Just found out my wife’s job has a conference (Marriott in Orlando) in May 2023, so her flights and transportation to & from the airport are paid for. We will only have pay for my flight, as I’ll stay with her during the conference. With that in mind, we booked a 5 night, 3 days in the park with hoppers at Pop Century right after the conference ends on Friday. We will have ample time Friday evening to check in and hit Disney Springs for a nice dinner and then Sat Day 1 AM at AK and PM at MK, Sun. Day 2 AM at HS & PM at EP, Day 3 AM at EP & PM at HS - allowing us the last 2 days of full skyliner transportation. We are mainly thrill ride seekers and enjoy great eating too. We are very sensitive to costs and using our time valuably. It seems going to a park on the date of arrival or departure seems too stressful and unknown unless you want to pay extra for transportation, also the reliability of flights. Does this seem like a good plan? We really want to ride Tron & will probably just pay LL for it and Guardians, ROR, type rides. Will we be disappointed with only 3 park days and being dependent on the rides actually working - it seems to be a problem right now, but will things be better in May (probably not a question anyone can answer for sure)
It seems completely reasonable. However, typically, with days 4 and more of park tickets the price break does significantly drop. You may find arrival / depart days stressful, but would how often do you get to go to WDW? Is only paying $40 more (approx. estimate) worth it to have the option to enter the parks on either of days.
I may not actually go, but spending the few extra dollars to give me the option that I could pop into EP for a late night drink /snack on arrival or go to AK for a early FoP ride before departure is worth it to me. I have typically have to pay $500 just to fly and arrive at the hotel. It’s worth it to me to have the choice to enter or hang out.
Overall, you’re going to be fine! It’ll be a great trip!
I wish I could tell you that ride closures won’t happen. It’s isn’t always about the ride being new or “working the kinks out”. Often it’s too much stress on the system (I’m a former Ops / ride operator)
I mean most rides are down at some point throughout the day. TP even has a reliability chart somewhere!
Usually adding extra days after 4 is relatively cheap, but to go from 3 to 4 is likely very pricey. Given that, I think your plan is wise especially since your “arrival” day you have a nice evening at DS planned. From Pop you can also easily Skyline to the Boardwalk to check out that area as well if you have another gap in your schedule.
We just stayed at Pop recently and the Skyliner to HS/Epcot was marvelous.
My guess would be when Tron opens it will go Virtual Queue so you may be able to ride for free (or a 2nd time) via the Virtual Queue. Ride downtime is definitely an issue of late. We had 2 that we got replacement LL’s for due to downtime. Remy was back up so we just rode it normally. MMRR we had to go to a blue umbrella and get the anytime rescheduled for MK the next day since we were leaving HS then. Works great if you have a next day anyway…
The price starts to drop at day 5. Days 1-4 are all very close together in cost.
I think your park days look good, but if Tron does VQ, you might need to have a morning there, because I think that’s what you have to do at EP right now for Guardians. Also if you’re fine with buying ILL for Rise instead of doing EE there, I’d consider making that an afternoon only park and stacking G+ for any other rides you’d like to do. Can you buy a 7 am ILL for a park you’re hopping too? If you can, I would split your 3 mornings between MK and EP to maximize VQ options.
You mention the full skyliner day as a plus, but the park hopping buses are also very convenient to use.