Excuse me, y’all. I’ve spent the last week car shopping (Q: how do you make a Disney trip look cheap?) and I have not done any planning at all besides finally caving and ordering tickets from UT. They were the scratch-off kind so I did not do any scratching off until I’d bought trip insurance, because I’m paranoid that way.
So now I presumably have to make a bunch of decisions around 7 a.m. tomorrow and I will be (a) getting the kids to school (they still don’t know!) and (b) completely unprepared. I haven’t figured out anything about what I want, other than of the four people going, I may be the only person who wants to do the big rides. I know I’m going to try for 7DMT, TSM, and Enchanted Tales with Belle, and otherwise I don’t have a clue what to try for.
Going to spend tonight reading the Unofficial Guide (I bought a Kindle edition, which has already come in handy more than once to show maps to my dad. “But So-and-so said maybe the Yacht and Beach Club?..” “DAD. We are AT THE WILDERNESS LODGE. IT WILL BE FINE. Here let me show you on this convenient map how close WL is to MK.”) and figuring what rides I want to try and grab. If nothing else, it’ll be better than checking to see if a Kia Sedona with the right safety features has magically appeared on AutoTrader.
This trip is actually starting to feel real! I’ve been trying not to get myself too hyped – my dad’s full of warnings that he won’t be able to help much with the kids, so it’s going to be pretty tiring for me, and I know that Disney wants all of my money and then some, and also Disney knows more tricks about getting me to buy things than I do about not buying things. All fair. Still, it’s fun to have some hype. Thank y’all for providing me the space to talk about this!
Good luck tomorrow! If you want SDD, FOP, NRJ, or 7DMT, definitely get those first and at 7 am tomorrow. Getting the others can be a bit more relaxed as they will not fill up tomorrow super fast.
It turns out I’d forgotten that I’d set my TP calendar from the day we leave, not the day we arrive (we’re driving down). So TP was saying “GO GET FASTPASSES!” and Disney’s like, “Uh, not until the 12th.”
The good news is, obviously that gets me an extra day to figure out what I want / what my family can deal with. The bad news is, tomorrow morning my husband won’t be available for the morning get-to-school rush, so I won’t be able to get onto MDE until I’ve dropped off both kids, 7:45 at the earliest.
You will be fine!!! If you don’t get what you want keep checking and modifying😁We decided against FP for 7DMT and are going to BOG for cupcakes at 8am and hoping for a short wait! (Because that makes sense for us).
Just taking notes for myself since I still haven’t figured out exactly what parks we’re hitting when:
Friday 5/10: start driving – it’s approximately 7 hours’ drive to Orlando but that’s not counting stops and rush-hour traffic, so I don’t expect to make it to Disney that night.
Saturday 5/11: drive in the morning, Epcot (FW) in the afternoon, existing reservation at Garden Grill (CM) at 6:10 pm (predicted CL for Epcot: 6)
Sunday 5/12: CLs: MK 4, all others 5
Monday 5/13: CLs: AK 5, all others 4
Tuesday 5/14: CLs: Epcot 4, all others 5. This day we have a 7:00 pm reservation at Rose & Crown for the purpose of viewing Illuminations (none of y’all told me not to), so wherever the day starts, it ends at World Showcase (we have PH passes). I’m thinking the morning might be DHS, because we have to get there early to sign the girls up for Jedi Academy.
Wednesday 5/15: CLs: DHS 3, all others 4. We have to be at the Grand Floridian at 6:35 pm for our CM at 1900 Park Fare.
Thursday 5/16: CLs: MK 4, DHS 3, AK & Epcot 5
UO CLs: 7 on 5/11, otherwise 4-5
So it looks like the crowds might not be too bad on my days.
One of the biggest issues I’ve had consistently is where to put our one UO day. My dad’s afraid that, with the girls loving Harry Potter as much as they do (DD9 especially), they’re either going to get impatient waiting for UO, or UO will overshadow the rest of the trip. Also we’re probably not going to be able to take a break in the middle of Harry Potter day, so it’s going to be exhausting no matter how we do it. Right now I’m thinking that Wednesday should be UO day and Thursday should be left as open as possible so we can do whatever we want to get back to before starting to drive back in the evening. But that would mean I’d have to call a halt to UO day by 5:15 to make it back in time for our CM. Hmm.
