First trip with my BFF since we went with the choir in high school *thirty-five years ago!
Feb 26-Mar 4. Staying at POP.
She went last summer with her family. Pretty sure they didn’t do G+ or ILL because she didn’t know what a LL was when we talked. She is not a morning person so we won’t be rope dropping (might talk her into it once?). And she doesn’t like “real” roller coasters (no Everest, no BTMRR, RnRC is closed anyway, no ToT). She is on a budget so won’t do too many TS meals but maybe a couple.
My family has always been rope drop to fireworks, ride absolutely everything, go until you can’t go anymore kind of Disney people. So, this is quite a challenge for me to plan. She is amenable to getting G+ so I figure I can stack for rides and arrive late.
I would love your favorite non-ride, take in the scene, enjoy time with your bestie, not-too-crazy-expensive suggestions. Already thinking we’ll do a monorail crawl arrival day. And I’ll finally take time to check out Nomad Lounge. Flower and Garden starts mid week so that will be fun. What else?
I’m a rope drop to fireworks person too. I think stacking G+ is a great plan. And depending on what time you’re heading into the parks, you can still tap and go, maybe just booking your first ride with a 2 hour wait before you arrive.
If you don’t think she’d go for both G+ and ILL for HS, EP, and AK, I’d go for one of those so you can knock out the ILL ride during EE. That said, if she’s not a morning person, you might want to do Epcot since it would probably be the latest EE. AK’s EE was 7:30 last week when we were there. I’d also see if any of the parks have late hours and try to hit those to help make up for not doing RD.
Yeah, I suspect RD AK is out. But maybe we will wait for FOP right at closing. I’ve never actually seen the standby queue! I’m thinking maybe RD Epcot since we are on Skyliner and it tends to be easier than the HS rush to RoTR. And pay for Rise. I’ll also refresh my BG1 knowledge to get us on Guardians for free.
Actually I realize I am looking forward to trying to catch more of the magic than just the rides. Haven’t seen Dapper Dans in years. I’ve never seen the pianist at Casey’s. We’ll of course nerd out on some Star Wars time for a few hours. It’ll be like a whole new Disney!
Any idea how long that may take if we get in line right at park close? Thinking maybe I will stalk a Jiko ADR for that night. Haven’t been in years and I think it may be worth the $$ for her to have that be one of our TS meals.
I don’t but others might. We went in 2020, no ILLs or VQs on a CL 6 day. We did it somewhat earlier in the day but we aren’t RD’ers by any means. I would think a 40 minute wait on a mid to low crowd day is average for park close. 15-25 mins longer on a crowded day. I haven’t been looking at the data lately though.
I’d also see if any of the parks have late hours and try to hit those to help make up for not doing RD.