Park Hopping the Whole Trip?

How nice!!! I would love to stay within walking distance of EPCOT

You sure put a lot of thought into this. I think you need to go back to work, Just kidding. I am sure you will have a blast figuring it all out.

I have no advice. I just want to follow your planning because I am weird like that

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That or DW will put me out in the dog house…I already have her thinking abotu which restaurants she wants to go…I mean, like,its only 160 days before the ADR window opens…“fingers tapping on table”:worried:

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That might have been my wife you heard on one of the coasters…:grinning:

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I always have my dining figured out WAY in advance. You can never be too ready.

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I’ve been re-working my plan to park hop and took the advice from @Bbaker85, @interested, @Nicky_S, @PrincipalTinker, @brklinck and others.

Here is the original plan with Disney Trans travel rime:

Weds: EPCOT to MK: 37 minutes
Thurs: EPCOT to HS: 30 minutes
Fri: MK to AK: 63 minutes!! (18 min by car/Uber)
Sun: HS to EPCOT: 35 minutes
Mon: AK to EPCOT: 38 minutes

The elephant in the room was the MK to AK leg. Removing that and using the same UOG tips I came up with this idea:

Weds: EPCOT
Thursday: (EMH) EPCOT AM, HS in PM (30 minutess)
FRi; (EMH) MK with MMNSHP
Sun: (EMH)HS in AM, EP in PM (35 min)
Mon: (EMH) Animal Kingdom

It cuts hopping from 5 days to 2 days; adding a long day Friday

I’m running comparative TP’s using the identical rides, resturants, showtimes agianst each idea to see if there are any big differences. The unknown variable will be the FP+.

I only finished Wedsnesday (it does take a long time). Without rounding, the original time with park hopping EP & MK was:

Total time 705 minutes
In line 26%
Busy 48%
Free time 10%
Walking 16%

In the revision with a full day of Epcot it looks like this:

Total time 725 minutes
In line 23%
Busy 48%
Waiting 10%
Walking 17%

The revsion shows 3% less time in line, with a miniscle increase in walking…both parks were at a CL of 2 except MK PM at a CL3. In the original plan, although only 15% was spent in line at EPCOT AM, MK in the PM used up 32% in line of the total time in that park.

So, that what it shows with no FP+ and no Food & Wine time. We’re allocating 2 days at F&W so I’ll have to go back and add some time for snacking.

I’ve been reading through your thoughts, questions, and opinons since my hubby and I will be the week before you. We postponed our 25th anniversary trip by 3 weeks just so we could take in our first visit to F&W.

But I’m stalled in trying to plan things out because I’ve really been trying to figure out how to incorporate the Festival into our normal touring. Normally, we allocate two days for MK, 2 days for EP, and 1 day each at HS & AK. Then we’ve always park hopped the last day to our favorites, making sure we end in MK (our favorite park).

So I’m questioning how much “extra” there is to explore at EP with the festival going on. I’m hoping that the lower crowds (under a 5) helps with this. In the past, we have normally gone mid-August.

Does anyone have an estimate of how much extra time they put into EP due to F&W?

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The “extras” during F&W fall primarily into two categories. The food/drink booths (which add time only if you want to wait on line to eat/drink something), and the “up-charge” events (various demonstrations, talks, etc.) for which you would probably already have a ticket.

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According to my reading, they haven’t done a time anyalsis for the F&W to build a TP for it. I suspect because there is no consistency with the number of events and kiosks from yaer to year.

We tried to get there the same week as you but the resort hotel we wanted was filled.

We last went to F&W in 2014 the same week your going in 2018. The crowds were manageable. There were lines for some of the food & drink kiosks but not during the lunch and early afternoon. I would allocate no more than 10 minute to wait.

It did get heavier in the evening. Still the lines moved fast maybe about 20 minute to wait. The beverage only lines were extremely long at night.

I don’t know if they will offer it this or next year but we took the “premium F&W package” about $99/pp that allowed you to skip the lines and go to a “reserved sitting area”. There was no waiting.

We didn’t do any of the demostartions but a Beat to the Eat show was 30 minutes long, allow 15 minute to get a good seat.

Hope that helps.

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We are AP holders and have been 12 times over the last 5 years, so that may make a difference, but we hop pretty much every day now. When we are rough planning our days I break them down into morning, midday and evening. Morning is typically MK, AK now with Pandora, and maybe 1 HS. EP is great for mid day and early evening, especially during food and wine where we tend to eat most meals there, and night time we alternate to get a mix of all the different night time shows. I dont think we could handle a whole day at just 1 park anymore, especially MK as that always gets so tiring, I think because there is so many rides and they are so short so you are constantly running to the next thing.

Thanks! We’re planning a similiar way. This is only our 2nd F&W. When they expanded the days it opened more opportuniies for us to go.

We were always a one-park a day couple too but lately we did find ourselves with more free time and less busy time. So,I’m looking at park hopping by comparing our our old method of planning to this.

I oly did the 1st day and I think because the CL’s are low there wes not much of a difference. By the time we go in Sept 2018 I think the crowds for AK will lower but then we will be facing Toyland in HS.

