Hello Friends
I will be arriving to WDW Pop Century Resort on August 5th. I plan to relax at resort that day with the kids (family of four with a 5 year old and a 7 year old). Followed by a day at HS on Sunday August 6th. We have a Disney Cruise planned for Monday August 7th through Friday August 11th. Coming back to Allstar Movies Resort on August 11th for a relaxing day at resort with Disney Springs added. Followed by a day at MK on Saturday August 12th. We leave on Sunday back home. I plan on rope dropping both days and using Genie+ and LL individual for park days. the first half hour is for resort guest and I wanted your input on what to choose during that time to maximize our rides…
This will be our first time on a Disney Cruise but I really wanted to go to the parks on our trip too. Any tips or advice
My kids (ages 8 & 4) did not have any interest in ToT or RNRC, so we RD’d TSM. Then split - one group did TSM and the other did ASS. We were back off the pack for rope drop and got those two done in the first 35 minutes of park opening (8am early hrs, 8:30 park open). We used G+ and had a 8:45 SDD.
For MK, we were middle of the pack and rope dropped Space Mountain. My DS4 was too little so he did Tomorrowland Speedway twice during early entry. I’ve got a photo of my kid getting ready to board Space at 8:47 (park open at 9).
Once finished with TS, we headed to Buzz after park opened.
I agree with @NervousRex here, and have done two trips with kids at similar ages. My two youngest kids (6 and 9) favorite ride in HS and one of their favorites overall is Slinky Dog Dash so if you’re able to be near the front to middle of the EE rope drop crowd I’d recommend rope dropping that while also getting a LL for as close to 8:45 as you can. In our EE morning at HS we were able to rope drop SDD (about a 10 min wait, and we showed up at the turnstyles maybe 20-25 min before the start of EE), then 2x on TSMM (both walk-ons) and then hit our 8:45 a.m. LL for SDD for an amazing first 45 min in the park. You’ll be able to get an ASS LL very easily any time, and my bet is your kids will be thrilled with the chance at doing a repeat ride on SDD. But if you’re running a bit later, I’d agree with just focus on knocking out TSMM once or twice - that ride has such great replay value and my younger kids loved it too.
My DS6 didn’t do it on our first trip (he was tall enough but opted not to last-minute) so for 3 years he was obsessed with riding it on our next trip. There was a healthy competition between DS6 and DD9 over “who loves SDD more”. Needless to say it was the very first ride we rode when we arrived at HS on our first evening where I’d been stacking lightning lanes. And we got in 4 rides during our 7 day trip, 3 via LL and one from RD so everybody got their fill!
Recent RD SDD experience: Early opening time was 8AM. We arrived at the park at 7:40, no lines for getting in, made out way over to SDD at 7:50, long SDD dash line stretching into toy story land. Ride started running soon after and we were off at 8:10. Then rode MMRR twice, then over to TSMM for a couple of walk on rides. We were nowhere near the front of the pack for SDD but still had a short wait (and had Genie+ for 8:50 so we did it again). I recommend an ILL for rise later in the AM.
You’ve had several replies on HS strategy, pretty consistent. For MK, while I’ve RD’d Tomorrowland both times we’ve been there in time for RD I think there’s a decent argument for a RD of a couple middle tier rides in Fantasyland and then getting to BTMM right before regular park open for a second RD. For my kids of similar age to yours, BTMM is their favorite ride in Magic Kingdom and so being able to do it twice with no / low wait (once via G+, once at RD) would be awesome.
I am considering this strategy for our trip. There are so many ways to RD MK that I can’t decide which rides to do first.
I’d almost forgotten about the Moana M&G in AK, so I need to work that into our RD strategy somehow. I wasn’t planning necessarily RD AK, and it has a later opening on our day there (9am), so I might need to rethink that. I know the M&G doesn’t open right away, so we may be able to do one ride first. Was already planning to save Pandora for later in the afternoon when all the PHers leave.
How fun to have them build up the excitement for it! We had 4 park days and did SDD 3 times - all LL. My kids loved it too.