I’m glad it’ll return, but so so so so SO sad it’ll be gone when we are there in December. My family loves it, and my older son’s girlfriend is joining us for that trip, which will be her first ever to WDW. Oh well…more for her to see on future visits (which she will definitely have if she becomes a part of our family)!
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I’m really glad we’re going in early August! By late August there’s SWGE, horrible changes to HS FPs, and then half of EP will close!
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Just checked the interactive map on the website.
It looks likes the Gazebo is just off that central Plaza, on the Mexico side.
It already shows as meeting Minnie there!
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I swear I’m the only person on this forum excited about SWGE! lol We can’t wait to see it, it’s the whole purpose of this trip (we reserved mid-December waaaay back when the announcement was made it would open “late fall” which technically goes until Dec 21-ish).
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Nope, right there with you.
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I’d like to see it (not with crowds though!) but I’d be horrified if I had booked September to avoid it and it opened in August.
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All right, I need help with this one. We are arriving 9/7 which is set to be the last day for some of these meet and greets. Our Epcot day is currently set for 9/8. Meeting Baymax and Joy and Sadness are both huge for our kids. Sounds like Baymax is done after 9/7 and unsure about Sadness.
Current Plans are as follows.
9/7 - Arrive at MCO at 8:20
Planning on spending 4-5 hours at AK
Trying to not schedule too much this day as we will leaving for the airport around 4:00 AM.
9/8 - At Epcot
Morning - Future World
Afternoon - World Showcase
12:40 ADR at Akershush
I want to try my best to meet Baymax and Joy & Sadness. But I don’t want to mess with my ADR. Should I…
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Keep plans the way it is but add a short trip to Epcot for the 2 meet and greets on arrival day? We have Park Hopper.
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Do Future World +FEA on 9/7. Split 9/8 between AK and Epcot, using AK fast-passes.
Since I don’t have too much scheduled for 9/7 and our ADR on 9/8 is mid day. I’m leaning toward option 1 but interested to hear your thoughts.
Fast Pass day is next Monday so I’m trying to figure this out rather quickly.
I just checked on the WDW site and see that there are plenty of open reservations for lunch at Akershus on 9/7 so I’d change that reservation and swap the days.
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Also – you might get more feedback on this if you open it as a new thread instead of a reply here!
Does anyone know if the Chase Visa Character spot is also closing? Last time we went, I didn’t have a Chase Visa. It sure if that meet and greet takes place at the Character Spot (which will be closed when we go), or somewhere else 
Agreed! I had really really wanted to ride the sky ovens (uh, I can’t remember their actual name anymore), but the other changes are blech! We arrive August 10.
A lunchtime ADR at Akershus shouldn’t be hard to get. Switch to 9/7!
Me too! Super excited! We are so excited that WE WILL BE there well before the 6am EEMH on our HS day with our 4 kids (all age 5 and under) . Yup, we are crazy, but we will fly the Millennium Falcon no matter how long it takes!
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Us too! We arrive August 13th, but even if the “sky ovens” (
Love this) are running, DBF refuses to even discuss that as an option as he is afraid of heights 
Have they announced what this portion of the redesign will look like? I only remember seeing renderings of in front of SE where the legacy things were.
AFAIK, there’s just one or two pictures that the DPB used for the stories.
I would expect this to be a major item at D23 in August. Covering all the changes to Epcot.