Taking all the advice I can

Headed to WDW the week of Thanksgiving. I’ve been many times and am always the official planner. But the crowds at this time of the year are daunting and we have a large group with seniors, 6 kids (age 15-4), and adults, some of whom have never been and are a bit “particular”. Wondering if anyone would be interested in taking a look at my general plan and offering advice? Also, we are staying at Ft. Wilderness Cabins and I want to request cabins that are closest to the main hotel area and the dock for the boat to MK, which ones are those and how to I make a request? I am new to this site and forum, but have already found it way more helpful than my Disney travel agent who is doing almost nothing to help.
Here is my general plan. 4 days at the parks, 1 at the hotel.
Day 1: RD @ MK, no FFP, try to hit PP, Enchanted takes w/Belle, SM (for big kids), SW, meet Mickey and Minnie at Town Square
Lunch
Afternoon @ AK, try for FFP for EE, KS @ 5pm, FLK? (We are not Avatar people), ROL at 6:15
Day 2: RD@DHS. Try for FFP for SDD, RR, TSMM
Head straight to GE @ opening, save TOT for closing time. We have reservations for lightsaber and droid building at 5 & 8:15
Day 3 Little kids to MK, Bigs to Epcot
Try for MK FFP for SDMT, Princess Fairy Tale Hall, BTMR or HM Res for little girls at BBB & CRT
Try for EPCOT FFP for TT, MTS, Soarin? Meet back up at MK for afternoon and Evening/Fireworks. Grab same day FFP
Day 4 Thanksgiving @ hotel, pool, etc
Day 5 Breakfast @ CM
Littles to Epcot, Try for FFP for Anna & Elsa meet
Bigs back to whatever they missed.
Thoughts?? I can take it.

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You’re unlikely to get SDD FPP on day 2 but it is fine because all rides at HS except star tours are tier 2 meaning you can only get a FPP for 1 of those you listed. Anna & Elsa don’t have FPP.

Also that Friday is the beginning of the holiday festival at Epcot FWIW.

Where are you eating? I’ll be there the same week!!

Have you considered having different itineraries that overlap so that people can pick and choose which activities they take part?

For example, some people would really enjoy rope drop and then an early lunch - perhaps others don’t want to RD but will meet up for the lunch and then continue with the main group.

I think having group touch points where people can join would be helpful.

Maybe do the Mickey meet and greet at AK since you may have a spare FPP slot. Plus they have cute holiday outfits.

I have considered that. I will probably have to make separate FPP for different groups too. I’m just trying to figure out what, if any thing, we really need to do all together. Maybe Galaxy’s Edge?

Ooh, I didn’t think of that. That would be cool to see. I haven’t really planned any meals aside from the ones we have reservations for. I’ll just throw popcorn at the kids and if their lucky, they’ll get a Dole Whip. Have you gone during that week before? Is it really as bad as they say???

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But someone must be getting the SDD FPP, right? It’s still worth a try, isn’t it? What would be your second choice for a FPP at DHS?

Is that the Adventurer’s Outpost one? I like the Mickey and Minnie in traditional costumes. I’m kind of a traditionalist.

It looks very ambitious. I would love to see it laid out in a TP to view. If you don’t want to publish yours I may have time tomorrow to recreate what you’ve laid out, but it won’t be “perfect”.

The people getting FPP for SDD for your Day 2 are people whose trips started before yours so it’s Day 4, 5, 6, etc for them. Maybe you will get lucky, but based on reports I’ve seen, I think it’s a 95+% percent chance that you do not get a SDD FP for Day 2. If you really want SDD FP, then you might want to consider trying for Day 4 or 5.

Also, as pointed out by an earlier poster, you can only get 1 Tier 1 FP for your initial 3 FP at HS (Tier 1 is now all 3 TSL rides, ToT and RnR).

On your day for the littles at Epcot, since there is no FP for meeting Anna and Elsa, I would recommend you try for a FP for the Frozen Ever After ride.

