Park hours changed for March- ACCKKKKK.... need new TPs!

I had everything all set for our 2nd week of March trip to WDW. Disney just changed the park hours for several of the days to be open earlier. Not complaining about more time in the parks, but I now have to reconfigure about half of our days. Question… if we really make a 7 am RD in MK, will we really be able to do 9-10 rides in the first two hours. Sounds great, but before I try moving our FP+s around, I want to make sure. So frustrating to have to redo this a few weeks out. The change impacted MK and AK. Any suggestions?

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Thank you! Thank you! Thank you for posting this!
We will be there March, as well, and these time changes affect us, as well. I had no idea WDW changes their park hours like that. It’s crazy! Is this common? Do we have to keep checking their website to see if the park hours have changed again? Do show times change, as well?
UGH - just as I thought I was finally getting the hang of all this WDW planning & getting things organized…
Sigh… We’ll be re-doing our TPs for all 3 MK days. UGH! Looks like it only affects MK for us, I think (unless that changes again, too :confused:)

I just heard about this, too. Someone said this happens around spring break most years. I think I’m going to keep my FPs as they are, but I might create duplicate TPs to see what 7am looks like. Not sure I can haul all of us out to get there for 7am entry, but I can have the plans ready just in case.

I think it is common, but I guess I didn’t really consider earlier entry than 8 am as a possibility. I really didn’t think about AK being impacted either.

I am pretty much keeping FP+s as they are, but I’m checking options. I like the idea of two plans based on actual arrival time. May have to do that, too.

I’m with you both on that. Not sure we’ll make the 7:00 rope drop. Never thought a park would open quite that early! Plus we have a late night planned before a morning that now has an 8:00 early morning. I’m not sure we’ll make that either.
I think 2 TP options could be the best.
Sigh… back to the drawing board to create a new plan for the earlier opening, just in case. I’m not changing our FPs though.
Hopefully, after we do all this, the park times don’t change AGAIN! :weary:

Do you know if the show times change, too?
How do you find out the schedule for each day to ensure there aren’t more changes?

I think they add evening event times when the park stays open later. I assume that the attractions add times, too, if they are open with the early times. My understanding is that some rides aren’t open as early as others. Here’s the link to see the MK schedule… you pick the day: https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/calendars/magic-kingdom/2015-02-08/#timeofday=allday

Thanks for the link. I’m able to look this up on the WDW website. But, I’d love to find a printer-friendly version, where I can print out the daily schedule for each day we’re at WDW. Know of where I can find this?

I think you have to wait for the park map that has the shows. Maybe some other site has it?

Try this: https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/parkhours2/March2015v4.pdf

And one more: Character Locator by KennythePirate

http://media.disneywebcontent.com/staticfiles/parkhours/wdwtravelagent_march.pdf
You can change the month at the end to get different months. Doesn’t have all the shows, but I believe those aren’t technically finalized until you are in-park and get a Times Guide…

Awesome! Thanks all for the links! :smile:

Hopefully @len will correct me if I’m wrong but I believe I’ve heard him say on more than one occasion that Rope Drop is the best touring plan tool you have. He has a formula that for every x minutes after rope drop you arrive, you add y minutes to your wait times.

The vast majority of guests won’t get up at 6 a.m. to make a 7 a.m. rope drop so I would be willing to wager large sums of cash (or pistachios or Mickey Bars or Dole Whips) on the fact that you will be able to knock out huge amounts of your plan in the two hours before the slackers show!

Hopefully I haven’t horribly misquoted @len and given you horrible advice. I, personally, would be up at 5:00 to be at the gates of the Magic Kingdom at 6:15 on the off chance they let me in at 6:30!

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FWIW, I’ve done Easter week twice (2012 & another year
in the distant past) & both times it was 7am EMH all week every day
at MK… which means that Easter week you pretty much need to stay
on-site if you’re going to do 7am EMH. In 2012, I remember the hours
didn’t switch to 7am until maybe a month or so before… which had me
re-doing all of my TPs, just like you are. :wink:

In my experience, 7am EMH is the absolute best time to do zero-wait
walk-on touring for a good 2-3 hours, as one remains a step or two ahead
of the crowd the whole time. Of course, once 11am-noon hits, it’s a
mad house (it’s a 7am RD/EMH because it’s anticipated to be a crowded day),
but still even then you can do peoplemover & tiki room
& hall of presidents & all the short-wait stuff – or take a
break & come back later.

If you can do it, take advantage of the 7AM EMH.

Also: You shouldn’t need FPPs the 1st two hours, certainly not at 7am,
so you should be able to keep your FPPs… unless of course, one of
your FPPs is something you only want to do once & can move to
7am w/no wait at that time. Then use the FPP for something else.

Enjoy!

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Sounds like we need to make that 7 am RD!!!

Good to know… probably keeping our FP times at 10:10 (Space Mountain), 11:20 (7 Dwarfs), and 12:25 (Haunted Mansion). Might move the SM one to later, but the other two would be when things are busier.

Those are really good FPPs, especially if you knock off BTMR/Splash relatively early.
The beauty of 7am EMH is that you’ve got a near-empty park for Tommorowland &
Fantasyland for an hour. Then you can be the 1st there when Frontierland opens
& nail Splash & BTMR or Adventureland @8am or slightly later because others
are just getting to FL. Those 1st 3 hours really are awesome; you’re a step ahead
of everyone the whole time.

Interesting. I tried updating our TP for the 7:00am EMH & TP still says 22 minute wait for 7DMT 1st thing!

Keep your 11:20 FPP for 7DMT. It might be the outlier. My 7am experiences pre-date 7DMT’s existence. There also may not be enough 7am data on it for TP to deal with yet. You might want to forward the URL to your TP to @Len to see if it looks right.