Projected Hours/Picking Parks/Deciding on ADRs (Dining and Touring Qs)

Walt Disney World
1

My 180 day mark is approaching. I’d appreciate advice about hedging my bets for dining as well as picking parks, knowing that park hours change.

We’ll be there in November during light crowd days (except the last day). We have PH for the first time.

First Area of Question—AK: What can we assume/guess about ROL/night hours in the fall/November? Right now, AK hours on the day I want to go have EMH at 8am and the park then closes at 5pm. All dates for my trip have AK closing at 5pm. I am hoping/assuming that ROL and nighttime activities will be going on by the fall. Once ROL and Tree of Life kick in, do most people believe the shows will happen every night?

Dining: If we wanted to have dinner at Jiko and then catch some evening activity at AK, what time would we book Jiko for?

My strategy: Book Jiko on two different dates, early in the evening.

2nd Area of Qs—HS: HS is open until 7pm each day of our trip. Again, can I assume nighttime shows such as Fantasmic! and Star Wars are likely to be happening, nightly? My first trip was this past February and I remember Fantasmic! didn’t show up on the schedule until very near our trip. Safe to assume that Disney will plan nighttime offerings, given all the closures at HS?

3rd Area of Qs—Hopping: I’m completely new to this and wouldn’t have chosen PH except that our package deal did end up being cheaper overall when priced against our piece-it-together trip. So, we will hop! For you expert hoppers out there, does the following sound reasonable? Thoughts?

  1. Day 1 arrival day. Only head to Epcot for evening strolls/dinner/FFP rides. Akershus ADR.

  2. Day 2 Morning at MK (CL1) until early lunch (don’t use any FFP) and then break and head to HS at maybe 3:30pm for FFP/Fantasmic! dinner package/Star Wars evening shows.

  3. Day 3 AK early morning hours. Arrive early, tour until lunch, break back to resort for the afternoon, return for the evening entertainment (assuming there are nighttime hours) and use FFP just for the nighttime rides.

  4. Day 4 MK has EMH in the evening. We know we want to be in MK in evening and our traveling buddies want BOG for dinner. Given EMH, what’s good to use FFP on? What do we do in the morning if we want to sleep in a bit on this day but have kids who will still want to do a lot and are not big Epcot fans? But husband and I do like Epcot and wouldn’t mind going back there. Hmmmm? Thoughts? CL predicted at MK is a 5 this day.

  5. Day 5 is a higher crowd day and by this time family and traveling buddies will all want to sleep in. CL predictions are MK8, EP9, HS7, and AK6. Recommendations for a leisurely day? Adults only would maybe like to plan Jiko for this day and let the kids stay in resort for pizza in the evening.

Thanks, liners! After this we head to Universal to end our trip! Am so excited that we are managing to return to the world after already being there this year.

2

It will be hard to determine the time you eat at Jiko since they have not released a close time for the park at AK. Normally I would say to allow for 1 1/2 to 2 hours for dining and then 30 mins for transportation to and from. It could be less, but always good to plan for a little free time :slight_smile: I think on dining it would be great to sit up a few days and then cancel closer to time that you want to do dinner :slight_smile: I LOVED planning my meals and then scheduled the park around them and the MH :slight_smile:

Me, personally, on PH, I love to do the MH and then go to another park if it is open later! Just remember you don’t have to Hop all the time :slight_smile: It would be nice to have more info on who all is attending your trip! Ages!

3

Thanks for the input. We are two families with moms, dads, 2 boys (age 13) and two girls (age 11). Two Grandmas are coming too, but will just join for meals/evenings.

My kids love the thrill rides most of all (ToT, Everest). It’s hard to say what my friends’ kids will love most because they went before but didn’t know how to plan and sat in huge crowds the week of Christmas. They didn’t know to RD and do those kinds of things. They will follow my lead on this trip and have just requested the Akershus meal at Epcot and to go to BOG. I think their kids will enjoy the rides, but aren’t as adventurous/brave as my kids.

4

I would recommend some split up time :slight_smile: LOL :slight_smile: It makes it very hard to have a large group go :slight_smile: We went with 17 and I would definitely recommend splitting up at times! Your group is not as large as ours was but it is nice to have time set up where you can split up :slight_smile: Just an idea :slight_smile: On ToT they can always go through with you and not ride :slight_smile: I always did that and enjoyed seeing the inside! And you don’t have to ride :slight_smile:

I’m not very adventurous either :slight_smile: and only 1 of my kiddos got the adventurous side :slight_smile:

When we toured EP we split down the middle! :slight_smile: We did one side and then on another day toured the other :slight_smile: We did the same with MK and had all the rides we wanted to do in that area :slight_smile:

5

Jiko is one of my favorite restaurants in the world! That being said- have you considered looking at a Tiffins ADR (maybe the will have a dining package?). Jiko is not an ADR you need to book at 180 days (although it is fun to book ADRs). I heard there will be announcements and/or bookings available on May 20th for Tiffins- maybe wait until then?

If you decide to stick with Jiko there has been a recent menu change so I do not know how up to date the online menus are- if you need any opinions on what to order (other than the wild boar app- which is the most amazing app ever created) I have lots of opinions :wink:

6

Thanks, Tinker! I thought ADR just stood for advanced dining reservation. What does that mean? I was intending to book Jiko 180 days in advance:slight_smile:

I’m torn about whether to try Tiffins, given I already know that Jiko is one of the best in the World, and I do really want to try/don’t want to miss that wild boar appetizer! But, yes, I’m going to look and see what ends up being on offer.

I noticed they are saying that their should be a ROL package with the CS with Flame Tree. We did Flame Tree on our last (first) trip and, though it was good, it wasn’t somewhere I would want to repeat. I wasn’t blown away by it the way so many gush about it on these boards.

7

There have been other reports that Tiffins will be included in the dining packages, but I guess we will have to wait to see.

My point was just that there are some ADRs (BOG, CRT and 'Ohana come to mind) that you have to book 180 days out. Jiko is not one of those ADRs. You can book Jiko at 180 days, or you can wait and see what Tiffins has to offer. Wdwnt was giving an overview of the Tiffins menu and it did remind me of Jiko. Although I may still be a little bitter about recent Jiko menu changes- it is still amazing.