Rethinking our strategy for our December trip in light of what we now know about LL and looking for thoughts.
When: 12/19-12/24
Where: BWV
Who: Me (old), DH (older!), DS20, and DD17
We have generally been RD to FW kind of people. But we usually go during low crowd times. My plan had been RD, TS lunch, rest, and back to park in evening so we could avoid some of the worst crowds.
Now we have Deluxe extended hours and a Christmas party. That’s a lot of late nights and LL times are likely to be later during the crowded week.
Wondering if we should sleep in a bit (other than the adrenaline fueled 7am LL/ILL race) and hit the parks late morning and then stay through our late nights.
Can’t decide if that’s better because I hate losing all that travel time going back to rest and LLs will likely be late. Or if it’s a bad idea because we can’t enjoy some slightly less crowded times in the mornings.
This does seem to work better with LL return times, especially on busy days. You can arrive at the parks around lunchtime with 2 or even 3 LL reservations depending on the park, rack up a few more as you utilize your existing ones, and then be fully energized to stay until park close.
However, I think there is still a place for the afternoon break routine. But it may be better on days when you’re not using Genie+. Or in a park like AK where G+ will just be a stopgap that you won’t really need.
AK is one of the days I think I may use my late arrival plan. We have VMAH that night after having been at late Epcot hours the night before. Seems like AK would be easy to do a late start.
The other day is our full HS day. Have to stay to park close anyway due to our cool 9pm Ogas ADR (thanks for the tip!). And night before is late MK deluxe hours.
I’m just hesitant about the crowd feel mid afternoon and wonder if we should drag our buns out of bed to enjoy some less-crazy park time before the crowds build too much.
I was very tempted to do a late start when we were there in the summer. It really didn’t save us much time to get up early. But it was just so hot in the afternoon, we had to take a break most days.
So if you’re there when the weather is nice, I honestly think a late morning start is not a bad idea.
