A few changes to my July 2019 trip — and some questions for you to help me make some decisions.
(1) Greatly to my irritation Virgin changed my flight times.
I had chosen an outbound flight that left at about 12.30pm — so no need to get up early at the airport hotel for breakfast, then check-in and security. An issue for me during this year’s trip was tiredness and my outbound flight required a very early start. They’ve changed it to about 11am
They also changed my return trip. I had chosen a late flight so as to make the most of departure day. They’ve shaved about an hour and a half off the day with an earlier departure. Not a huge disaster, but disappointing.
The “upside”, however, of the earlier outbound flight is an earlier arrival at MCO.
My original plan was to take the DME to Pop and just enjoy exploring the hotel and its surroundings, before getting an early night to prepare me for an early start on my first full day.
But now that I’m arriving earlier, there’s a temptation to sneak in a park visit. I’m arriving at MCO at about 3pm, so I could be in a park by 7pm or so. The nearest is DHS and I thought I’d maybe try to get an FPP for TSMM or SDD and then maybe go see Fantasmic.
But would this be a mistake? Should I stick to the original plan? (But then I’d feel like I was wasting an FPP opportunity.)
(2) I swapped a couple of days round. Someone resurrected a thread pointing to KTP’s crowd calendars. I looked at my days this year in order to make predictions about the equivalent days next year. This suggested I made some mistakes in my park-to-day choices (mostly because of having chosen parks that had EMH that day). So I did some switching.
These changes resulted in lower crowd predictions and in greater likelihoods in getting the FOP and SDD FPPs I want, as they are now both later in my trip.
(3) Reading the forums also resulted in a couple of ADR changes — for example, thanks to a reminder from @bswan26 about Monsieur Paul, I’ve added that to the schedule. But in order to keep FF, I’ve had to abandon my trip to Disney Springs.
Is missing Disney Springs (again!) a mistake? (And is it better during the day, or at night?)
(4) I wondering whether I should give the Tomorrowland Terrace HEA dessert party a try.
I’ve now seen HEA five times. Once from the Plaza (before party), twice from the Plaza (after party), once from CG and once from GF.
People often ask which dessert party is better: the Plaza Gardens, or the Tomorrowland Terrace. I’m tempted to try the TT just to make the comparison.
Yet I’m also attracted to it because of something someone said on the forums. As I understand it, the TT party is covered, so if it rains: no problem. I also sense it’s a less stressful party in terms of gettting a spot. And you get a seat.
Is this an obviously bad idea? I think HEA without the projections (e.g. CG and GF) is a bit pointless. Surely at TT you’re going to get a decent chunk of projection, despite the jaunty angle and greater distance?