Yes indeed
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I haven’t read all the comments. I’m probably going to go opposite of everyone else here!
Personally, I would spend that $30 to upgrade to a four day, one park per day ticket. Then I would do MK on the first day (open the latest plus less rides I really care about as a DLR person), and AK on the last day (open the earliest, less rides).
I would use TP to create plans to get an idea of what can be done. I’ve found the plans without LL to be pretty accurate. RD at HS is a must. Maybe Epcot too now that GOTG is standby.
I have done this plan with my (adult) daughters with a lot of success.
Oh, the other splurge would be uber/lyft either both ways to maximize time in the parks on arrival and departure day. I am probably in the minority that doesn’t think you need LLMP. I’m probably an outlier. Also, if you use Lyft, you can catch the Lyft at AK, add a stop to Pop to get your luggage, and head directly to the airport. You said you would need to leave before noon on Mears, but what time is your flight? Also, note that I am not someone who likes to get to the airport hours ahead of my flight. 75 minutes prior to flight is probably plenty depending on if you are checking a bag and if you have TSA precheck or Clear.
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Important detail 
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I meant to say you should definitely uber/lyft BACK to the airport. Taking Mears from the airport to Pop is a possibility but limits your park time. I would probably uber/lyft both ways.
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I think I’d switch to the 4 day, one park per day ticket. I’d Uber back to the airport to maximize time in the park. With a carry on and TSA precheck, I’ve made it from resort to gate in an hour multiple times. I like to arrive at my gate at least 30 minutes prior to boarding.
If you did AK on your last day and rope dropped at 7:30 you may get 4 1/2-5 hrs in the park before heading to the airport.
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My flight is a little before 3 pm – I have PreCheck and am Team Carry-On, so I feel like as long as I’m at the airport by 1:45, which means I’m leaving the resort at 1:00 with an Uber/Lyft (it’s about a half-hour drive, yes?), then I’m fine. So that would give me something like 5.5 hours assuming EE at AK, which seems enough for me for a first time…
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My one concern with the 4-day, 1-park plan is that I could see myself saying “I paid for this day in the park, I’m going to spend the day in the park” when part of me really does want to spend 3-4 hours just wandering through, like, the Monorail resorts or along the boardwalk, etc. Doing 3 days only in the parks forces me to get some time where I can’t do the parks.
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Sadly, this is my mentality as well. I paid for this, so I’m going to grind out the fun whether I like it or not!
Skyline to boardwalk then bus to (MK?) to start the monorail.
You can easily get FoP, NRJ, KS and about 23 SR EE in that time!
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Park hopping allows a person to maximize their time by going to another park if for some reason their park of the day didn’t work out as planned.
While I’ve rope dropped and stayed after midnight in parks, I’ve not been a commando tourer, nor am I ride centric. I pretty muchly always park hop. I like HS rides better than their restaurants and in the before times, supper was going to be somewhere in Epcot.
I think we’re meant to go to DS now for supper. So far I’ve not completed the switch.
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I’d like to do the queue for EE once because I’ve heard it’s quite good. But after that? SR all the way!
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EE is a pretty cool queue
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Great choice!
An extra day is always a plus and I wouldn’t trade that for TS meals on a short trip or the Uber/Lyft over Mears. But also that 4th day isn’t full day. So I don’t know if it’s the best use. Maybe do LL for 1 very well planned out day (including HS because that place is a 
show).
Behind the Seeds- yes. I loved it!
WDW has great QS options. They also have some bad ones. Just do your research and I think you can totally have a great trip with great food doing mostly QS. And I come from a foodie town so that says a lot.
DH feels the same. If it’s any consolation, we find the drinks better at the actual bars than the places that “also serve some alcohol”. If it has an actual bar tender the drinks should be good. But DH also gets beer for the room on the way in because Disney beer is $$$. They have a gas station right outside of the Boardwalk- quick Uber trip from Pop. Oooor, you Uber in from MCO and make a pit stop at the station.
Also, on shorter trips it does eat a bit of time. Lands is one of my favs! But even I would say maybe save BtS for a longer visit- unless it’s a must.
Oddly, I love it- if I close my ears.
Concur. It’s so special!
And maybe plan it a couple days into the trip that way you don’t feel the go-go-go pressure like the first couple days of the trip.
Yes.
DOUBLE Yes. It’s magical. But not always available. We like AK to be on a day when we need to pack for the evening or have big dinner plans.
RL, you can get an Uber. Mears wants to pick you up soooo early. Last trip I fibbed and used a different departure flight. Still waited around the airport for sooo long. But if you miss it, Uber/Lyft is just a maybe 10-15 min wait.
Not sure what your time zone is, but if you’re DL prone that Eastern Time Zone can get ya for RD. It’s SOOO early.
Second (and third) this. And while MK is doable without, HS is ridiculous with loong waits right now.
For flights? We bring ours. The new regs is you can’t use them while they are in a bag contained. That’s smart use anyway.
For Disney security, 100% hold the out in front of you with your phone. Every single time I forgot this we got searched. Every single time we did it, clear sailing.
Yes. Unlikely, but yes, worth it.
This is also not a bad strategy. I like it!
