Super-late request for anyone to have a peek at my touring strategy and plans

Walt Disney World Touring Plans
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Hello, everyone. Tomorrow is my fast pass day. I am hoping a few of you might have time and inclination to look over my strategy and plans and offer a little feedback. I know, nothing like waiting until the last minute to ask for help, right? Trip dates 11/22-11/29. Traveling with DH42, DS4, DS15. We tooks DS15 when we was 7 back in June 2011. First trip for my little guy who will turn 5 on 11/28. DS15 is traveling with his HS marching band for days 1-4 and joining us for days 5-8. We are staying at CBR (DS15 is at All-Stars; I didn’t want to crowd him). I am pretty nervous about WDW at Thanksgiving as I am not great with crowds but this is when the band was going, so… I am hoping that the use of TPs, ADRs, mid-day breaks, and dessert parties will help me manage.

Thanks for any and all advice.

Friday, 11/22 Arrive at MCO at 11:56 AM.
DME to CBR
Lunch, swim, rest at hotel
Dinner at Chef Mickey’s, ADR for 5:40 PM
After dinner: HS for Toy Story land only Disney and Universal Touring Plans
OR check out monorail resorts and watch fireworks from Poly beach and enjoy dole whip with rum

Saturday, 11/23 AK Animal Kingdom One-Day Touring Plan for Parents with Small Children. This is the plan where I need the most help with FPP. We’ll skip the stuff DS4 is too short for. He’s 41 1/2 inches. I have a feeling we should skip the train and do other stuff, but I am pretty sure he’s going to want to ride the train. I am open to suggestions.
Breakfast in room
ADR Tusker House RoL pkg 11:50 AM
Mid-day break at hotel. Swim, rest.
Return to AK around 4-4:30. QS dinner. RoL.

Sunday, 11/24 EP Epcot Sunday 11/24/19
PPO Breakfast at GG
QS lunch at EP or resort. Mid-day break at hotel. Swim, rest.
Return to EP around 4-4:30.
Light QS dinner while touring WS, due to FEA dessert party

Monday, 11/25 MK MK Day 1: Monday, 11/25/19
Breakfast in room
Adventureland and Frontierland
Early QS lunch around 11:15
DS4 to Pirate’s LEague, 12 noon
Band is in pre-parade show. Be in Frontierland to watch by 1:30.
Citrus swirl after FoF Parade
Dinner at CP
Leave after Elsa lights up the castle.

Tuesday, 11/26
Few plans. Maybe tour resorts. Lunch at Sanaa? Pick up DS15 prior to band’s departure at 2:00 PM
DS4 to Captain Hook’s Pirate Cruise at 4:45 PM
DH and me to Yachtsman at 5;05 PM
DS15 to hang out at resort, eat pizza and watch movies (his choice, he says he’ll be thrilled to have the room to himself. Maybe I should worry?)

Wednesday, 11/27 HS HS full-day One-Day Touring Plan for Parents with Small Children
Breakfast in room
Rope-drop TSL. Hopefully a.m. FPP for SDD. Do you think I can get in all three TS rides early and maybe meet characters, too? How should I change my plan to make that happen? If we do TSL early, then we would do Star Wars land in the evening. I’m on the fence about the ride. Looks like wait is estimated to be 2 hours long. That’s a lot of waiting.
Lunch at HBD at 12:10 PM
Mid-day break at hotel. Swim, rest. Return around 4. May need to make it 4:30.
QS dinner

Thursday, 11/28 MK Day 2: Thursday, 11/28/19
Fantasyland and Tomorrowland
PPO Breakfast at BOG
DS15 and DH will ride SM while DS4 and I do ETWB
QS lunch or snacks in park
mid-day break, 1:30-5:30 though TP does not yet reflect this.
Dinner at 4 p.m. at Sebastian’s. TP does not reflect this yet.
HEA Garden Plaza dessert party

Friday, 11/29
Breakfast at O’hana either 8:30 or 10:20. I am pretty excited about Lilo & Stitch. And Mickey, of course.
If we went to a park it would be AK so I can ride FoP. DS15 would come and likely want to ride the big rides. Open to suggestions. No TP yet.
Depart MCO at 5:10. I expect DME would pick up around 2. Considering Uber/Lyft to airport.

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Day 1, 3, 4, 6 - seem great!

DAY 2 - AK

Since you aren’t trying to do FoP your FPP selection is pretty wide open. There appears to be availability for all your attractions on this date. Plus, according to your TP, you don’t have any waits longer than 16 minutes - FPP aren’t really needed. I mean I’d go ahead and book them anyway, but I’d do this day as the last part of your FPP planning.

I’d don’t usually suggest getting a Navi FPP, but since it’s a tier one and you need to use one - get that. Then get a KS and then either KRR or FotLK show. (Again… Not really needed, but since you aren’t doing anything “popular” go for it!)

Yo may already know this…. but just in case. You should make a list of each ride based on popularity - not date - when you start booking. If you get up and are on MDE right at 7am (EST) you’ll start to see FPPs that were available just seconds ago begin to vanish. So, don’t try to do FPP planning chronologically.