Thanks again!

Thank you for the information. I’ll have to look into the F&W package.

I guess my biggest problem is that I’m a planner and my dh wants to “wing-it” this next trip with very little to no ADR’s. That means that we might be doing the quick service dining package, or maybe even no dining package at all! Even though he is a bit of a foodie, he hates how much touring time is eaten up by planned table service meals. He really noticed on our last trip that the whole stop touring, get to the restaurant, order, eat can really add up.

It sounds fun and I’m all for it, but it still puts me on edge!

Thanks again!

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But how does it effect the crowd levels? With F&W starting earlier, there are no “true” CL estimates. Does it only go up 1-2, or does it effect it more? I see where the locals tend to generally effect things for weekends, but lines tend to stay the same. I’m more curious about the rest of the week and how it effects the lines.

This will also be our first time going with FASTPASS+ & TP. Our last visit was with children back in 2008. There are alot of changes to the parks that we want to take in also.

I hear you.!

We’re not doing a dining plan this trip so we ae not “tied down” to making a TS reservations. We do want to ry the new resturants that opened since 2014 so I believe you really have to get an ADR.

QS plan is still an option for us but depends on the budget as we get closer.

The initial plan is to do the "big meal at lunch and QS/snack our way around F&W most nights.

Plan away!

Tentatively, we are on the same page!

Let me know if you hear anything that might help with the planning, and I’ll do the same!!

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Disclosure: Never been to Disney World.

But, I go to Disneyland all the time. What I found out is when we are spending a full day (RD to late) in the park, the sit-down dining is ALWAYS welcome. Just sitting down to cool down and drink all you can water (and relax your feet) is really good. It does eat up sometimes, but the few times I listened to the rest of the group and not made reservations, I ended up regretting it. I usually only book 1 sit-down meal a day and if we are in a hurry, I usually tell the waitress and they make good time. That’s my two cents though.

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I would agree! In the past, we have always booked at least one table service a day. I guess this is an experiment on our part to attempt to do something different, especially with F&W in progress. It’s not to say that I won’t sneak in one or two sit-downs! But honestly, those will most likely be out of the parks. I want to try the tea at the GF and do one of the dinner shows for our anniversary meal!

Believe me, it’s hard for me to look at the trip and think that we will not be visiting a few of our favorites. Especially since we only get there (on average) once every 5 years.

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Our day at Epcotnis the only one where we might not have sit down, but that’s because of the F&W!

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I continue to work on an analysis if park hopping every day or a modified park-hopping schedule is better for us.

Wednesday’s results are posted above. Thursday uses the same schedule so I didn’t have to run a bunch of TP’s for that day.

For Friday, the original plan is to go to EMH to Magic Kingdom then park hope to Animal Kingdom in the afternoon.

Keeping the rides, attractions and restaurants the same with a TS lunch at the 1st park and QS dinner at the second will compare better.

I had to modify Friday’s at bit because we “plan” on doing a Tiffin River of Lights package so the TS lunch moved to the second park.

These are the results:

Magic Kingdom (EMH) CL 1 0800 – 11:30 AM
Total Time: 170 minutes
In line: 34
Busy 92
Free 2 (we’re moving fast)
Walking 42

TP did not recommend any FP+ at this time

Now, with a 63-minute Disney Trans worst-case scenario, we started our AK afternoon with a 1 PM TS at Tiffin’s (crossing fingers)

Here are those results:

AK CL 2 1 - 9 PM
Total: 485 minutes
In Line: 117
Busy 249
Free: 46
Walking: 73

TP recommended FP+ for FOP and Lion King (which I historically never do). I forced a FP for ROL for the package. If get the package, I’ll have another FP to use.

Combining the two plans we got this:

Total: 655 minutes
In line: 151 (23%)
Busy: 341 (52%)
Free: 48 (7%)
Walking: 115 (17%) (a lot of walking)

There is also more than 60 minutes (9%) of transportation

My alternative plan is to do a full day at MK and moving AK to Monday.

The full day at MK includes the EMH at MK and the MNSSHP in the evening. Of course, this is an additional $80-$90 pp charge, but let’s see what happens.

I used two UOG TP’s. An early arrival full day MK from 0800 to 6:30 PM and then the MNSSHP TP from 7PM to 11PM.

Here is what we have when I combined the two plans:

Total: 868 minutes
In line: 174 (20%)
Busy: 430 (50%)
Free: 152 (17%) (80 min was at MNSSHP for trick or treating)
Walking: 132 (16%)

TP recommended 2 FP for 7DMT (1 in the morning and one in the evening) and a FP for Thunder Mtn coaster.

It looks like in Friday’s case, plan B is better for a cost. We get 200+ more minutes in the park and 3% less time in line.

However, a lot of that time is used up trick and treating (see free time) that the TP doesn’t capture.

One of the concerns I have is the CL predicted time in the AM was 1 one but in 2017 the actual CL was a 5. That’s a big jump.

I intend to re-run Friday’s plan against a day with a higher predicted CL.

More to follow.

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