Do you think WDW would be a great last minute trip? We were supposed to go to Japan the 3rd week of March but with the virus outbreak we decided to cancel the trip and go somewhere else to celebrate our 5th anniversary. Not ‘last minute last minute’ but I am a little be worried about fast passes being gone. What are your thoughts?
You can check current FP availability going out like 3 months here:
https://www.thedibb.co.uk/forums/fastpass_plus_availability.php
TouringPlans also has a tool to look at FP availability, but it only looks for single FP, while theDibb tool looks for availability for four.
Also, check the predicted CLs for the days you are looking at. Crowds briefly dip towards end of March, then jump back up, so look to see if you’d be there in the sweet spot.
I know others like to say that if you have a good plan, then even a CL 10 will be fine. I tend to disagree with that. I mean you can still have fun, but I really despise large crowds. Puts me in a sour mood. So if I’m going to choose a time to go, I’d personally not choose a time when there is a CL 10 just because I “have a good plan”. Having a good plan for a CL 5 day will be a whole lot more fun than having a good plan for a CL 10 day. 
In general, though, 3rd week in March looks like mostly CL 10s. If you were going last week March, into April. it would be better.
Thanks for this! My mistake, we are actually going the 4th week of March. I will check out the link you posted. Your post makes me feel better not having months of planning in advance!
Also look at this:
I have a lot of recent experience with last minute planning these days. My DD is in the Disney College Program right now and we don’t know what her schedule is going to be until about a week before I arrive. I sometimes make some plans just to have them something but even those plans I have not been making more than a few weeks in advance. I am a planner and for our big family trips, everything is planned well in advance and we typically don’t wait in many lines so this has been a departure from our normal approach to Disney. I have been pleasantly surprised by how much we have been able to accomplish and we have been there during some super busy
times like February break week and it was very crowded! We utilized rope drop and same day FPP drops.
I agree that you should look at the crowd calendar and consider your tolerance to crowds. I would also add that we have had better experience with less than optimal FPPs and crowds in AK, HS and EP. For us, crowds and poor FPP in MK are rough even with rope drop.
Is this your first trip? If it is, I wouldn’t do it. We are DVC and have gone many times and will again. If we miss something we can just say that we’ll do it next time. If that is not your situation, you may be frustrated and want to save your first Disney experience for when you can plan it all out.
It is important to manage your expectations too. Last week my DD was able to go to HS as part of the CM preview of Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railroad. All Disney CMs are currently blocked from HS so she was excited to just be in HS. They were allowed to arrive for the preview and then stay in the park but they were not in under their regular CM tickets and could not have any FPP. She couldn’t arrive until 10:00 so they missed rope drop too. Still, they rode everything except Alien Saucers and Star Tours (and they probably could have if they had wanted to), toured Galaxy’s Edge, had two meals and took a lot of pictures. They followed TP’s suggestions on “ride now” or “wait until later”. Despite waiting more than she was used to, she said it was a really fun day but she knew going into it that she would have to wait and was just happy to be there. All of that said, these are 19 and 20 year olds. I wouldn’t put a young child in that situation.
If you do go, make sure that you know all of the same day drops and plan what FPP you do have around those times.
Finally it is the room reservation that I have the hardest time with. If you want to stay with Disney, sometimes finding a room, that is not $1,000 a night, can be hard to find last minute.
We have had a great time with our last minute, less planned out trips. If you go, I hope you do too!
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Have you thought about going to Disneyland instead? It is great for last minute trips since Maxpass/Fastpass is day of there, so you haven’t missed out by not having known you would be going. I would have a difficult time going to WDW last minute, but we are used to having great FPP booked at least 60 days out, if not 90 (club level extra FPP), which is what we did for our trip over the holidays. I would consider it as long as you have been frequently and have low expectations of riding the headliners.
We have a trip to Curacao (near Aruba) in early April, and I am not sure we will be able to get there if the number of infections in the US skyrocket. We fly through Miami, so I am already thinking what we will do if we cannot fly to Curacao. We love WDW, but in this situation will choose Universal (we do have APs), Sea World, or something else in the Orlando area. Or we could go to the Keys. WDW is not even in my thoughts, despite my love for it. I just can’t spend the money without the guarantee of all the headliners for my family. You might have different interests though, and maybe you have small children and don’t even ride the bigger rides. Only you know if you could be happy with that kind of trip. Disneyland seems like a better fit, but no idea where you live and how hard it is for you to get to.
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I would never not go when given the opportunity. The only park that I would worry about is DHS - but it is a mess FPPs or not so tour on!
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