So, here it is. Our very first initial overview plan, SO FAR. Of course, everything will possibly change as we near the actual dates and Disney changes everything on us. But as of right now, if we were starting to plan for a trip THIS December instead of 2 more years out, this is where we’re at. (The food part we’re still discussing…my wife is primarily in charge of figuring that out, but as we can, I’m plugging it in.
We have our first HS day on Sunday, which has Extra Magic Hours in the morning…but we probably won’t do the Extra Magic Hours…or, if we do, we won’t rope drop. This is because of the Magic Kingdom Dessert Party the night before. But then I worry that doing HS on an EMH day without doing the EMH is probably a bad idea in terms of crowds. The other option is to move Monday’s Epcot day to Sunday and move HS to Monday.
I specifically put a second HS day out at day 7 so that we are more likely to get FP for a Star Wars ride at 60+6 as opposed to 60+3 for our Sunday. Also, Wednesday Crowd calendar puts HS as the best choice that day. Since Star Wars GE will still be relatively new, we expect it to be busy since this is a day devoted to Star Wars!
Having said that, I put Star Wars Galactic Dessert Party on Sunday if we can get it. Wednesday would be our backup day.
Right now, you only have 1 day at Epcot, with 1 whatever day. Have you considered another Epcot day (especially if there aren’t any kids going)? To me, it just seems that Animal Kingdom is closer to a 1 day park than Epcot, but to each their own. If you do the whatever day at Epcot, it just seems like 2 days in a row might not be ideal. Maybe want to space that out a couple of days or so.
Are you a Disney Vacation club member? If not, are you going to rent points through somewhere like David’s Vacation Club? That would make it much cheaper if not.
On the split stay - if you are renting points, are you doing split stay because it will be easier to get the rooms for shorter periods?
I love looking at other people’s plans, because I am going next November and I have been over this at least 50 times already. I have a spreadsheet made and all.
Just me and my wife. This will be our 25th Anniversary trip, so absolutely NO KIDS allowed! (We were going to try this for our 20th, but that just didn’t work out!)
We are big Epcot fans. We actually more time at Epcot, but rather than devote full days (aside from Monday) it is devoting parts of days. Day one, for example, is Epcot for Dinner/Evening. Day 2, possibly another Epcot evening. Day 5 is full Epcot day. Day 8, possibly evening Epcot for Illuminations.
We are not DVC members, so we plan to rent points from David’s, yes. It is what is making the trip actually affordable for us!
Good deal. I thought I have remembered there would be no kids. I just thought with no kids it looked like you might be shortchanging Epcot, but with kids, 1 day might be about right. When we go, we will be in each of the parks 2 days except AK which will be 1. We will hopefully do MVMCP the night we get there and that will not count as 1 of the MK days.
Now, looking at your plans a little more closely, I see you have more evenings at Epcot.
I was reading about David’s and it seems as though most people have more success with shorter stays which is why some people do split stays with them.
Have you started a touring plan at each of the parks yet?
Well, only mentally. We are talking two years from now. A LOT could change by then, particularly with the opening of SWGE and the construction to Tomorrowland, etc. So, first we’re kind of planning out the resort stays, ADR choices, etc. The bigger picture stuff. I’m a little nervous scheduling our Animal Kingdom day for 60+2 in terms of FP scheduling for FOP…but if I can’t score one for that day, I can try for the Tuesday 60+5 evening visit to AK.
I’m kind of in the same boat. When I go is the rumored time SWGE will open (Thanksgiving week of 2019) so I don’t know what to expect. Actually, if it does, I’ll probably avoid that area as much as possible.
Wow, you are on the ball! We are planning May/June of 2020 and all I have really done is pick a resort and am reading reviews on restaurants we haven’t tried.
Yeah, well. When you can’t hit Disney for a few years, you kind of go stir-crazy unless you do a little planning!
I’m like this with my kids and their college class schedule. I’ll spend a few hours just planning out which classes to take which semesters to ensure they can get all their classes and prereqs and still have time to work/have a life. Of course, I put in all the world, but then a week or two later, things change and I have to do it all over again. BUT, it isn’t really about whether they even USE my plan. I just like the act of planning it. It is like solving a puzzle!
Honestly, that part was kind of just plugging it in. We want two days at MK, but I don’t want to put it on Saturday, because that’s two days in a row of MK PLUS we’d then miss EMH at AK. But Sunday, we check out of Bay Lake.
My wife kind of likes the idea of ending the trip at MK. So, it fits there. We won’t need a full day there, since we already did it early in the trip. So, it is more like a placeholder! We are still planning to eat at Epcot in Mexico as our last meal (and watch Illuminations) because on our honeymoon, the ONLY ADR place we ate at was in the San Angel Inn. So, in effect, we’re ending our 25th anniversary in the same way we ended our honeymoon.
That’s certainly advanced planning; I’m going in Dec ‘19 and all I’ve done is pick a resort, a length of stay, and narrowed it down to one of two weeks, pending DVC rental availability. Just too many variables to do any kind of "serious’ planning beyond that until approaching the 180.
I’d move your first AK day to later in the week then you can get 2 FOP FPP and rope drop Navi. And I’d move your first HS day later too as there might be more than one star wars ride you’ll need a FPP for
I will have a second chance at AK FP on the evening we eat at Yak and Yeti. But we wanted to be able to take advantage of EMH on Saturday for AK.
Star Wars will make things interesting. So we planned one whole day just for star Wars. Hopefully getting a FP, but then also figuring we would have to wait in standby for the other (there are only two rides planned in SWGE).
If I move AK and HS later that means we would do two days of Epcot and two days of MK up front.
Wow! You are on the ball which is is great for you, but stressful for me. My husband and I are also hoping to return to The World for our 25th Anniversary in December 2020, but I’ve done zero planning. I like the split stay idea and your plan hits 2 of the resorts I really want to try. Perhaps I’ll just copy your plan and go with it! Maybe I’ll see you there.
Of course, I put in all the world, but then a week or two later, things change and I have to do it all over again. BUT, it isn’t really about whether they even USE my plan. I just like the act of planning it. It is like solving a puzzle!