Without TSA pre check I’m good with 90 mins before flight time (not boarding time, which is earlier). If you have to check bags add 20 mins. TSA pre check at MCO isnt the advantage it used to be.
Not enough time at AK in my opinion, lol, but it’s really a good amount of time to hit most of the park.
Your math checks with me. Mears will want to pick you up at dawn (sarcastic). Maybe pad 15 mins before and splurge for Lyft ONLY IF you plan park time on the last day. You could also do what we like to do and have a nice brunch somewhere (Trattoria is my weak spot)…
It is. Disney has a lot of great queues. We miss SOOO much by LLs and SR lines.
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Ooooh, thanks for all the detailed responses. And it’s a little sad that even with fibbing Mears still gets you there too early!
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Thanks everyone for the detailed comments and feedback!
I’m sure I will obsess about this far more than healthy (I can get frustrated with my brain, but it’s the only one I have!), but for the moment, I’ve decided to stick with my 3-day park hopper and plan to use it on my arrival day, leaving departure day for exploring the non-park side(s) of the resort. I guess I’m worried that a 4-day non-park hopper won’t leave time to see a park in case travel or something else messes up a day, and I also know I won’t see as much non-park stuff unless I force myself to do so by not going to a park one day.
For now, my plan is to do HS on arrival day, do EE MK on Tuesday and getting my 6-7 must-dos in, then going to EP in early afternoon. (That day is a party day so MK closes early with low crowds.) And on Wednesday I’ll do EE AK and have the afternoon/evening to see what I missed, though I’m sure I will end up in MK for nighttime entertainment.
And as for spending my money for upgrades, I’ll probably do Lyft heading back to MCO, buy a LLSP for GotG and maybe a LLMP for another park, and use the rest to upgrade a meal or two (a nicer breakfast on departure day, for example, or a nice lounge/bar respite in a nicer resort).
Thanks again, appreciate all your thoughts – even the ones I ended up not choosing were useful.
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Hehe you’re preaching to the choir here. It’s why this place even exists. We all do that here
Correct.
I hope you’ll share your trip experience with us, whether in a live or retrospective report of some kind!
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This is something we have come to really enjoy- especially for afternoon departures.
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Hi! I’m a middle aged woman who just returned from a short trip with my family. I’m responsible for all of the planning. I found this group and the Lines app incredibly helpful.
I’m not sure if this will be helpful, but this was my experience: Stayed at the Swan. We had park hoppers and bought LL. I booked my first 3 for every day working backwards from the last day of our trip. I also bought ILL for some days. We’ve been ~20 times since 2008 but not for the past 3 years so LL was new to me. For a short trip I thought it was really a good value. Like you, we’re no longer focused on characters and own too much merch already. I found it easy to use and if you’re ride focused and want to maximize your days it worked well for us. For example, we arrived at MK around 3:30 on 6/29. I had booked Buzz first and had LL for Tiana and Pirates later as well as ILL for 7DMT. It rained fairly hard at one point so that probably reduced the number of people in the park. As soon as we scanned into a LL I used the wait time in line to book another. In all we rode our original 4 plus the following attractions using LL: Peter Pan, Haunted Mansion, IASW, under the sea, & laugh floor. We also went on mad tea party, people mover and saw mickeys philharmagic, ate a snack and a quick service dinner, watched the fireworks and got photopass pictures taken before leaving the park around 10:20 PM.
On days we park hopped I was able to book evening LL at another park so we did every ride we wanted to at every park and if we returned to a park on another day we did the rides again. Most days I got at 6-8 LL beyond our original 3. I don’t think we waited in any line more than 10-15 minutes.
We took a midday break every day for several hours to swim, rest. etc. then hopped to a new park for the evening. During our stay we rode the monorail, buses, friendship boats, ferry and the sky liner. We ate one TS meal - SciFi Dine in Fantasmic Dining package. Family loves the atmosphere and it’s a little less expensive than the other restaurants with the package. It’s pricey but includes main course, alcoholic beverage & dessert so a decent value IMO. We hadn’t seen Fantasmic since 2019 so worth it for us. We were able to stroll in around 9:15 and still sit in the first few rows of the center section.
We’re not thrill seekers at our age (60s) We paid for GotG as it’s one of my favorite movies. Our teen loved it but we hated it. Loved the pre show, hated the ride. I literally felt sick for 24 hours it was so disorienting. I regret wasting the time and money. It sort of ruined that day and part of the next. We also bought FoP since it’s one of our favorites. Didn’t go on Tron - $20+ or a 75 minute wait for 60 seconds isn’t worth it for us.
We did run into Characterpalooza at the International Gateway twice so we saw some unique characters with no lines - Eeyore, Gepetto, Marie, Cinderella’s step sisters and a few others I’ve forgotten.
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Oh that’s all very helpful. I still think I’ll really like GotG but your point about LL for how brief Tron is helps me think about that…
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I held my battery out every time — the only time I was stopped was when I forgot I had a spray bottle of sunscreen in my bag. Brought a refillable plastic water bottle so I didn’t have to hold everything out in front of me 
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Glad I could help. I know a lot of people love GotG and I hope you do, too! For me it was like Forbidden Journey at Universal but on steroids.
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