I read some older post that crowd level doesn’t matter with the need to arrive at / before RD to sign up for HS JTA. We are planning to go Dec 07, Wednesday crowd level 4 and the park opens at 9am.
If you get there early enough do you have any choice for the JTA time you sign up for?
We have 2 ADR Fantasmic packages we are trying to decide between for 12:30 lunch at Mama Melrose or H&V at 4pm but unfortunately won’t know JTA time until the morning --too late to cancel. May just have to gamble which food is better, weather forecast etc. to cancel one before hand. Thanks in advance!
One DS who will turn 6 the week we are there 4Dec-11Dec! The H&V is seasonal character meal. Our party includes a DH and DG (?Disney Grandma?). Last November we went for a week and visited MK and AK over 3 days and stayed at WL. This year we have 5 days in the parks and staying at Poly. Don’t want an epic long day in the park, last year we had a 10 hour day at MK and that was too much for adults and children. But challenge is that HS is a bus transfer, I want to see Fantasmic and DS6 loves Maleficent and Queen so I think that is a big sell for Fantasmic (weather permitting).
I want to lean toward later hours, 4pm H&V buffet to have shorter day in park and see Fantasmic, but I hear from friends who’ve been JTA is a real treat. So we could make that one day our must do RD and just work it out from there to make it all happen, or deal with transit to take a mid-day break back to poly or Friendship boat to Beaches and Cream snack for a park break. If weather is a factor, I hear Fantasmic may not happen but hope that is less likely first week of December
Juggling the desire to do JTA, enjoy a meal, arrive at a leisurely time at the park (knowing from Poly we have to Bus it–since we don’t have a car and taxis won’t have a booster seat), not have an epic long day. I want it all…but am ok with doing the best options! Thanks!!
The buses from HS to and from the Poly are ok but you most likely will share a bus with the GF and that will add time to transportation (especially in December when everyone wants to see the decorations so the parking lot can get backed up). Sometimes a cab or Uber can be priceless this may be one of those times.
I think Minnie and Friends in holiday attire would fun.
Thanks, I would like best the flexibility of cab or uber option but with a 42 lb DS need a booster seat. I don’t think I want to fly with one just for that purpose one day, but could check into it more. Any clue whether there are “booster options” with particular cab companies?
When we were at GF last year in early December, we never shared a bus with the Poly except for Magical Express. I wouldn’t expect a bus share unless they changed something recently.
One thing to consider is one adult & the potential Jedi could go to HS early to get signed up and then either head back to the Poly or do a casual morning until the rest of the party joins. Might help avoid fatigue over a long day. Unfortunately any children doing Jedi do need to be there for sign-up though so DS6 would need to make the trek and if he’s the one you’re most concerned being fatigued that may not help…
Jedi Training is a lot of fun - was likely my son’s favorite thing in all the parks around the time he was 6 so it should be well worth doing. If he has a strong preference between battling Darth Vader or the Dark Sister from Rebels, pay attention to the tips on which line to be in when you report 30 minutes early as that determines his opponent. Also note, Jedi can get rained out, although they still take you behind the scenes for a cool photo opp so it’s not a total loss…
We bought an inflatable booster seat for our last trip and it worked great. Took up minimal space in our luggage and worked with any seat belt. It cost us like $35, and now we just let the grandparents keep it in their car.
Glad to hear from someone else it would likely be a high-value attraction. I don’t mind making the effort/sacrifices for something that sounds worth it. Thanks again!
We looked into Uber family and it won’t work for us since our son needs to be rear-facing, but I think it would be perfect for your situation. It just means that the car comes with an installed forward facing convertible seat. Would definitely work for your son as the limits are 25 lbs-60 lbs. Suitable for children between ages 2-6.
JTA is well worth the effort to show up at RD! And taking a midday break will make the best of both your morning and evening. When we did JTA we got to DHS at 8:30 for a 9am opening. Line for JTA was long but fast-moving. We had our pick of times from 1pm to the end of the day. And were leaving with our spot secured at 9:20 so even though it was a longer wait, only 20 minutes of park time were spent in that line. If you want an earlier time in the morning, I would definitely arrive earlier than 8:30. We did a few other things, including our AM FPP for TSMM. But we also had a Chef Mickey’s brunch planned that day (it was our first day and we had arrived on red-eye very early so we didn’t have a hotel room ready and I wanted to make sure we had a place to relax/chil out/enjoy WDW even with the tiredness and in case we didn’t have a room to sleep in yet). Because I wanted to show the kids how cool the monorail was going into the Contemporary, I planned for us to bus from DHS after our very short morning there and then ride the monorail into their first meal at WDW.
The bus ride to the Poly was simple, fast, no shared bus with GF. Because we left a little earlier than midday the bus was just for us and I think 1 other party, maybe. You can definitely look into Uber Family, but we found the only time we wish we would have done Uber over the Disney busses was to Disney Springs. Going from DHS to Poly was a snap.
I am reposting here because I am staying at Poly again and I just got on a HS bus that stopped at GF. Poly and GF shared buses in April and they are still sharing in September. This may help when planning.