If I get the pass, would I be able to make APRs for the 8 days we are staying at GCH? Or would I still be limited to only 6 reservations? Anyone know?
Thanks!
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Only the 6 if that is what your AP allows. But your first day once you enter, then you can make a new APR for day 7, and then day 2 you can make one for day 8.
8 days at DLR is a lot. A whole lot. I’d take a day off on the party day so that everyone is well rested and can stay until closing at 11pm. The Fab 4 just went to Storytellers (that was probably the day we met you?) for brunch and had a relaxing time before entering the party at 3. We were all exhausted that night. Of course we hit it really hard to do all the things, your crew may not tour quite like we do.
As it stands right now, assuming I don’t get Magic Keys, my plan is no parks on travel days, then 5 park days plus a party day. I just know we’re gonna feel the pull of the parks on the travel days. We’ll be there by noon on arrival day, and won’t need to leave until around 4 on departure day. And staying at GCH it’s so easy to just pop into DCA. We have a lot of FOMO 
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I understand the FOMO, but would you really buy $1600 magic keys for a party of 8? 
It’s quite a bit cheaper to buy 5 day park hoppers, and then 2 one day non-hoppers for your travel days and have a relaxing morning pre-party. That way you can book all 7 park days and not have to worry (although I don’t think it’s a problem, my local friend with the highest level pass has no trouble ever getting them). Anyway, passes might mean you get to make at least 2 more trips in the year, so maybe that’s not a bad plan. I just cannot believe the top pass is $1600…that’s more than I used to pay for the Premier that worked on both coasts!
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Yeah, my hope is that the Believe Key would become available by the time I’m ready to buy tickets.
But I also kinda of like forcing myself into another trip or two! 
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I thought that resort reservations overruled the AP limit.
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Only at WDW, not at Disneyland.
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8 days is very much a long time but I totally get the pull of the parks for all the days. In pre-reservation days we often talked about finding a one month rental somewhere in the area and going every day for the whole month. The longest we have actually done is 6 park days in a row. But we aim to do a trip that long at least once a year/every other year at most.
We also have yet to find a year where we don’t drive down to SoCal less than 6x (for DLR). So it just really depends on if you can do the extra trips to justify the APs. If you can, I say with full enthusiasm, go for it!
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I agree 5 days is really the max you will want to do. And with magic keys, you’re much more likely to run out of park reservations (it’s a big problem with locals at DLR) than if you’re on a regular ticket and just want to add another one-day last minute.
Remember that Downtown Disney can consume a decent chunk of time on arrival day, as well as touring the hotels. Plan a character breakfast at one of the hotels for departure day. I assume you have a beach day or Universal day or something else in the middle.
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However, she mentioned a GCH stay and even though she wouldn’t be able to reserve all 8 days up front, availability for hotel guests is wide wide open. We stayed at GCH when there were no Magic Key ressies available and we easily could’ve waited until the day before to make all our ressies and were able to change at will from starting in DCA/DL if we felt like it. It was almost like being in pre-reservation days. That was seriously my favorite part about the stay.
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Oh that’s good to know it at least draws from the separate pool.
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Yes, not quite worth the on-site deluxe charge on its own, but a very lovely perk. Especially since the reservation pool for MK’s is like a shark tank dog eat dog (at least for the times we tend to want to go).
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Dumb
That helps!
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I think after my disaster of a trip in December, I feel like I missed so much and want to leave plenty of time this next trip. I want 5 full days for sure. Last time we had 5 days, but that included travel days. But with 5 full days, I also want a rest day. So 2 travel days, 1 rest day, and 5 full days and we end up there for 8 days. And since we arrive so early and depart so late (only flight options on chosen airline), I really feel like we’ll want to pop into the parks. The 5 day and 2 day option might be the way to go though. Unless they start selling the Believe Key again. Then I think I can justify it.
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I’m so sad to hear this. I remember you had so many good plans. But I am so happy you’re coming back to try again! If it’s any consolation, my very first trip to DLR with DH, two kids under 2 and several of his siblings, the very first day after the first couple of hours was probably one of the most stressful days of my marriage/life, a horrible day that almost ruined the whole vacation. I left my wristlet wallet in a bathroom with my phone, our park tickets, tickets to the entire San Diego portion of our trip, ALLL my cards and at least $200-$300 in gift cards). The person who walked off with it made a killing that day (and someone most definitely walked off with it as we were able to access Find my Phone that evening at the hotel from the iPad we had & it was in a residence). We filed a police report & Lost & Found Report with Disneyland, but 10 years later nothing’s come of it, but anyway, what I’m saying is, it’s possible to have a very horrible, awful experience your first go-around and still end up loving Disneyland.
That’s a good way to approach it. For the 2 day’s, if any of the days you will be going are Value Days/cheaper tiers, make sure you do some math to make sure that 2 day tickets aren’t more expensive than 2 separate one day tickets. There are days it’s possible, especially in those cheaper tiers.
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I did! But I ended up leaving in an ambulance on our first full day at the parks, and then only managed to get back there for maybe 5 or 6 hours over the next few days. It was a bummer. But, I’m healthy now, and it wasn’t as serious at it seemed at first, so all is well. We booked this do-over trip in the car on the way to the airport to come home. I knew we needed to try again!
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Man, I hate that people like invade our Happy Bubble! That really sucks y’all went through that. And it sucks even more that they got away with it.
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