The main difference, and the thing I want advice on, is the sequencing of Safari, Gorilla Falls, and FOLK.
The first plan has us do TH breakfast, then Safari, then GF, then FOLK at 11:00. My concern is that unless we really hurry through Gorilla Falls we may get in line too late for FOLK.
The second plan has us to TH breakfast, then FOLK at 10:00, then Safari, then GF. My concerns here are that it’s a lot of sitting around and waiting in the morning, and we don’t really get our legs moving until 11. My son has ADHD and he generally has an easier time sitting still following periods of activity.
My questions are:
For an 815 TH ADR, how much time should we allow to eat and see characters? Are we likely to get sat late?
On November 4, a Sunday with a low CL, how early should I be in line for FOLK?
Are any of the Africa sideshows or diversions up and running first thing in the morning? If we do plan #2, and if we get out of breakfast early, what should we do to fill the time?
Given the milder weather vs summer, I’m hoping that animals will still be up and around even for the later safari. Is that a reasonable assumption?
I prefer your plan 1. I have never done TH breakfast but have done lunch there. If you are seated on time, which you should be b/c it’s early and you can even check in early like 745/800-- I suspect lots of people run late for early bfast reservations. You should be out of there by 930 easily. That gives you a bit of wiggle room for KS/GF, and arrival at FOTLK. I would think that 15 minutes is enough time to arrive for FOTLK on a reasonable CL day. We’ve always gotten into the show with 15 min or so arrival. Not sure my kids would want to sit for a meal and then a show first thing in the morning–that is when we are ready to GO!
When we did TH breakfast it was pretty efficient. We stayed for 90 minutes and we took our sweet time and we saw some of the characters twice.
Gorilla falls is awesome. It depends on the level of animal love in your family but in our case (I admit we are huge animal lovers) 40 minutes is not enough.
I started out w/ 20, then I read some other comments on here saying to allocate more. I’ve bumped both GF and the tiger trail up to 40. My kids are younger and while they enjoy animals they also like to keep moving, so I’m hoping this is workable. (No doubt my wife and I would enjoy a more leisurely approach…)
This is also the benefit of plan #2, in that we go from GF to lunch, so if we’re having an awesome time and want to extend it a bit, we can just shorten our lunch break to compensate. In plan #1, we have a hard stop on GF b/c of FOLK start time.
Have you considered the close timing of your breakfast and lunch times? Finish breakfast at 930 at a buffet and then lunch 2 hours later. I know we would not be ready for much more than a small snack after eating at a buffet for breakfast. But you know your group–maybe they are like my youngest, who needs breakfast, second breakfast, and elevensies before lunch
More like I have a picky eater who’s hard to please, probably won’t eat a lot for breakfast, and will need a calorie bump before we go deal with the crowds in Pandora.
That being said, I was doing the mental math based on the start time of 815 and not the finish time, and it might make sense to move things back. Thanks for pointing that out
