Help Me Plan My First Trip to WDW in Almost Forty Years

Walt Disney World
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Hi everyone – occasional TouringPlans subscriber, first-time forums poster here. For the first time in almost 40 years I’ll be going to WDW and I’m asking for any guidance y’all care to give.

I went a couple times for a day or two in the early-to-mid-80s (once with my family, once with a school group), and over the past 15 or so years I went maybe… 5 times? to Disneyland. All of which leaves me mostly unprepared for WDW. My sole Disneyland decision point was the closest hotel to the Esplanade the budget would allow. And while I’d use Touring Plans, when I went with kids (every time except one), those plans inevitably would get set aside as the day went on and I dealt with the kids’ needs.

But now I’ve moved to be somewhat closer to WDW and I’m going to take a solo tour. So I’m the one in charge. :wink:

I’ll be getting into MCO a little after 11 AM on Monday 9/29 and leaving MCO before 3 PM on Thursday 10/2, staying at Pop Century. I’m currently planning on buying a 3-day Park Hopper (though haven’t literally done so yet).

I have two basic questions:

  1. Assuming that my 3-day park hopper will expire on the 2nd and that two of my days will be Tuesday the 30th and Wednesday the 1st, am I better off using my 3rd day on the 29th (when I probably can’t get to the parks until 1 PM at the very earliest) or the 2nd (when, if I’m using Mears, I need to be prepared to leave before noon)? Note: I realize it’s the end of hurricane season so I’m just trying to get a good Plan A.
  2. I’m trying to stick to a reasonable budget – that’s why I’m staying in Pop, for example, and I plan to stick to QS meals, not buy LLs, and take Mears to/from MCO. But I’m budgeting myself a little extra money to just make the experience better. Let’s call that amount roughly $120, which is the amount it would cost to upgrade to a 4-day park hopper for my dates. Besides upgrading, I could use some of that money on some of the following: TS meals (maybe another $25 per time above $15 for a QS meal), Uber/Lyft to/from MCO (maybe $45 each way above the cost of Mears), LLs of some sort ($15-$35), Behind the Seeds tour ($40), switching from a 3-day park hopper to a 4-day one-park-per-day ticket ($30 more). I’m sure there’s other things I’m not thinking of, but that’s where you come in.

A few personal details to guide your suggestions. I’m a middle-aged guy (going solo, remember), with Disney ride tastes that probably match those of a lot of attendees (e.g., I really want to ride GotG and FoP, but also enjoy the old school rides like HM and PotC). The exception is that I don’t need to do Rise and SR – I did them in DL and they were fine, but I don’t need to spend LL $ or an hour or more in line on them.

After rides, atmosphere (both in the parks and resorts) and transportation are things that I want to experience. Good food is also reasonably important, but that could just mean a Dole Whip and cheap fish and chips. I don’t mind sitting at a bar to eat (seems nicer to me than sitting alone at a TS table), but I tend not to get the value from the amount I’d have to pay for Disney-poured alcohol. Also keen to see at least some nighttime entertainment, though I don’t want to wait for an hour to do so.

Character interactions and souvenirs are not my thing. Been there, done that. :wink: And I probably won’t take advantage of the free day-of-arrival water park benefit.

To be clear, I don’t need particular ride suggestions, etc. – I’ve read my Unofficial Guide and a number of different sites so have a pretty good idea of what my “must-dos” are – more like, “oh, you definitely need to spend an hour walking through X resort” or “here’s the park order I’d do for 2.5 days.”

Hopefully this wasn’t too rambling. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks!

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I would use it this day if it were me. Rushing to a park on departure day turns it into a stressful experience rather than the fun last hours imagined during planning. I’m not clear if you need to be on the Mears at noon or if you’ve already factored in travel and such and you’re leaving a park by noon, but either way it works out to only a few hours. Whereas on arrival day even if you didn’t arrive until 3pm you could still get a solid 6 hours in (maybe more if MK is open later and there isn’t a party on).

I think given your reasonably short visit that this - LLMP in particular - is the thing that will get you the most bang for your buck. I think you’d be hard-pressed to find a TS meal for $40 all in, and while Uber/Lyft to/from MCO is faster Mears does the trick for a budget-friendly trip. Behind the Seeds is great, but only a couple of hours (so value for dollar per minute is less than the LLMP which can go all day).

I don’t think adding a 4th PH day is worth the money when it will give you at best 3.5hrs in a park on departure day. Again, stressful and not as fun as it should be.

