November 3-9th Plan... Suggestions Please :)

Walt Disney World
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Would anyone be able to read over my plans and make suggestions if needed. I have never planned a full Disney trip before. I’m the DD22 and the one who was in charge of EVERYTHING for the family. It will be my mom, dad, sister 17, and I.

Our trip is Nov 3-9 2016! I am getting super excited and now slightly nervous.

Here is the game plan…

Thurs Nov 3:
Fly BWI to MCO (arrive around 8:30am)
Magic Express is set up to take us to POR
Check out the pool and DS for lunch
Get into room eventually
Ohana reservation set up for 8:20 (I’m trying to get a slightly earlier one so there is a better chance of seeing the fireworks by the window)
Bed time!

Fri Nov 4:
MK at RD 9AM
FPP reservations are… PPF (10:35), SpaceM (11:35), and 7DMT (1:20)
Break at POR
Bus over to DHS around 4PM
50’s Prime Time dinner at 4:55
Fantasmic 7:30

Sat Nov 5:
AK at RD 9AM
Break around 2ish till 4 at POR
Uber to 1900PF dinner at 5:20PM
Monorail to MK
FPP reservations… SplashM (7:20), PoC (8:20), HM (9:20)
MK is open till 1am… stay as long as we feel like it

Sun Nov 6:
DHS EMH 8AM
FPP reservations for TSMM (9:55), Frozen Sing Along (11), ToT (1:05)
Break at POR till 4
Bus to MK
BOG reservation at 5:05
Wishes
MK open till 10PM

Mon Nov 7:
AK EMH 8AM
FPP for EE (10:10), KS (11:10), KRR (12:50)
Break at POR till 4
Uber to Boma 5:00
Bus to Epcot
Epcot open till 9PM

Tues Nov 8:
Morning is unplanned… Probably Epcot unless we want to see another park again
Break is up in the air since its last park day
Epcot FPP for SE(4:10), FEA (5:25), TurtleTalk (8:10)
Dinner at Teppan Edo 6:40
Epcot open till 11PM

Wed Nov 9:
No park day… Pool, DS, relax and recover
Magic Express at 6PM to MCO
Home to BWI

Thank you all so much for reading this. Any suggestions are appreciated. Starting to get nervous.
Also what are everyone’s opinions on TP? I think its a good idea but my family may think its too structured.

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! :smiley:

1 Like
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You may already know this, but someone was kind enough to remind me on the forums earlier (I’ll be there some of the same time as you! 10/31 - 11/7) that time change is that Sunday, November 6, so you’ll get an extra hour of sleep Saturday night, too! Woohoo!!

I’m not a veteran Disney planner, so no other comments, except that I hope you have a magical trip!

2 Likes
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I did not know that!!! An extra hour of sleep is such a great bonus!!! Thanks so much! :smiley: :smiley: :smiley:

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One other thing to consider is this is Wine and Dine half marathon weekend. You may want to plan ahead for your Sunday rope drop at Hollywood Studios. There will likely be a lot of running traffic going through that area at that time, and buses might be delayed. We forgot to take this into account when we were there for Marathon weekend and tried to get to MK during the half on Saturday in January. It took a long time on the bus to get there. Plan accordingly.

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Does the marathon start in DHS? The CL for DHS that day is a 7. Not great but not awful either. Maybe we will look into Ubering that morning. Thank you!

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Also any QS dining suggestions? We did get the DDP.

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The half starts at WWoS and ends at Epcot. Course isn’t out yet but previous years have it going through HS at mile 10ish. With the race starting at 5:30 am, there will be a pretty steady stream of people running in that area from around 6:45 until after 10am, I would assume. Uber may be better, but there will likely be lane closures on Osceola Pkwy and World Dr. as the course will run those from WWoS to AK and then AK to HS. HS to Epcot follows the path along the waterway, past Yacht and Beach club, through the back entrance to Epcot. Again, course isn’t out yet but this is what it was in the past.

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At least coming from POR, you will be coming from the right direction. You’ll be coming from the north and runners will be more to the south of HS.

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I will make sure we allow extra time in the morning for sure. Thanks so much! I really did not know much information on the race. This was a big help.

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Overall it looks like a solid plan. My off the cuff thoughts are:

  • You have near full days on arrival/departure that you could do parks and the incremental cost of adding days is low once you pass 4 days and you’re at 5 now. Doing 2 extra park days wouldn’t be much incremental cost. Something to consider potentially.
  • Some of your planned 2 hour breaks may not end up 2 hours after accounting for travel time back to POR. It’s not clear when you planned on leaving, but some of those days you may be tempted to bus directly to your next destination.
  • Epcot seems to be getting shorted a little although perhaps that’s intentional. With your group wandering World Showcase might be of some interest.