Here’s my thinking right now:
Sat 5/11: Epcot FW
Sun 5/12: AK or MK
Mon 5/13: AK/MK or UO
Tues 5/14: DHS morning, Epcot WS in afternoon
Wed 5/15: UO if not Monday, otherwise AK/MK
Thurs: leave open
Are there any special events you want to participate in? Early morning Magic HS or MK for example - includes breakfast and some rides. i think it’s a great value.
Have you considered what your evening plans will look like? Is fireworks at MK a must for you? I’ve had trips where fireworks were extremely important and so I arranged my trip based on them and other trips were they got skipped.
Sat 5/11: (Epcot) Soarin’ 12:55, Mission: Space 3:20 Sun 5/12: (MK) Enchanted Tales with Belle 10 am, Peter Pan’s Flight noon, 7DMT 2:05 pm Mon 5/13: (MK) Buzz Lightyear 9:55, Splash Mountain 11:45, Monsters Inc. Laugh Party 1:10 Tues 5/14: (DHS) TSM 9 am, Frozen Sing-Along 11 am, Star Tours 12:45 pm
Didn’t try for anything Wednesday 5/15 (Harry Potter day) and Thurs 5/16 (leaving that open so we can decide which park we want to revisit, or squeeze in AK).
So I didn’t get Mickey’s PhilharMagic or the Epcot Frozen ride, but otherwise this ain’t bad. Since only one of the four of us (me) has any inclination to try roller coasters, Space Mountain is out; I’m not sure how DD7 is going to do at Haunted Mansion, so it’s not worth trying to get a FP on that; the girls haven’t seen Monsters Inc. but I think they’ll enjoy the show and my dad will be grateful for a chance to sit down. I’m trying to go minimalist on the FP commitments. There’s a possibility I’ll try to change these once I start fiddling with TPs, but I think we’ll have a good time with these in place.
Late to the party but I have some thoughts for you. Sounds like an awesome trip!
Epcot- if you have any interest in Spaceship Earth get a FP. The last two trips the SB line has been oddly long. Other one that girls might like is Nemo. The aquarium area after the ride was a nice break from the heat and my kids still loved it this trip as older teens.
MK- We have rarely waited more than one show cycle (20 minutes) for Philharmagic. No FP needed. Probably don’t really need one for Monsters as they tend to still be available same day and you could add it as your 4th FP. Do you think your 7 year old would be ok on Pirates? Less dark and scary than HM. Or try for a Small World FP. Annoying song but iconic ride. Both are cooler slow boat rides so that will make your Dad happy.
You weren’t able to get Frozen instead of Soarin’ at 60 days out? Or did you mean you couldn’t book Frozen because you booked Soarin’. From what I’ve read, for the most part Frozen has availability (even in the morning) at 60 days (and often even less) now.
The reason I didn’t try for Frozen on Saturday is that we’re getting into Orlando probably early afternoon and I wanted to keep my reservations to Future World only, rather than try and hit both sides of Epcot in less than a day. Then Tuesday is a split DHS/Epcot day and once I made reservations at DHS, I couldn’t try for FPPs at Epcot.
I liked the suggestion of getting one for Spaceship Earth or Nemo.
My suggestion would be to go ahead and grab something for 5/16 - just make your best guess at what might be favorites for re-rides it get passes for Navi River Journey and Safari if you might go to AK. Better to have something while availability is there than to wait and have slim choices.
Also for your 5/13 day, I would go ahead and get FPP for HM if it is a possibility you will want to ride. Otherwise maybe get small world, pirates or Winnie the Pooh. You probably won’t need one for Monsters Inc.
I’ve been trying not to get myself too hyped – my dad’s full of warnings that he won’t be able to help much with the kids, so it’s going to be pretty tiring for me, and I know that Disney wants all of my money and then some, and also Disney knows more tricks about getting me to buy things than I do about not buying things. All fair. Still, it’s fun to have some hype. Thank y’all for providing me the space to talk about this!