This is our first trip to WDW and though I know we can’t do everything, we obviously want to do as much as we can. We enjoy doing different vacations every year and going to WDW will be a once or twice in a lifetime thing for us. Me, DW, DD7 and DD9 will be going from Oct 15 - 22. We have gotten our ADRs for the times I wanted. I have a mix of character M&Gs and rides scheduled, maybe more characters than we really need. The FPP are obviously what I would ideally want as we are still about 100 days out for booking those. Oh, we also just got a Disney Chase so I may include the Epcot M&G and will most likely add the HS M&G. We are staying at AKL and I originally was going to have more midday breaks but the time to get there and back makes that less conducive so I really just organized it to take advantage of low CL party days and earlier stop times. Of course A&E and ROL will really change things that’s why Soarin and TT are early standby hoping for FPP for A&E. Tell me what you think.
10/15- MK Jacobs MK 1
Plane lands at 1205, ME to AKL then to park
The only “technical” issue I notice with the plans is the HS plan you plan to split up and do RRC and ToT while the DD7 does DisJr. The DisJr. show does not have a scheduled show while you are planning to ride ToT and RRC.
On a different note you seem to have a bunch of meet and greets scheduled. I know my kids enjoyed meeting the characters but after meeting a couple of princesses and a couple of fuzzies it lost a lot of its appeal. Sure they still enjoyed meeting the different characters but they didn’t want to stand in line for very long to do it. I realize all families and all kids are different but that is what we ran into.
If the DDs really want to meet that many characters have you considered more character meals? Kill two birds with one stone. Food and a character interaction.
I agree, I think I have too many, the question is which ones to cut out. I think we are meeting the classic characters probably more than necessary. I will definitely reconsider those. Thanks for the heads up on DisJr. I didn’t see that, I will have to try to figure something else out.
Your first MK day starts at 3pm which might be overly optimistic, so chances are you will cut a few M&G’s before your first FP. Did you plan to wait 15 mins before you can do your second FP, is it back up in case you are running behind. It’s worth all of you going to Space Mountain and try and get Rider switch for later.
Could do Little Mermaid at HS while others do RnR & ToT.
Your EP FP choices are unusual, are you planning on switching one for Frozen. You could do Soarin and all the rides on that side first thing, then FP Spaceship Earth, then split FP between Mission Space & M&G, and Test Track & Frozen, maybe picking up a couple of rider switch too.
@Tate I haven’t looked into rider switch, because anything my DD7 won’t ride my DW won’t either so I didn’t think Rider switch would really work. Didn’t really notice the wait after first FP, I could try to bump them up by 15min to cover that.
EP is a little up in the air. I am considering cutting out the Character spot all together and switching that FP to Spaceship earth. I’m hoping that Frozen and the M&G will be a FP (or at least one will be), that’s why i am doing standby first thing for Soarin and TT.
How long do you think it would take for ME from airport to AKL, I was going for like 1.5hrs then 1hr to check in and 30 min from AKL to MK. No biggie though could cut PSS M&Gs and do them on the last day.
10/15- I love that your MK plan starts with Mickey’s Meet & Greet! That will be an awesome introduction for your girls to the Magic Kingdom and WDW. That being said, while 1.5 hrs from ME to AKL & 1 hr to check in is pretty good pacing, 30 min. to get from AKL through to the tap stiles is tight. 3:30 is much more realistic of a start. Luckily though I think you can easily cut out the Circus Meet & Greets and then if ahead of plan you’ll be back in that area for Dumbo & Barnstormer and if ahead of plan you can fit in one of them.
10/16 - Your plan to hope FPPs for the new Frozen attractions for your Epcot day make sense, but I also notice there isn’t one meal break and you are in the park from 9am to 9pm. So, just once you firm up if/when you’ll be getting those FPPs, you might have to take out a few things to make sure there’s time for a midday lunch break at the least (I see you do have a lot of free time up before Illuminations and that’s perfect for getting dinner from the multitude of options in WS).
10/17- Great Movie Ride and TSMM were both Tier 1 FPPs for our trip in April so if that’s still the case then you’ll have to pick one and then maybe get the other as a 4th FPP. Great Movie Ride is a great 4th FPP option. Also, if you’re sending DW & DD7 to Disney Jr. for your 2nd ride of RnR at 2:15 then there’s totally a show at 2:20 for them to do. Great idea to work to get to F! by 7:15. By 7:30 on our first HS day it was standing room only. Our second DHS day we opted to see SW FWs and do 2nd F!, it was so much easier to see than the first show. Just an option if your DDs can hang that late (and if there’s a 2nd one scheduled obviously).
10/18- Like how your MK party day is very loose so you can do all the party stuff. Love also your dining choices for the day. CRT will be amazing for your girls and we LOVED Columbia Harbor House too. If you sit on the 2nd floor next to a window you get to peek over Liberty Square as you eat and it’s a bit more peaceful on the 2nd floor.
10/19- Hopefully you do get extended hours and ROL! The current plan you have has Nemo in a spot where you’d be doing an awful lot of back-tracking to do it and I tried in my head to move it to different spots but unless you do it at 11 instead of starting your character meets there was going to be a trek to it no matter what. Also, word of caution on Yak & Yeti, there’s not a lot of seating so try to hit even 15 minutes sooner than noon before lunch rush. We went at 2pm and it was still really hard to find a table and we had to end up taking one side of a big long table squishing in with the 3 adults and 3 kids, while another party of 3 was on the other end of it.
10/20- You’re gonna definitely probably going to need the 10/21 at MK! There’s just so much wonderful fun there especially for your girls. I know you can’t on this day because it’s a party day, but I highly recommend doing the PeopleMover at night. It was such a fun, beautiful view of MK all lit up and made going through the dark of Space Mtn even better!
Best of luck with all your plans and would love to hear how you make out in a trip report of any sort if you get the chance!
@lolabear_la, thanks for all the advise, we are planning on using snack credits to do lunch in the WS at the various F&W vendors (not sure exactly how that will work though), and I haven’t nailed down dinner but will be before illuminations. I will have to check out the HS touring plan, for some reason I was thinking GMR was a Tier 2, thanks for pointing that out.
@Tate, I didn’t think about that option with the rider switch, I’ll have to check that out, one more thing to throw in the mix.