For QS - Sunshine Seasons at Epcot is universally loved. Flame Tree BBQ gets good reviews at AK (although I haven’t tried it personally). MK the favorite is often Columbia Harbor House although if you have time hopping on the monorail loop & jumping to one of the QS options at a resort would result in better food. HS doesn’t have any great QS options it seems. The QS option at Riverside offers a nice menu as well and if the POFQ one is back open at 100% (I know it was closed for a refurb & they were doing a temporary option - don’t recall when it reopens) that’s a short walk/boat ride to get a little different experience as well that runs more Cajun style fare.

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I will bring up the idea of another park day to the family… I did not think about that at all.
Our breaks are kinda up in the air… It depends on if we want to see more, or relax that day. I don’t know how we will feel.
I have a pretty strong feeling that most of the last day will be spent in Epcot. The only reason that its up in the air is because we LOVE MK so much and we may want to see it one last time before we leave (but another park day would fix that problem lol)… I will do some thinking.
Thank you for your suggestions!

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I would be sorely tempted to do MK before and/or after, depending on MK hours, your Ohana reservation on day one since you’ll be on the monorail loop anyway. Just a thought…

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Can I get a non hopper pass for one day or do I have to add another park hopper day? Just wondering if I could save a few extra dollars.

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I would probably have to do it the last day… I’m scared we are going to make ourselves exhausted on the first day with the flight. We will probably be getting up at 3AM to drive to the airport… A big nap may be needed the first day haha.

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Extending your current tickets you’d have to go park hopper all the way through. DIS doesn’t let you mix & match unfortunately.

Looking at the ticket calculator on Touring Plans, it looks like 1 extra day for 4 would run you ~$63 total on park hoppers at DIS retail prices. If you didn’t buy tix through DIS my understanding is the best way to do it is use your tickets the first day & then extend them at customer service after that.

Given that’s an extra half day at MK for < ~$16 per person, well - it’s at least worth considering. And you could always delay to make the choice until the end of the trip to see if you’d prefer a last visit to MK vs. hanging out at the pool etc. before the flight…

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Two things: one, I think you’ve done an amazing job planning this! Sounds like so much fun and very logical breakdown of days. You guys will have a blast. :slight_smile:

Two, I had thought about adding a park day at the beginning of my trip after I had already made my FPP. I asked about it on here, and someone helpfully pointed out that I would want to add that day before I used my first park day, i.e. add it through Disney by phone before the trip, or at resort or DS guest services, not at GS once I am already at a park. Once you use your ticket on your first (not previously planned) day, I think your FPP for that last day at Epcot would get cancelled because it would only see a 5 day ticket. So, if you do add days, you want to make sure to do it before you use any park days! Hope that makes sense.

Oh, our favorite QS were Casey’s Corner in MK, BOG (more setting than food), and the resort food courts.

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Or, you could add it at the very end, as @Damavs suggests!

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Wow! I had no idea it would be that little to add another day. This will be brought up at dinner tonight for sure!

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Yes that makes sense… I had to read that a few times to get it haha. Thanks for the tip! This is such great information.

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I’ll be at a few rope drops and emh’s as you. One thought - depending on your TP at AK on Monday, those fastpasses might be better for Epcot in the afternoon. I plan on being at that AK EMH right at the open as well, and I also have 3 fastpasses scheduled, but I’m going to cancel / reschedule on the fly. I’m hoping I can cancel them all. I’m doing Epcot that evening as well. Hoping I can reschedule all 3 for Epcot that night. My TP for AK EMH is to bee-line it for the safari, then come back to EE, Primevil, Triceratop, Dinosaur, BUG, Lion King at 11, Lunch at Flame Tree, Bird Show at 12:30, then Khali, then back to resort (get wet last.) I have the fastpasses for Dinosaur, Khali, and and and extra EE. Probably not the optimal plan according to TP, but judging by crowd, and waits, I’m hoping to knock out the safari and ee before 9am to not need a fp for those. Then when the 9am crowd shows, that’s where a decent amount will go first leaving Primevil, Triceratop, and Dinosaur pretty calm. (You can get Fastpasses for Dinosaur now, by the way.) Anyway, that’s what I’m HOPING for, but I have the fastpasses I need to stick with that basic attack. We live near two very respectable zoos, so I’m not planning to do any trails. Honestly, I don’t know what I’m looking forward to more - EE and Dinosaur, or Flame Tree!