Do not miss Happily Ever After at MK, and probably the new nighttime parade though I can’t exactly speak to that since it hasn’t yet stepped off. Fantasmic is also well worth the time spend! For me, Luminous at Epcot is completely skippable

For my big piece of advice: do not rush through Animal Kingdom. It is best done by meandering through. Stroll. Observe. Realize that so many of the little signs are actually Easter Eggs. Know that everything about the immersion is deliberate. Wander the animal trails, take the train to Rafiki’s Planet Watch (head over on the first - 930a - train and maybe get to see some procedures in the animal hospital!) and take the Animation Experience. Don’t miss The Lion King. Slow down here a real lot, and enjoy the whole day here. It closes early so you could always hop elsewhere for nighttime entertainment. But don’t rush it and don’t believe a word of anyone who says it’s a half-day park. It’s not.

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100%. You’ll have 1pm(ish) till close versus open to rushing out by noon? Spending that first day at the park and the last day doing a Skyliner or monorail tour (or both?) seems ideal.

If you want GotG (and you do) splurge on the LL. Same for FoP, unless (or even if) you rope drop it. Both rides, along with Tron are worth the experience for me.

Be in Animal Kingdom for Pandora and Tree of Life after dark if you can. So beautiful!

Time is money, especially when admission is $200/day, so this is well spent money for me. You could get right on a bus and be on your way to the first stop or you could wait a while and be the last stop with Mears.

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These are great thoughts, especially the idea that even if the first 3+ hours in a park are when you can “do the most,” knowing me, I’d mostly be thinking about what the likelihood is I’ll miss my Mears bus. (Who sleeps about 2 hours the night before traveling somewhere? Me!)

In the end, I will probably break down and get a LL at least for one or two rides and/or parks. That’s what I did for Rise in DL and while it wasn’t so awesome that I’m needing to do it again, I don’t regret spending the money so my DD and I could ride it without too much waiting.

I’m looking forward to using EE, riding the big 4 rides in AK, strolling through the grounds, and seeing some of the entertainment. Probably won’t make it 'til 5 pm… but I could easily make it past 1 or 2. :smile:

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Re: the first vs last day – I’m just used to DL where it seemed like I really could get as much good stuff done in the first 3+ hours than in the last 6+ hours, but that’s why I asked for advice for those with better brains than me.

I like to think I’m good at RD and could get to FoP w/out the LL, I’ve read that EE at Epcot for GotG is a little chaotic and since I’d be walking from IG anyway, probably better off spending the money at least in EPCOT.

I’d love to see Tree of Life at night, but I don’t think the calendar and the sunset schedule is my friend during my time there. But I need to double-check.

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And thanks to both for the thoughtful comments! Much appreciated.

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MK and HS are where you’ll see the best use of LLMP

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Nope, not in September/early October unfortunately :frowning:

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Totally doable as a solo act if you get to AK early enough and you do a fast walk-near-run. I’ve done it several times without fail. Don’t bring anything in your pockets that will set off the security guys.

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If I can do it, you can do it!

This is a good thought.

I mean, a good rope drop morning is a wonderful thing and I’ve don’t rope drop to close to rope drop to plane before and enjoyed it. If you go that route, I’d 100% drop mears as you’ll lose time being in their schedule. Make your final park before the airport Hollywood or Epcot to utilize the Skyliner for efficiency, but eyeball the weather and be ready to pivot to a bus if weather rolls in.

If you keep your tickets as is and make departure day your third, then on arrival you could do a Skyliner and monorail crawl for sure.

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This is a good suggestion

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ETA:
It just occurred to me that perhaps the money-saving idea is best kept in La Cava, so I tagged the OP there.

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Learned today that portable batteries are… not security friendly. (Or at least not fast-security-friendly.)

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Thanks!

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I haven’t had any security problems with small battery banks, but maybe I’ve just been lucky or maybe the brick-sized batteries are more of a problem.

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Just to be clear, I’m having the tickets expire on departure day for flexibility’s sake (in case arrival travel goes pear-shaped). It’s worth the… $15? or whatever it is to make sure I can use it on departure day if I can’t use it one of the other 3 days.

I like the idea of a Skyliner/monorail crawl, but maybe that’s something I just do in stages…

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You can use the 3-day ticket on any 3 days in a 5-day span—they don’t need to be consecutive—so fiddle around with the dates to see what results in the cheapest ticket. When I did the sample pricing, it was cheaper to start the ticket on the 28th.

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Mine is half the size (and the same width) as my phone, so that doesn’t sound like a brick to me… but I’m not the security guard!

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I’ve heard that if you hold a potentially problematic item, like an eyeglass case or powerbank, out in front of you as you walk through security, it won’t trigger a search. Can anyone confirm?

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Just hold them out in front of you.

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