Even if you are not Avatar (the movie) people, Pandora at AK is pretty cool. My DD3 knew nothing about Avatar, but still enjoyed the Navi River Journey and you do not need to know anything about Avatar to enjoy Flight of Passage (you likely can’t get a FP+ for FoP at 60 days out anyway, but you most likely could get FP+ for Navi at 60 days out).

I’ve been at Thanksgiving twice and found the crowds ok. Good plans for ADRs and FP will allow you to do whatever you want even if the crowd gets large. We didn’t try to do everything however, and I don’t know what impact SWGE will have on the crowds. We’re going again this Thanksgiving and I’m worried that SWGE will make it more crowded than we remember…but I am doing my same plan of having a lot planned out in advance which worked before. The worst crowd we encountered was on Black Friday with good weather; at night it got fairy unbearable in MK. But the previous year with cold weather it was fairly empty. This time of year is fickle like that. We had both shorts and heavy winter coats used during the week both times.

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My family of 4 will be there Thanksgiving week too. My FPP day is this upcoming Monday. Can’t wait!

For Ft Wilderness, loops 2200 & 2300 are the closest to the boat dock. They are still very far though, not walking distance. You will either want to ride the internal bus or take a golf cart to get there.

We rented a golf cart for the week, but is there a way to leave it at the dock while we are at the park for the day?

The circled loops are the cabins. The rest are campsites.
You will need to take the internal bus to get almost anywhere (check in area, bus stop, boat launch, Trail’s End, main pool). You can also rent a golf cart to get around as well.

Golf cart rental info:
https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/recreation/cabins-at-fort-wilderness-resort/golf-cart-rental/

Yes, there is a parking area across from Trail’s End.

Yes, there are parking lots dedicated for golf carts at the marina, as well as at each of the outposts and the main bus depot. We just stayed at the cabins in August in the 2500 loop (because we wanted to be close to the smaller pool). Even if you were in the cabins that are closer to the marina area, it’s no more than a minute or two difference on the golf cart.

Day 1: looks fine. To hit PP at RD with minimal wait I would plan to be at the park 45-60 minutes before opening. Your big kids probably won’t care about ETwB, so that would be a good time to send the big kids to do Space Mountain. Even if you’re not “Avatar people” FOP is still a really cool ride. I wouldn’t write it off. If you don’t get FPP for it, consider getting in line right before the park closes.

Day 2: You can’t get FPP for all of those. You have you choose one Tier 1 (SDD, AS2, TSMM, RNR, TOT) and two Tier 2 (ST, and the shows), use those, then you can select another Tier 1. Based on current crowd patterns (which we don’t have very much data on yet, so keep watching), I would consider RD TSL, hit ToT next, FPP for RNR & plan to do MFSR later in the day when you’re already in the land. Lines for MFSR have been longest first thing in the morning since it opened & drop off fairly quickly.

Day 3: MK is fine. Epcot you can only choose TT or Soarin’. You can choose one Tier 1 (TT, Soarin’, FEA, Character Spot (not sure if it’s still around then) and Epcot Forever) and two Tier 2 (everything else) before selecting another Tier 1. I would plan to RD Soarin’, FPP MTS & TT then whatever other Tier 2 you think you’ll do. Then refresh for 4th FP as soon as you use your 3rd.

Day 4: Have you made ADRs for Thanksgiving? If not, I would consider trying to get one at Trail’s End. It’s the only TS at Ft. Wilderness. We had great food there & the price is fairly reasonable for Disney.

Day 5: No FPP for A&E but the wait is usually fairly reasonable. I would get FPP for FEA.

I would throw your stuff into Personalized Touring Plans to get an idea for how much you can reasonably accomplish. Set it to “very relaxed” and don’t cram it full with zero free time. Crowds will be lower at the start of your trip & highest at the end.

Depending on how everyone else is, I would make them a simplified version of the TP & let them decide what to see and what to skip. For example:
Day 1:
-Be at boat dock at 7:30 if you want to start with us this morning
-Fastpasses are: blah blah blah
-Lunch is at XYZ @ XYZ time.

Then if they want to go with you great, if not no big deal.