I was in the process of refining my spreadhseet, putting the finishing touches on the “master plan” and I notice in my TP dashboard that MK is opening an hour earlier on 11/29 (as of just a week ago MK was opening at 9am, now its 8am). My prized 8:10am CP ADR looks kinda ho-hum now… so much for the pre-RD castle pics. Its a small thing, but it was something I was pretty excited about b/c it was on day 1 of our family’s first trip to Disney. So, lesson learned… gotta be ready to adapt, roll with the punches and keep expectations in check and the trip will be magical
This begs a couple of questions:
At what point are park hours pretty much “locked in”? 1 week before? 1 day before? etc.
Does TP notify of changes to times that fall on days within your saved “trip”?
Yes a lot of times on Thanksgiving week got changed. Thankfully, knock on wood, they haven’t changed them for the week after which is when we’ll be there. I think it’s unlikely the opening times would change again at this point, however, it’s not too uncommon to see closing hours get extended even up to the day of.
I don’t think TP notifies you automatically. I think the only time that happens is when the Crowd Calendar prediction for tracked dates changes. Though that often accompanies a change in hours.
Nothing is ever really locked in. I’ve experienced hour changes while I’m in the park. Or even the day prior. It throws a plan into chaos but I’m learning to roll with it. It’s not easy. At least you have a little advance notice with this one and can adjust accordingly. Have fun and good luck!!
@Outer1, We are arriving 12/28 and departing 12/5. Always seemed like a sweet spot week for crowds. I am hoping the expanded hours don’t signal a big increase in crowds lol. Thanks for the info, much appreciated!
Oh we’ll be there 11/29-12/6. And yes we picked this week because it’s long be lauded as one of the slowest… I have a sneaking suspicion that may no longer be the case lol. I think because they threw FD up so early for the rest of the year this year it really bumped up attendance, but i’m also hopeful that since this is one of the few blackout weeks it will be a little lower. I guess we’ll find out in 10 days lol.
One thing I’ve always wondered about with pre-RD when the park opening times change: when the park opens 1 hour earlier, does it mean that the restaurant will also open 1 hour earlier, making a new block of ADR slots available? Somehow I do not think so, but it would be cool if it did.
Yea… no. But that would be cool. Of course then you’d have everyone scrambling to rebook ADR’s which would back up the times for those that had 8am rez’s.
Same thing happened to us - my wife was excited about the characters at CP for our pre-RD ADR last week, then they added an EMH. After last Tuesday’s craziness (TP line times were fairly spot on, but with the crowds we couldn’t navigate between rides fast enough to keep up), we couldn’t justify burning an EMH to sit and eat breakfast.
The only reason I noticed there was an EMH was my own obsessive eleventy-double checking of things. Also, we were in MK one day and heard an announcement for EMH being added that night, so lock-in = never I’m guessing.
We are used to going June/July…please tell me it will be less crowded Nov 29-Dec.6th? I know the first day will be hard as it is the Sat after Thanksgiving but other than that we are good right?
I’d like to say yes it will be empty!!! And in previous years the first week in December has been pretty low crowds. This year, however, attendance to seems to be way up and hotels are pretty solidly booked. No guarantees but the extra hours seem to indicate they are expecting higher than normal crowds.
The thing working in our favor is that it’s before pop warner and it’s during the FD blackout so I’m hoping that will ease the crowds a bit. I would say definitely lighter than June or July when it’s at highest attendance but I wouldn’t expect to see tumbleweeds either lol. If you can make it in the summer though this time will be a breeze because the crowds will feel less compared to what you’re used too plus you aren’t battling the heat which makes the crowds easier to deal with.
And I hear you about the schedule. We haven’t been in 10 years and we have jam packed everything we can into our 8 days so sleep will not be a luxury we get too often lol. It’ll be worth it though!
We’re in the same boat now.