DAY 5 - DHS

According to “The Dibb”, IMHO the best FPP availability site, all SDD FPP are already gone. You should be able to get a TSMM FPP. Checking TP wait times for that day for TSL attractions shows A2S to have a RD wait of 30 minutes, SDD 2+ hours and TSMM at 45 - 90 minutes depending how fast you get there. So how much of a priority is SDD is for your group? You are going to have to wait. Two out of three rides is still pretty good. You could get to the park 60 - 90+ minutes before RD and really “walk with a purpose” to SDD to try minimize the wait. (With this being Thanksgiving weekend, I’m not hopeful. If this really is a priority for your group getting to RD very early is what I’d recommend)

The four hour midday break is what makes this day so hard to plan. You are removing ⅓ of the parks operating hours from your plan doing so… It looks like you have to commit to your day to being TSL or SWGE + shows / characters in your plan. Not sure if you’d have to time stop & meet walk-up characters like Woody or Bo Peep.

I’d have to sit down and make a whole new plan to try and get this to work and even then unsure if I could.

DAY 7 - MK

Looks great - I’d try to get to Tapstiles by 7:30am - just IMHO

Day 8 - AK

FoP FPP is available, so if you can get to AK this day I definitely would. It also looks like getting an Everest FPP, a “big” ride, will be no issue either. I’d totally head that way!

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Day 2-AK, I don’t think the Discovery Island Trail will Be Open that late? I think you have time but I don’t see Animation Academy included in your Rafiki Planet visit, and it would be fun.

I agree you need FPs! I would suggest safari, Kali (since it is on your plan) and Navi.

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Please tell me how to get to “the Dibb” so I can check FPP availability. Thank you!

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https://www.thedibb.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=835236

I’d definitely make that last day FoP FPP the first I’d book. Then I’d go see if SDD had any drops or pick up TSMM. My next priority would be your PPF at MK day on Thursday and maybe Belle after that. Then I’d go pick up the day 1 DHS FPPs, then day 4 at MK - starting with Splash Mt. and getting the rest of that day.

This is where I’d start booking FPPs. I could make a priority list for the entire time if needed.

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I am concerned about your HS time. HBD always seems to take two hours. I am afraid you will not have time for a break. Two things about your Thanksgiving Day at MK (that is the 28th?): I do not believe that Astro Obiter wait. I also think your BOG time might change to park opening time, although I think your plan will still work?

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On the AK day you only allocated 15 min to Affection station and 20 to Conservation Station. In my view it is very short. Since the Tusker ADR is right after, you are cutting close. I would move the Lion King show to before the ADR.

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My biggest feedback is just to allow a minimum of 4 hours if you’re taking a break. Anything else feels stressful and rushed.

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I think the schedule is showing the trip to Rafiki starting before 10, and lunch is at 11:50? I don’t know why it shows it the way it is?

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There is a 30 min buffer between the train and ADR. Still feels a bit rushed with only 20 min for Gorilla Falls trail before that.

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I would recommend going back to the resort and getting your 4 y/o to bed after Chef Mickey’s (and skipping the post dinner plans). I would plan on 90 mins at Chef Mickey’s (could be longer if you have to wait to be seated … last time we were seated about 30 mins after our ADR time). That brings you to 7:10 pm. by the time you get back to your resort it will be 8 pm’ish. And you have an early morning planned at AK the next day. WDW trip are exhausting for little ones so I find it is especially important to get some rest at the beginning.

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I just checked the Dibb and I think that 11/27 shows SDD is still available starting with the am. One of us is not looking at the right thing (it could be me).

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Opps! I think I was looking at 11/21 … I was juggling helping 3 ppl with plans and making dinner when I was on earlier. Thanks for double checking! :smiley:

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Thanks to everyone who has weighed in and offered suggestions and insight. It helps a lot.

@darkmite2, thank you for all the great suggestions and helping me figure out my order for requesting the FPP. The mid-day breaks are at DH’s request. I know he is right that we need them. When we went in 2011, we got to day 6 without breaks and my son, 7 at the time, just crashed out at like 5 one evening and was down for the whole night. I am making some changes now and writing my FPP order list as you suggested.

@davej, thanks for the suggestion re: Friday night arrival. See above comments re: last trip. I am trying to fit in too much. And I am seeing the same thing your are on The Dibb. I guess we will find out tomorrow morning. Keep your fingers crossed.

Again, my sincere thanks to all of you for your help with my plans, and on such short notice!

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Good luck tomorrow… now get some sleep :slight_smile:

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100% agree with this.

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Let us know how your FPP picks went this morning!! :smiley:

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After working our way through some hiccups this morning - Chrome wouldn’t let me log in to MDE, DH was not connected to the kids, I was a day short on DS15’s ticket and had to add a day in the middle of reserving FPPs - it actually turned out just fine. We got everything we wanted for some point in the trip, largely at the times we wanted. I was able to get back in this afternoon and modify, adjust TPs.

I still have some work to do with HS and AK, but I can’t complain either. I guess it will give me something to do other than buy stuff for the trip between now and then.

THANK YOU to everyone for helping me out! I really appreciate the observations and advice. :smiley:

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