I have 10 people in my group going to HS on March 18th. CL10.
We are staying off property and have poor FPPs: Star Tours @ 8:45am, ASS @ 6pm and TSM @ 8pm.
We also have Sci Fi Burgers at 1pm and Oga’s @ 6:45pm.
We are planning on 5 of us heading to the hotel for naps from 1pm to 5pm.
While we are gone the other 5 would go to Sci Fi and attempt the bigger kid rides.
We don’t have Hopper Tickets.
A big priority for us is a RotR BG so we will need be there at opening.
The only other attraction we want to hit with the little kids is SDD. Everything else is shows: Little Mermaid, Frozen Sing Along, Junior Dance Party, Meet Olaf and Beauty and the Beast.
My question is, just how crazy is 8am to 10am at HS? Before the shows start at 10am is there anything for little ones to do? Could we get our RotR BG, then ride Star Tours, then hopefully ride RotR then just go to breakfast offsite for a couple hours? If we did this, would the wait for SDD be about the same when we returned?
My biggest goal for this vacation is fun for the little ones. And honestly, I would rather see them playing in the pool than standing in line for more than 30 mins.
Any guidance you can provide would be appreciated!
Scott
Without any more details on your party, here is how I would approach:
First, try between now and then to get a Tier 1 FPP instead of Star Tours and try to move your other FPP earlier. With persistence you may be able to do this. Using the mobile site or desktop site, try to modify the FPP and refresh, refresh, refresh the results…repeatedly for a long time. You may be surprised what comes up. Just a couple days ago I was able to move my April afternoon TSM and evening AS2 to morning by doing this. If no luck, try again later. I have had no such luck with my Tier 1, but will keep trying. If your FPP are a group of ten you may have better luck splitting into smaller groups and trying to get overlapping times. By moving FPP up, you may be able to grab more same-day FPP that day, which would be very useful for those staying in the park in the afternoon.
Now assuming you are not able to change them, this would be my approach:
Get to park 1 hour early at least, or 2 if possible, grab BG at opening and rope drop MMRR or SDD, whichever is the higher priority for your group. Then sign whatever kids are interested up for Jedi Training, the earliest show possible (first one that day is 9:40 so they would probably need the kids there by 9 or 9:15). Then use Star Tours FPP, hopefully do Jedi Training and then try to catch whatever shows you are interested in during the late morning. If no one is interested in Jedi, you could just get breakfast in or out of the park (I would try for Topolino Terrace character breakfast at Riviera and Skyliner over). After your afternoon break, catch a show and then use the other two FPP. If you are at TSM right at 8 you may be able to jump into line for SDD afterward before closing and the wait shouldn’t be too bad. I think they are closing the line for MMRR down early so that may not be an option just before close.
If you haven’t already, take a look at the wait times on the TP site to get a sense of how the times will fluctuate for each attraction. Good luck!
To answer a question I missed, we were there Jan 3 and the 8-10 AM hours were NUTS. Long lines everywhere. So an appointment such as Jedi or breakfast are great ideas for kids.