Been reading nothing but the Unofficial Guide for the last 5 days and my eyes are bleeding from all the:
When to do this ride/attraction/show: Before 10:30 or after 4:30.
EVERYTHING must be done anytime but between 10:30 and 4:30 !!! What am I supposed to do for 4 HOURS in the middle of the day ??? Eat 6 turkey legs and hope someone close by knows CPR ??? Beg passersby for money so that I can pay for the ridiculously overpriced dessert party I booked ??? Use the Force to make a Stormtrooper clear a standby line for me ???
Hahaha! I know what you mean, but we find those hours are best for more show type attractions like Philharmagic, Beauty and the Beast, Tiki Room, Nemo, etc. We have never had to wait longer than one show cycle to get into any of those even during the busy hours of the day.
You are supposed to take a break out of the park Didn’t you see that chapter yet LOL
Honestly I try to get my FPPs starting around 10 - 10:30, then I plan on going back to the hotel around lunch, then back to the park between 4:30 & 5.
Otherwise as someone else said - that is the time for things that don’t really have waits, tiki room, peoplemover, etc. plus doing inside attractions during the hottest & busiest time of day is always nice.
Of course snacking is always a viable option
Hahahaha…yeah, after 417 times spread over several chapters, I kinda got the message that we’re supposed to take a break out of the parks LOL
BUT
I refuse to do that !!!
I understand how it would be a good idea when the parks are open from early to late. However, we are going early Nov. and the hours are really short, as short as 9-8 at AK and HS. I am not wasting any of that precious little time !!!
We prefer to arrive early and get through everything and then leave the park early and be done for the day. Just push through. Not that I don’t understand the idea of taking a break during the heat of the day. But when we HAVE left in the middle of the afternoon, we found ourselves justifying why not to return, and then when we do return it is STILL extremely crowded, but now we just feel more pressure to get through the remaining rides because time is short!
Of course, if you want to stick around for some evening shows, etc., then taking the break in the afternoon makes sense.
Anyhow, the book clearly wants you to ONLY ride rides before 10:30 or after 4:30. Do NOT question the book. After all. It got itself published, so it must know what it’s doing.
You know your family and what they want to do. My advice would be to stay flexible. You might have warm weather in November where you want to take a break and use the pool, or you might get SDFP for premium ride, or do something you’ve never done before. It’s your vacation, do what makes you and family happy, even if that means going back to room for a nap.
I try to get. fPPs between 11:00 and 3:00. In between, I look for things with typically short lines or use the the time for photography. I rarely, if ever, leave the pRks mid day…
I agree that this is too little time for a mid-day break. The good news is that you are going in early November when the weather is typically pretty good so it shouldn’t be terrible to stay in the parks. I would book FPs in the late morning/early afternoon and do shows as well.
Thanks my thought too! We are going in December with shorter hours so I can’t justify leaving the park for 3 to 4 hours, we would miss too much. I think people forget that because they tend to go during spring break or busy times when the parks are open much much longer
We do our first 3 FPs, lunch, additional FPs we can get after that, short lines, and some of the shows. We don’t take a break too often in the middle of the day. We find it to be kind of a pain to go back and forth.
This^^^ Stayed at AoA in June 2017 and had terrible luck with buses departing from the park (getting to parks in AM was fine). Any hour of the day meant a minimum 30 minutes wait for a bus to arrive (afternoon, 30 minutes before park closing, 30 minutes after park closing). EPCOT was the worst. One evening, I watched every All Star bus go by 2x before an AoA bus arrived.
These hours will likely change. We’ve been early Nov our last two trips, the only park that stayed as an early close was HS. A mid-day break was key for us with kids less than 10yo. Was also key for the grandparents. Our trick was to schedule an in-park dinner around 4:30 that everyone was excited to get to in order to get ourselves back.
Everyone’s different. We RD, get a ton done, do lunch around 11:30 and start in on the FPs that I booked for the afternoon. CoP is great for naps and air conditioning (and I like the show). Kilamanjaro Safari in the afternoon, even if you did it in the morning is nice, too. HS used to have afternoon stunt shows, which were great, but that’s gone, now. And I think walking around Living Seas or even just doing the WS in EPCOT are great afternoon things.
Didn’t you see that chapter yet LOL
