walk on rides after 10 or so.

If you want to do Rise, you might be able to get into standby at 8-9pm, but that will take a chunk of your time. Most likely LL+ will be gone by then, but yesterday the last LL+ was at 7:30pm, so maybe a chance for you.

 

[starlite_]

If you have the money for it I say do it. You can get a lot done at night during all the night entertainment.

 

[oneIIIone]

The first-timer has changed it for us in the past. It has also depended on how long our total trip was going to be. Generally if we have multiple days to hit the majority of the parks we’d do what you mentioned and hit DTD that arrival night to stay in the Disney atmosphere without using park pass time.

 

[wassily]

okay, wait times not looking great for Thursday (today).. it's back to where it has been the past few weeks. I guess past 2 days were anomalies.
Wait time patterns are looking like last Thursday... so after 8pm, Indy/Space might still be around 40min..
Can still do fantasyland in decent times and ride Star Tours/Buzz over and over again.
Just overall times would be more elevated than what I wrote before.

 

[jrsharp21]

Thanks to some major backups from San Diego to Anaheim and my daughter's BF flight delay, we didn't get to even attempt going for the 4-5 hours tonight. We didn't get to DTD until around 8pm. So walked around, had some dinner, and did some shopping.

I was also looking at wait times. As mentioned above, most of the major attractions were 45 minute plus wait times. ROTS was 120+ minutes around 7pm. So even if we did buy the extra day, looks like we would have been waiting around in lines for a bit.

 

[wassily]

Today's wait times look good for you.. well at least much better than yesterday.

 

[thenicefamily]

I always compare Disney tickets to other events that we really, really enjoy so splash out on. The thing about Disney is that a $100 ticket provides hours (or a full day) of entertainment whereas, other events we happily pay $100+ for (concerts, sporting events) generally last for about 90-minutes to 2-hours max. So, do I think it's worth it for 4-5 hours, absolutely. That's just my rationalization though.

 

[Dr.Mrs.ScroogeMcDuck]

We are trying to figure out if we should add another park day the day we leave. Our original plan was to wake up, check our bags, try for a Storyteller's brunch, hang around DTD for a bit, and then take a car service to LAX. Now we are looking at the red eye that leaves around 10 at night. I'm guessing the car would pick us up around 530 or 6? Should we add a park day for that last day or stick with our original plan?

 

[tx_rach]

Depending on the day, and that evening’s entertainment offerings, you might want to use that 4-5 hours in a more low-key manner, doing parades and/or nighttime shows. That way, on subsequent evenings, you can knock out rides while a huge majority of guests are doing the nighttime shows.

This! We are adding a half day on arrival day and this was my thinking to do it. We will be able to knock out some stuff, plus we get an extra evening so now we can do Fantasmic and WOC. Plus I’m pretty sure my kids (even as teens!) would be sad to walk by the park and not go in.

 

[afan]

We are trying to figure out if we should add another park day the day we leave. Our original plan was to wake up, check our bags, try for a Storyteller's brunch, hang around DTD for a bit, and then take a car service to LAX. Now we are looking at the red eye that leaves around 10 at night. I'm guessing the car would pick us up around 530 or 6? Should we add a park day for that last day or stick with our original plan?

I'd add the day. DTD doesn't have enough to fill a day. With the p/u time you get a significant amount of time in the parks.

 

[SOCALMouseMommy]

We are trying to figure out if we should add another park day the day we leave. Our original plan was to wake up, check our bags, try for a Storyteller's brunch, hang around DTD for a bit, and then take a car service to LAX. Now we are looking at the red eye that leaves around 10 at night. I'm guessing the car would pick us up around 530 or 6? Should we add a park day for that last day or stick with our original plan?

I would definitely add the park day in that scenario as long as the hotel will hold your bags. Disney hotels will but not sure about all the others.

 

[Snap Crackle Pop]

We are trying to figure out if we should add another park day the day we leave. Our original plan was to wake up, check our bags, try for a Storyteller's brunch, hang around DTD for a bit, and then take a car service to LAX. Now we are looking at the red eye that leaves around 10 at night. I'm guessing the car would pick us up around 530 or 6? Should we add a park day for that last day or stick with our original plan?

I would totally add another day at the park, you can get a lot done and it'll be a lot of fun before you leave.