I’m going in April to watch my daughter march with her band in the parade.
The crowd calendars are predicting 7s, 8s, and 9s for almost all parks.
How do you go about your day in the parks when it’s so crowded?
I might be alone. I might be with a couple of friends.
Staying at Pop.
Will rope drop. Will likely take a break in the afternoon to swim.
If in your budget, get G+ for MK and HS and ILL at each park.
RD, morning at park, afternoon break while stacking LL for evening, evening at park.
Have you created a touring plan for each day? Optimize it to see what it suggests and then move stuff around. Really consider using Genie+.
Unsolicited marching parade watching advice! We watched the parade from the area in the circle
I brought umbrellas as there was no shade.
This is an example of the picture I took (my brother is the band director).
The marching bands step up 15 min or so before the parade so plan accordingly!
Looks like a great viewing area. How long before the parade did you get there?
My biggest advice for high crowd level days is to just adjust your expectations. Don’t expect to ride things twice, or even to ride everything once. Pick a few “must dos” and play it by ear around those.
Maybe around 2:15 for the 3 pm parade? We caught the end of Mickey’s Magical Friendship Faire and got some ice cream from a nearby cart. The area was pretty empty when we sat down. The time stamp on the picture of my brother is 2:44 and another high school band marched after him. I wasn’t expecting them to be so early before the parade.
I’ll take any marching band advice that you have! This is great.
I’ve only watched the parade from Frontierland so this is great. She’ll be in the middle of the row pretty much.
I usually plan with a touring plan down to the minute but with such high crowds and the fact that I’ll be with people who aren’t my family (meaning, they aren’t following the plan I made for us), I’m worried this won’t work.
I need something more loose and I don’t know how to do that.
And also with such high crowds, I don’t want to bank on getting Genie+ and then have it sell out.
We won’t know how that plays out until we’ve had a couple of months of the new day-of rule.
Ugh.
@cbalusek
Do you know how far in advance they knew what day they were going to be marching?
The group has 4 days in the parks (one park per day) but we don’t know yet what day they’ll be in the parade.
Genie Plus isn’t selling out. There are no reports that it is and in fact if you try to purchase around midnight people are having trouble. You should be fine if you’re on at 6:45
I feel your pain - I would hate being with such a large group. Just plan on what you want for your 7am and the. You’ll have to collectively decide what you want to do next. Go in with no expectations.
thanks!
I’m actually not going to be with the band. They are all staying at a different resort and the teens will be in groups on their own. I may run into them but I’m going to let my kid have a fun time with her friends.
I may be with a couple of friends so we’ll be a small group of ladies in our 40s.
I’ve just never planned for this kind of trip. I’m excited about it but also have no way how to tackle it.
I think each of us. will have to pick a couple of things that we really really want to do and go from there.
Anything on top of that will be bonus.
what is this “budget” of which you speak?
That word leaves my vocabulary once I get through security.
I saw this meme once that was two panels.
Me at home (miserly)
Me at Disney (throwing money into the air).
I wish I had saved it because it was so me.
I always warn friends of this before their first WDW trip … imagine a hose connecting your bank account and Disney’s bank account … when you arrive at Disney, the hose turns on and the money flows like water from your account to Disney’s account.
Their performance was on May 26 and we knew the date before Christmas. He knew which parade (3 pm or noon) by end of April.
I also did not go with the band. I brought my mom and a friend who had never been to Disney before. It was a short trip (just 2.5 park days) but it was so wonderful.
Thanks! This is helpful. I think it will be so fun.
