ISO a WDW Pro to Calm Me Down!

We are going to WDW 1/30 to 2/6. Up until a few days ago, I was in a blissful place where I had all my ADRs, all the FPPs I wanted and perfect TPs.

However, after really keeping an eye on wait times and comments on chat over the last few months, I am now thinking that my bliss is actually ignorance. Is it realistic to think I can spend a day at MK and never have a wait longer than 15 minutes? I question some of the wait times in the TP and fear that they may be grossly underestimated.

I realize, of course, that everything is just an estimate and no one can predict an accurate crowd level or whether rides will break down. But we are a family that only gets to go to WDW about every 6 years or so, and I want to make sure I am doing everything I can to try and make our trip productive and fun. I know that if I get to the park and the wait times are very, very off, it will stress me out. I thought about doing a whole second set of TPs with only must do’s, but then how do I know which one to go with? If my must do’s have me running from one end of the park to the other and back again, perhaps I am better off putting some less important things in between to maximize the things we get on.

I know that I should just relax and hope for the best, and that is a quality I have always tried to cultivate, but I know me. A major vacation like this doesn’t come around very often for us and I want to make sure it goes as smoothly as it can. Anyone out there with any advice to offer? Have you found the TPs to be accurate?

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Great posts and questions as I share many of your same concerns. I look forward to hearing from people who have recently gone on what were predicted to be average crowd level days. From all the research I’ve done, these are my personal take aways:

  1. Plan plan plan and then let go when we get there. If I stick to my plans of RD, I figure I can’t go too wrong. But, if lines are longer than predicted, then I’ll just start skipping certain rides and looking at in-park times.

  2. My research has helped me realize to take in the orchestration of the park (the little things from music to they way a line has been designed) instead of only focusing on the rides. So, if my TPs are off, so what. I plan to focus on appreciating the cool stuff I would have never been attuned to had I not done any research.

  3. While many people have said their TP times were drastically off, there have also been many posts where people said their TPs worked great.

  4. I make sure to repeatedly set expectations with my family, emphasizing that there is no quiet time anymore to visit these parks (no uncrowded parks). So, expect crowds and lines. If we get a lot done, we’re going to consider ourselves lucky.

Those are my thoughts. Good luck. It is so difficult when we put so much into a single vacation. Of course we want lots of value for our dollars. We’re bound to be better off that people who haven’t planned. But, if we don’t let go upon arrival, we’re setting ourselves up for disappointment.

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Sorry, but 15 minutes as a worst case isn’t a reasonable expectation (and likely never was) if you want to ride any headliners, unless you somehow manage to Fast Pass every headliner. We went in early December and it was busier than when we had last been there that time of year but it wasn’t bad. Most of our lines were in the 30 minute range worst case and we had lots that were 15 minutes or less. We also skipped some rides for now when we saw a line longer than we wanted to deal with at that time. We did park hop to MK at night a lot and were selective then if the line was bad and waited until our MK day to do some things when the park wasn’t as busy.

Our worst lines were 7DMT which we didn’t get a fast pass for - rope dropping in the morning it was still near 30 and we got caught late night at MK one day when it broke down which turned a 30-40 minute wait into an hour which if we’d known we’d have skipped. Our only other really bad line was Test Track when we’d fast passed Soarin’ & my son really wanted to do the full design of the car and thus didn’t want to do single rider. Test Track was in the 50-55 minute range IIRC.

Overall I found the waits reasonable and not that much worse than past years when we had been. It was busier, but we got to experience everything we wanted to. But if you expect 15 minutes as a max wait, I’m afraid you’ll be disappointed as I’ve never experienced that on the major attractions.

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What I have always done is picked a few rides that I want to really ride. Have each person pick 3 of theirs! We make sure to do those and everything else is a bonus :slight_smile: I have been several times (7 and counting :slight_smile: and most of the time since I have been planning we get more done then I figured we would! I have still done the TP and have just modified it accordingly! It is a vacation and you want to have fun and enjoy yourself. If you don’t get to something it’s ok :slight_smile: There is always next time :slight_smile: As long as we hit the high lights :smile:

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I have to say, what you are telling me is actually making me feel better. We are planning on two full days and one evening at MK, so I’m able to make a total of 9 FPPs. I have FPPs for all the headliners, but was concerned that things like Dumbo, Magic Carpets and the like would have long waits as well. If 15 minutes or less is average for these rides, maybe my TP is more accurate than I thought.

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Thank you guys! Essentially, you are telling me things that I know deep down inside, but reading them again from different people is helping it to sink in a little bit more. :smiley:

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When I went in Sept we did pretty good with our TP. It was pretty accurate! Actually both times I went it was pretty good and we got a lot done :slight_smile: I was surprised. My kids and I ended up skipping some of the rides and doing what we wanted. It’s some of those moments that you get board or want to do something else :slight_smile: For the most part it worked out great :smile:

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I think if you just stick with your perfect TPs, they should work out fine…especially if you have 3 days worth of FPP. We were just there the first week of December. The predicted crowds were all in the 5-7 range, if memory serves. At MK we did one afternoon and one RD morning-early afternoon. The rides we used stand-by for ended up being shorter than the projected times. The only ride we encountered a long line, and decided to skip was Peter Pan. We did RD, without any FPP, and after 7DMT, the line at Peter Pan was already 40+ minutes. The rest of the day was great.
(full disclosure, it was just two adults, so we didn’t have to deal with kiddo issues)
Have a wonderful trip.

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I think you’ll do fine then with Fast Passes to the headliners and multiple visits. The secondary rides lines aren’t that bad especially this time of year. You’ll have lots of options in the 15-20 minute range that will be good. Just don’t be afraid to skip one that’s long one day knowing you can catch it later when the line is friendlier. Your Touring Plan should be a great guide, but also the App does a nice job of telling you wait times, expected & if things are likely to get better or worse the rest of the day.

I think you’ll do fan as it sounds like you have done a lot of planning. Enjoy…

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One thing about it :slight_smile: If you miss a ride because the line is long, you can always skip it and then when you have extra time somewhere else, you could go back to the ride :slight_smile: Just an option :slight_smile: I always used an ink pen an marked our map on what we had done and what we didn’t :slight_smile: Good way to keep track :slight_smile:

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